Bentley-newton on Divine Providence

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Bentley, Newton, and Providence: The Boyle Lectures Once MoreAuthor(s): Henry Guerlac and M. C. JacobReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1969), pp. 307-318Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press

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BENTLEY, NEWTON, AND PROVIDENCE

(THE BOYLE LECTURES ONCE MORE)

BY HENRY GUERLAC AND M. C. JACOB

Richard Bentley, as readers of this Journal will remember, was theeminent English classicist (and later, the controversial Master of

Trinity College, Cambridge) who, for some obscure reason, emergedin his youth as the first expositor of the religious significance of New-

ton's natural philosophy. Indeed in his Boyle Lectures of 1692, Bentley

may be said to have invented the "Newtonian Philosophy," a litanyof theological affirmations and metaphysical musing that Newton, forthe most part, seems to have approved, and which people now read

when they ought to read Newton. Perry Miller described Bentley'ssermons as "the first popular attempt to lay open the 'sublime dis-

coveries' of Newton,"' but this is only a half-truth. The sermons-likethose of some of Bentley's successors in the lectureship-were both less

than and more than that. To popularize Newton's scientific accom-

plishments Bentley was surely ill-equipped; he was no Voltaire, stillless a Pemberton or a Desaguliers, and he did not attempt what theylater undertook to do. What Bentley perceived was that, skillfully in-

terpreted and elaborated, those central ideas of Newton's physical

thought he was able to grasp could contribute admirably to justifyingcertain widely held, and politically significant, doctrines of the LowChurch spokesmen of Williamite England.

The moderate or Low Church faction of the Church of England, to

which Bentley, as we shall see, was closely linked, rose to ecclesiasticaldominance in the years after the Revolution of 1688.2 With the ac-cession of William, the Church of England fell into disarray, its au-

thority markedly diminished and imperilled. There was a clear danger-or so it seemed to John Evelyn-that England was to be ruled by"crafty ill-principled men,"3 for William appeared at first to favor

the extreme Whigs in politics and in religion the dissenters. Alienated,of course, from the new monarch were the fervent Jacobites, but also

the non-juringclergy who, rigidly adhering to the divine right of kings,remained faithful to their oath to James.

Into this crisis moved Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham,

'Perry Miller, "Bentley and Newton," Isaac Newton's Papers & Letters on Natural

Philosophy, ed. I. BernardCohen (Cambridge, Mass., 1958),273.

2G. V. Bennett, "King William and the Episcopate," Essays in Modern English

ChurchHistory, ed. G. V. Bennett& J. D. Walsh (New York, 1966), 104-31.

3TheDiary of John Evelyn, ed. E. S. De Beer (6 vols., Oxford, 1955), IV, 635.

307







308 HENRY GUERLAC AND M.C. JACOB

who in March 1689 was appointed Secretary of State by William. A

dutiful but moderate Anglican, Nottingham had close relations with

the liberal London divines, the chief of whom-John Tillotson, Edward

Stillingfleet, Simon Patrick, and Thomas Tenison-owed their livingsto the patronage of Daniel's father, the first Earl. To be sure, none of

these men-unlike Gilbert Burnet, who shared their latitudinarian

views-had actively promoted the cause of the Prince of Orange; in-

deed Stillingfleet, like William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, had at

first counselled Nottingham to observe passive obedience to James II.

Yet all these men came around to William, took the oath of loyalty,and were suitably rewarded. Burnet, who had been William's chap-lain, was made Bishop of Salisbury. Tillotson was appointed William's

