Abstract
One of the basic tensions with which the proponents of the Scientific Revolution had continually to contend was to find some accord between the mechanical philosophy — which was found to provide every-increasing explanatory utility — and the concept of Providence, which underlay the religious foundations of their society. If, as the mechanical philosophy appeared at times to suggest, all was determined by particles in motion it was difficult to find a place for a guiding Providence impressing his will on Creation; or, at best, the Deity was consigned to a marginal role as a remote initiator who thereafter took little interest in terrestrial affairs. But in a society in which religion was inseparably intertwined with the political and social order it was essential to find some sort of a modus vivendi between the mechanical philosophy, which tended towards a form of determinism, and a conception of the role of Providence which still allowed for God’s involvement in directing human affairs. That the scientific developments to which we give the name the Scientific Revolution continued to grow and prosper — despite such setbacks as Galileo’s condemnation — is an indication that early modern European society was persuaded that such a reconciliation was possible.
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Notes
J. E. Force and R. H. Popkin (eds), Essays on the Context, Nature and Influence of Sir Isaac Newton’s Theology, Dordrecht (1990), which includes a number of valuable articles relevant to this essay, appeared too late to be used in its preparation. For some comments see my review of this work in Physis (forthcoming).
Funkenstein, A. Theology and the Scientific Imagination, Princeton (1986).
For a useful review of the literature on this subject see Preston, J., ‘Was There an Historical Revolution’, Journal of the History of Ideas 38, 353–64 (1977).
Smith Fussner, F., The Historical Revolution: English Historical Writing and Thought 1580–1640, London (1962), especially pp. 25
Smith Fussner, F., The Historical Revolution: English Historical Writing and Thought 1580–1640, London (1962), 297
Smith Fussner, F., The Historical Revolution: English Historical Writing and Thought 1580–1640, London (1962), 306–8
Sypher, G. W., ‘Similarities between the Scientific and the Historical Revolutions at the End of The Renaissance’, Journal of the History of Ideas 26, 353–68 (1965).
Manuel, F., Isaac Newton Historian, Cambridge, Mass. (1963), p. 29
McGuire, J. E. and Rattansi, P. M., ‘Newton and the “Pipes of Pan”’ Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 21 (1966), pp. 128–9.
An early eighteenth-century sermon entitled ‘The Wisdom of the Ancients Borrowed from Divine Revelation or, Christianity Vindicated against Infidelity’ by the Anglican divine, Daniel Waterland, provides a useful survey of this form of historical interpretation complete with detailed references on this point in the works of Church Fathers such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen and Augustine. Van Mildert, W. (ed.), The Works of the Reverend Daniel Waterland, D. D. 2nd ed. 6 Vols, Oxford (1843), V, pp. 4–13.
McGuire, J. E., ‘Neoplatonism and Active Principles: Newton and the Corpus Hermeticum’, in R. S. Westman and J. E. McGuire, Hermeticism and the Scientific Revolution, Berkeley (1977), p. 128.
Gale, T., The Court of the Gentiles: or a Discourse Touching the Original of Human Literature, both Philologie and Philosophie, from the Scriptures and Jewish Church 2nd ed., Oxford (1672–82), Part I, p. [i], heading to Ch. X; Part II, pp. 39, 44.
Gale, T., The Court of the Gentiles: or a Discourse Touching the Original of Human Literature, both Philologie and Philosophie, from the Scriptures and Jewish Church 2nd ed., Oxford (1672–82), Part I, p. [i], heading to Ch. X; Part II, pp. 44.
Wallis, J., Three Sermons Concerning the Sacred Trinity, London (1691), p. 99.
Spencer, J., De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus et Earum Rationibus, Libri Quatuor 2nd ed., Cambridge (1727), II, pp. 640–1.
Translated in Woodward, J., ‘Of the Wisdom of the Antient Egyptians; a Discourse concerning their Arts, their Sciences, and their Learning: their Laws, their Government, and their Religion. With occasional Reflections upon the State of Learning, among the Jews; and some other Nations’ Archaeologia 4, p. 268 (1777).
