“John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.” In a funeral sermon for Newton, his friend and fellow minister Richard Cecil quoted him late in life, “Whatever I may doubt on other points, I cannot doubt whether there has been a certain gracious transaction between God and my soul.” Chris Armstrong is managing