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The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy the principles of moral and christian philosophy volume 2 Christian Philosophy natural law and enlightenment classics Knud Haakonssen General Editor Map of Aberdeen uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ii ii ii iinatural law and iienlightenment classics ii ii ii ii ii iiThe Principles of ii iiMoral and ii iiChristian Philosophy iivolume 2 ii ii iiChristian Philosophy ii iiGeorge Turnbull ii ii ii iiEdited and with an Introduction by iiAlexander Broadie ii iiPhilosophical Works and Correspondence ii iiof George Turnbull ii ii ii ii iiliberty fund ii iiIndianapolis ii uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu This book is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundation established to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The cuneiform inscription that serves as our logo and as the design motif for our endpapers is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 b.c. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash. Introduction, annotations ᭧ 2005 Liberty Fund, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 09 08 07 06 05 c 54321 09 08 07 06 05 p 54321 Cover art and frontispiece are the Aberdeen detail of the William Roy Map, created from 1747 to 1755, and are used by permission of the British Library 1 (Shelfmark Maps C.9.b.21 sheet ⁄2). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Turnbull, George, 1698–1748. The principles of moral and Christian philosophy: philosophical works and correspondence of George Turnbull edited and with an introduction by Alexander Broadie. p. cm.—(Natural law and enlightenment classics) Includes bibliographical references. Contents: v. 1. The principles of moral philosophy. isbn 0-86597-455-1 (alk. paper) isbn 0-86597-458-6 (pbk.: alk. paper) isbn 0-86597-454-3 (set: alk. paper) isbn 0-86597-457-8 (set: pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Ethics—Early works to 1800. 2. Christian ethics—Anglican authors—Early works to 1800. 3. Natural law—Religious aspects—Church of England—Early works to 1800. 4. Christianity—Philosophy—Early works to 1800. I. Broadie, Alexander. II. Title. III. Series. bj1012.t82 2005 241Ј.043—dc22 2004057633 isbn 0-86597-456-x (v. 2: hc) isbn 0-86597-459-4 (v. 2: sc) liberty fund, inc. 8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300 Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-1684 contents Introduction ix Christian Philosophy 465 Bibliography of Works Cited 915 Index 921 introduction George Turnbull’s Christian Philosophy, volume 2 of his Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy, was undoubtedly written by a devout Christian, though whether Turnbull throughout his life endorsed the kind of Christianity to be found in volume 2 is doubtful. It is reasonable to suppose that he did at least begin as a Calvinist, for that was the kind of religion he would have learned from his father, the Church of Scotland minister George Turnbull senior, who was minis- tering to the Church of Scotland parish of Alloa in the Scottish county of Clackmannanshire when George junior was born.1 We do not know what sort of Calvinist George Turnbull senior was (for Scottish Calvin- ism covers a broad spectrum of belief), but if George Turnbull the younger began as a Calvinist of the more robust sort, he must have started to move away from this position when still quite young. For in Edinburgh in his later teens, after completing his studies for the arts degree (M.A.), he joined the newly founded Rankenian Club, whose ideological bias toward Lord Shaftesbury did not sit comfortably with Calvinism (though it could be made to sit more or less uncomfortably with it). In 1718 Turnbull tried (under the assumed name Philocles) to start a correspondence with the Irish freethinker John Toland (1670– 1722), whose espousal of a form of Spinozistic pantheism2 (or atheism, as many judged it to be) made any hint of agreement with Toland a potentially risky enterprise for a youth wanting to make his way in the 1. He moved to take charge of the parish of Tyninghame in East Lothian one year later. 2. See Jonathan I. Israel, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650–1750 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 609–14. ix x introduction world. At about the same time Turnbull wrote a short work on religious toleration which, as he later claimed, was rejected by publishers because, in an age when religious free thought carried with it sanctions of one form or another, the publishers whom Turnbull approached were not prepared to take responsibility for marketing a tract advocating such thinking. Indication of Turnbull’s strength of opinion in the matter is found in a letter he wrote at about this time to the Irish peer Lord Moles- worth. In a manner characteristic of Molesworth, Turnbullaffirms that “our Colleges are under the Inspection of proud domineering