Spencer’s sermon attracted considerable attention to judge from the comments of that connoisseur of sermons, Samuel Pepys, who, on 1 June 1664, recorded reading ‘Mr. Spenser’s Book of Prodigys’ and finding it ‘most ingeniously writ, both for matter & style’. Pepys later notes that on 25 May 1666 he was out walking with a friend and ‘discoursing & admiring of the learning of Dr. Spenser’. Latham, R. and Matthews, W. (eds), The Diary of Samuel Pepys 10 Vols, London (1970–83), V, p. 165 and VII, p. 133. Spencer’s sermon was republished in a second and considerably enlarged edition in 1665. In the same year he also published A Discourse Concerning Vulgar Prophecies: Wherein the Vanity of Receiving Them as the Certain Indications of any Future Events is Discoursed; And Some Characters of Distinction Between True and Pretending Prophets are Laid Down which, as the name suggests, was again directed at popular enthusiasm and its threat to political and religious order.
Spencer’s sermon attracted considerable attention to judge from the comments of that connoisseur of sermons, Samuel Pepys, who, on 1 June 1664, recorded reading ‘Mr. Spenser’s Book of Prodigys’ and finding it ‘most ingeniously writ, both for matter & style’. Pepys later notes that on 25 May 1666 he was out walking with a friend and ‘discoursing & admiring of the learning of Dr. Spenser’. Latham, R. and Matthews, W. (eds), The Diary of Samuel Pepys 10 Vols, London (1970–83), VII, p. 133. Spencer’s sermon was republished in a second and considerably enlarged edition in 1665. In the same year he also published A Discourse Concerning Vulgar Prophecies: Wherein the Vanity of Receiving Them as the Certain Indications of any Future Events is Discoursed; And Some Characters of Distinction Between True and Pretending Prophets are Laid Down which, as the name suggests, was again directed at popular enthusiasm and its threat to political and religious order.
Spencer, J., A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by Them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends Asserted and Vindicated, Cambridge (1663), pp. [vi].
Spencer, J., A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by Them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends Asserted and Vindicated, Cambridge (1663), pp. [iii].
Spencer, J., A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by Them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends Asserted and Vindicated, Cambridge (1663), pp. [i].
Spencer, J., A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by Them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends Asserted and Vindicated, Cambridge (1663), pp. 14–6.
Spencer, J., A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by Them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends Asserted and Vindicated, Cambridge (1663), p. 43.
Spencer, J., A Discourse Concerning Prodigies: Wherein the Vanity of Presages by Them is Reprehended, and their True and Proper Ends Asserted and Vindicated, 2nd. ed., London (1665), p. 136.
Aegyptica… sive de Aegyptiacorum Sacrorum cum Hebraicis Collatione Libri Tres…, Amsterdam (1683). Cited in translation in Warburton, W. The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated 2 Vols, London (1837), II, p. 167.
Edwards, J. Cometomantia, London (1684), pp. 94.
Edwards, J. Cometomantia, London (1684), pp. 98.
Edwards, J. Cometomantia, London (1684), pp. 28.
In 1682, Bayle published (in French) his Letter to M. L. A. D. C., Doctor of the Sorbonne. Wherein it is Proved in the Light of Various Arguments Derived from Philosophy and Theology that Comets Are in No Sense Portents of Disaster…. A sequel followed in 1683 with further supplements in 1694 and 1705. On the significance of Boyle’s works see Hazard, P. The European Mind 1680–1715, (Cleveland, Ohio (1963), pp. 155–161.
Edwards, J. Cometomantia, p. 131. Among the arguments which Edwards attacks is one developed by Spencer (though Edwards, understandably, does not explicitly cite his distinguished, senior Cambridge colleague on the point) — namely, Spencer’s contention that comets could not be intended as a divine warning to a particular nation since comets were visible to many different countries simultaneously, Edwards, J. Cometomantia, p. 158 and Spencer, Prodigies (1663), p. 17.
This work was published in two parts. The Latin first part appeared in 1681 (and was translated into English in 1684) and the Latin second part was published in 1689 and translated in 1690. Jacob, M. C. and Lockwood, W. A., ‘Political Millenarianism and Burnet’s Sacred Theory’, Science Studies 2, p. 265 (1972).
