The first draft of this article was presented as an undergraduate thesis in the University of Oxford, 1990.Research for it was made possible by grants from Eton College and St John's College, Oxford. I am grateful to the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, the Provost and Fellows of King's College, Cambridge, and the Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford, for permission to quote from unpublished manuscripts.I would also like to thank Robert Franklin, Michael Hunter, Peter Jones, David Katz, Colin Kidd, Nigel Smith, and especially Robin Briggs and Katharine Wilson.

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² Turnor, Edmund, Collections for the History of the Town and Soke of Grantham, London, 1806, 163Google Scholar (printing Conduitt's ‘Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’, which had originally been prepared to guide Fontenelle in writing his Eloge de Monsieur Newton in 1727).Google Scholar

³ The landmarks in this process are McGuire, J. E. and Rattansi, P. M., ‘Newton and the “Pipes of Pan”’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society (1966), 21, 108–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Manuel, Frank E., A Portrait of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, Mass., 1968Google Scholar; Dobbs, B. J. T., The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy, Cambridge, 1975Google Scholar; and Westfall, Richard S., Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1980.Google Scholar

⁴ Dobbs, B. J. T., ‘Newton as alchemist and theologian’, in Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (ed. Thrower, Norman J. W.), Berkeley, 1990, 128–40Google Scholar, is one of the latest and best pieces of such work. The approach was also pioneered by Westfall, Richard S., for example in his ‘Newton and alchemy’, in Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance (ed. Vickers, Brian), Cambridge, 1984, 315–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; however, Westfall, 's ‘Isaac Newton's Theologiae gentilis origines philosophicae’, in The Secular Mind (ed. Wagar, W. W.), New York, 1982, 15–34Google Scholar, merely bends new evidence to the old-fashioned thesis of Newton's deism which he had advanced in Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England, New Haven, 1958Google Scholar, and for which the centrality of apocalyptic in Newton's theology is distinctly inconvenient. Although he accepted the thesis of Newton's deism in his William Whiston: Honest Newtonian, Cambridge, 1985, 122–3Google Scholar, Force, James E. has recently provided the most cogent criticism of it in his ‘Newton and deism’, in Science and Religion/Wissenschaft und Religion (ed. Bäumer, Änne and Büttner, Manfred), Bochum, 1989, 120–32.Google Scholar

⁵ For example, Jacob, Margaret C., The Newtonians and the English Revolution, Hassocks, 1976Google Scholar; Manuel, Frank E., The Religion of Isaac Newton, Oxford, 1974Google Scholar; or, most recently, Force, James E. and Popkin, Richard H., Essays on the Context, Nature, and Influence of Isaac Newton's Theology, Dordrecht, 1990CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which appeared after the original draft of this article had been completed. However, despite certain criticisms, my sympathy for many of the conclusions of Popkin and Force should not be in doubt.

⁶ Newton's ecclesiology is an inconvenience for the Unitarians who have claimed him as an intellectual ancestor, and so is ignored by McLachlan, Herbert, Religious Opinions of Milton, Locke and Newton, Manchester, 1941Google Scholar. The only discussion of it to date is Downing, Barry H., ‘Eschatological Implications of the Understanding of Time and Space in the Thought of Isaac Newton’, Edinburgh University Ph.D. thesis, 1966, especially 252–90.Google Scholar

⁷ RevWatkins, I. B., Anecdotes for Youth, 2 vols., London, 1825, i, 127Google Scholar. This anecdote appears to be a concoction from several stories – see those in Stukeley, William, Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life (ed. White, A. Hastings), London, 1936.Google Scholar

⁸ See Secord, James A., ‘Newton in the nursery’, History of Science (1985), 23, 127–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹ King's College, Cambridge, Keynes Manuscripts (KMS), 3, fol. Ir–2r. Newton refers to Hebrews v 12–14 and vi 1–2.

¹⁰ On the context for Newton's rigorous biblical studies, and his ensuing inability to accept ordination, see Westfall, , op. cit. (3), 309–34Google Scholar. Newton's sense of his own special status as an interpreter is revealed by his use of the anagram ‘Jeova sanctus unus’, discussed in Manuel, , op. cit. (5), 19Google Scholar. For Newton's interpretations of the role of providence in the natural world, see especially Hoskin, M. A., ‘Newton, providence and the universe of stars’, Journal for the History of Astronomy (1977), 8, 77–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kubrin, D. C., ‘Newton and the cyclical cosmos: providence and the mechanical philosophy’, Journal of the History of Ideas (1967), 28, 325–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹ KMS 3, fol. 1r ff.; similar discussions, and the term ‘religion of Noah’ appear in Jewish National and University Library, Yahuda Ms. Var. 1/ (Yah Ms) 16; 41, in New College, Oxford (New Coll) Ms 361.3, and in Newton, , Opticks, 4th edn, 1730, reprinted New York, 1979, 406, Query 31Google Scholar. Despite the fuss which has been made over Newton's references to ‘the religion of Noah and his sons’, similar phrases can be found in other works of late seventeenth-century theology, see especially Ray, John, Three Physico-Theological Discourses, London, 1693, 276. On p. 364Google Scholar, Ray advances a description of God's dominion which is also not unlike Newton's supposedly idiosyncratic formulations.

¹² KMS 130.6, Book 3. Westfall discusses some problems with KMS 3, a late manuscript, in Wagar, W. W. (ed.), op. cit. (4), 16, 31.Google Scholar

¹³ KMS 3, fol. 7r.