Clerk of the Closet, and with Nottingham became the King's chief

advisor on ecclesiastical matters.4 Their influence was soon felt: Still-

ingfleet was made Bishop of Worcester, Patrick was chosen for

Chichester, and Tillotson himself became Dean of St. Paul's. Not long

after, in 1691, the dominance of the moderates was assured when

Tillotson was elevated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury.To

justifythe Revolution and

allegianceto a new

King,to buttress

the Church of England and assure once again the role of religion as the

"Cement of Society,"5 the moderate clergy appealed in sermon after

sermon to the mysterious workings of God's Providence.6 This, to be

sure, was no innovation in political casuistry: churchmen had in-

voked it to explain the Armada's defeat, the exposure of the Gun-

powder Plot, and the miracle of the Restoration. They could now pointto the miraculous east wind that blew the Dutch fleet to England,while

pinning the British navy in its harbors. But, as Gerald Straka hasargued, "the Revolution raised the prestige of the idea far above any-

thing it had enjoyed before."7

Providence was, of course, the great law of human affairs, of hu-

man history, as men as different as Bishop Bossuet and the first

historians of New England were asserting. But to the moderate Angli-cans it was also the great law of nature, the "preserving Providence"

that established and conserved the laws of nature; behind the second

causes operating in the physical world were the hand and will of God,guiding nature as well as the world of human affairs. Here was an

answer to those "mechanical philosophers"-like Hobbes and the

Neo-Epicureans-who would have the laws of nature result from the

4Bennett, oc. cit., 105.

5Sermons Preached at Boyle's Lecture by Richard Bentley, D. D. (London,

1838),22.

6Gerald M. Straka, Anglican Reaction to the Revolution of 1688 (Madison,

Wisconsin,1962),

66. Straka'schapter

"The DivineRight

of Providence" waspar-ticularly useful in the preparation of this paper. 7Ibid.







BENTLEY, NEWTON, AND PROVIDENCE 309

chance concatenation of moving particles of matter.8 Nor was this

answer novel, for it had been an important doctrine in the natural

philosophy of the Cambridge Platonists, like Henry More and Ralph

Cudworth.9 Besides the intensity of the appeal to Providence, therewas also an insistence upon its related operation in both the world

natural and the world political. Therefore to preserve and reform

society, to make the religious motive once again central to all human

endeavor, a new philosophy of providentialism was required, one that

drew lessons not only from human history but also from the latest

scientific discoveries. To articulate and expound this doctrine was to be,for many years, a familiar theme of the lectureship endowed by the

Honorable Robert Boyle and launched in 1692, under the aegis of New-

ton, by young Richard Bentley.10Robert Boyle, a man of consummate and active piety, had ranked

for nearly a generation as by all odds the most admired scientific

virtuoso of England. His last will and testament was drawn up in the

summer of 1691 when his health was markedly failing. The main por-tion of the will was registered on 25 July 1691; and the first of several

codicils-the one that instituted the Boyle Lectures-was registeredthree days later.11In this codicil Boyle bequeathed the sum of ?50 perannum "for ever, or at least for a considerable number of years" as

the salary of some London divine whose chief duty would be to preach

eight sermons each year in various London churches "for provingthe Christian Religion, against notorious Infidels, viz. Atheists,

Theists, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans, not descending lower to any

Controversies, that are among Christians themselves."12 Except for

8Worth citing in this connection is an undated note of Newton on miracles; now in

the Library of Lehigh University: "For Miracles are so called not because they are

the works of God but because they happen seldom & for that reason create wonder. If

they should happen constantly according to certaine laws imprest upon the nature of

things, they would be no longer wonders or miracles, but might be considered in Philos-

ophy as a part of the Phenomena of Nature notwithstanding that the cause of their

causes might be unknown to us." We wish to thank Mr. James D. Mack, Librarian of

Lehigh University, for making available to us a xerographic copy of this note.

9More was convinced that "the phenomena of the world cannot be solved merely me-

chanically" (Boyle Works, ed. Birch, V, 552), an argument he had elaborated in hisAntidote to Atheism. For the similar views of Cudworth,and their influence on Newton,see Henry Guerlac, Newton et Epicure (Conference au Palais de la Decouverte, Paris,

1963).

'0Oneof us, Mrs. Jacob, has developed this subject at length in her Cornell doctoral

dissertation.

"The will was first published in Eustace Budgell: Memoirs of the Lives and Char-

acters of the Illustrious Family of the Boyles (London, 1737). It was reprinted in

Thomas Birch, Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle (5 vols., London, 1744), I,

100-108. Birch's biography, where this appears, was separately printed in the same

year. Here the will appearson 335-63. "'Birch,Life of Boyle, 353-54.