Burnet, T. The Theory of the Earth 2nd ed., London (1691), p. 6.
Burnet, T. The Theory of the Earth 2nd ed., London (1691), pp. 289,
Burnet, T. The Theory of the Earth 2nd ed., London (1691) pp. 314–5.
Edwards, J. A Demonstration of the Existence and Providence of God… (1696), p. 257.
Cited in Levine, J. M. Dr. Woodward’s Shield: History, Science and Satire in Augustan England, Berkeley (1977), p. 265.
Woodward, J. An Essay Toward a Natural History of the Earth, London (1695), p. 165.
Cited in Porter, R. S. The Making of Geology. Earth Science in Britain 1660–1815, Cambridge (1977), p. 76.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 45.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 56.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 241.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 244.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 246.
For an important discussion of Burnet’s writings see Rossi, P. The Dark Abyss of Time. The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, Chicago (1984), pp. 33–41.
For an important discussion of Burnet’s writings see Rossi, P. The Dark Abyss of Time. The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, Chicago (1984), pp. 66–74.
For an important discussion of Burnet’s writings see Rossi, P. The Dark Abyss of Time. The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, Chicago (1984), pp. 89–94.
Burnet, T. An Answer to the Late Exceptions Made by Mr. Erasmus Warren Against the Theory of the Earth, London (1690), p. 84.
The Seventh and Eighth Chapters of Dr. Burnet’s Archiologiae [sic] Philosophicae, together with his Appendix to the Same… Rendered into English, by Mr. H. B. [Henry Brown] in Blount, C. The Miscellaneous Works, London (1695), pp. 29.
The Seventh and Eighth Chapters of Dr. Burnet’s Archiologiae [sic] Philosophicae, together with his Appendix to the Same… Rendered into English, by Mr. H. B. [Henry Brown] in Blount, C. The Miscellaneous Works, London (1695), pp. 32–3.
The Seventh and Eighth Chapters of Dr. Burnet’s Archiologiae [sic] Philosophicae, together with his Appendix to the Same… Rendered into English, by Mr. H. B. [Henry Brown] in Blount, C. The Miscellaneous Works, London (1695), pp. 39.
Cited in Redwood, J. Reason, Ridicule and Religion: The Age of Enlightenment in England, 1660–1750, London (1976), p. 119.
Cited in Kubrin, D. Providence and the Mechanical Philosophy: The Creation and Dissolution of the World in Newtonian Thought, PhD thesis, Cornell University (1968), pp. 145–6.
The extent of clerical hostility to Burnet’s work is indicated by the remark in 1693 of Humphrey Prideaux, canon of Norwich and author of an historical account of the period between the Old and the New Testaments, that the coffee-house atheists made much use of the Archaeologiae Philosophicae ‘to confute ye account ye Scriptures give us of ye creation of ye world’. Thompson, E. M. (ed.), Letters of Humphrey Prideaux, Sometime Dean of Norwich to John Ellis…. Camden Society Publications, n.s. XV, London (1875), pp. 162–3.
Edleston, J. (ed.), Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Cotes…, London (1850), p. xliv.
Turnbull, H. W. et al. (eds), The Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton 7 Vols, Cambridge (1959–77), II, p. 331.
Harrison, J. The Library of Isaac Newton, Cambridge (1978), p. 112.
Westfall dates the beginnings of Newton’s most important theologico-historical work, the Theologiae Gentilis from the mid 1680s although he returned to it in the early 1690s (at much the same time as Burnet’s work appeared). Newton thereafter continued to revise the work until at least 1716. Westfall, R. S. ‘Isaac Newton’s Theologiae Gentilis Origines Philosophicae in W. W. Wagar, (ed.), The Secular Mind. Transformations of Faith in Modern Europe, New York (1982), pp. 15–34.
Westfall dates the beginnings of Newton’s most important theologico-historical work, the Theologiae Gentilis from the mid 1680s although he returned to it in the early 1690s (at much the same time as Burnet’s work appeared). Newton thereafter continued to revise the work until at least 1716. Westfall, R. S. ‘Isaac Newton’s Theologiae Gentilis Origines Philosophicae in W. W. Wagar, (ed.), The Secular Mind. Transformations of Faith in Modern Europe, New York (1982), pp. 15–34.
