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Sir Isaac Newton: "The Baptists are the only body of known Christians that have never symbolized with Rome." - Trail of Blood.
This quote came up through a friend. After looking it up, I believe we should not use it anymore. Robert Hall seems to be the first one to use these words (although somewhat more honestly). "On the Terms of Communion" 1816 (there might have been earlier printings as well) wrote, "Sir Isaac Newton, who, if we may believe the honest Whiston, frequently declared to him his conviction that the Baptists were the only Christians who had not symbolised with the church of Rome. - See Whiston's Memoirs of his own Life." From what I can gather this was not written as a quote, but a sort of summary of what Whiston said. Whiston actually said, "I afterward found that Sir Isaac Newton was so hearty for the Baptists, as well as for the Eusebians or Arians, that he sometimes suspected these two were the two Witnesses in the Revelation" (page 206).
As far as I can tell what happened was:
Whiston (the origin): "Sir Isaac Newton was so hearty for the Baptists"
to Hall's "Sir Isaac Newton, who, if we may believe the honest Whiston, frequently declared to him his conviction that the Baptists were the only Christians who had not symbolised with the church of Rome."
to John Bliss apparently going back to the Memoir of Whiston's but still using the language of Hall (1841) "Sir Isaac Newton made the remark, that the Baptists were the only Christians who had not symbolized with Antichirst; and he inclined to consider them one of the two witnesses."
to (apparently not from Bliss, but from Hall) the Letter from Rev. John Robertson to Rev. James Pringle (as quoted in an article printed in 1847), "Sir Isaac Newton frequently declared to Whiston his conviction 'that the baptists were the only Christians who had not symbolised with the church of Rome.'
to Rev. James W. Pendleton in an article titled "Dr. Summers on Baptism" in The Christian Repository (January, 1852), "Sir Isaac Newton declared his "conviction that the Baptists were the only Christians who had not symbolized with the Church of Rome"
to J.T. Christian (1922-26): "Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest men who ever lived, declared it was "his conviction that the Baptists were the only Christians who had not symbolized with Rome" (Whiston, Memoirs of, written by himself, 201)."
to Trail of Blood (1931): Sir Isaac Newton: "The Baptists are the only body of known Christians that have never symbolized with Rome."
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