310 HENRY GUERLAC AND M. C. JACOB

this warning against sectarian controversy among Christians-and

this, by the way, precluded the common sport of baiting the Roman

Church13-Boyle gave no indication of what the specific character of

these sermons should be; obviously this was to be left to the lecturers

appointed by the trustees. Nor, at first glance, would the trustees he

named for this aspect of his bequest seem likely to have urged a

scientific flavor as appropriate for these sermons. All old and valued

friends of Boyle, they were John Evelyn, whose major claims to

scientific distinction were his Sylva and his contributions to the gardenliterature of England; Thomas Tenison, Archdeacon of London, soon

Bishop of Lincoln, and then Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir John

Rotherham, a lawyer best known for his role in the trial of Algernon

Sidney for treason; and finally Sir Henry Ashurst, a friend of Richard

Baxter and the Presbyterians, with whom Boyle had long been as-

sociated through a common interest in the Corporation for the Propa-

gation of the Gospel in New England. Of these men perhaps only

Evelyn, a Fellow of the Royal Society, could begin to grasp the in-

tricacies of Boyle's scientific accomplishments, although all were

aware of hisdeep religious

commitment to thestudy

of nature and

his interest in promoting the Christian faith throughout the world.

There is good reason to doubt that any of these trustees was re-

sponsible for the Newtonian theme that was to characterize the Boylelectures.

Boyle died on 30 December 1691. His funeral, a notable London

event, was held at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on January 7; at this oc-

casion Dr. Gilbert Burnet, the Bishop of Salisbury, preached on 2

Eccles. v. 26: "For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight,wisdom, and knowledge and joy."14On 13 February 1691/2 the Boyletrustees met, as Evelyn records in his diary,

to settle thatClause n Mr.Boyleswill,which he hadleft for CharitableUses,and Especialy or the Appointingand Electinga Ministerto preachone ser-mon the first Sonday in every moneth . . . expressly against Atheists, Deists,

Libertins,Jewes &c. without descendingto any other Controversywhat-

ever.... 15

At this meeting, Evelyn continues succinctly, "we made choice of one

Mr. Bently, a Chaplain to the Bishop of Worcester."

'3This did not dissuade the Boyle lecturers from introducing anti-Catholic in-

nuendosinto their sermons.

'4Birch, Life of Boyle, 285-86. See Gilbert Burnet, A Sermon Preached at the

Funeral of the Honourable Robert Boyle; at St. Martins in the Fields, 7 January1691-2 (London, 1692). Evelyn, who summarized the sermon in his Diary, dates

the funeral incorrectly as 6 January. See The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. De Beer, V,81-83.

15Diary f John Evelyn, ed. De Beer, V, 88.








Young Mr. Bentley's first sermon, delivered at St. Martin's on 7

March 1691/2 (and entitled "The Folly of Atheism"), dealt with the

role of religion in society. His second, at St. Mary-le-Bow, was an at-

tack on materialism, and was called "Matter and Motion cannot Think;

or a Confutation of Atheism from the Faculties of the Soul." Sermons

three through five he devoted to arguments from design drawn from

the structure of the human body. Those that concern us here-in which

the argument from divine contrivance was raised to the cosmic level-

were the last three, given on 3 October, 7 November and 5 December,

1692. All three bore the collective title: "A Confutation of Atheism

from theOrigin

and Frame of the World."16 The last two were ex-

clusively devoted to the ideas of Newton, or at least to ideas inferred

from his discoveries, and are the sermons most often cited. Sometime

in mid-December Bentley wrote to Newton asking for clarification on a

number of points before publishing these last sermons; Newton repliedon 10 December with the first of his four letters to Bentley. It beginswith the famous words:

When I wrote my treatise about our Systeme I had an eye upon such

Principles as might work wth considering men for the beliefe of a Deity &nothingcan rejoyce me more than to find it usefull for that purpose.7

This has been taken to be the earliest statement of Newton's physico-

theological leanings, or more specifically of his belief that his discov-

eries in celestial mechanics had profound religious significance.'s But

whether we should take Newton's words literally is doubtful, for the

16All but the last two sermons werepublished separately

in 1692,appearing

in two

editions in that year. The last two (the "Newtonian sermons") were published in 1693,

and all eight were published together in that year. See A. T. Bartholemew and J. W.

