tantly confounded with
the latter.[811]

It was not, however, until the later years of the century that the
scattered handful of clergy who held these views swelled into a large
and compact body, which, to this day, has continued to form a great and
influential section of the Church of England.

The first name which claims our attention in this connection is that of
_John Newton_ (1725-1807). No character connected with the Evangelical
revival is presented to us with greater vividness and distinctness than
his, and no character is on the whole a more lovable one. It has
frequently been objected that Christians of the Puritan and Evangelical
schools, when describing their conversion, have been apt to exaggerate
their former depravity. There may be some force in the objection,
but it does not apply to John Newton. The moral and even physical
degradation from which he was rescued can hardly be exaggerated. An
infidel, a blasphemer, a sensualist, a corrupter of others, despised
by the very negroes among whom his lot was cast, such was Newton in
his earlier years. Those who desire to learn the details of this part
of his life may be referred to his own harrowing--sometimes even
repulsive--narrative, or to the biography written by his accomplished
friend, Mr. Cecil. None of the Evangelical leaders passed through such
an ordeal as he did; but the experience which he underwent as a
slave-trader, and as the menial servant of a slave-trader, stood him in
good stead after he had become an exemplary and respected clergyman. It
enabled him to enter into and sympathise with the rude temptations of
others; he had felt them all himself; he had yielded to them, and by the
grace of God he had overcome them. The grossest of profligates found in
him one who had sunk to a lower depth than themselves; and so they dared
to unburthen their very hearts to him; and few who did so went away
without relief. They would hardly have ventured to make so clean a
breast before men who, like the majority of the Evangelical leaders, had
always lived at least outwardly respectable lives; and if they had
ventured to do so, these good men could hardly have appreciated their
difficulties. But Newton had been one of them; scarcely a sin could they
mention but he had either committed it himself, or been brought into
close contact with those who _had_ committed it. It was not so much as a
preacher that Newton's forte lay; for though his sermons were full of
ma