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Religion of Isaac Newton PDF
Religion of Isaac Newton PDF
Religion of Isaac Newton PDF
ISAAC NEWTON
Thc Frcr1Ialitle LallI/I'I /(1,/';
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1974
Oxford Unil'ersity Pre.rs, Ely liOllse, Londolt W. I
CAP~; TOWN "'AllAN NAIROR) liAR I'~ 1\/01 .... 11."" UTSAKA ADTJIS AOi\IIA
All dgh/s reservuJ. JVO part oj this /wbliratilJlI m(~)' hf' repl0dllCl'd,
stored ill a felrieml .~l'Jtl'lll, or IUlJIsmiltfd. ill m~v form or ~y arUJ
mea,/.j", rla/Touic, mfChaniC(/I,J)!totrJ((I/~ri!lgl Tl'cordiflg, or othuwiJe,
u'ithmtt the prior pff11li.HirJII (IF (hJrlrd r 'lIil'rrsj~v Pre.rs
INDEX 137
I
1
I
pool, 1950). See also A. N. L. l\..lunuy, 'The Kcyucs COIlt'Cliou of the \\'ork:s
of Sir haac Newton in King's College, Cambridge', .\ulc'~ wd N".'CIJIJ-J l~l th~
Uo..V/ll SOCifU' of London, x (1952), 4-0-5u.
12 HIS FATHER IN HEAVEN
Babson Institute Library in Wellesley, Massachusetts, has
a text of a treatise on the Temple of Solomon complete with
an architectural sketch, collections or stray notes, and sundry
pieces on church history. By far the greatest part, however,
of the historical-theological manuscripts, the church histories,
the works on pagan religion, commentaries on prophecy, and
long discussions of thc nature of Christ, is in thc Jewish
National and University Library in Jerusalem. The manu-
scripts on chronology and differcnt versions ofthc 'Historical
Account of Two Notablc Corruptions of Scripture' are
largely divided between the New College manuscripts in the
Bodleian Library and thc Yahuda manuscripts in Jerusalem.
After Newton's death, his friend John Craig, preb!'ndary
of Salisbury, author 0[" the indigestible Theologiae Cftristial1ae
Principia Mathematica (1699), maintaincd in a letter to John
Conduitt that Newton 'was much more sollicitous in his
inquirys into Religion than into Natural Philosophy'. And
in what appears to be the record of a confIdence, Craig went
on to give Newton's official explanation for not publishing
these writings during his lifetime: 'They showed that his
thoughts wen' some times different from those which are
commonly received, which would ingage him in disputes,
and this was a thing which he avoided as much as possible."2
The historian cannot of course completely silence the pro-
testing shades of f'rancis Hall, Hooke, Flamsteed, Leibniz,
the Bcrnoullis, Freret, Conti, and other victims of Newton's
thunderbolts. But Craig may have had a point. For Newton,
religious controversy was a source of great anxiety, and
remained in a separate category.
'Vhether or not to put any of his theological papers into
print was a subject about which Newton vacillated through-
out his lik In one lillllOUS instance in 1690, letters exposing
as false the Trinitarian prool~tcxts inJohn and Timothy had
been transmitted through Locke to Le Clerc for anonymous
publication in Holland, but then had been withdrawn in
panic. And yet, though Nc\\·ton in his old age committed
u Keynes ~IS. 1:~2. letter of7 :\pril 17'27; published in part in SOlheby and
Co., Cliialogru~ qf tlte .'\'t'W/UIl Pallerj Jold ~J order '!f tIle ViJCOWII Lymiugloll (London,
1936), pp. 56-7.
HIS FATHER IN HEAVEN 13
from the freedom of God's will but th" llCCI'ssity of his nature ...
the wisest of beings required of us to be celebrate d not so much
for his essence as for his actions, the creating, preserving, and
governing of all things accordin g to his good will and pleasure.
The wisdom, power, goodne"" and justice wiIich he always exerts
in his actions arc his glory which he stands so much upon, and
is so jealous of ... even to the least tittle.'O
In another passage of the manuscr ipt church history he
continue d the attack on any metaphy sical uefinitio ns of God:
for thewQn: l Ood!"<:J.i.lt~ not to th~JlJ];taphysical nature of God
but to his dominion . It is a relative word and lias reIation tous
'as the servants orCod. It is a word orthe same signification with
Lord and King, but ill a higher degree, For as we say my Lord,
our Lord, your Lord. other Lords, the King of Kings, the Lord of
Lords, other Lords, the servants of the Lord, serve othel' Lords,
so we say my God, our God, your God, other Gods, the God of
Gods, the servants of Cod, serve other Gods."