Clark, Richard Bentley, D. D., A Bibliography(Cambridge, 1908).

'7Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H. W. Turnbull, Vol. III (Cambridge,

1961), 233. Turnbull printed this and Newton's three other letters to Bentley from the

original manuscripts in the Trinity College Library, Cambridge. They were first pub-lished by Richard Cumberland, Bentley's grandson, in Four Letters from Sir Isaac

Newton to Doctor Bentley (London, 1756). Here the last two letters are printed in the

wrong order, and as such were reproduced in facsimile in Isaac Newton's Papers and

Letters, 280-312. Only Bentley's last letter to Newton about the sermons (18 Feb-ruary 1692/3) has survived. It appeared first in David Brewster's Memoirs ofSir Isaac Newton, II, 463-70. The original, now in the Trinity College Library,was used

by Turnbull n Correspondenceof Isaac Newton, III, 246-52.

'8An early concern with physico-theology is, however, displayed in the letters ex-

changed earlier between Thomas Burnet and Newton in 1680/81 (The Correspondence

of Isaac Newton, II, 319-34). A special aspect of Newton's later physico-theology, the

problem of the eternity of the world, is treated by David Kubrin, "Newton and the

Cyclical Cosmos: Providence and the Mechanical Philosophy," Journal of the History

of Ideas,23

(1967),325-46. This

"particular challenge,"Kubrin shows in

passing,confrontedthe providentialistdoctrines of Stillingfleet, Bentley, and Tillotson.








Principia-that is, the first edition of 1687; the second of 1713 is an-

other matter-gives scarcely any hint of such underlying presupposi-

tions; it is a matter-of-fact, technical work. Moreover the well-known

events by which Newton was pressed by his scientific friends into writ-

ing the book scarcely support the idea that he composed it to justify"a beliefe of a Deity," though this is not precisely what his sentence

says. But as we shall see later on, Newton had indeed expressed, nearlya year before this first letter to Bentley, the notion that his System of

the World might serve precisely this purpose.The Trustees most influential in the selection of Bentley (and in-

deed, with two exceptions, with the choice of his successors, at least

down to 1700) seem to have been John Evelyn and Thomas Tenison.

The correspondence of these men in the 1690's-like Evelyn's Diaryfor these years-discloses how seriously they took their responsi-bilities. It is clear, too, that the Earl of Nottingham and William

Wotton, Nottingham's chaplain, were keenly interested in the sub-

stance and the success of the Boyle lectures.19If we remember Nott-

ingham's role as the powerful lay supporter of the Low Church move-

ment after1688,

and recall thatBentley

was theyoung chaplain

of

another liberal churchman, Edward Stillingfleet, who had close ties to

Evelyn and Tenison, it is not hard to credit the statement of an anony-mous early biographer of Bentley that Stillingfleet urged upon the

trustees the choice of either Bentley or William Lloyd as the first Boylelecturer.20 Yet it is worth recalling that Evelyn, despite the offhand

way in which he referred in his Diary to Bentley's appointment, had

known of the young classicist for some time, for there is some evi-

dence ofa learned correspondence between them as far back as 1686.21At all events, it is clear that the Boyle Lectures were promoted-at

their inception and long after-by influential members of the Low

Church hierarchy, risen in power and authority after the Revolutionof 1688, and by their partisans among the laity.

Let us look more closely at the Richard Bentley of these early

years.22 Born in the West Riding of Yorkshire, educated in a dayschool, and later a grammar school, near his birthplace, Richard

'9BritishMuseum, MSS. Add. 28104, f. 19.20Anon., The Life of Dr. Richard Bentley, 1662-1742, n.d. A copy of this work,

one of an edition of twenty-fivecopies, is in the British Museum.

