Catalogue Entry: THEM00049

'The synchronisms of the three parts of the prophetick Interpretation'

Author: Isaac Newton

Source: Yahuda Ms. 6, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel

[Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

Custodial History

Bought at the Sotheby sale by 'Ulysses' (Jacob Schwartz?) for £16, and subsequently acquired by Yahuda.

Sotheby Lot

SL244

Contents

An incomplete treatise on Daniel and Revelation, dealing principally with the Day of Judgment and the Millennium. The first page appears to represent the beginning of a fair copy: an earlier and more complete draft begins on f. 2r under the heading 'The main synchronisms of the three parts of the prophetick Interpretation', and f. 6r has the heading 'The subordinate synchronisms of the three parts of the prophetick interpretation'.

Folios 12r-19r published in Frank Manuel, The Religion of Isaac Newton (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974), pp. 126-136.

[Editorial Note 1] Folio 3v is written upside down and appears to continue, still upside down, at the bottom of f. 2v.

[1] a Aliud est missum in carcerem non inde exire donec solvat novissimum quadrantem; aliud statim fidei et virtutis accipere mercedem: aliud pro peccatis longo dolore cruciatum emundari et purgari diu igne; aliud peccata omnia passione purgasse. Cypr. Epist. 52 ad Antonianum. Cum carcerem illum, quod Evangelium demonstrat, inferos intelligamus; & novissimum quadrantem modicum quoque delictum mora resurrectionis illic luendum interpretamur: nemo dubitabit animam aliquid pensare penes inferos salva resurrectionis plenitudine per carnem quoque. Tertul. de anima c. 35 & c. ult. Nam hic quoque novit, ut qui ex barbara didicerat philosophia, eam quæ fit per ignem expurgationem eorum qui male vixerunt, quam ἐκπύρωσιν hoc est exustionem seu inflammationem postea vocarunt Stoici. Clem. Alexandr. Strom. 5 pag. 549. To the same purpose write Origen, Cæsarius, Gregory Nissen, Ierome, Ambrose, Augustine & others, some of them calling this punishment the baptism of fire, others a saving by fire, others the flaming sword at the gates of Paradise. By taking this punishment to be of the soul alone at the day of judgment before the resurrection of the body, at length of the soul before the day of judgment, the Papists formed the notion of their Purgatory.

[2] a Aliud est missum in carcerem non inde exire donec solvat novissimum quadrantem; aliud statim fidei et virtutis accipere mercedem: aliud pro peccatis longo dolore cruciatum emundari et purgari diu igne; aliud peccata omnia passione purgasse. Cypr. Epist. 52 ad Antonianum. Cum carcerem illum, quod Evangelium demonstrat, inferos intelligamus; & novissimum quadrantem modicum quoque delictum mora resurrectionis illic luendum interpretamur: nemo dubitabit animam aliquid pensare penes inferos salva resurrectionis plenitudine per carnem quoque. Tertul. de anima c. 35 & c. ult. Nam hic quoque novit, ut qui ex barbara didicerat philosophia, eam quæ fit per ignem expurgationem eorum qui male vixerunt, quam ἐκπύρωσιν hoc est exustionem seu inflammationem postea vocarunt Stoici. Clem. Alexandr. Strom. 5 pag. 549. To the same purpose write Origen, Cæsarius, Gregory Nissen, Ierome, Ambrose, Augustine & others, some of them calling this punishment the baptism of fire, others a saving by fire, others the flaming sword at the gates of Paradise. By taking this punishment to be of the soul alone at the day of judgment before the resurrection of the body, at length of the soul before the day of judgment, the Papists formed the notion of their Purgatory.

[3] a

[4] a See R. D. Kimchi upon Isaiah c. 56.6. Irenæus l. 5. c. 28 & 29 & 30. Augustin. de Civ. Dei l. 20. c. 7

[Editorial Note 2] The text on f. 15v clearly follows from that on f. 15r but presumably represents a later addition, the text having originally continued on f. 16r.

[5] ✝ So the 70, the Latin & Chalde Par.

[6] aSee Isa. 28.16

[7] bSee Isa 3.26 & 60.18.

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Professor Rob Iliffe
Director, AHRC Newton Papers Project

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Fellow & Perne librarian, Peterhouse, Cambridge

Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL - newtonproject@history.ox.ac.uk

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