P. S. On looking over a catalogue of Sir Isaac Newton's manuscripts and papers, as annexed to a bond, given by Mr. Conduit to the administrators of Sir Isaac; by which he obliged himself to account for any profit he might make by publishing any of the papers; I find that Newton treated on the following important subjects; namely, Church History; Prophetic Style; Temple of Solomon; The Sanctuary; Corruptions of Scripture; Paradoxical questions concerning Athanasius; Working of the Mystery of Iniquity; Theology of the Heathens; Account of the contest between the Host of Heaven and the transgressors of the Covenant; History of the Prophecies. Dr. Pellett, it appears, by agreement of the executors, entered into acts of the Prerogative Court, and was appointed to peruse all the papers, and judge which were proper for the press. He accordingly did peruse them, and judged those enumerated above, not fit to be published. One cannot help enquiring, why they were not fit to be published? We have been told over and over again, that he was sent by Heaven to remove the veil that covered nature, and to enlighten mankind; and yet, notwithstanding that assurance, we have evidence laid before us, that he, with incalculable pains, wrote perhaps eight or ten folio volumes, upon the most important matters, which were not fit to be published! "It is astonishing," says his biographer, “what care and industry Sir Isaac had employed about the papers relating to Church History, Chronology, &c. as, on examining the papers themelves, which are in the possession of the family of the Earl of Portsmouth, it appears that many of them are copies over and over again, often with little or no variation; the whole number being upwards of 4000 sheets in folio, (16000 pages!) or 8 reams of folio paper, beside the bound books, &c. in this catalogue, of which the number of sheets is not mentioned. Of these 4000 sheets, exclusive of the bound books, there have been published only the Chronology, and Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John." There must be some great mystery in the condemnation and suppression of this mass of the pious labours of this "Pride of the Seventeenth Century," as the Monthly Reviewers term him, this "name which far surpasses that of Princes." CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page. Introductory remarks; on Scepticism; the doctrine of a Plurality of Worlds; information of the ancient Hebrews in the arts and sciences, &c. CHAPTER II. Adoption of the Newtonian Hypothesis by the Royal Society of London and the honor of the nation identified with it; those who reject that system pronounced, by one of its supporters, to be the worst of heretics; extravagant praises of Newton by his followers; their poetical eulogium and creed commented on; the Copernican scheme not adopted by the most eminent philosophers who flourished in the seventeenth century. CHAPTER III. Enumeration of Astronomical Systems; Newtonian doctrine of Worlds forming themselves out of solar vapour and sediments of light; of Hell, according to the belief of some of Newton's followers, being placed in the Sun, and the destruction, or renovation, of Worlds by falling into it; of the Earth being formed out of the atmosphere of a Comet according to Whiston; of an Earth and a Heaven with its Luminaries within our Earth, according to Dr. Halley; and of Planets, according to La Place, forming themselves out of dense Solar Atmospheres. CHAPTER IV. On the Newtonian Theory of Gravity; its application to account for the planetary motions, and to weigh the Sun and Planets; to explain the ebbing and flowing of the Tides; to remedy the decays of the Universe, by the occasional destruction of old Suns, and the formation of them into new ones in the Herschellian Laboratories of the universe!.. CHAPTER V. ...... On Comets; Newtonian doctrines concerning their inconceivable velocities, heat, periodical appearances and horrible consequences; one of them so deranged by gravity that even Astronomers do not know what is become of it; alarming and contradictory opinions of philosophers; the vulgar opinion uniform and rational. On the supposed diurnal motion of the Earth, founded on The imaginary motion of the Earth in an orbit, contradicted by sight, reason and Scripture; the tenth chapter of Joshua, and the thirty-eighth of Isaiah, troublesome obstacles to philosophers; elaborate attempts of Bishop Wilkins, Kepler, and others, to explain away certain passages; Critical remarks on the Hebrew names of the Sun, Moon, and other Heavenly Orbs; Searches in heaven for confirmation of the oblate figure of the Earth; disagreement amongst the Newtonians concerning the apparent forms of the Planets... CHAPTER VIII. The Theories of the Atmosphere, and Void Spaces for Planetary Motion refuted by decisive facts; the actual state of the Ocean an irresistible proof against the theories of the Atmosphere, Gravity, and Earthly Motion. CHAPTER IX. Science of Optics known many hundred years anterior to the time of Galileo, though not employed to discover Earths in Heaven; Newtonian maxims overturned by the observations of Mr. Baldwin in his aerial voyage from Chester, by the dark nature of earthly bodies, and by the evidence exhibited in the Stars. CHAPTER X. ....... 132 157 ᄂ 173 Distances of the Heavenly Bodies; the methods proposed by Astronomers to ascertain them shown to be inapplicable and therefore useless; contradictory accounts of philosophers respecting the distances of Jupiter's Satellites from his body, and likewise respecting the diurnal revolutions of the Planets; the character given by Diodorus Siculus of the Greek Philosophers strictly applicable to modern ones; natural evidences of the Deity stated by St. Paul, and exemplified in the conduct of Socrates; Poetical conclusion. 188 To which are added, some remarks on the Tides at Liver- . pool, and a table of their heights at the Full and Change of the Moon for ten years. 211 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS; ON SCEPTICISM; THE DOCTRINE OF A PLURALITY OF WORLDS; TION OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, &c. THAT illustrious character, whom the Almighty God raised up to be a leader and instructor to the Hebrew nation, and, through them, to give laws to the world; when he had conducted them to the borders of their destined inheritance, he crowned the labours of his divine mission by that memorable charge which he delivered when committing to their custody the Sacred Books. Having impressively contrasted the infinite advantages of obedience with the fatal consequences of rebellion against the divine precepts, he emphatically reminded them of the many awful events of which they had been eye witnesses, as being so many unquestionable evidences of the superintending care, unbounded power and constant presence of that awful Being by whom those statutes were revealed. These statutes he therefore enjoined them perpetually to meditate upon-to teach to their children from generation to generation, and for ever to prize the inestimable gift as their own peculiar inheritance. But concerning such matters as God had reserved to himself and not revealed, which philosophers and divines wrangle so much about, he seemed to discountenance vain curiosity, or presumptuous interference, as being exclusively the divine prerogative. "The secret things," said he, "belong to B |