¹⁴ See McGuire, and Rattansi, , op. cit. (3)Google Scholar; for a wider discussion of Renaissance and early modern uses of Noah, and of a primitive religion, see two books by Allen, Don Cameron, The Legend of Noah, Urbana, 1949Google Scholar, and Mysteriously Meant, Baltimore, 1970.Google Scholar

¹⁵ In the two works which try most strenuously to define Newton's religious context, too little weight is placed upon his Arianism and upon his ideas about primitive religion. See Buchholtz, K. D., Isaac Newton als Theologe, Witten, 1965Google Scholar, and Downing, , op. cit. (6), especially 122.Google Scholar

¹⁶ KMS 3, fol. 7r.

¹⁷ Chillingworth, William, The Religion of Protestants, 5th edn, London, 1684, 290Google Scholar. Chillingworth's attitude is reflected in the hermeneutic approach not only of orthodox seventeenth-century Churchmen but also of their critics, like the Unitarian forefather, Nye, Stephen, see A Brief History of the Unitarians called also Socinians, London, 1687, 171.Google Scholar

¹⁸ See his own, heavily annotated, copy of the Bible in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (described in Harrison, John, The Library of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, 1978, catalogue number 188Google Scholar). I have chosen to employ the term ‘Anglican’ here and elsewhere despite the objections to its use voiced by Tyacke, Nicholas, Anti-Calvinists, 2nd edn, Oxford, 1990, vii, viii, xviiiCrossRefGoogle Scholar. This practice is common among recent historians of the Restoration Church, cf. Spurr, John, ‘Anglican Apologetic and the Restoration Church’, Oxford University, D.Phil, thesis, 1985.Google Scholar

¹⁹ I want to argue that one of Newton's main concerns was to combat Catholic error, see, for example, Yah Ms 23. Cf. Iliffe, R. C., ‘“The Idols of the Temple”: Isaac Newton and the Private Life of Anti-Idolatry’, Cambridge University Ph.D. thesis, 1989, especially part 1Google Scholar. In having this as a primary concern, Newton differed from the Newtonians described in Jacob, , op. cit. (5)Google Scholar, whilst having much in common with earlier theologians who have been labelled ‘latitudinarian’, like John Wilkins. On the Rule of Faith, see Orr, R. R., Reason and Authority: The Thought of William Chillingworth, Oxford, 1967, especially 71–114Google Scholar; Van Leeuwen, Henry G., The Problem of Certainty in English Thought 1630–1690, The Hague, 1963, especially 13–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁰ See Popkin, Richard H., ‘Newton's biblical theology and his theological physics’ in Newton's Scientific and Philosophical Legacy (ed. Scheurer, P. B. and Debrock, G.), Dordrecht, 1988, 81–97, especially 84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Popkin, , ‘Newton as a Bible scholar’Google Scholar, in Force, and Popkin, , op. cit. (5), 103–18, especially 109Google Scholar, quotes an unpublished document in which Newton discusses the nature of John's inspiration, described at greater length in Popkin, , ‘Newton et l'interprétation des propriéties’ in Le Grand Siècle et la Bible (ed. Armogathe, Jean-Robert), Paris, 1989, 745–56, especially 756Google Scholar. Cf. Newton, , Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St John, London, 1733, especially 238–9Google Scholar. Newton was not alone in granting John some form of inspirational priority among New Testament authors, cf. Hall, Joseph, Contemplations on the New Testament, 4th book, in Works, 3 vols., London, 1647–1662, ii, 185Google Scholar. Nor need his scepticism about the canon be due entirely to the growth of continental critical scholarship, cf. Chillingworth, , op. cit. (17), chapter 2Google Scholar. The Rule of Faith controversy included discussion on the language of the Bible and the problems of translation which anticipated some of Newton's concerns, although it is not clear with how much of the controversy Newton was acquainted.

²¹ Newton was not the only Nonconformist author to be interested in more traditional scholarship, although his view of the Church differed from that of John Owen or even Richard Baxter. Some of his theological interests are particularly close to those of a figure like Theophilus Gale. On these, see Keeble, N. H., The Literary Culture of Nonconformity in Later Seventeenth-Century England, Leicester, 1987, especially 156–70Google Scholar. An author like Gale, however, was careful to avoid being led into anti-trinitarianism, see Hutton, Sarah, ‘The neoplatonic roots of Arianism: Ralph Cudworth and Theophilus Gale’, in Socinianism and its Role in the Culture of XVIth to XVIIIth Centuries (ed. Szczucki, Lech, Ogonowski, Zbigniew and Tazbir, Janusz), Warsaw, 1983, 139–45Google Scholar. For a discussion of debates between Churchmen and Nonconformists over the fundamentals of the Church, see Thomas, Roger, ‘Comprehension and indulgence’, in From Uniformity to Unity 1662–1962 (ed. Nuttall, Geoffrey F. and Chadwick, Owen), London, 1962, 189–253Google Scholar; on the role of patristic scholarship in Tory justifications for persecution, see Goldie, Mark, ‘The theory of religious intolerance in Restoration England’, in From Persecution to Toleration (ed. Grell, Ole Peter, Israel, Jonathan I. and Tyacke, Nicholas), Oxford, 1991, 331–68, especially 338–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²² The judgement about Newton's sophistication is that of Westfall, Richard S., see ‘Short-writing and the state of Newton's conscience, 1662’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society (1963), 18, 10–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which also prints the extracts from the notebook. Newton had been reading Johnson, Richard, The Famous History of the Seven Champions of Christendom, London, 1596–1597Google Scholar (still being reprinted in the 1680s, see Spufford, Margaret, Small Books and Pleasant Histories, London, 1981, especially 227–31Google Scholar, for its milieu). Other Nonconformist writers also reacted against their childhood reading of this book, for example, Bunyan, John, A Few Sighs from Hell, in Miscellaneous Works (ed. Underwood, T. L. and Sharrock, R.), Oxford, 1980, i, especially 333Google Scholar. I wish to place Newton in this Nonconformist context, something of which is lost by interpreting him through the work of a later generation of Newtonians, cf. Force, , William Whiston, op. cit. (4)Google Scholar. However, in his ‘Sir Isaac Newton, “Gentleman of Wide Swallow”?: Newton and the Latitudinarians’, in Force, and Popkin, , op. cit. (5), 119–41, especially 131–2Google Scholar, James E. Force has provided a further aspect of this context by discussing Newton's views on predestination.