2"ChristChurch, Evelyn MSS 2, V. I, f. 155. We are indebted to the Trustees of

the Will of J. H. C. Evelynfor permissionto consult and cite this document.

22The chief source for information about Bentley is still James Henry Monk's

Life of Richard Bentley (second edition, revised and corrected, 2 vols., London, 1833),described by G. M. Trevelyan as "one of the best biographies in the language." (Trin-

ity College, An Historical Sketch, [Cambridge, 1946], 53.) Monk, as Trevelyan

points out,was Professor of Greek at

Cambridgeand a Tutor of

Trinity;he made

use of college records and the voluminouspapers of Bentley.








Bentley entered Cambridge as a subsizar of St. John's College in 1676.

About his Cambridge studies, even the industrious Dr. Monk could

discover little, and was reduced to suggesting that, of course, Bentley

must have laid the foundation of his superb classical training, perhapsreceived some exposure to mathematics (though clearly very little)and may have attended the lectures of the young Lucasian Professor,Isaac Newton. This last we may fairly doubt; for Newton's lectures,when he gave them at all, dealt largely, at this period, with mathe-

matics and optics; the matters that were later to interest Bentley had

not been worked out in Newton's mind, and his remarkable pioneerexcursion of 1665/6 into celestial mechanics had long since ceased to

preoccupy him. Not until after Bentley's departure from Cambridgedid Newton, while the Principia was being conceived, lecture on his

dynamical discoveries. Of more significance for Bentley's later career

was his acquaintance at Cambridge with that remarkable prodigy in

languages and scholarship, William Wotton, with whom he continued

to correspond after leaving the University.23

Bentley received his bachelor's degree on 23 January 1679/80, but

apparently remained at Cambridge for a year or two more, leaving to

take a modest post as a country schoolmaster. In 1682/3 he became

tutor to the son of Edward Stillingfleet, the Dean of St. Paul's, and

moved to London. Later he accompanied his charge to Oxford (Wad-ham College) to be young Stillingfleet's private tutor. While still at

Oxford, Bentley was ordained deacon and appointed chaplain to the

father, now raised to the bishopric of Worcester. The early summer of

1691 found Bentley in Worcester attempting, not too enthusiasticallyit would

seem,but in line with his new

duties,to combine

theologicalstudies with his beloved classics.24Until this year we find no trace of

any interest on Bentley's part in matters relating to natural philosophy.In the late spring or early summer of 1691-for reasons that have

remained obscure, and about which we can only conjecture-Bentleywrote to his friend William Wotton apparently asking (Bentley's letter

has not survived) what he should read in order to understand Newton's

great Principia of 1687. Wotton passed on the query to his friend

John Craig (or Craige), a Scottish mathematician who was one of theearliest Newtonian disciples. Craig replied by a letter (24 June 1691)

warning that "You may tell your Friend that nothing less than a

thorough knowledge of all that is yet known in the curious part of

mathematics can make him capable to read Mr. Newton's book with

that advantage which I believe he proposes to himself." Craig meant

23Monk,Bentley, I, 9. For the long letter of Wotton to Bentley ("St. John's Col-

lege, May 14, 1689") on matters of classical scholarship see Correspondence ofRichard Bentley (2 vols., London, 1842), I, 1-5. 24Monk,Bentley, I, 34.








his warning seriously, for succeeding pages contain a formidable

reading list; and he concludes: "Here, you see, is a vast deal to be

done, enough to discourage a man whose inclinations have not a

great bias in this way."25Wotton, this suggests, had made Bentley'smathematical innocence quite clear to Craig.

For Bentley, such technical obstacles must indeed have seemed

discouraging, but he was not a man to be put off. After receiving Craig'sletter from Wotton, he appealed to Isaac Newton, whether directly or

through an intermediary we do not know, though perhaps the latter.