To be constant ly engaged in studying and probing into
God's actions was true worship and the fulfilmen t of the
comman dments of a Master. No mystical contemp lation, llO
laying himself open to the assaults of devilish fantasies . The
literatur e on the psychop athology of religious fanaticis m was
extensiv e in the seventee nth century and Newton accepted its
basic tenets without knowing its name. W'orking in God's
vineyard staved ofT evil, and work meant investiga ting real
things in nature and in Scriptur e, not fabricati ng meta-
physical systems and abstracti ons, not indulgin g in the 'vainc
babbling s and oppositi ons of science falsly so called'.zz If God
is our 1faster He wants servants who work and obey.
Newton could not establish relations with his God through
a feeling of His love, either directly or through an inter-
mediary . Neither love, nor grace, nor mercy plays an
importa nt role in Newton 's religious writings . Only two
paths are open to him in his search for knowled ge of the will
of God as Master: the study of His actions in the physical
world, His creation s, and the study of the verbal record of
20 Yahuda ~lS. 21, fol. }r,
21 Yahuda ~·lS. 15. 7, fol. 154f •
r
;u Yahuda l\lS. 15.5, fol. 79 .
illS FATHER lN HEAVEN
u Nc\'..rttm, ()ptic~, 2nd edn. in Eng. (London, I7I7), Query 28 (the English
version of Query '.W in the 17u6 Latin etlition).
2J Newton, Principia, ("d. Koyre and Cohen, ii. 76+ That the challge o('('urrcd
is patent, but is then.: c\ idence for the observation: 'Later on, after mature
reflection, Newton decided that he had bl'l"1l careless and so ... he toned down
his statement about God to read "ad Philnsophiam naluralclll pcrtinet"
rather than "ad Philm;ophiam l'xpcrinwlltalclll pertinct"'? Sec 1. Bernard
Cohen, Introduction to JVewlon's 'Pn'llcipia' (CamhridH"c, 1\lass., 1971), p. 244.
There are alternative versions, hitherto unnoticed I believe, of this part of
the General Scholium in the Public Record Office. 1\tint Papers, and one of
them prescn,'cs the 'ad philosophiam cxpcrimentalem pcrtinet'. The follo ..ving
(V, fol. 45\1) appears on the back of some not(";o; 011 assaying and refining and on
the coining of a peace medal:
'Pro {varictate} di\"ersitatc locorum Ole temporum diversa ('st rerum
l\~atura, et din~nitas illa non ex necessitate I1lt'taphysica, quae utique cadun
est semper ct ubique, (non} sed <aliunde quam) ex voluntate sola entis
necessaria ('xistcntis ariri potuit. Sola yoluntas principium fans et origo cst
mutationi..; ac di\'crsitatis rerum, idcoquc Dculll \'cu'res d.U1'OKtJl1]TOJl dixcrunt.
'}jUTOK{V'J]TOV es.t <Deus> Agens <PrillcipiulIl) primum, quod de fato et
Natura diei non potest. (et ex \'oluntatc sola cntis nect"Ssario cxist("nlis) Pro
diversitatc locorum ac tempo rum di\'crsa est rerum finitarum natura, et
diversitas illa non ex necessitate-metaphysica. quae utique eadem est semper
et ubique, sed ex voluntatc sola Entis intelligentis et necessario existentis
oriri potuit. Et haec de Dca, de quo ctc.
'Agens primum ut sit primum, aUToKtvt}TOJ) esse debet, ct propterea
potestatc volcndi prat>,lituI~ cst! quod de fa to ct ~atura did non potest. Pro
divcrsitatc locorum ac tempol'um din'rS3 est r('rum omnium finitarum
natura, et di\·ersitas. ilIa non ex necessitate ~Ietaph}'sica (quae utique eadem
est semper et ubiquc) sed ex \'olulate [sir] sola I~ntis intclligentis et neeessario
GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORKS 4'
book of his early years in Cambridge is the record to which
historians of his scientific ideas have turned lor the tirst
inklings of his major discoveries. But interspersed with the
subjects Francis Bacon had listed as appropriate lor investi-
gation are other headings like 'Of God' and 'Of Creation'.
'Of God' is a stereotyped excerpt showing divine design in
the fashioning of the human body and attacking the dOelriucs
of Epicurean atomism and chance-it comes straight limn
Henry :l\1ore. Under other rubrics philo>ophical argument
and citations from Scripture are intermingled, as Newton
endeavours to define extension and time for himself and as
he tries his hand at cosmological speculation. A verse in
Hebrews is interpreted to mean that God created time, and
in one passage Newton is beginning to inquire into the
meaning of the phrase 'Son of God'.