²³ Westfall, , op. cit. (3), 310.Google Scholar

²⁴ On the problems caused by the Thirty-Nine Articles for Nonconformist ministers, see Spurr, John, ‘The Church of England, comprehension and the Toleration Act of 1689’, English Historical Review (1989), 104, 927–46, especially 930–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The years 1668–74 saw particularly intense attempts to accommodate such men within the English Church, notably those of John Wilkins.

²⁵ A problem with which Newton became more closely acquainted as MP for Cambridge after the Glorious Revolution, when he defended obedience under the law as a sufficient safeguard to the King without oathtaking: The Correspondence of Isaac Newton (ed. Turnbull, H. W. et al. ), 7 vols., Cambridge, 1959–1977, iii, 12, Letter to Covel.Google Scholar

²⁶ Harrison, , op. cit. (18), numbers 114, 1564Google Scholar. Downing, , op. cit. (6), 260Google Scholar, points out that Newton must also have read Gary, Lucius, Falkland, Lord, A Discourse of Infallibility, London, 1660Google Scholar, on which he made notes (KMS 2, fol. 1ff).

²⁷ For Newton and these authors, see Manuel, Frank E., Isaac Newton, Historian, Cambridge, 1963Google Scholar. For Vossius, see also Popkin, Richard H., ‘Polytheism, deism and Newton’Google Scholar, in Force, and Popkin, , op. cit. (5), 27–42Google Scholar, and, as a corrective, Trevor-Roper, H. R., Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans, London, 1987, especially 145–6, 195, 210–13.Google Scholar

²⁸ Ball, , Friendly Triall, 41Google Scholar. The author argues that a ‘stinted liturgy’ of set forms ought to be acceptable to all, but should not be allowed to provoke schism in the Church.

²⁹ Ct. Spurr, John, ‘Schism and the Restoration Church’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History (1990), 41, 408–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁰ KMS 3, fol. 3r.

³¹ KMS 3, fol. Ir, begins by reformulating the Apostles’ Creed. Newton was not alone in seeing this as a means to agreement in the Church on fundamentals; Isaac Barrow had also argued that the Creed had particular authority, see Gascoigne, John, ‘Isaac Barrow's Academic Milieu’ in Before Newton: The Life and Times of Isaac Barrow (ed. Feingold, Mordechai), Cambridge, 1990, 250–90, especially 262–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Barrow's Arminianism was complemented by his strong sense of the unity of the true Church, see Barrow, Isaac, A Discourse Concerning the Unity of the Church, London, 1680.Google Scholar

³² See Falkland, , op. cit. (26), c2r–c4vGoogle Scholar; Newton felt priests had been responsible for the corruption of the original religion, together with kings, see Mss, Yah 17.2, fols. 20v, 21Google Scholar; 41, fol. 26. This was an interesting position for a subject of James II's, cf. Yah Ms 23.

³³ Other interpreters, like Thomas Brightman, had chosen dates with different significances, see Firth, Katharine R., The Apocalyptic Tradition in Reformation Britain, Oxford, 1979Google Scholar. Newton identified the 1260 years of the reign of Antichrist with Papal rule, interpreting Revelation xii 6.

³⁴ Yah Ms 1.4, fol. 104r.

³⁵ Cf. John Locke, whose writings of the late 1660s and 1670s also treat the questions of Christian fundamentals and of toleration, see Tyacke, Nicholas, ‘The “Rise of Puritanism” and the legalizing of dissent, 1571–1719’Google Scholar, in Grell, , Israel, and Tyacke, (eds.), op. cit. (21), 17–49, especially 36.Google Scholar

³⁶ For Falkland, scripture was the Protestant's ‘infallible way’, and he quoted StChrysostom, John: ‘In the Scripture…all that is necessary is clear’, op. cit. (26), 95.Google Scholar

³⁷ KMS 3, fol. 22r (Theses 7 and 8).

³⁸ Correspondence, op. cit. (25), iii, 82Google Scholar, Newton, to Locke, ; 83–122, and 129–42, Newton to a friend.Google Scholar

³⁹ Locke, John, Epistola de tolerantia (ed. Klibansky, R. and Cough, J. W.), Oxford, 1968, 139, 150–1.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ See Westfall, , op. cit. (3), 483–4Google Scholar. Cf. Rex, Millicent Barton, University Representation in England 1604–1690, London, 1954, 302–11Google Scholar. Newton served on the committees in the Convention for the relief of French Protestant ministers and for the indulgence of Dissenters, see Journal of the House of Commons, x [London, 1742], 93 and 133Google Scholar. On the Parliamentary debates, see also Horwitz, Henry, Parliament, Policy and Politics in the Reign of William III, Manchester, 1977, 17–49Google Scholar; on Huguenot refugees, see Gibbs, G. C., ‘The Reception of the Huguenots in England and the Dutch Republic 1680–1690’Google Scholar, in Grell, , Israel, and Tyacke, (eds), op. cit. (21), 275–306, especially 305–6Google Scholar. An almost republican, and certainly conciliar, view of Newton's attitudes to government is provided by Trompf, Garry W., ‘On Newtonian history’, in The Uses of Antiquity (ed. Gaukroger, Stephen), Dordrecht, 1991, 213–49, especially 219–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with reference to KMS 146, fol. 1–3.

