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Characters well, and was willing to undertaké ic upon proper Encouragement, which I almoft undertook to procure him from my old Friend the Lord King, when he was first made Lord Chancellor, and had fo many Prebends in his Gift. But upon my Application to him, I found fo prodigious a Change in him, fuch ftrange Coldness in the Matters that concerned Religion, and fuch an earnest Inclination to Money and Power, that I gave up my Hopes quickly. Nay, indeed, I foon perceived that he difpofed of his Preferments almost wholly at the Requeft of fuch great Men as could best support him in his high Station, without Regard to Chriftianity; and I foon caft off all my former Acquaintance with him. Now, by the way, if fuch a Perfon as the Lord King, who began with fo much facred Learning, and Zeal for Primitive Christianity, as his first Work, The Enquiry into the Conftitution, Difcipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, shewed, was fo foon thoroughly perverted by the Love of Power and Money at Court, what good Chriftians will not be horribly affrighted at the defperate Hazard they must run, if they venture into the Temptations of a Court hereafter? Such Examples make me often think how wifely our bleffed Saviour put in that Petition into the Lord's Prayer, Lead us not into Temptation.

I proceed now in my own History.

After I had taken Holy Orders, I returned to the College, and went on with my own Studies" there, particularly the Mathematicks, and the Cara

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tefian Philofophy; which was alone in Vogue with us at that Time. But it was not long before I, with immense Pains, but no Affiftance, fet myself with the utmost Zeal to the Study of Sir Ifaac Newton's wonderful Difcoveries in his Philofophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, one or two of which Lectures I had heard him read in the publick Schools, though I understood them not at all at that Time. Being indeed greatly excited thereto by a Paper of Dr. Gregory's when he was Profeffor in Scotland; wherein he had given the most prodigious Commendations to that Work, as not only right in all Things, but in a manner the Effect of a plainly Divine Genius, and had already caufed feveral of his Scholars to keep Ats, as we call them, upon feveral Branches of the Newtonian Philofophy; while we at Cambridge, poor Wretches, were ignominiously studying the fictitious Hypothefes of the Cartefian, which Sir Ifaac Newton had also himself done formerly, as I have heard him fay. What the Occafion of Sir Ifaac Newton's leaving the Cartefian Philofophy, and of discovering his amazing Theory of Gravity was, I have heard him long ago, foon after my first Ac quaintance with him, which was 1694, thus relate, and of which Dr. Pemberton gives the like Account, and somewhat more fully, in the Preface to his Explication of his Philofophy: It was this. An Inclination came into Sir Ifaac's Mind to try, whether the fame Power did not keep the Moon in her Orbit, notwithstanding her projectile Velocity, which he knew always tended to go along a strait

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Line the Tangent of that Orbit, which makes Stones and all heavy Bodies with us fall downward, and which we call Gravity? Taking this Poftulatum, which had been thought of before, that fuch Power might decrease in a duplicate Proportion of the Distances from the Earth's Center. Upon Sir Ifaac's first Trial, when he took a Degree of a great Circle on the Earth's Surface, whence a Degree at the Distance of the Moon was to be determined alfo, to be 60 measured Miles only, according to the grofs Measures then in Ufe. He was, in fome Degree, difappointed, and the Power that reftrained the Moon in her Orbit, measured by the versed Sines of that Orbit, appeared not to be quite the fame that was to be expected, had it been the Power of Gravity alone, by which the Moon was there influenc'd. Upon this Disappointment, which made Sir Ifaac fufpect that this Power was partly that of Gravity, and partly that of Cartefius's Vortices, he threw afide the Paper of his Calculation, and went to other Studies. However, fome time afterward, when Monfieur Picart had much more exactly measured the Earth, and found that a Degree of a great Circle was 69 fuch Miles, Sir Ifaac, in turning over fome of his former Papers, light upon this old imperfect Calculation; and, correcting his former Error, difcover'd that this Power, at the true correct Diftance of the Moon from the Earth, not only tended to the Earth's Center, as did the common Power of Gravity with us, but was exactly of the right Quantity; and that if a Stone was carried up to the Moon, or to 60 Se

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60 Semidameters of the Earth, and let fall downward by its Gravity, and the Moon's own menftrual Motion was ftopt, and fhe was let fall by that Power which before retained her in her Orbit, they would exactly fall towards the fame Point, and with the fame Velocity; which was therefore no other Power than that of Gravity. And fince that Power appear'd to extend as far as the Moon, at the Distance of 240000 Miles, it was but natural, or rather neceffary, to suppose it might reach twice, thrice, four Times, &c. the fame Distance, with the fame Diminution, according to the Squares of fuch Distances perpetually. Which noble Difcovery proved the happy Occafion of the Invention of the wonderful Newtonian Philofophy: Which indeed I look upon in an higher Light than others, and as an eminent Prelude and Preparation to those happy Times of the Reftitution of all Things, which God bas fpoken of by the Mouth of all his holy Prophets fince the World began, A&ts iii. 21. To which Purpose fee his excellent Corollaries relating to Religion, of which hereafter. Nor can I forbear ta wish, that my own most important Discoveries concerning true Religion, and Primitive Christianity, may fucceed in the fecond Place to his furprizing Discoveries; and may together have fuch a Divine Bleffing upon them, that the Kingdoms of this World, as I firmly expect they will, may foon become the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of bis Chrift, and be may reign for ever and ever! Amen. Amen.

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But now, as to this wonderful Man, Sir Ifaac. Newton, I mean wonderful in Mathematicks,

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and Natural Philofophy, and their Confequences: He is one of the greatest Inftances that ever was, how weak, how very weak, the greateft of mortal Men may be in fome Things, though they be beyond all Men in others; and how prodigiously Inclination, even in fuch Men, can overbear the contrary fuperior Evidence; nay, where they cannot wholly avoid feeing fuch Superior Evidence before them. Sir Ifaac, in Mathematicks, could fometimes fee almoft by Intuition, even without Demonstration; as was the Cafe in that famous Propofition in his Principia, that All Parallelograms circumfcribed about the Conjugate Diameters of an Ellipfis are equal; which he told Mr. Cotes he used before it had ever been demonftrated by any one, as it was afterward. And when he did but propofe Conjectures in Natural Philofophy, he almost always knew them to be true at the fame Time; yet did this Sir Ifaac Newton compofe a Chronology, and wrote out 18 Copies of its first and principal Chapter with his own Hand, but little different one from another, which proved no better than a fagacious Romance, as I have fully proved in my Confutation of it; and which, fince that Confutation, no one learned Perfon in Europe that I know of, has ventur'd to defend; which thing when Mr. Arthur Onflow once obferved to me, I told him, that though it was impoffible to be defended, yet, had it not been for my Confutation, it had been generally believed for feven Years, upon account of the vastly great Reputation of its Au

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