Westfall, R. S. Never at Rest. A Biography of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, (1983), p. 812.
Newton, I. Opera Quae Exstant Omnia ed. S. Horsley, 5 Vols, London (1785), V, pp. 140–1.
McLachlan, H. (ed.), Sir Isaac Newton: Theological Manuscripts, Liverpool (1950), p. 52.
Burnet, T. The Faith and Duties of Christians translated into English by Mr. Dennis, London [1728], p. 57.
Newton, I., The Opticks, Great Books, Chicago (1952), p. 542.
Kubrin, D. ‘Newton and the Cyclical Cosmos: Providence and the Mechanical Philosophy’, Journal of the History of Ideas 28, 325–46 (1967).
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 45.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 56.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 241.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 244.
Burnet, T. [Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive] Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus: Or, An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Philosophers of all Nations, Concerning the Original of the World Translated by Mr. Mead and Mr. Foxton, London (1736), pp. 246.
For an important discussion of Burnet’s writings see Rossi, P. The Dark Abyss of Time. The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, Chicago (1984), pp. 33–41.
For an important discussion of Burnet’s writings see Rossi, P. The Dark Abyss of Time. The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, Chicago (1984), pp. 66–74.
For an important discussion of Burnet’s writings see Rossi, P. The Dark Abyss of Time. The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, Chicago (1984), pp. 89–94.
Whiston, W. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston… 2 Vols., London (1749), I, p. 38. Acts 3:20–1 reads: ‘And he shall send Jesus Christ… whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began’.
Schaffer, S. ‘Newton’s Comets and the Transformation of Astrology’, in P. Curry (ed.), Astrology, Science, and Society: Historical Essays, Woodbridge (1987), pp. 219–43.
Yehuda MS 41, fol. 10. Newton’s Cambridge contemporary, Ralph Cudworth, argued that not only had Ham settled in Egypt but that the name of the Egyptian supreme god, Ammon (or Hammon), was derived from Ham. Cudworth, R. True Intellectual System 3 Vols, London (1845), I, p. 572, (first edition, 1678).
On this point see Allen, D. C. ‘Some Theories of the Growth and Origin of Language in Milton’s Age’, Philogical Quarterly 28, 5–16 (1949)
Kottman, ‘Fray Luis de Léon and the Universality of Hebrew: An Aspect of Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Language Theory’, Journal of the History of Philosophy 13, 297–310 (1975).
Newton, I. The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and his System of the World translated by Andrew Motte. 2 Vols, Berkeley (1974), II, p. 549.
Thus in his unpublished ‘classical scholia’ to the Principia Newton traces the atomic philosophy only as far back as Moschus the Phoenician from whom it passed to the Egyptians and thence to the Greeks. Casini, P. ‘Newton: The Classical Scholia’, History of Science 22, p. 36 (1984).
In his extensive notes ‘Out of Cudworth’ (now in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles) Newton copied much of Cudworth’s material on Moschus but ignores his identification of Moschus with Moses. On this identification see Sailor, D. B., ‘Moses and Atomism’, Journal of the History of Ideas 25, 3–16 (1964).
Cudworth, True Intellectual System, III, p. 185. In one respect Newton went even further than Cudworth in praising the Egyptians for in the Clark MS he wrote of the Egyptians’ natural philosophy (which he interpreted as embodying a mystical form of atomism) that ‘Dr. Cudworth therefore is much mistaken when he represents this Philosophy as Atheistical’ (lines 31–2). A recent study of this manuscript concludes that: Newton was very much convinced of the priority and thus the importance of Egyptian learning in the ancient world, and this is reflected in almost an entire page of the references and quotes which he took from Cudworth. Sailor, D. B. ‘Newton’s Debt to Cudworth’, Journal of the History of Ideas 49, p. 549 (1988).
Manuel, Newton Historian, p. 89 and Wilcox, D. J. The Measure of Times Past. Pre-Newtonian Chronologies and the Rhetoric of Relative Time, Chicago (1987), p. 209.