pedantic Priests whose interest it is to train up the youth in a profound veneration of their Senseless metaphysical Creeds & Catechisms, which for this purpose they are daily inured to defend against all Doubters & Enquirers with the greatest bitterness and contempt, in a stiff formal bewildering manner admirably fitted indeed to Enslave young understandings be- times and to beget an early antipathy against all Free thought.”3 It is hard to believe that the Marischal faculty knew about Turnbull’s vigorous advocacy of religious free thought or his broadly sympathetic attitude to Toland. But, in any case, after becoming regent at Marischal College in 1721, Turnbull moved toward a more orthodox position; though not immediately, as witness the fact that the aforementionedlet- ter to Molesworth was sent a full year after Turnbull had taken up his appointment at the college. The softer position he adopted in his teach- ing involved emphasis on the central role of revelation in religion, though he did believe, and say, that, to speak generally, the Christian revelation could hold its own under cross-examination before the tri- bunal of reason since it satisfied criteria of rationality, such as consis- tency with itself and also with experience. The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy probably represents 3. Letter dated 3 August 1722. The letter is quoted in M. A. Stewart, “George Turnbull and educational reform,” in J. J. Carter and Joan M. Pittock, eds., Aberdeen and the Enlightenment (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1987), 95–103; see 96. For much of the biographical information in this introduction (as for the introduc- tion to volume 1) I have relied on this article by Stewart and also on Paul Wood, “George Turnbull (1698–1748),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). introduction xi rather closely the belief system that Turnbullespoused both at Marischal and in the years thereafter until publication of the work. The period included a dramatic shift in Turnbull’s institutional religious allegiance. His matriculation at Exeter College, Oxford, with the aim of securing the degree of bachelor of civil law (duly granted in 1733) was probably due to his decision to seek a position in the Church of England. He was unable to take the matter any further in the short term because of his financial situation. Instead he spent time in Italy as private tutor to Lord Rockingham’s son. But finally in 1739, through the good offices of Thomas Birch4 and the Latitudinarian thinker Arthur Ashley Sykes,5 Turnbullwas ordained into the Church of England byBenjaminHoadly (1676–1761),6 bishop of Winchester. In 1741 Turnbull was appointed a chaplain to the Prince of Wales, and in 1742 Thomas Rundle (ca. 1688– 1743), bishop of Derry, appointed Turnbullrector of the parish of Dru- machose, County Derry. However, he spent no more than two years, and perhaps less than that, in his new charge, for by 1744 he was touring Italy as a private tutor to Horatio Walpole, and he never returned to Britain.7 That his death in 1748 was in The Hague was fitting for a man who seemed forever on the move. He was also restless in the spiritual sense, though consideration of the ecclesiastical circles within which he moved, and consideration of the individuals whom he cultivated, such 4. Birch was treasurer of the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, which Turnbull had joined soon after its inception in 1735. Turnbull had had hopes at one point of being appointed its treasurer and, also, of receiving the society’s support for the publication of his Treatise on Ancient Painting (which was eventually published, without the society’s help, in 1740). Birch, a Fellow of the Royal Society,andsecretary of the society from 1752 to 1765, was one of many English divines, most of them at Oxford, assiduously cultivated by Turnbull. 5. A strong advocate of rationalist Protestantism, whose stance at times bears a passing resemblance to that of David Hume. See Sykes’s discussion of miracles in his The Principles and Connexion of Natural and Revealed Religion (London, 1740). 6. Hoadly led the extreme Latitudinarian party in the church. He had no time for the mysteries of the faith, insisting instead that religious beliefs should be able to withstand cross-examination by reason. 7. If, as I conjecture in the introduction to volume 1, Turnbull had contracted tuberculosis or bronchitis, then he may well have thought that a lengthy stay in Italy would be of benefit to his health. xii introduction as Sykes and Hoadly, suggest that he was on the liberal wing of the church—light on dogma and insistent on the importance of religious belief satisfying suitable criteria of rationality. Within this position he was sufficiently discriminating to be strongly hostile to others who might also be thought to belong more or lessloosely to the liberal, rationalist side of the Church.
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