Analysis of a few lines in an entry entitled 'Of Earth' in
this same commonplace book may demonstrate as well as
any text I know how interwoven were Newton's inquiries
into the Book of Scripture and lhe Book of Nature li·om tbe
very outset of his career. Into a few terse phrases from the
Apocalypse he compressed a wealth of suiptural evidenre
for his belief that the world was moving inexorauly toward a
cataclysm, a great conflagration, to be lollowed by a yet
undefined form of renewal. His explication is in one of the
normative exegetical traditions of the Talmudic rabbis and
Puritan divines, whose underlying assumption was that
Scriptures do not contain a single superlluous phrase, or
even a letter that does not have significant m~anillg-a sort
of law of parsimony. Since the verses of the Apo("alyps~ to
which Newton refers in the folio 'Of Earth' may not be as
familiar to all of us as they were to him, I quote the whole
passage: 'And the devil that deceived them was cast into a
lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and lalse prophet
cxistentis oril'i potuit. Et haec de Dea de quo utique ex Ilhae[Jlo]lllCllis dispulale,
ad Philosophiam experimcntalem pertinet.'
Another page of the !vlint Papel's (I, fell. 62 C ), \vith rl~mark.s olltlie 'h't'ight of
gold and silver in coins and on the beginnings of geoUletry ill Egypt, iw:ludt:oS
these sentences: 'A necessitate metaphysica nulla OrilU[ rerUlll varialiu. 'rula
illa quam in mundo conspicimus, divcrsitas rerullI a sola enti:s Ilcles;:...trio
existentis voluntate libera oriri potuit.'
8266iOfi D
GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORKS
are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.'
In the notebook folio where Newton proved the renewal of
the world, he merely jotted down the phra~e 'Days and
nights after the Judgment Rev 20C, IOV'.H The full meaning
of the elliptical phrase would be obvious to one who had
been subjected to years of exegetical sermons and had
absorbed their manner of thinking. Tormcnting the wicked
for ever and ever is quite comprehensible and sufficicnt unto
itself, and the prophet could have been expected to stop at
that. But when John inserted the words 'day and night',
which are scemingly superfluous and in excess, he surely
meant to inform us of something--in this instance that thc
succession of days and nights would still be marked after
Judgement Day. And that presupposed a new heaven and
a new earth without which such a succession would bc
meaningless. Thus John in Revelation was communicating
an important fact about the futurc history of the physical
universe which later became part of one version of Newton's
cycloid cosmological theory.
Newton has also left us a fragmentary and oftcn timtastical
history of science contained in pieces scattered throughout
his chronological and alchemical papers that further exem-
plifies the interpenetration of science and religion in his
world-view. Papers headed 'The original of religions' are
especially pertinent. A single principle underlies them all.
Knowledge of God's works thrived in those epochs in which
there was a true conccption of the Deity; and conversely,
when false ideas of God dominated society-such as pagan
idolatry, Greek philosophical conceptions of a meta-
physical God, or papist Trinitarianism and idolatrous saint
worship-there was no real knowledge of God's works. The
preferred times for scientific discovery were those of primitive
monotheism, of pre-Socratic thought, and of the moderns.
Newton's sketch of the period of Plato and Aristotle and
that of the medieval schoolmen makes of them two com-
parable dark ages, when false religion was bound up with
false science. However committed English science was
to keeping religious opinion away from its door, Newton
.. Cambridge, Univorsity Library, Add. 1\IS. 3996, fo!' 10".
GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORKS 43
found that in the history of the world they had been inter-
dependent.
His description of primitive monotheism and the rituals of
worship after the flood as practised in J~gypt and llabylonia
and India and Chaldea closely identified early science with
theology. Achievement of a knowledge of God, Of the rudi-
ments of such a knowledge, had always been within the
grasp of men; and in ages when a monotheistic belief;
relatively unpolluted, held sway, the search lor God in His
works was fi'uitlul, because it had a basic sense of unity to
sustain it. The priests and religious leaders of these ancient
civilizations were also their scientists and philosophers. They
had shunned subjective approaches to a knowledge of God,
the trance-like states in which direct communion with
divinity was supposed to be attained or the mystical worship
of abstract forces of nature as though they were a multiplicity
of deities. These venerable sages had studied all the varied
phenomena as parts or aspects of one creation. Their fervent
belief in one God had led them to scrutinize lb" operation of
things on earth and the movement of the stars in the heavens,
and to record their observations in precious documents
which, though marred by time, still held secreted within
them some of the fundamental truths discoverable about
God's creation. The old priest-scientists had been moved
by the same conviction Newton held, that there was a Jirst
and only cause, and they had reasoned from the pheno-
mena to that cause. Polytheism was inimical to science be-
cause it accepted the idea of contrary and contradictory
causes in nature which it associated with false gods. This
is the real sense of the seemingly irrelevant addendum
about ancient idolatry that appears in later editions of
the Optics. 25
The primitive monotheists had practised two basic Jonns
of science, astronomy and chemistry. Astronomy had started
as a gloria among Egyptian and Chalclean priests, who in
decorating their temples had made them exac.t replicas of the
universe; in turn their knowledge of the macrocosm was
2! See manuscript addendum to p. 382 in the Babson ]nstiLuk l.ibrary eopy
(no. ':13) of the '7'7 London ,dition of .he Optics.
