Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/66795 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Berg, J. van den Title: Thomas Morgan (1671/2-1743): from presbyterian preacher to Christian deist : A contribution to the study of English deism Issue Date: 2018-11-08 Thomas Morgan (1671/2-1743): from Presbyterian Preacher to Christian Deist A Contribution to the Study of English Deism Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op donderdag 8 november 2018 klokke 15.00 uur door Jan van den Berg geboren te ‘s-Gravenhage in 1951 2 Promotor: Professor Dr. E.G.E. van der Wall Copromotor: Dr. J.W. Buisman Promotiecommissie: Professor Dr. M.P.A. de Baar Professor Dr. L. van Bunge (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Professor Dr. H.G.M. Jorink Professor Dr. W.W. Mijnhardt (University Utrecht) 3 CONTENTS Thomas Morgan considered as deist 6-17 §1: An introduction 6 §2: Deism in the view of its English opponents 7 §3: Deism as natural religion 9 §4: Did an English deist movement exist? 11 §5: The study and definition of English Deism 12 §6: Who were the English deists? 13 §7: Thomas Morgan as ‘Christian Deist’ 15 §8: The structure of the thesis 17 Chapter One: Life of Thomas Morgan 18-41 §1: Introduction 18 §2: Youth in Somerset 18 §3: Year and place of birth 19 §4: Education in Bridgwater in Somerset 21 §5: A Geneva connection? 22 §6: The dissenting community 22 §7: Independent preacher at Bruton in Somerset 24 §8: Differences between Presbyterians and Independents 25 §9: Presbyterian ordination in Frome in Somerset 26 §10: Dissenting minister in Marlborough in Wiltshire 27 §11: Dismissal from the ministry 29 §12: Arianism among the Presbyterians 30 §13: A complaint made in the House of Lords against Thomas Morgan 31 §14: Study of medicine 32 §15: Visits to London 34 §16: Medical practitioner in Bristol 34 §17: Last years in London 36 §18: His death 40 §19: Summary 41 Chapter Two: Morgan’s writings before the publication of The moral philosopher 42-60 §1: Introduction 42 §2: The pamphlet war around the Salters’ Hall Conference (1719-1724) 42 §3: The four London Presbyterian subscribing ministers 44 §4: The Independent minister of New Street, Fetter Lane, Thomas Bradley 44 §5: The Presbyterian minister of Wilton, Samuel Fancourt 45 §6: The minister of the Scottish church, John Cumming 47 §7: The Independent minister of Warminster, John Pyke 47 §8: Two other pamphlets by Morgan 48 §9: Against the power of Enthusiasm 49 §10: Master John Hildrop and Peter Nisbett of Bristol 50 §11: A collection of tracts … now revised and published altogether: 51 §12: The debate between Thomas Morgan and Thomas Chubb (1727-1730) 52 §13: Philosophical principles of medicine and its impact 54 §14: The mechanical practice of physic 57 §15: Doubtful attributions 59 §16: Summary 60 4 Chapter Three: The moral philosopher 61-84 §1: Introduction 61 §2: Why should it have the title The moral philosopher? 62 §3: A dialogue between Philalethes a Christian Deist, and Theophanes a Christian Jew 63 §4: “The liberty to represent things in my own way” 65 §5: Christian Deism 65 §6: The criterion of religion: The fitness of things 68 §7: The criterion of revelation: Miracles no proof of revelation 69 §8: Morgan’s views on miracles in contemporary context 71 §9: Morgan’s view on the Old Testament 75 §10: From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism 78 §11: Christianity: A revival of the religion of nature 81 §12: Summary 84 Chapter Four: Contemporary reactions to The moral philosopher 86-98 §1: Introduction 86 §2: Warburton’s opinion about The moral philosopher 86 §3: The first reactions to The moral philosopher in 1737 86 §4: William Warburton’s Divine legation of Moses is not an answer to Morgan 89 §5: The Presbyterian minister of Eustace Row in Dublin, John Leland 90 §6: The Anglican divine, John Chapman 92 §7: Reactions which appeared after the publication of the second volume of The moral 94 philosopher §8: Reactions which appeared after the publication of the third volume of The moral 96 philosopher §9: Summary 98 Chapter Five: Morgan’s answers to his critics 99-107 §1: Reactions against five opponents 99 §2: Warburton 100 §3: The criterion of religion: Reason and common sense 100 §4: Criticism on miracles and revelation 101 §5: Moral criticism on the Old Testament 102 §6: Christianity 103 §7: A pioneer of the historical-critical