⁴¹ Correspondence, op. cit. (25), ii, 467, Newton to ?Google Scholar; for the background to University politics, see Twigg, John, The University of Cambridge and the English Revolution, 1625–1688, Woodbridge, 1990, especially 275–87.Google Scholar

⁴² KMS 121, p. 3. Other relevant manuscripts on this subject include KMS 113, 116, 118.

⁴³ KMS 116, p. 3r.

⁴⁴ Newton's Arianism, and subsequent likely exclusion from indulgence, may also have been a factor. Other Nonconformists were ready to accept royal indulgence, perceiving the Church of England as a greater threat to their liberties than the Catholics, see Beddard, R. A., ‘Vincent Alsop and the emancipation of Restoration dissent’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History (1973), 24, 161–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the involvement of the Royal Society in efforts to play down the significance of the Catholic minority, see Goldie, Mark, ‘Sir Peter Pett, sceptical Toryism and the science of toleration in the 1680's’, Studies in Church History (1984), 21, 247–73, especially 270–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Pett believed that Catholics were not guilty of idolatry, the sin which Newton argued was responsible time and again for the corruption of the Church. Cf. Baxter, Richard's ideas for a ‘National Church’Google Scholar, discussed by Lamont, William M., Richard Baxter and the Millennium, London, 1979, especially 255–66Google Scholar. Both Baxter and Newton rejected aspects of Henry More's apocalyptic interpretation which seemed to associate the Anglican Church with the millennial rule of the Saints.

⁴⁵ KMS 118, p. 4r (on the penal laws). Unlike that of others in the debate, Newton's position on toleration has to be inferred from theological as well as political arguments, cf. Schochet, Gordon J., ‘John Locke and religious toleration’, in The Revolution of 1688–1689: Changing Perspectives (ed. Schwoerer, Lois G.), Cambridge 1992, 147–64, especially 159–60Google Scholar. It was not identical to Locke, John's, although Locke submitted his Third Letter on TolerationGoogle Scholar to Newton for criticism, see Correspondence, op. cit. (25), iii, 216–17, especially 217Google Scholar, note 1, Locke to Newton, cf. Westfall, , op. cit. (3), 491Google Scholar. However, earlier in his career, Locke had also been interested in ideas for comprehension within a reformed Church, see Marshall, John, ‘John Locke and latitudinarianism’, in Philosophy, Science, and Religion in England 1640–1700 (ed. Kroll, Richard, Ashcraft, Richard, Zagorin, Perez), Cambridge, 1992, 253–82, especially 254–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Newton showed little interest in the moves for a reunion of the Presbyterians with the Church of England, epitomized by Baxter's ‘middle way’, and his theology disagreed with that of leading Independents, such as John Owen. For these, see Thomas, Roger, ‘The break-up of Nonconformity’ in Nuttall, Geoffrey F., Thomas, Roger, Short, H. Lismer and Whitehorn, R. D., The Beginnings of Nonconformity, London, 1964, 33–60Google Scholar, and White, B. R., ‘The twilight of Puritanism in the years before and after 1688’Google Scholar, in Grell, , Israel, and Tyacke, (eds.), op. cit. (21), 307–30Google Scholar. But neither the Comprehension Bill, nor the Toleration Act of 1689, adequately embodied the principles of any group among the Dissenters, see Horwitz, Henry, Revolution Politicks, Cambridge, 1968, 87–95Google Scholar; Watts, Michael, The Dissenters, Oxford, 1978, i, 260–1.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ On Newton's ideas about a remnant, see Iliffe, , op. cit. (19), 148Google Scholar, and Yah Ms 1.1, fols. 1–3r. Newton's ideas differed from those of leading Independents like John Owen, who wished to accept the authority of the first four Councils of the early Church in order to condemn Socinians, see Nuttall, Geoffrey F., Visible Saints: The Congregational Way 1640–1660, Oxford, 1957, 54–9Google Scholar. For his outward involvement in the Church, see Downing, , op. cit. (6), 274–9Google Scholar, and Westfall, , op. cit. (3), 814–15Google Scholar. Force, , op. cit. (22), especially 119–20Google Scholar, details criticism of Newton for his occasional conformity.

⁴⁷ New Coll. Ms. 361.3, fol. 47v. For Newton the true religion and the true philosophy did not necessarily originate in Egypt (although both were corrupted there), rather the biblical accounts which he uses were most easily expanded by his knowledge of things Egyptian. Newton's history remained essentially the sacred history of Jews, and Christians, , paceGoogle ScholarBernal, Martin, Black Athena, London, 1987, i, especially 166–8Google Scholar. Opposite sides over the relative importance attached by Newton to Egyptian and to Hebrew learning are taken by Gascoigne, John, ‘“The Wisdom of the Egyptians” and the secularisation of history in the age of Newton’Google Scholar, in Gaukroger, (ed.), op. cit. (40), 171–212, especially 190–3Google Scholar, and by Trompf, , op. cit. (40), especially 220–3Google Scholar. Gascoigne's argument that Newton followed John Spencer in seeing the Egyptians as the guardians of the true philosophy and teachers of the Jews has also been advanced by Champion, Justin, The Pillars of Priestcraft Shaken, Cambridge, 1992, 155–7Google Scholar. Newton knew and admired Spencer's work; he did not necessarily follow it. As I have argued, his own thoughts seem closer in many respects to those of the defender of Hebrew learning, Gale, whose work was not, however, in Newton's library. Manuel, , op. cit. (27), 91–2, 104–12Google Scholar, outlines a subordinate role for the Egyptians in Newton's chronology. Yah Ms 16.2 fol. Iv states simply that philosophy was known ‘apprime’ (‘especially’) in Egypt, not that the Egyptians were the first or only people to understand it.

