'Of the Religion of the Iews & Christians' Isaac Newton c. 1,324 words Newton Project Brighton 2012 Newton Project, Sussex University

This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

 c. 1710s-1720s, in English, c. 1,341 words, 2 pp. on 1 f. 2 pp. on 1 f.

in English

 Part 1 of a passage on Church history [SL255.2]SL255 SL255.1, Location Unknown Location Unknown SL255.1 SL255.1

The whole of SL255 was bought at the 1936 Sotheby sale by Emmanuel Fabius for £13.10s. This portion was offered as section 1 of Lot 511 at the 2004 New York Sotheby sale but not sold.

 c. 1710s-1720s England English Isaac Newton ReligionCorruptions Tagged transcription begun by Shannon Higgins Transcription completed by Shannon Higgins Checked by John Young Proofed by Robert Iliffe Catalogue information compiled by John Young Final-checked by John Young
Chap. Of the religion of the Iews & Christians.

All religion may be distinguished into three sorts, natural, humane, civil, divine, natural which is dictated by the light of nature that is by right reason, civil wchwhich is invented & dictated only by man the will of man, divine wchwhich is dictated by the will of God. All natural religion is comprehended in these two commandments præcepts: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart & with all thy soul & with all thy mind. This is the first & great commandmtcommandment, & the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self. Th On these two commandments hang all the law & the Prophets. They are dictated by the light of nature & by the truth of them you may know is manifested the truth of the law & the Prophets wchwhich are in all things consonant to them & founded upon them & whose grand design is everyw to inculcate them.

By The wisdom & power wchwhich appears in the frame of the world & all of its various parts is sufficient to convince men that they were framed by a wise being & powerful being, And [If any man will pretend ytthat they were from eternity he must allow that there was wisdom from all Eternity. But if he will consider that there were in Europe no guns nor printing nor sailing by the magnet till of late, no letters long ships nor ships with sails before the days of Danaus & Dædalus, no horsmanship before the centaurs no iron before the days of Minos, no metals nor letters & by consequence no smiths nor Carpenters nor edged tools nor arts depending upon them before the days of Minos, no corn before the days of Erectheus no metalls nor letters before the days of Cadmus, no cities nor towns before the days of Lelex, Pelasgus, Inachus & Cecrops: if he will consider that the shells bones & vegetable substances found in yethe bowells of the earth argue such changes in the body of this globe as are above yethe power of nature, if he will consider & that the water is constantly changing into earthy substances, & thereby the globe of yethe earth increases perpetually & the sea decreases unless it be supplied from above: if he will consider that yethe orbs of yethe Planets & Comets are unstable, that & that new stars appear & that old ones disappeare: he will see reason to beleive that the species several species of living creatures in this earth were not eternal, & that the globe of this earth is & sea was not eternal] & in gratitude we are to give honour & glo thanks & honour & glory to our benefactor & to him alone for orour being & for the blessings of meat & drink & raiment wchwhich we receive from him. And since he is the first cause & by consequence of necessity everlasting & every where immoveably we are to conceive him always invisibly present to all our actions us at all times & in all places & that he knows wh all things we say or do or think, without ever appearing to us or moving from place to place to us He is the only being without ever being seen by us & to distinguish him from all visible beings without by invoking him without his appearing, & speaking to them only when they appear.

Religion is either natural & of eternal obligation or positive & mutable. The natural is comprehended in these two precepts Thou shalt love the Lord thy God wthwith all thy might heart & with all thy soul & with all thy mind. This is yethe first & great commandmtcommandment & yethe second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self. On these two commandments hang all the law & the prophets. The positive [is [either divine or humane revealed & true or invented by man & false & The revealed] consisted very much chiefly in ceremonies significant of things past present & or to come & in beleiving the things, [The invented in forms & ceremonies a consists in honouring dead men consists in forms & ceremonies invented for honouring dead me is for honouring dead men & carrying on yethe interest of yethe living] the chief of wchwhich was the coming of the Messiah. This was adumbrated in the Paschal lamb.prophet predicted by Moses & præfigured by the paschal Lamb & the Christ or Messiah predicted by Daniel.

Chap. Of the Christian religion & it's corruption in morality.

The Christian religion was yethe same wthwith yethe Iewish till the Calling of Cornelius & the Gentiles wthwith this only addition ytthat Iesus who was crucified under Pontius Pilate was the Prophet predicted by Moses & the Christ or Messiah predicted by Daniel, & that he rose from yethe dead & ascended into heaven & is to reign return & judge & rule the quick & dead, & that we are to testify our becoming his disciples by commemorate his death baptism & to give him honour & glory on acctaccount of his death, & & to commemorate it & often & direct our prayers to God in his name, & to commemorate hope for & to expect remission of sins by his merits upon true repentance of orour sins] & to com] & upon repentance to hope for remission of sins by his death merits. & to testify & proclaim our becoming his disciples by baptism. But when yethe Iewish nation received not this doctrine, God rejected them, wthwith & called yethe Gentiles without obliging them to observe the law of Moses, & soon after destroyed caused the Iewish worship to cease & the Iews to be dispersed into all nations

The street & the wall of Ierusalem was finished in the 28th year – – – – – – cause to return & to build Ierusalem.

Before this desolation the Iews continued a people – – – – became Gods people & increased under various & lasting persecutions the last of which was till by the victories of Con & at length suffered a was that vehement & lasting persecution under the Emperors Dioclesian Galerius & Maximinus for ten years together wchwhich ended in the conversion of the Greek Empire Roman Empire to Christianity by the victories of Constantine the great first over Maxentius A.C. 4312 then over Maximinus A.C. 314 & over & lastly over Licinius A.C 4318.

Religion is partly moral partly ceremonial & consists principally in these two commandments. The moral part of religion is comprehended in these two precepts, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart & with all thy soul & with all thy mind. This is the first & great commandment & the next is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self. Vpon these two hang all the law & yethe prophets. This is that part of religion wchwhich ever was & ever will be binding to all nations being of an eternal immutable nature. But the A And it was practised & wchwhich was observed by the first Christians till while they continued in affliction under the Roman heathen Emperors that is for about 180 years, their affliction purging them from hypocrites & vitious livers: But when the Empire became Christian, the Christian religion by prosperity lost its But after the Empire by the victories of Constantine became Christian, the Christians by the prosperity of their affairs, & by the flowing in &c – – –

✝ & the Christian religion so far as it consists in consists in the mutual love between Christ

‡ & the mutual love between Christ & his disciples is was comprehended under yethe second precept. This the these