At all events Bentley received from Cambridge what has been called

Newton's "Paper of Directions," not a letter, such as he might have

received in reply to one of his own, but a memorandum containingmore encompassable suggestions than Craig's for preparatory read-

ing, as well as instructions for navigating through the Principia. The

date of July 1691, first assigned to this document by Edleston, has

generally been accepted.26What led Bentley to intrude himself into these matters so remote

from his own early interests and special competence? Perhaps he al-

readyhad some

inklingof the

possibleuses the new

physicscould be

put to; perhaps this was an aspect of his effort to turn his attention to

theology, it having occurred to him to examine Newton's book for its

religious, especially its providentialist, implications. But there is an-

other and more likely explanation. It was just at this time that Bentleywas undertaking one of those works of classical criticism for which he

was destined to become so famous-his edition of the Astronomicon

of the Roman poet, Marcus Manilius.27Completed long after its in-

ception,it has received the

praiseof classical

scholars,even of such a

dour and vituperative commentator as A. E. Housman.

What more natural than that Bentley, confronted with an ancient

astronomical and astrological test, should have sought to bone up on

astronomy and bring himself abreast of recent developments, of which

Newton's book was the outstanding exhibit? There is, moreover, im-

portant evidence as to what might have suggested to Bentley the idea

25Craig's letter appeared first in the Bentley Correspondence (II, 736-40) fromwhich it was reprinted by Brewster (Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, I, 465-69). Ex-

tracts from the original in the Trinity Library are given by Turnbull (Correspondence

of Isaac Newton, III, 150-54).

26Edleston,the earliest to print Newton's "Paper of Directions" (Correspondence

of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Cotes [London, 1850], 273-75), adopts this

date, without comment, in his "Synoptical View of Newton's Life," op. cit., xxxii.

Turnbullaccepts this dating.

27Monk, Bentley, I, 34. An early trace of Bentley's interest in Manilius is to be

found in letters to Dr. Edward Bernard, 26January

and 11February, 1691/2. (Cor-respondenceof Richard Bentley, I, 35-38.)








of consulting modern scientists, and especially Newton, in connection

with his work on Manilius.28Sixteen years earlier the cavalier poet,Sir Edward Sherburne (1618-1702), had published his Sphere of Man-

ilius, a translation into English heroic verse of the first book of the

Astronomicon, accompanied by copious notes and a remarkable as-

tronomical appendix that, in fact, makes up the greater part of this

handsome folio.29The most remarkable feature of this appendix is a

long "Catalogue of Astronomers Ancient and Modern," actually a

history of astronomy-perhaps the first in the English language-inthe form of a set of short sketches of famous astronomers and their

achievements. And what is mostsignificant

is that the recital ends with

short accounts of contemporaries, including such English worthies as

Isaac Barrow, John Collins, and Isaac Newton. Sherburne's para-

graph on Newton is worth giving in full, for it may well be the earliest

printed mention of him in a work intended for the general reader:

1673. Mr. ISAAC NEWTON Lucasian Professor of Mathematicks in the

University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Trinity Colledge, hath lately pub-lished his reflecting Telescope; New Theories of Light and Colours; hath

already for the Press a Treatise of Dioptricks, and divers Astronomical Ex-ercises, which are to be subjoyned to Mr. Nicholas Mercator's Epitome of

Astronomy,and to be Printed at Cambridge.From him besides is to be ex-

pected a New General Analytical Method by infiniteSeries for the Quadrature

of Curvilinear Figures, the finding of their Centers of Gravity, their Round

Solids, and the Surfaces thereof, the straitning of curved Lines; so that

giving an Ordinate in any Figure as well such as Des Cartes calls Geometrical,as others, to find, the Length of the Arch Line, and the Converse; Such an

Invention, to wit, but in one particular Figure the Circle, the Learned

Snellius thinks transcendent to any thing yet published; and how much con-ducing to the Benefit of Astronomy, and the Mathematical Sciences in Gen-

eral, such an Universal Method is, I leave others, together with my self to

admire, and earnestly expect.30

28In his edition of Manilius, Bentley refers to Newton in discussing the permanentnature of comets: "Opinio Chaldaeorum, Senecae, et aliorum aliquot: quam verissimam

esse hoc demum saeculo est demonstratum a maximo viro Isaaco Newtono: de quo

quasi vaticinatus est Seneca Nat. Quaest. VII, 26." M. Manilii Astronomicon ex

recensione et cum notis Richardi Bentleii (London, 1739),64.29A. E. Housman (M. Manili Astronomicon Liber Primus [London, 1903], p. xv)

speaks of Sherburne's "ample notes displaying a wide reading but no great acuteness

or alertness of mind." H. W. Garrod is more favorable, writing that it is "the notes to

this translation which chiefly deserve praise" (Manili Astronomicon Liber II [Oxford,