Bernal, M. Black Athena. The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. Vol. 1 The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785–1985 (London, 1987), p. 191. As Bernal points out, his overall thesis — that the Greeks derived much of their learning from the Egyptians — was a commonplace of seventeenth-century scholarship.
Brumfitt, J. H. (ed.), La Philosophie de L’Histoire, Vol. 59 The Complete Works of Voltaire (ed.) T. Besterman et al., Geneva (1969), pp. 16–7.
Brumfitt, J. H. (ed.), La Philosophie de L’Histoire, Vol. 59 The Complete Works of Voltaire (ed.) T. Besterman et al., Geneva (1969), pp. 32–5.
Bossuet, J. An Universal History from the Creation of the World to the Empire of Charlemange translated James Elphinson, London (1778), p. 154. Such a providen-talist view of history also coloured Bossuet’s brief survey of modern history in which he focusses on the history of the Christian Church as ‘a perpetual miracle, and a shining testimony of the immutability of the counsels of God’ (p. 370).
Voltaire, The Philosophy of History, London (1822), pp. 155. On the Jews’ debt to Egypt see also Chapter XXII.
Voltaire, The Philosophy of History, London (1822), pp. 69. On the Jews’ debt to Egypt see also Chapter XXII.
Voltaire, The Philosophy of History, London (1822), pp. 147–9. On the Jews’ debt to Egypt see also Chapter XXII.
Stillingfleet, E. Origines Sacrae: Or a Rational Account of the Grounds of Natural and Revealed Religion Seventh edition, Cambridge (1702), Preface, (first edition, 1662).
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Toland, J. Letters to Serena…, London (1704), pp. 26.
Toland, J. Letters to Serena…, London (1704), pp. 39.
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Tindal, M. Christianity as Old as Creation, London (1730), pp. 282.
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On Middleton’s religious beliefs see Gascoigne, J. Cambridge in the Age of the Enlightenment. Science, Religion and Politics from the Restoration to the French Revolution, Cambridge (1989), pp. 138–41.
Middleton, C. A Letter to Dr. Waterland In Middleton, C. The Miscellaneous Works 4 Vols, London (1752), II, pp. 153.
Middleton, C. A Letter to Dr. Waterland In Middleton, C. The Miscellaneous Works 4 Vols, London (1752), II, pp. 153.
Middleton, C. A Defence of the Letter to Dr. Waterland In Middleton, C. The Miscellaneous Works 4 Vols, London (1752), II, p. 216. Among those whom Middleton thought ought to take more account of such findings was Newton — thus he took him to task for his contention that the Egyptians ‘had not even the use of Letters till about Solomon’s Reign’ (pp. 231–2).
Iversen, E. The Myth of Egypt and its Hieroglyphs, Copenhagen (1961), p. 103.
Warburton, W. The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated 2 Vols, London (1837), II, pp. 150.
Warburton, W. The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated 2 Vols, London (1837), II, pp. 183.
Warburton, W. The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated 2 Vols, London (1837), II, pp. 138–9.
Warburton, W. The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated 2 Vols, London (1837), II, pp. 119.
Warburton, W. The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated 2 Vols, London (1837), II, pp. 91.
Warburton, W. The Works ed. Bishop Hurd, 7 Vols, London (1788), V, pp. 294.
Warburton, W. The Works ed. Bishop Hurd, 7 Vols, London (1788), V, pp. 288.
Warburton, W. The Works ed. Bishop Hurd, 7 Vols, London (1788), V, pp. 290.
Warburton, W. The Works ed. Bishop Hurd, 7 Vols, London (1788), IV, p. 362,
Evans, A. W. Warburton and the Warburtonians, Oxford (1932), p. 22.
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Torrey, N. L. Voltaire and the English Deists, New Haven (1930), pp. 128 and Brumfitt, La Philosophie de L’Histoire, pp. 20, 61, 315–6.
Torrey, N. L. Voltaire and the English Deists, New Haven (1930), pp. 170–4 and Brumfitt, La Philosophie de L’Histoire, pp. 20, 61, 315–6.
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Gascoigne, J. (1991). ‘The Wisdom of the Egyptians’ and the Secularisation of History in the Age of Newton. In: Gaukroger, S. (eds) The Uses of Antiquity. Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3412-5_8
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