44 GOD'S \\'ORD AND GOD'S WORKS
transmitted to the Greeks, who initiated record-keeping of
the movements of the planets,
So then [it] was one designc of the first institution of the true
religion in Egypt to propose to mankind by the frame of the
ancient Temples, the study of the Irame of the world as the true
Temple of the great God they worshipped .... And therefore that
a Prytanaeum might deserve the name of his Temple they
framed it so as in the fittest manner [to] represent the whole
systeme of the heavens. A point of religion then which nothing
can be more rational. ... And thence it was that the Priests
anciently were above other men well skilled in the knowledge of
the true frame of Nature and accounted it a great part of their
Theology.
The learning of the Indians lay in the Brachmans who were
their Priests, that of the Babylonians in the Chaldeans who
were their Prie,ts. And when the Greeks travelled into
Egypt to learn astronomy and philosophy they went to the
Priests. 26
Along with their macrocosmic studies, the ancients had
also been preoccupied with fire and the secret qualities of
metals~cspecially in Egypt, where at the head of the list of
inquirers into the properties of fire stood Hermes Trismegis-
tus, the priest-king-scientist of Egypt, father of alchemical
studies, on whose discoveries Newton left commentaries. He
was unruffled by Isaac Casaubon's revelation that the
Hermelica itself was a post-Christian work. The original
discoveries of Hermes had been handed down through the
ages and incorporated in a variety of tropes, images, and
emblems. Those alchemists who had preserved what re-
mained of the authentic tradition of Hermes-men like Count
Michael Maier, whose compendia of philosophical alchemy
Newton had abstracted, along with the works in similar
collections published by Lazarus Zetzner and Elias Ashmole
~were on the right moral path in their investigations; they
were searching for a first cause, for a simple unifying
principle And just as Newton could profitably study the
textual fragments of ancient Greek astronomers and mathe-
.6 Yahuda MS. 41, fol. 8', 'The original of religions'. See also Keynes MS.
3, fol. 35 f , for the history and \'icissitudes of early religions.
GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORKS -15
maticians and pre-Socratic philosophers who had observed
the universe, so he could read, copy, and meditate over
alchemical writings as conceivably genuine, if incomplete,
revelations of God's creation. The alchemists were describing
phenomena of nature, in contradistinction to the modern
metaphysicians-he meant Descartes and Leibniz--who
were only dreaming up systems that falsely represented God's
world. Essential truths about the operations of God in
nature might be extracted from the alchemical traditions if
their imagery could be unravelled. (The problem was
identical with the interpretation ofvisions in the Apocalypse.)
I am here distinguishing Newton's philosophical-alchemical
studies, which are pertinent to his religion, from his own
experiments on the borderline between chemistry and al-
chemy, for which he stoked the fires in a little Trinity
College laboratory. In spirit, Newton felt himself closer to
the hermetic philosopher who wrote about the properties of
metals and experiments with fire than to the philosopher
who conjured up a system of vortices or hypothesized a pre-
established harmony. From Thoth, who was really Hermes
Trismegistus, down to the contemporary practitioners of the
art with whom Newton had occasional secret converse, the
alchemists, he told Conduit!, were moral and God-seeking
men worthy of respect even when they had erred."' Newton
was clearly affected by the European flowering of alchemy
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and was at
various times touched by both metal-ennobling and theo-
sophical alchemy.
Yet Newton's I;fdong reading of books of philosophical
alchemy hardly aligns him with the Rosicrucian mystifiers,
though many seventeenth-century adepts of alchemy were
Rosicrucians. '\Then he studied a Rosicrucian tract, he
condemned it as an 'imposture' -a strongly pejorative
word in his religious vocabulary, akin to false prophecy.