⁴⁸ Yah Ms 16.2.

⁴⁹ Yah Ms 16.2, fol. 14r and passim. This was the first idolatry.

⁵⁰ Yah Ms 41, fols. Ir, 4r. Although later, this manuscript and New Coll Ms 361.3 are essential for trying to reconstruct what Newton meant by this term, cf. Westfall, , op. cit. (3), 351–2.Google Scholar

⁵¹ New Coll Ms 361.1, fol. 32r. Euhemerism, which suggests human originals for the pagan gods, is explained by Seznec, Jean, The Survival of the Pagan Gods, Princeton, 1953, especially 12–13.Google Scholar

⁵² Newton, , op. cit. (20), 194–234.Google Scholar

⁵³ Genesis ix 8–9. Newton marks this place in his Bible in Trinity College Library (Harrison, , op. cit. (18), number 188Google Scholar) by turning down the corner of the page to point to it. This verse had already provided for contemporary speculation on the nature of original human society, see SirFilmer, Robert, The Originall of Government (1652), in Patriarcha and Other Writings (ed. Somerville, Johann P.), Cambridge, 1991, especially 217–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Filmer here discusses Selden, John, Of the Dominion, or Ownership of the Sea (tr. Nedham, Marchamont), London, 1652, 18–19Google Scholar. Newton too considers the original polity, stressing that it was the father who performed the sacrifices of the household, Yah Ms 17.3, fol. 3r–v.

⁵⁴ Cudworth, Ralph, The True Intellectual System of the Universe, London, 1678, preface, A8rGoogle Scholar. It is important to distinguish Cudworth's position from the orthodox Calvinist one, that man's soul in some sense retains the image of God, but that this image can be fully known only through Christ and scripture, see Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. (ed. McNeill, J. T., tr. Battles, F. L.), Philadelphia, 1960, i, book I, chapter 15, especially 183–90.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ See the Clark Library Ms, ‘Out of Cudworth’Google Scholar, in Force, and Popkin, , op. cit. (5), 207–12Google Scholar. Cf. Sailor, Danton B., ‘Newton's debt to Cudworth’, Journal of the History of Ideas (1988), 49, 511–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Newton certainly remained unconvinced by Cudworth's defence of the Trinity.

⁵⁶ Hiscock, W. G. (ed.), David Gregory, Isaac Newton and their Circle, Oxford, 1937, 30. Gregory to Newton.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ For More's influence on Newton, see The Conway Letters (ed. Nicolson, Marjorie Hope), London, 1930, 478–9, More to Sharp.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Printed in Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton (ed. , A. R. and Hall, M. B.), Cambridge, 1962, 89–156, especially 135–44Google Scholar. There has been some debate over the date of this manuscript: the Halls, John Herivel, D. T. Whiteside and R. S. Westfall all date it to around 1668, see Palter, Robert, ‘Saving Newton's text: documents, readers, and the ways of the world’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (1987), 18, 385–439, especially 386–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; B. J. T. Dobbs, however, persists with her argument for a date around 1684, see her ‘Stoic and Epicurean doctrines in Newton's system of the world’, in Atoms, Pneuma, and Tranquillity: Epicurean and Stoic Themes in European Thought (ed. Osier, Margaret J.), Cambridge, 1991, 221–38, especially 229.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Correspondence, op. cit. (25), iii, 233Google Scholar, Newton to Bentley. On Milton's use of apocalyptic, and his own hopes for the reform of the Church, which may be compared with Newton's, see Mueller, Janel, ‘Embodying glory: the apocalyptic strain in Milton's Of Reformation’ in Politics, Poetics, and Hermeneutics in Milton's Prose (ed. Loewenstein, David and Turner, James Grantham), Cambridge, 1990, 9–40Google Scholar. For the Cambridge Platonists and miracles, see Glanvill, Joseph and More, Henry, Saducismus triumphatus, London, 1681Google Scholar; Steneck, Nicholas, ‘Greatrakes the stroker; the interpretations of historians’, Isis (1982), 73, 161–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

⁶⁰ See Newton's comments to the Chevalier Ramsay, in Spence, Joseph, Observations, Anecdotes and Characters of Books and Men, 2 vols. (ed. Osborn, James M.), Oxford, 1966, i, 462–3Google Scholar. Jacob, Margaret C., ‘Newton and the French Prophets: new evidence’, History of Science (1978), 16, 134–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar, discusses Newton's involvement without realizing its inconvenience for her theories about latirudinarian divinity. On general problems with the use of ‘latitudinarian’ as a category, see Spurr, John, ‘“Latitudinarians” and the Restoration Church’, The Historical Journal (1988), 31, 61–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Figala, Karin and Petzold, Ulrich, ‘Physics and poetry: Fatio de Duillier's Ecloga on Newton's Principia’, Archives Internationales d'histoire des sciences (1987), 37, 316–49, especially 320–1Google Scholar, argue convincingly that Newton maintained his friendship with Fatio even after drawing back from associating with the French Prophets. Although Newton's millenarian interests were usually confined to the text of the Bible itself, this toying with enthusiastic religion suggests some of the ambiguities of his religious background and practice.

⁶¹ Yah Ms 8.2, fol. 2r; they are perhaps idolatrous because of this.

⁶² On Newton's two arguments for God, see Force, James E., ‘Newton's “sleeping argument” and the Newtonian synthesis of science and religion’Google Scholar, in Thrower, (ed.), op. cit. (4), 109–27Google Scholar. Toland, John, Letters to Serena, London, 1704, 201Google Scholar, would interpret Newton's view of absolute space as implying a rationalist natural theology, without reference to his biblical criticism.

