{"id":21976,"date":"2024-07-21T21:26:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-21T21:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=21976"},"modified":"2024-07-21T21:26:10","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T21:26:10","slug":"the-life-and-ministry-of-john-warburton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2024\/07\/the-life-and-ministry-of-john-warburton\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life And Ministry Of John Warburton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gospel Magazine 1840<\/strong><\/p>\n

Within the pages of the Gospel Magazine have already appeared the names of men of loftiest human intellect and attainments, as well as of a high standard in their vindication of the doctrines of the full and free distinguishing and unmerited grace of our Triune Jehovah. But the subject of our present sketch is quite another order of being; instead of his being enabled to trace the origin of his present position of usefulness, more particularly among the tried and dejected of the Lord\u2019s family, to a respectable birth and a good education, we see Him who has said, \u201cHe giveh not account of any of his matters,\u201d going forth in his divine sovereignty, and calling into his vineyard and his service, a poor illiterate weaver, compelled to earn his scanty pittance by the sweat of his brow; whom having called, he instructs in the school of temptation, affliction, and sorrow, and thus qualifies him a fit messenger to go forth and testify to the church of the providential goodness, superabounding grace, and unchangeable love of our eternal God.<\/p>\n

There was a period when such a selection or choice on the part of the Almighty would have aroused all the bitterness and enmity of which the human heart is capable, among the majority of those whose supposed ministerial qualifications are nurtured at Oxford and Cambridge; but now-a-days that enmity is far extended, and displays itself with equal virulence among those who are tutored at our Dissenting colleges. These are now quite as ready as the former to reiterate the question, \u201cCan any good thing come out of Nazareth?\u201d, but we stay not to particularize the lengths to which some men of this class will go, nor to comment upon the contempt and spleen which they display towards those despised individuals whom God sometimes makes the trophies of his grace, and occasionally selects as the witnesses for his truth.<\/p>\n

We love to see a minister possessed of human learning, where that learning is seasoned by grace; we are sensible that from the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge have emanated men who have boldly and unflinchingly declared the truth as it is Jesus, and who now, having delivered their message\u2014finished the work given them to do, are gone to their rest; and we rejoice that there are still men of this description with whom our souls are in intimate communion\u2014whom we have never yet seen in the flesh, nor perhaps ever shall see, but whom we are expecting to meet in a world where all discord, strife, and division, shall for ever he done away. We believe likewise that many good and gracious men have received some of their earlier instruction in Dissenting colleges; but we lament to say, that some have we known amid the limited sphere of our acquaintance, whom once we had reason to think well of; in whose hearts a work of grace appeared to have been begun; and who bade fare to run well; but who now, alas! have imbibed so much of the principles and practices of the day in which we live, and by which they are so greatly surrounded, that we look in vain for that simplicity, teachableness, and fervour, which formerly characterised them, and so highly raised them in our esteem. But, while we recollect a company of poor fishermen as our Lord\u2019s disciples and more immediate companions, and think of a tinker, a coalheaver, and others of equally low pedigree, we do repudiate that spirit of satire, opposition, and disgust which dares to sit in judgment upon the sovereign acts and discriminating choice of our most gracious God. Reader, if thou shouldst be among them, we warn thee: turn to thy Bible\u2014read over and meditate upon the 1st chap. Cor. 24th to 29th verses. \u201cFor ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Warburton has now, if we remember rightly, been in the ministry about thirty years; the greater portion of which he has laboured over a church at Trowbridge, in Wiltshire; and we have heard, from indirect and undoubted sources, that his church is \u201cknit together in love.\u201d We could have furnished our readers with many deeply interesting anecdotes in connexion with him\u2014more particularly the singularity of his call to Trowbridge; but we forbear, as Mr. Warburton has published his own account at a very limited price, and as we have a great aversion to copy from other men\u2019s writings.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Within the pages of the Gospel Magazine have already appeared the names of men of loftiest human intellect and attainments, as well as of a high standard in their vindication of the doctrines of the full and free distinguishing and unmerited grace of our Triune Jehovah. But the subject of our present sketch is quite another order of being; instead of his being enabled to trace the origin of his present position of usefulness, more particularly among the tried and dejected of the Lord\u2019s family, to a respectable birth and a good education, we see Him who has said, \u201cHe giveh not account of any of his matters,\u201d going forth in his divine sovereignty, and calling into his vineyard and his service, a poor illiterate weaver, compelled to earn his scanty pittance by the sweat of his brow; whom having called, he instructs in the school of temptation, affliction, and sorrow, and thus qualifies him a fit messenger to go forth and testify to the church of the providential goodness, superabounding grace, and unchangeable love of our eternal God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":17578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1305],"tags":[1232,1226],"class_list":["post-21976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john-warburton","tag-baptist-history","tag-gospel-preachers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21977,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976\/revisions\/21977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}