Newton is not to be identified with every book he perused.
He often analysed works in a spirit of refutation and denial,
and it would be as far-fetched to make a Rosicrucian out
of him because he read Thomas Vaughan's translation of the
27 Keynes l\'IS. 130.
GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORKS
(Paris, 1803).
:IF. C. C. Pahin.Champlain de la B1ancherie, De pa.r toutes les Natiotls.
L'Agent general de Correspomwnce pour les Sciences et les Arts (AI. de La BlaIJchf!lit;),
a 10. Nation AngJoise: Prociamationdan.s l'espTit des jetmes ordonnis par Ie Toj) pour les
annees 1794, 1795, e/ la presente (London, 1796).
, The Age of Neo-Cla.rsicism, catalogue of lhe exhibition (The Arts Council uf
Great Britain, J972), nos. 1019-21.
54 CORRUPTERS ANCIENT AND MODERN
contemptuously repudiated. The Nullius ill verba of the Royal
Society applied only to the humall, nut to the divine, \Vard.
For Isaac Newton, the whole structure of the Christian
religion rested on a foundation of scriptural truths, and the
different capacities of men to comprehend them. There was
milk for babes, the simple belief necessary for admission into
the communion of Christians, summarized in what he called
the primitive apostolic creed; and then there was meat for
strong men, to which only a select body of Christians could
aspire, those who devoted themselves assiduously to scholarly
divinity, the study of the writings of Moses, the Prophets, and
the Apostles as oracks of truth inspired by a holy prophetic
spirit.
For besides the first principles and fundamentals of religion
conteined in the doctrine of baptism and laying on of hands and
in the Creed which all arc to learn be/ore baptism, and which the
Apostle therefore compares to milk lor babes, there are many
truths of great importance but more difJiclllt to be understood
and not absolutely necessary to salvation. And these the Apostle
compares to strong meats for men of li,ll age who by use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. With these
truths the mind is to he led continually as the body is with
meats.'
Those who turned to this higher calling would grow in
grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to the end of
their lives.
In the early Church, as interpreted by Newton in his
histories, the original formula of Christian belief, the milk
for babes, had been contained in a few phrases about God
the Creator, Christ, and the Resurrection taken directly out
of Scripture. Any later deviations were corruptions. Newton's
position was forthright and unequivocal:
We are commanded by the Apostle ([ Tim 1.[3) to llOldfast the
form of sound words. Contending for a language which was not
handed down from the Prophets and Apostles is a breach of the
command and they that break it are also guilty of the disturbances
and schisms occasioned thereby. It is not enough to say that an
+ Yahuda MS. 15. 3} fol. 40r; see also 'Irenicum', in McLachlan, Newtot/'s
Theological Manuscripts, p. 32.
CORRUPTERS ANCIENT AND MODERN 55
more be called two Gods then a King and his viceroy can be
called two kings.'ls In another manuscript, Newton refuted
the doctrine of consubstantiality with the ncgativc argu-
ment that it did not cstablish Christ's di\'inity or His right
to be adored. 'The heathens and Gnosticks supposed not only
their Gods but even the souls of men and the starrs to be of
one substance with the supreme God and yet were Idolaters
for worshipping them. And he that is of this opinion may
beleive Christ to be of onc su bstance with the father without
making him more thm a nwer man. Tis not consubstan-
tiality but power and dominion which gives a right to be
worshipped.' 10
Newton constantly adverted to the hodily limn oeJesus;
He was no spirit, as some of the Gnostics claimed. There was
textual evidence of His many corporeal appearances on
earth. 'His wrestling with J <leob is as lilll a proof that he had
a body before his incarnation', Newton wrote, 'as his being
handled by Thomas is a proof that he had a body after his
resurrection. Not the body of an Angel which hath not
flesh and bones but a body which by the power of his will he
could form into the consistency and solidity of flesh and
bones as well before his incarnation as after his resurrection'."
In the course of time Christ had assumed and would assume
many shapes and forms both spiritual and physical as a
Saviour, a messenger, an agent, a vice-ruler under God, a
judge. He was carrying out the will of God. But it was the
greatest of blasphemics to identify His substance with God.