⁶³ New Coll Ms 361.2, fol. 132r.

⁶⁴ New Coll Ms 361.2, fol. 166r. In Newton's writings post-Copernican astronomy becomes truly subversive to the Catholic Church.

⁶⁵ Correspondence, op. cit. (25), ii, 329–34, especially 331Google Scholar, Newton to Burnet. Later, Newton would come to doubt Moses' authorship of the Pentateuch (perhaps after reading Richard Simon), but his attitude to language remained unchanged.

⁶⁶ New Coll Ms 361.1, fol. 31r.

⁶⁷ Correspondence, op. cit. (25), vii, 481Google Scholar, Newton to Caspar Neumann. This attitude marks Newton out from an earlier generation of Protestant scholars who had seen the Hebrew text as the uncomplicated key to interpretation, as God's tongue, cf. Walton, Brian, Biblia sacra polyglotta, 6 vols., London, 1657, i, Prolegomenon i, 3–5Google Scholar. Newton agreed with Stillingfleet on the need to amend the chronology of the ancients in line with biblical history, see his The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, London, 1728, especially 43–71Google Scholar, cf. Stillingfleet, , Origines sacrae, London, 1662, 15.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Correspondence, op. cit. (25), iii, 123Google Scholar, note 1. Newton never abandoned the Calvinist faith in the literal and allegorical interpretation of scripture, however, as his continued fascination with prophecy indicates. The critical reassessment of the authorship of the books of the Bible in which Newton did indulge was not new to Simon, having been practised by Ibn Ezra, see Auvray, Paul, Richard Simon (1638–1712), Paris, 1974, 62–4Google Scholar; Newton distrusted the reliance on tradition as a guide to interpretation to be found in both these authors. Cf. Popkin, , in Armogathe, (ed.), op. cit. (20), 746.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ See Westfall, , op. cit. (3), 320–9.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Worthington, John (ed.), The Works of the Pious and Profoundly Learned Joseph Mede, B.D., 2 vols., London, 1664, i, ‘Life of Mede’, III, XXXIII, LIIIGoogle Scholar; ii, especially Clavis Apocalyptica and The Apostasy of the Latter Times. Newton's disquiet with scepticism arose from his reading of Descartes. Synchronic interpretation compared the texts of prophecies in order to establish a clear prophetic narrative, whose fulfilment could be traced by further comparison with the details of secular history. See Davidson, James West, The Logic of Millennial Thought, New Haven, 1977, 43–8Google Scholar. It had its origins in the complex exegesis of Brightman and Piscator, and especially of Johann Heinrich Alsted, see Hotson, Howard, ‘Johann Heinrich Alsted: Encyclopedism, Millenarianism and the Second Reformation in Germany’, Oxford University D.Phil, thesis, 1991Google Scholar; see also Alsted, Johann Heinrich, Thesaurus chronologiae, Herborn, 1628, especially 7–24Google Scholar, the 1650 edition of which Newton owned (Harrison, , op. cit. (18), number 33Google Scholar), for comparison with Mede and Newton.

⁷¹ Well before Simon, others had already used this technique to question the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, for example, Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan [1651] (ed. Macpherson, C. B.), London, 1968, 417–18.Google Scholar

⁷² Newton, , op. cit. (20), 5–8, 9–11Google Scholar. Cf. Yah Ms 7.3, fols. 5–6, for a more detailed treatment of the division of Daniel.

⁷³ Simon treats Moses in Book 1, chapter 5; Daniel in chapter 9. He deals with Samuel (to whom he gives less credit than does Newton) on p. 27.

⁷⁴ Simon, , Old Testament, prefaceGoogle Scholar. Simon and Newton agreed on the obscurity of the Bible, but not on its consequences. Simon criticized one of Newton's major sources of Hebraic learning, the work of Johann Buxtorf (see Harrison, , op. cit. (18), numbers 321, 322, 323Google Scholar). For Simon's place in the tradition of Christian scholarship, see McKane, William, Selected Christian Hebraists, Cambridge, 1989, 111–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁵ Newton, , op. cit. (20), 238–9.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Simon, , A Critical History of the Text of the New Testament, London, 1689Google Scholar, preface. Newton's remains a text-based endeavour though, unlike Samuel Fisher's Quaker critique of academic biblical criticism from the inspiration of inner light in his Rusticus ad academicos, London, 1660Google Scholar, but he appreciates that the words of scripture have been transmitted through human as well as divine media, cf. Smith, Nigel, Perfection Proclaimed, Oxford, 1989, especially 274Google Scholar; Hill, Christopher, The World Turned Upside Down, London, 1972, 259–68.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ On the extent of Protestant interest in the fulfilment of prophecy, see Reedy, Gerard, SJ, The Bible and Reason, Philadelphia, 1985, especially 56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁸ For example, Yah Mss 4, 10, 13, 14, 17, 28.

⁷⁹ For an important re-evaluation of the differences between More and Newton, in particular of More's use of prophecy to justify his support for the Anglican hierarchy and even for James II in the early 1680s, see Iliffe, , op. cit. (19), especially 104–20.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Cf. Whiston, William, An Essay on the Revelation of St John, Cambridge, 1706Google Scholar. This analysis should not be taken as concurring with Knoespel, Kenneth J., ‘Milton and the Hermeneutics of time: seventeenth-century chronologies and the science of history’, Studies in the Literary Imagination (1989), 22, 17–35Google Scholar, and ‘Newton in the school of time: The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended and the crisis of seventeenth-century historiography’, The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation (1989), 30, 19–41Google Scholar, which argue that Newton constructed a new chronology around the rise of invention and technological society.

