Sunday, Wilberforce Writes to William Pitt Before Seeking Newton's Advice

GETTING FEEDBACK NOT TO DROP OUT OF THE WORLD, TO KEEP HIS DAY JOB IN PARLIAMENT

"Firstly he (Wilberforce) planned to withdraw from his former lifestyle of social elegance combined with political nonchalance. Secondly, he wanted to isolate himself in order to explore his vocation in a period of thoughtful seclusion. He explained his position to several friends including William Pitt. The Prime Minister replied to Wilberforce's letter of December 1 (alas lost to posterity) with four pages of advice in which he urged caution and offered Wilberforce a one-to-one conversation about the questions that were troubling him. Pitt wrote:

You will not suspect me of thinking lightly of any moral or religious motives that guide you. But forgive me if I cannot help expressing my fear that you are nevertheless deluding yourself into principles that have but too much tendency to counteract your own object and to render your virtues and your talents useless to both yourself and mankind. I am not, however, without hopes that my anxiety paints this too strongly. For you confess that the character of religion is not a gloomy one and that it is not that of an enthusiast (Methodist). But why then this preparation of solitude that can hardly avoid tincturing the mind either with melancholy or superstition? If a Christian may act in the several relations of life, must he seclude himself from them all to become so? Surely the principles as well as the practice of Christianity are simple, and lead not to meditation only but to action.

This challenging letter from Pitt to Wilberforce was dated December 2, 1785, the same day on which Wilberforce wrote in such opaque terms to Newton requesting some serious conversation under conditions of secrecy. It was also the day when Wilberforce confided in his diary Resolved again about Mr. Newton. It may do good; he will pray for me. Kept debating in that unsettled way.

John Newton could not have possibly known that Wilberforce's desire to talk about tensions and doubts within myself was connected to correspondence with the Prime Minister.....But what Newton could clearly see from the letter he received was that Wilberforce was in a state of turmoil. The melodramatic language and emphasis on secrecy were indications of emotional or spiritual turbulence."

------Jonathan Aitken, John Newton, From Disgrace to Amazing Grace