In a rejection of idolatrous practices associated with
Catholicism Newton uttered the troublesome words: 'Nor
may we invoke Angels or the souls of dead men as NIediators
between God and Man. For as there is but one God so there
is but one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ
Jesus.'18 But the phrase 'the man Christ Jesus' (out of I
Timothy), which appears in Newton's manuscripts many
times, should not be pulled out of context to impute to him
an eighteenth-century Deistic view that identified Christ as
merely another prophet or an inspired human being; nor
" Yahuda !'>IS. 1.').7, fol. 15~'. " Yahuda ;"IS. '5. 5,101. g8 Y •
17Yahuda !\IS. 15. 7, 101. '54'. I8 Yahuda MS. 15.4,101. 67 Y •
CORRUPTERS ANCIENT AND MODERN fl,
I London, British ~1useum, Add. I\'IS. 2542.4-, 'Huggins' Li~t'. A \'ersion has
been published in Richard de Villamil, ""ew/ou: the ..Hall (Londoll, 1931), pp.
62-1 )0. The full title of Secrds Reveal'd, a pseudonymous work, is SeC/tis RClicaL'd:
or all Opel! Entrance to the Shut-Palace of the Killg Containing, The GIt:ulesl Trea)u((
in Chymistry, Never yet so plainly Discovered. l.omposed by a mostfallww EnglishmaN,
Stylillg himself AnOl!ylllous, or F;YTaclIcus Philalel)1a Cosmvpolita: JVlto, by 1ilspiTatiufi
aTld Reading, attained to tlte Philosopher SIOllC at J,is Age uj Twenty tinct: TeaTS, Auno
Domini, 1645 (London, (669).
PROI'HECY AND IIISTORY
shall experience it"', a religious contentment that Newton
described in those very words.'
Though the study of the Old and New Testaments was
Newton's primary form of devotion, to the virtual neglect of
most other religious ceremonies, his was not the bibliolatry
of traditional Judaism or the precisianism of a Puritan.
Newton's religion betrayed differences, as well as profound
psychic similarities, with these other scriptural religions. In
the course of his lifelong pondering of the texts of the Bible
in English, Latin, Greek, and sometimes Hebrew (a language
he could use with the aid of a dictionary), in print and in rare
manuscripts, Newton came to distinguish rather sharply
between two types of books in the Biblical canon: those that
were narrative-historical and those that were direct prophecy,
the word of the living God. By his middle years Newton had
come to believe that Biblical descriptions of historical events
were written for the most part by contemporaries of those
events, men of extraordinary virtue and reliability. They
might be prophets themselves-110ses, Samuel, Gad, Ezra-
or apostles of prophets like Joshua and Christ's disciples.
And in addition to depicting what they saw with their own
eyes, they had sometimes assembled materials about the
immediate past drafted by their equally trustworthy pre-
decessors. Only one case was truly exceptional, that of1\10ses,
who had access to the most ancient records of all time, known
as the Law of God and the Book of Generations. Newton's
full account of what had happenl?cl to the narrative sections
of the Bible over the centuries allowed for many later redac-
tions and for losses and restorations, most of which he
investigated with reasonably critical instruments.
Before arrh·ing at his rather heterodox conclusions about
the authorship of some of the books of the Bible, Newton had
clearly been exposed to the new Biblical criticism. That he
read Richard Simon is certain, that he knew Hobbes is very
likely; and there is even a good possibility that he may have
perused Spinoza's Tractatus Tlteologico-Politicus soon after its
appearance, rare in England in the early 1670s. We know
that a copy was in Isaac Barrow's library, which Newton
, Yahuda ~IS. I. I, 101. 2'. Sec Appendix A below. p. 108.
PROPHECY AND HISTORY
conslruing
Rules for melhodising the Apocalyps.
(12v) Rule 5B. To prefer those interpretations which, caeteri,
paribus, are of the most considerable things. For it was Gods
designe in these prophesies to typefy and describe not triUes but
the most considerable things in the wold during the tillie, time of
the Prophesies. Thus were the question put whether the three
froggs, the head or horn of any Beast, the (13 v ) whore of Babylon,
the woman Jezabel, the Fals Prophet, the Prophet Balaam, the
King Dalac, the martyr Antipas, the two witnesses, the woman
c10athed with the Sun, the jVranchild her Son, the Eagle pro-
claiming "Vo and the like were to be interpreted ofsingle persous
or of Kingdoms Churches and other great bodies of men: I
should by this Rule (also) prefer the latter, unless perhaps in auy
case the single person propounded might be of more nOle and
moment then the whole body of men he stands in compelition
with, or some other material circumstance might make mure lur
a single person then a multitude.
(13 r ) 6. To make the (visions and) parts of (the same) a vision
succeed one another according to the order of the narration
without any breach or interfering unless when there are Illanikst
indications of such a breach or interfering. For if the order (of
visions and) of (their) its parts might be (inter) varied or inter-
rupted at pleasure, (they) it would be of no certain interpretation,
which is to elude (them) it and make (them) it no prophcsie bllt
an ambiguitie like those of the heathen Oracles.