⁸¹ Yah Ms 7.2 Y, fol. 89v. Cf. More, , Apocalypsis, 135Google Scholar. On the tradition of interpreting this passage, Revelation xiii 18, see Brady, David, ‘The number of the beast in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England’, Evangelical Quarterly (1973), 45, 219–40Google Scholar, and ‘1666: the year of the beast’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library (1978–1979), 61, 314–36.Google Scholar

⁸² More, , Illustration, preface, B2v.Google Scholar

⁸³ More, , op. cit. (81), Preface, pp. v–vi.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Yah Ms 1.1, fol. 4r. More's controversy with Newton is described by More in his letter to Sharp, in Nicolson, (ed.), op. cit. (57), 478–9Google Scholar, and reflected in Newton's scornful annotations to his copy of More's book, see Cajori, Florian, ‘Sir Isaac Newton's early study of the Apocalypse’, Popular Astronomy (1926), 34, 75–8Google Scholar. Both More and Newton rejected the arguments of Henry Hammond that no prophecy could be read as having relevance beyond the first few centuries of the Church, but unlike More, Newton did not believe his own time to be the last days, see Quinn, Arthur, The Confidence of British Philosophers, Leiden, 1977, especially 12Google Scholar, with reference to the interpretation of Daniel xii 3–4.

⁸⁵ KMS 5, fol. lv, probably a draft for Newton, 's Observations, cf. Yah Ms 7.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Cf. Salmon, Vivian, The Works of Francis Lodwick, London, 1972, especially 43–51, 72–104Google Scholar; Slaughter, M. M., Universal Languages and Scientific Taxonomy in the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge, 1982.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Quotations from University of Chicago Library, Ms 1073, printed in Elliott, Ralph W. V., ‘Isaac Newton's “Of An Universal! Language”’, Modern Language Review (1957), 52, 1–18, especially 7, 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This manuscript dates from the same period as the Fitzwilliam notebook.

⁸⁸ See Mystagogus, Cleidophorus (Yarworth, William), Mercury's Caducean Rod, London, 1702, 14Google Scholar. Cf. Harrison, , op. cit. (18), number 1138Google Scholar. There is good evidence that Newton was proud of the obscurity of the Principia, contributed to by the form of his mathematical language, in particular his use of propositions, which can be found also in his theological work, see Axtell, James L., ‘Locke, Newton and the two cultures’, in John Locke: Problems and Perspectives (ed. Yolton, John W.), Cambridge, 1969, 165–82, especially 166–72.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ From Cambridge University Library Ms Add: 4005, Sec 7, fol. 39, printed by Cohen, I. Bernard, ‘Isaac Newton's Principia, the Scriptures and the Divine Providence’, in Philosophy, Science and Method: Essays in Honor of Ernst Nagel (ed. Morgenbesser, S.), New York, 1969, 523–48, especially 544.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ KMS 5, fol. lv.

⁹¹ Newton, , op. cit. (20), 16, 21.Google Scholar

⁹² Yah Ms 7.1 D, fols. 5r–6r.

⁹³ Yah Ms 23, especially p. 6. I have already noted that other Nonconformists were moving away from this position at that time.

⁹⁴ Yah Ms 1.4, fol. 68r, to pick one example of very many. Newton's account of the delusional nature of the visions of monks, brought on by excessive abstinence, may be compared with the reactions of Anglican priests to the French Prophets, see Schwartz, Hillel, Knaves, Fools, Madmen and that Subtile Effluvium, Gainesville, 1978Google Scholar. Newton argued that physical illness and spiritual delusion arose from religious malpractice and disobedience, but without the usual Puritan reliance on supernatural agency, cf. MacDonald, Michael, ‘Religion, social change, and psychological healing in England, 1600–1800’, Studies in Church History (1982), 19, 101–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹⁵ Yah Ms 1.4, fol. 163r. Though it is tempting to explain Newton's Arian Christology as a consequence of his excessively literalist approach to scripture, there were plenty of literalists in the seventeenth century who were not Arians.

⁹⁶ The resulting drawings which Newton made are most accessible in his The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, op. cit. (67), 332–46Google Scholar, with three plates. These are practically the only figures of which I am aware in Newton's theological work. Unlike Mede and More, he does not provide a diagram of synchronisms (although he does tabulate them, Yah Ms 7.2 OI, fols. 31, 37). This has not stopped Castillejo, David doing it for him, The Expanding Force in Newton's Cosmos, Madrid, 1981, especially figure 10.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Newton may have known of the model of the Temple exhibited in England by Leon, Jacob Jehuda in 1675Google Scholar, he certainly did know the work of the Spanish Jesuit Villalpando on the reconstruction of the Temple, which Stukeley was later to attempt in turn. See Offenberg, A. K., ‘Jacob Jehuda Leon (1602–1675) and his model of the Temple’, in Jewish-Christian Relations in the Seventeenth Century (ed. van den Berg, J. and van der Wall, Ernestine G. E.), Dordrecht, 1988, 95–115CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rykwert, Joseph, On Adam's House in Paradise, New York, 1972Google Scholar; Stukeley, , op. cit. (7), 18Google Scholar; van Pelt, Robert Jan, ‘The Utopian exit of the Hermetic temple’, in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (ed. Merkel, Ingrid and Debus, Allen G.), London, 1988, 400–23Google Scholar; Westfall, , op. cit. (3), 346–8.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ All these quotations are from Yah Ms 1.1, fols. 12r–13r.

⁹⁹ Yah Ms 15.3, fol. 47v. Newton seems to want to have his cake and eat it with regard to allegorical interpretation; some philosophers might have argued he tried to do the same with occult forces.