1911],p. lxxxv).30TheSphere of Marcus Manilius made an English poem: with Annotations and

an Astronomical appendix. By Edward Sherburne, esquire (London, 1675), 116 (of the

separately paginated appendix of 220 pp.) Turnbull suggested that the information

about Newton was supplied by John Collins(Correspondence

of Isaac Newton, III,

156, note 7). This is surely suggested by the succinct account of Newton's work on the








Bentley knew Sherburne's book and later accorded it high praise;indeed he could scarcely have begun to work seriously on his projectwithout reading it closely. We learn, moreover, that Sherburne-

who had himself thought of preparing a critical edition of Manilius-

gave Bentley valuable assistance at the start of his work.31

It is surely not too much to imagine that Bentley was only follow-

ing Sherburne's example in seeking out information to help him view

his astronomical problems from a modern perspective. Newton-as

Bentley saw-more than any other man had changed the face of as-

tronomy and the System of the World. To wrestle with Newton's greatbook was clearly in order. At the very least, Bentley's inquiries con-

cerning the Principia-even if conducted through an intermediary,and not, as generally supposed, by writing directly-must have brought

Bentley to the notice of Isaac Newton. But if there was further contact

between the two men in the remaining months of 1691, which is at

least possible, no evidence to this effect has survived.

Newton and the Boyle Lectures

Inlight

of the later and better known contact betweenBentley

and

Newton, the letters exchanged after Bentley had delivered the last ofthe sermons, it is hard to avoid the suspicion that Newton may have

played some sort of role in influencing the selection of the first Boylelecturer or at least in determining the Newtonian character, the majortheme, that is, of Bentley's last sermons. There is evidence that, beforethese sermons were delivered, indeed a year or more before his first

letter to Bentley, Newton harbored the notion that his new System of

the World, properly explicated, could be used to refute the materialists-Hobbists and Epicureans alike-and, now that Locke had madeuntenable the notion that the innate idea of God could be used as a

proof of His existence, might supply a new and broader kind of argu-ment from design in support of belief in a Providential Deity, and inHis wisdom and goodness.

The evidence has recently appeared in the third volume of theNewton Correspondence (1961) which includes a memorandum of

David Gregory, like Craig a pioneer Scottish Newtonian, recordingthe substance of conversations he held with Newton in December1691. At one point Gregory wrote:

calculus, and by Sherburne's long and flattering account of Collins that follows im-

mediately.31Monk writes (I, 35): "Sir Edward Sherburn [sic], an old cavalier, who had

formerly translated the first book of Manilius, and written a commentary upon it,lent him some scarce editions, as well as a box containing collections relative to this

poet, formerly belonging to Gaspar Gevartius, which he had some time before pur-chased at Antwerp." See also Correspondenceof Richard Bentley, I, 35-38.








In Mr Newtonsopiniona good designof a publickspeech(andwhichmayserve well at aneAct) maybe to shew that the mostsimplelawsof natureareobserved n the structureof a greatpartof the Universe,that the philosophy

oughtther to begin,and that CosmicalQualitiesare as much easier as theyare more Universall hanparticularones,and the generalcontrivance implerthanthatof Animalsplantsetc.32