7. In collaterall visions to adjust the most notable parts and
periods to one another: And if they be not throughout (equ)
collaterall, to make the beginning or end of one vision filII in with
some notable period of tbe other. For the visions are duely
proportioned to the actions and changes of the times which they
respect by the following Rule and therefore they are duely pro-
portioned to one another. <)lJ But yet this Rule is not over strictly
to be adhered to when the visions respect divers kingdoms or one
120 APPENDIX A
vision respects the Church and another the state. CD (because there
may be remarkable revolutions in) An instance of this you have in
suiting the Dragon to all the seals the Beast to all the Trumpets
and the Whore to the 'Vo Trumpets.
8. To (prefer) choose those (interpretations) constructions
which without straining reduce contemporary visions to the
greatest harmony of their parts. I mean not only in their pro-
portions as in the precedent rule, but also in their other qualities,
and principally so as to make them respcct the same actions. 1'01'
the design of collate-rail visions is to be a key to one another and
therefore the' way to unlock thelll without straining must be by
fitting one to the other with all diligence and curiosity. This is
true opening scripture by scripture. All instance of this you have
in the comparison of the Dragon's history with the seales and
Trumpets in Prop , and of the Tl"llmpets with the (seals)
Vials, in Prop etc.
(14') 9. To (prefer) choose those (interpretations) constructions
which without straining reduce things to the greatest simplicity.
The reason of this is manifi'st by the precedent Rule. Truth is
ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and
confusion of things. As the world, which to the naked eye exhibits
the greatest variety of objects, "ppears very simple in its intel'llall
constitution when surveyed by a philosophic understanding, and
so much the simpler by how much the better it is understood, so
it is in these visions. I t is the perfection of (all) God's works that
they are al! done with the greatest simplicity. He is the God of
order and not of confusion. And therefore as they that would
understand the frame of the world must indeavour to reduce their
knowledg to all possible simplicity, so it must be in seeking to
understand these visions. And they that shall do otherwise do
not oncly make sure never to understand them, but derogate from
the perfection of the prophecy; and (declare) make it suspicious
also that their designe is not to understand it but to shuffle it of
and confound th" ,understandings of men by making it intricate
and confused.
10. In construing the Apocalyps to have little or no regard
to arguments drawn from events of things; (For there) Becaus
there can scarce be any certainty in historicall interpretations
(un till) unless the construction be first determined.
II. To acquiesce in that construction of the Apocalyps as the
true one which results most naturally and freely from the charac-
ters imprinted by the holy ghost on the several! parts thereof for
APPENDIX A 121
margin of MS.
APPENDIX A
perceive and in hearing should heare and not understand. For
God has declared his intention in these prophesies to be as well
that none of the wicked should understand as that the wise
should understand, Dan: 12.
And hence I cannot but on this occasion reprove the blindness
of a sort of (people) men who although they have neither better
nor other grounds for their faith then the Scribes and Pharisees
had for their (religion) Traditions, yet are so pervers as to call
upon other men for such a demonstration of the certainty of faith
in the scriptures that a meer naturall man, how wicked soever,
who will but read it, may judg of it and perceive the strength of
it with as much perspicuity and certainty as he can a demonstra-
tion in Euclide. Are not these men like the Scribes and Pharisees
who would not attend to the law and the Prophets but required
a signe of Christ? Wherefore if Christ thought it just to deny a
signe to that wicked and adulterate generation notwithstanding
that they were God's own people, (even) and the Catholique
Church; much more may God think it just that this generation
(19r ) should be permitted to dy in their sins, who do not onely
like the Scribes neglect but trample upon the law and the Prophets,
and endeavour by all possible means to destroy the faith which
men have in them, and to make them disregarded. I could wish
they would consider how contrary it is to God's purpose that the
truth of his religion should be as obvious and perspicuous to all
men as a mathematical demonstration. Tis enough that it is able
to move the assent of those which he hath chosen; and for the rest
who are SO incredulous, it is just that they should be permitted to
dy in their sins. Here then is the wisdom of God, that he hath so
framed the Scriptures as to discern between the good and the bad,
that they should be demonstrations to the one and foolishness to
the others.