¹⁰⁰ Yah Ms 1.1, fol. 28r, ‘The Proof.’

¹⁰¹ Newton believed that ‘none of ye wicked shall understand’, Yah Ms 1.1, fol. 1r. Similar ideas of belonging to a remnant are found in Mystagogus, Cleidophorus, op. cit. (88), A4vGoogle Scholar. The importance of this text for Newton's alchemical thought has been shown by Figala, Karin, ‘Zwei Londoner Alchemisten um 1700: Sir Isaac Newton und Cleidophorus Mystagogus’, Physis (1976), 18, 245–73.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Boyle, Robert, Some Considerations Touching the Style of the Holy Scriptures, London, 1661Google Scholar, Dedicatory Letter, A8v; and 38. This should not be taken to vindicate the assertion of Funkenstein, Amos, Theology and the Scientific Imagination from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century, Princeton, 1986, especially 3–9Google Scholar, that there is novelty in laymen pursuing theology.

¹⁰³ Correspondence, op. cit. (25), iii, 195Google Scholar, Newton to Locke, on Locke's communication of the letters on the ‘Two notable corruptions of scripture’ to Le Clerc. Despite Newton's concern, a manuscript version of his work was circulating as late as 1709, exemplified in Yah Ms 20. Simon had already discussed these passages publicly, op. cit. (76), chapter 18.

¹⁰⁴ Iliffe, , op. cit. (19)Google Scholar, and Quinn, Arthur, ‘On reading Newton apocalyptically’, in Millenarianism and Messianism (ed. Popkin, Richard H.), Leiden, 1988, 176–92Google Scholar, both argue for Newton's self-censorship. That Newton was prepared to publish if challenged directly is clear from the preparation of his Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended for the press in the 1720s.

¹⁰⁵ (Allestree, Richard), The Art of Contentment, London, 1675, 197, 210Google Scholar. Newton's copy is listed in Harrison, , op. cit. (18), number 87.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Locke, John, A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St Paul, 2 vols. (ed. Wainwright, A. W.), Oxford, 1987, i, Preface, 103Google Scholar. Newton looked over Locke's manuscripts for this work, approvingly, in 1703, see Correspondence, op. cit. (25), iv, 406, Newton to Locke.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Hall, and Hall, (eds.), op. cit. (58), 369–73Google Scholar, ‘Of educating youth in the universities’, especially 373.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Lament, , op. cit. (44), 10Google Scholar; Hiscock, (ed.), op. cit. (56), 34.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Yah Ms 1.1, fol. 2r–3r. On man's duty to worship God, see also Yah Ms 21, fol. 2r: ‘To celebrate God for his eternity, immensity, omnisciency, and omnipotency is indeed very pious and the duty of every creature.’

¹¹⁰ Manuel, , op. cit. (5), 21Google Scholar, quoting Yah Ms 15.5, fol. 96r–98r. Cf. Newton, , Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (tr. Motte, A., revised Cajori, F.), Berkeley, 1964, 544–7Google Scholar. The term Παντοκρ⋯τωρ, found in the General Scholium, occurs nine times in Revelation, more than anywhere else in the New Testament.

¹¹¹ See Dobbs, B. J. T., ‘Newton's Commentary on the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus’Google Scholar, in Merkel, and Debus, (eds.), op. cit. (97), 182–91Google Scholar, and Figala, Karin, ‘“Die exakte Alchemic von Isaac Newton”: Seine “gesetzmässige” Interpretation der Alchemic – dargestellt am Beispiel einiger ihn beeinflussender Autoren’, Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Basel (1984), 94, 157–227.Google Scholar

¹¹² KMS 33, fol. 5r–5v, quoting Wisdom of Solomon, xi 20. On the place of calculation in the structure of Newton's chronology, see Knoespel, , ‘Newton in the school of time’, op. cit. (80), especially 38.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Yah Ms 14, fol. 173r–173v.

¹¹⁴ Rogers, John, ‘Milton and the mysterious terms of history’, Journal of English Literary History (1990), 57, 281–305CrossRefGoogle Scholar, has argued that Milton's theology, which like Newton's was Arian and voluntarist, leads to a poetic union of themes in the natural world with those of history in Paradise Lost, books xi and xii. Cf. Markley, Robert, ‘Isaac Newton's theological writings: problems and prospects’, Restoration (1989), 13, 35–48, especially 42–3.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ See Bennett, G. V., ‘Patristic tradition in Anglican thought, 1660–1900’, in Oecumenica: Jahrbuch für ökumenische Forschung 1971/2, Gütersloh, 1972, 63–85Google Scholar. The quotation is from Daillé, Jean, A Treatise Concerning the Right Use of the Fathers, London, 1675, book IIGoogle Scholar (Harrison, , op. cit. (18), number 482).Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Grey, Zachary, An Examination of the Fourteenth Chapter of Sir Isaac Newton's Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, London, 1736Google Scholar, is confused by Newton's synchronisms, see especially 149.

¹¹⁷ Young, Arthur, An Historical Dissertation on Idolatrous Corruptions in Religion, 2 vols., London, 1734, ii, 269Google Scholar. Young attacks Newton's comparative method, and argues for an even more extreme literalism.

¹¹⁸ Yah Ms 15.7, fol. 186r. Force, , op. cit. (22)Google Scholar, discusses the extent of Newton's association with ‘latitudinarian’ theology, but fails to notice this reference to the term, the only one in his manuscripts.

¹¹⁹ Stukeley, , op. cit. (7), 70Google Scholar. Of course, even Stukeley misunderstood Newton's principles, believing him to be an Anglican, which may contain a moral for us all.