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actly of the right quantity; and that if a ftone was carried up to the moon, or to 60 femidiameters 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 fuppofe it might reach twice, thrice, four times, &c. the fame diftance, with the fame diminution, according to the fquares of fuch diftances 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 thofe happy times of the reftitution of all things, which God has spoken of by the mouth of all his holy prophets, fince the world began, Acts iii. 21. To which purpose fee his excellent corollaries relating to religion, of which hereafter. Nor can I forbear to wifh, that my own moft important discoveries concerning true religion, and primitive christianity, may fucceed in the Second place to his furprizing difcoveries; 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 his Chrift, and he may reign for ever and ever! Amen. Amen.

But now, as to this wonderful man, Sir Ifaac Newton, I mean wonderful in mathematicks, and natural philofophy, and their confequences: he is one of the greateft inftances that ever was, how weak, how very weak, the greatest of mortal men may be in fome things, though they be beyond

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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 fuperior evidence before them. Sir Ifaac, in mathematicks, could fometimes fee almost 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 ufed before it had ever been demonftrated by any one, as it was afterward. And when he did but propofe conjectures in natural philofophy, he almoft 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 firft 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 author. And I remember, that when Mr. Cotes and I formerly talked with him about antient chronology, I found his notions fo weak, that I expected very little from his own chronology, when it fhould be publifh'd. Which expectation, although I used to fuggest to my friends before fuch publication, yet would none of them believe me at that time, though they did afterward. The fame Sir Ifaac Newton did alfo fo imperfectly understand the famous prophecy of Daniel's LXX weeks, and fome of the prophecies in the Revelation of St. John, even

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after the fucccessful labours of the great Mr. Mede (whom I have heard him own as the best of its expofitors) and others following him, that, upon fpending once with him alone, A. D. 1706, about four hours on the Apocalypfe, I could hardly affent to more than one of his expofitions, viz. the diftinction of the IV monarchies in prophetick language, geographically, as well as chronologically; which therefore, by his permiffion, I preferved in my own Effay on that book, p. 255, 259, of the first edition, and p. 296, 297, 298, of the fecond. Though after all it must be allowed, that Sir Ifaac Newton's judgment did not fail him near fo often in his expofition of prophecies, (unless we except that of the LXX weeks, which feems to me exceeding weak) as it did in his chronology. Of which matters, fee my Confutation of bis Chronology, and Short View of his Expofitions of Daniel and the Revelation: of which hereafter.

During my being chaplain to bishop More, which was from 1694 to 1698, bishop Burnet, who was his particular friend, committed to his perufal his Explication of the xxxIx Articles of the Church of England, in MS. who committed it to my perufal without the leaft indication who was the author. Wherein I made a few corrections; which I fuppofe were communicated to him. but when I returned the MS. bishop More afked me, Whom I took to be the Author? I immediately added, that no-body could write it but bishop Burnet: Whom he then allowed to be the true author.

While I was also chaplain there, the fame bishop Burnet committed to bifhop More's perufal, a vindication of himself from the reflections bishop Stillingfleet had made upon him, for requiring bonds of refignation from those whom he made pre

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bendaries of Sarum, in cafe they left that diocefe in order to relinquish the wages when they relinquished the work, for which it was given and that those that fucceeded to the work might have the wages allotted to it. This vindication the bishop gave me to transcribe: which I did, with full approbation of its contents: but without taking a copy for myself, which I was not impowered to do. This paper was not then published; because bishop Stillingfleet was fo very great a man, that prudent people did not think it proper he fhould be quarrelled with. Yet when I perceived that bishop Burnet's fon, Mr. Thomas, (now Mr. Justice Burnet) was publishing his father's life, which he has done with great reputation, I went to him, and told him, what an excellent paper his father had written, and I had tranfcrib'd: with my defire that if he had it he would publish it. He confeffed he had a copy of it in the country; 'but feemed not willing to publifh it: nor has he yet published it, as it highly deferves. See the Jate lord Nottingham's letter to Dr. Waterland, to the like purpose, published by Dr. Newton, at the end of his unanfwerable treatise against pluralities.

During the fame time that I was chaplain to bifhop More, fomewhat happened at Norwich with relation to the forementioned bifhop Stillingfleet's family; which for a while put me into a great diforder, and is fit to be here related. The bishop had a fon of St. John's college, Cambridge, by profeffion a phyfician, and one that wanted not good parts; but of whom I had heard a very bad character as to his morals. He was fent by his father to his friend and my patron bishop More, for a private ordination, to capacitate him for a living. Now in fuch cafes 'tis ufually expected, that the chaplain fhould prefent the candidate for

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orders to the bishop, and folemnly to declare his opinion as to his fitness for thofe orders which the public form of ordination requires: as I once prefented the well known Mr. Echard, the hiftorian, both to deacons and priefts orders there; and never any one but him: whofe character was unexceptionable. When I understood this, I was in great perplexity, as not intending ever to prefent or confent to the presentation of a bad man to holy orders and yet being unwilling to disoblige fo great a man as bifhop Stillingfleet. I do not remember that I directly told my uneafiness to any body, unless it was gueft at from my countenance, or accidental intimations. However, archdeacon Jeffries foon came, and voluntarily offered to ease me of my trouble; and faid, he had heard a better character of him than I had, and would examine and present him, which he did. And I have lately heard, he proved afterwards a worthy man.

It was alfo during my being chaplain to bishop More, that I published my first work, intitled, A New Theory of the Earth, from its Original to the Confummation of all Things, wherein the Creation of the World in fix Days, the Univerfal Deluge, and the General Conflagration, as laid down in the Holy Scriptures, are fhewn to be perfectly agreeable to Reafon and Phylofophy. With a large Introduction concerning the genuine nature, ftile, and extent of the Mofaick history of the creation: this book was fhewed in MS. to Dr. Bentley, and to Sir Chriftopher Wren, but chiefly laid before Sir Ifaac Newton himself, on whofe principles it depended, and who well approved of it: the Epitome of it was made by me long afterward, in order to its infertion into a foreign journal: and has been added in the 5th edition, which yet may almost be called the 7th, fince the first had 1500 copies printed off at once. Whence it is plain that this work was exceeding

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