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Untitled Article
man our nation ever bred , Sir Isaac Newton , my predecessor at Cambridge , who , with me , looked for . those happy times , as to incline to suppose the Eusebians and Baptists , notwithstanding their present low estate ,, to be the two famous witnesses in the Revelation against Popery and Antichristianism . " Whiston asserts the same , at least once more in his works . Here , then , we have the testimony of two most credible and competent witnesses
to the Antitrinitarianism of Newton , and one of these declares the fact at three different times , and all in print , Whiston himself was intimate with Newton . He was also intimate with Dr . Clarke , who was intimate with Newton . Hopton Haynes also was in constant and friendly intercourse with the great philosopher , and both declare on their own knowledge that Newton was not a Trinitarian . Can evidence be stronger ? Who can impeach the honesty of either of the witnesses ? Honesty has become a part
of Whiston ' s name , and we speak of honest Will . Whiston as familiarly as of Alexander the Great or Scipio Afrieanus . And against the character of Haynes , not a breath of suspicion has been breathed . —We have not yet done . The anonymous author of a pamphlet of some repute , who wrote about twenty years after Sir Isaac's death , affords evidence of the same fact , and would lead us to conclude that in his day the Antitrinitarianism of Newton was a matter of public notoriety .
The evidence now adduced might , we do not doubt , be multiplied by the publication of some of the papers that Horsley proscribed . And we should especially like to explore the contents of the pieces with the following titles : several on " Church History , " " Questions concerning Athanasius , " " The Philosophical Progress of the Great Mystery , " *« An Account of the Corruptions of Scripture . " By the recent publication of Milton on Christian Doctrine , and Lord King ' s Life of Locke , the question of their sentiments
on the Trinity is for ever decided . Such , we doubt not , would be the effect if the Earl of Portsmouth would imitate Lord King , and give the world an opportunity of seeing some of those things which , with no little presumption , Horsley declared unfit for publication . Fully are we convinced that Newton could write nothing unfit for publication in a literary point of view , least of all , with the exception of mathematics , least of all , on biblical and ecclesiastical matters . " Unfit" many things might appear to Horsley , because unsuited to promote his theological views .
In intimating that the publication of the suppressed papers would for ever decide the question of Newton ' s religious sentiments , we did not design to express the slightest doubt of the validity of the evidence we already possess . That evidence satisfies our mind . In the words of Mr . Lindsey , we express our conviction , ' that he was a Unitarian Christian there can be no doubt . " But a muliiplication of witnesses , and perhaps the Philosopher ' s own declaration , would serve to preclude any more objections such as those to which we must now give a passing notice . They are taken from an article entitled ,
*« Was Sir Isaac Newton a Unitarian ? " published in an American work , distinguished for its bitterness against Unitarians , designated , " The Spirit of the Pilgrims , " and republished in an English periodical scarcely less distinguished in the same way—a work known in malam partem by our readers" The Congregational Magazine "—number for December , 1830 . The correctness of the assertion , that in the treatise on Two notable Corruptions of Scripture , " no evidence is furnished that he ( Sir Isaac ) was not sincerely a Trinitarian , " our readers will , from what has been said , be able to appreciate . There is , the pbjector alleges , a contradiction between the statements of
Untitled Article
Sir Isaac Newton an Antitrinitarlan . 157
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1831, page 157, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2595/page/13/
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