Whiston quote about Newton "hearty for the Baptists"

Steven Avery

Administrator
Christopher Yetzer
https://www.facebook.com/christophe...s7NU6MKWUAiPxtnrmhg5fQiVTQPkwGzV3VisDDRZisPPl

Steven Avery
Thanks.
So it looks like you have uncovered another roundabout!

This may be the earliest publication:

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston Vol 1 (1749)
https://books.google.com/books?id=6FA6AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA206

So this is not exactly Whiston directly, you have Gale and Haines involved.

Discussed in 1750
Biographia Britannica: Or, The Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who Have Flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the Earliest Ages, Down to the Present Times, Volume 3 (1750)
https://books.google.com/books?id=VolDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA2081

Note how Wallace works with this, quoting Memoirs:

Antitrinitarian Biography, Or, Sketches of the Lives and Writings of Distinguished Antitrinitarians: Exhibiting a View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship in the Principal Nations of Europe, from the Reformation to the Close of the Seventeenth Century : to which is Prefixed a History of Unitarianism in England During the Same Period, Volume 3 (1850)
https://books.google.com/books?id=4mkrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA458

And I see the larger discussion on the Baptist History Preservation forum.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BaptistsPreservingHistory/posts/5898193816905855/

Grantley McDonald has a section on this in Biblical Criticism in Early Modern Europe, starting on p. 160 and with various Whiston bibliographic references.

Grantley gives as the Whiston reference on this topic (Newton's Support of Arian and Baptist positions) the Memoirs, p. 206, above.

Grantley is a big fan of Newton and Whiston and Newton's opposition to the heavenly witnesses!

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One thing I just picked up tonight is that Whiston actually continues the Newton attacks on Athanasius.

Athanasian forgeries, impositions and interpolations. Collected chiefly out of Mr. W.'s writings. By a lover of truth, and of true religion [i.e. W. W.]. MS. notes [and corrections by the author]. (1736)
https://books.google.com/books?id=GexExXrcf3gC&pg=PR3

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Note I am not working with the later embellishments about symbolizing with Rome.

In my experience, the reviews of these accusations are somewhat spotty.

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Steven Avery

Administrator

Christopher Yetzer
Baptist History Preservation

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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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