Newton was obviously suggesting that his discoveries in celestial

physics would serve the argument from design better than that reli-

ance upon the "contrivances" in animals and plants which John Rayhad recently catalogued in his Wisdomof God manifested in the Works

ofCreation,

publishedearlier that same

year.33Gregory's memorandum is dated 28 December 1691, i.e., shortlybefore Boyle's death. Could Newton have had knowledge of Boyle'slast will and testament, and been thinking not only of an "Act" (i.e.,a college lecture or disputation) but of such "publick" speeches as were

envisaged for the Boyle lectures? Bentley's last sermons, of course,more than coincidentally fit Newton's description. Newton must have

been aware of Boyle's failing health, for Boyle was the outstanding sci-

entificfigure

of the oldergeneration

and hiswritings

had exerted apro-found effect upon Newton's early independent work in science. And

he could well have known, if only in a general way, of the significant

provisions of Boyle's will; for as early as the late summer of 1691 the

codicil dealing with the proposed lectureship was known to the four

trustees and even to churchmen outside the immediate circle of Boyle'sfriends.34

But this is not all. It has not been widely noted that Newton left

Cambridge on the last day of December returning before the end ofJanuary; and nobody, accordingly, has asked what was the purposeof his trip.35The answer is simple: he went to London; and he went,of course, to attend Boyle's funeral, as-knowing his admiration for

Boyle and his debt to him-we would expect him to do. There is con-

firmation for this in a letter of Samuel Pepys to John Evelyn, dated

9 January, 1691/2:

Sir,-I would have come at you the other night at St. Martin'son that

grievousoccasion,but could not. Nor would I have failed in attendingyoubefore, to have condoledthe losse of that great man, had I for some time

32Correspondence f Isaac Newton, III, 191.

33Forthe circumstances of the publication of the Wisdom of God, see Charles E.

Raven,John Ray (2nd ed., Cambridge, 19502),ch. XVII.

34"Journal" f White Kennett, British Museum, Lansdowne 1024, f. 77.

35Newton left Cambridge on 31 December (the day after Boyle's death) and re-

turned on 21January.

"Newton's exits and redits," Edleston,op.

cit., lxxxv








beene in a condition of going abroad. Pray lett Dr. Gale, Mr. Newton and

my selfe have the favour of your company to day, forasmuch as (Mr. Boyle

being gone) wee shall want your helpe in thinking of a man in England fitt to

bee sett up after him for our Peireskius, besides Mr. Evelin.36

This establishes beyond serious doubt Newton's presence in Lon-don and his attendance at the funeral of Boyle. If Newton acceptedPepys' invitation (and Pepys implied that he had already done so) anddid meet with Pepys, Dr. Thomas Gale, and John Evelyn-all Fellowsof the Royal Society-surely the subject of Boyle and his bequest musthave come up. All were doubtless familiar with the provisions of the

will,or at least of the

important codicil, as Evelyn, one of the moreinfluential trustees of the bequest, certainly was. If Bentley's name hadnot come up earlier, it could well have been mentioned on this occa-

sion, and possibly by Newton, who may also have pointed out that

Bentley-of all available clergymen-was best prepared to level anattack on atheists and materialists along the lines that Newton hadindicated to Gregory.

Of Newton's compliant interest in the early Boyle Lectures there

has never been any doubt. But if, as seems likely, he played a partbehind the scene in the selection of Richard Bentley as the first lec-

turer, and encouraged-if he did not suggest-the theme of Bentley'slast sermons, his share in the philosophical re-orientation of Anglicanthought in the Age of William was more direct than has been sus-

pected. The Boyle Lectures became a notable vehicle for expressingthe providentialist faith of the Low Churchmen. Encouraged and sup-ported by such men as Evelyn, Tenison, Wotton, Nottingham, and

Newton himself, the Boyle lecturers-among whom are the first ex-positors of the Newtonian Philosophy-became, in the late seven-teenth century and the early years of the eighteenth, the intellectual

spokesmen of the moderate faction of the English Church and the menwho developed and expoundedits characteristic doctrine.

Cornell University (Henry Guerlac)

University of South Florida (M. C. Jacob)

36J.R. Tanner, ed., Private Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of SamuelPepys (2 vols., London, 1926), I, 51-52. On the evidence of this letter Edleston noted

that Newton was in London in January 1691/2, but he did not discern the purpose of

Newton's trip.

Bentley-newton on Divine Providence

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