And from this consideration may also appear the vanity of
those men who regard the splendor of churches and measure them
by the external form and constitution. Whereas (God) it is more
agreable to God's designe that his church appear contemptible
and scandalous to the world to try men. For this end doubtless he
suffered the many revoltings of.theJewish Church under the Law,
and for the same cnd was the grand Apostacy to happen under
the gospel. Rev . If thou relyest upon the externall form of
churches, the Learning of Scholars, the wisdom of statemen or of
other men of Education; consider with thy self whither thou
wouldest not have adhered to the scribes and Pharisees hadst
APPENDIX A
thou lived in their days, and if this be thy case, [ben is it no belter
then tbeirs, and God may judg thee accordingly, unless thou
chance to be on the right side, which as tis great odds may prove
otherwise so if it should happen yet it would (not) scalre exCuse
thy lolly although it might something mitigate it.
APPENDIX B
This fragment) Yahuda ~lS. 0, folio 1:,11-- Iql, is part of 'The Synchronisnls
of the Three Parts of the Prophetick Interpretation' (Sotheby Catalogue, lot
244). Newton's quotations from the Old Testament prophets and the
Revelation of John generally conform to thc King James version, but
they are not always precise. Brackets and the phrases they enclose are
Newton's insertions, as are the footnotes. \vhich in the original text
appear as marginalia.
doms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever. Apoc. J J. One like
the son of man came with the clouds of heavcn,-and there was
given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people
nations and languages should sel"VC him: his dominion is all
everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed Dan. 7. 14, 27 In the days 01
these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall
never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other
people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdonl>
and it shall stand for ever Dan. 3. 44. The Lord God shall give
unto him the throne of his Father David and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there shall be 110
end Luke I. 33. Of the encrease of his government and peace
there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his
Kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with
justice ji-om henceforth even for ever. Isa 9.7. I will take the
children of Israel from among the heathen whether they be gone
and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own
land-and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto
Jacob my servant wherein yonr fathers have dwelt and they shall
dwell therein even they and their children and their childrens
children for ever and my servant David shall be their Prince for
ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them: it
shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them
and multiply them and I will set my (I3 r ) sanctuary ill the midst
of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them:
Yea I will be their God and they shall be my people. And the
heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctity Israel whell my
sanctuary shall be in the midst of them lor evermore. Ezek. 31l.
Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day and
the (Moon) ordinances of the Moon and of the starrs j(lr a light
by night,-if those ordinances depart from before me saith the
Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease Ii-om beiug a nation
before me for ever Jer 31. 35,36. In the Apocalyps where tis said
that they bring the glory and honour of the nations into the new
Jerusalem those nations are certainly mortals, for they are the
nations whom the Dragon deceived no more till the thousand
years were expired and who being at the end of those years again
deceived by him did compass the beloved city and were devoured
by fire from the throne, that is by war. Thus is there an end of
those rebellious nations but not of the beloved city. Their
128 APPENDIX B
dominion is confirmed and perhaps enlarged by the conquest uf
those nations nor is the end of it any where described but on the
contrary tis said that tluy shall reign for ever Q/ld ever Apoc. 22.5. And
that the citizens of this city are not the saints risen from the dead,
but a race of mortal men like those nations over whom they reign
is evident from Isaiahs description of the new heavens and new
earth and new Jerusalem. For of this Jerusalem he saith: The
voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her nor the voice of
crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days nor an
old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an
hundred years old but the sinner being an hundred years old
shall be accursed and they shall build houses and inhabit them
and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them ete Isa 65. 19,20,2 I.
These mortal inhabitants of this city the Prophet aftelwards (tells
you are) describes to be the nation of the Jews returned from
captivity and saith of them that as the new heavens and new
earth which he will make shall remain before him so shall their
seed remain: which is as much as to say that both shall remain for
ever. And to assure you that this is after the day of judgment he
adds that they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the
men that have transgressed: for their worm shall not die neither
shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abborring to all
flesh. The state of this new Jerusalem you may see further
described in Isa. 60 namely how it is a city of mortals assemhled
from captivity and rules over the nations and continues for ever
and how (as in the Apocalyps) the Gentiles come to her light and
the Kings to the brightness of her rising and her gates are open
continually that (men theyr bring) they may bring unto her the
riches of the Gentiles and the Sun is no more her light by day nor
the moon, but the Lord is her everlasting light. So again in Isa 54
the same state is thus described. Thy seed [returning from captivity]
shall inherit tlu gmtiles and make the desolate cities to be illhabited.-for
thy maker is thy Husband (tlu Lord qf(14') Hosts is his name) and
thy redeemer [from captivity] the holy one of Israel, the God of
the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth
when thou wast refused saith thy God. For a small moment have
I forsaken thee [during thy captivity] but with great mercies will
I gather thee [from among the nations.] In a little wrath I hid
my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will
I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy redeemer. For this is as
the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters
APPENDIX B 12 9