method 103 §8: A forerunner of the Protestant Tübingen School of Theology 106 §9: Summary 107 Chapter Six: Morgan’s Physico-Theology 108-113 §1: Introduction 108 §2: Physico-Theology 109 §3: Deism and atheism in the Physico-Theology 110 §4: God acts by natural laws 110 §5: God’s preserving and governing the world 112 §6: Reactions on the Physico-Theology 112 §7: Summary 113 Chapter Seven: Reactions after Morgan’s death and abroad 114-126 §1: Introduction 114 5 §2: Morgan’s place in the Dunciad of Alexander Pope 114 §3: Reactions after Morgan’s death 114 §4: Deism did not fade away after the 1740s 116 §5: Reactions in the Netherlands 118 §6: Reactions in Germany 119 §7: Hermann Samuel Reimarus 121 §8: France 123 §9: Reactions in America 124 §10: Summary 126 Chapter Eight: Morgan as a harbinger of the disparagement of the Old Testament 127-134 §1: Introduction 127 §2: The disparagement of the Old Testament in modern times 127 §3: The view on the Old Testament in German Anti-Semitism 130 §4: Neo-Marcionism after the second world war 132 §5: Summary 133 Conclusions: 135-138 From traditionalism to Christian Deism 135 Morgan as a Christian Deist 136 Appendices 139-147 §1: The distribution of Morgan’s medical works 139 §2: Morgan’s theological publications in eighteenth-century libraries and catalogues 141 §3: Morgan’s theological publications in nineteenth-century libraries and catalogues 144 §4: The lending-library of Manchester College in York 146 §5: Quotations made by Morgan in the three volumes of The moral philosopher 146 Bibliography 148-180 §1: Archival sources 148 §2: Digital sources 148 §3: Printed sources: Thomas Morgan 148 §4: Other printed sources 150 §5: Secondary literature 158 Nederlandse Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch) 181-183 Index of persons 184-191 Index of geographical names 192-195 Curriculum Vitae 196 6 Thomas Morgan considered as deist * §1: An introduction * During the course of my theological studies in Amsterdam in the 1970s, while I was writing my MA thesis on Old Testament interpretation, I came across Thomas Morgan (1671/2- 1743), who had said some awful things about the stories of the Old Testament. Everyone who studies with pleasure the Jewish part of the Scriptures is struck when he encounters someone who is determined to kick the Old Testament out of the Canon. The history of Christian theology has seen some particular examples of this attitude. Naturally, the name of Marcion springs to mind. But we find kindred spirits in later ages, including the prominent German scholar, Adolf von Harnack, and most recently the Berlin theologian, Notger Slenczka.1 Thomas Morgan is commonly classed as a deist, particularly on the basis of his most famous publication, The moral philosopher, which appeared anonymously in three volumes between 1737 and 1740. With Morgan, we enter the arena of English Deism, and Deism in general. Nowadays, Deism presents the historian with various complex questions about its history, its concepts, and its proponents, even leading some scholars to ask the fundamental question whether such a thing as a deist movement existed in the 18th century. In general, Deism has had a negative reputation for a long time. In the mid-1960s, Peter Gay observed in his classic work on the Enlightenment that the reputation of the deists was not high: ‘they lie unread and are in fact for the most part unreadable’.2 This certainly seems to apply to Morgan’s major work, The moral philosopher: in 1860, a writer who signed himself Fitzhopkins remarked: ‘The style of The moral philosopher is not inviting, and I should not read the three volumes’.3 He probably did not read them. Reading the catalogues of the British Library during a stay in London in the 1970s, at a time when Internet search was not yet possible, I found that Thomas Morgan was not only a religious writer, but that he had been a Presbyterian minister and a medical practitioner as well. As an author, he was quite active, publishing some 3500 pages about philosophy, theology, and the practice of medicine, respectively. Moreover, he turned out to have been a vigorous pamphleteer. He was at odds with nearly everyone, quarrelling with many in the religious and medical world around him. He seems to have been much disliked by his contemporaries. There was much gossip about his life and morals, especially after his death. Since John Leland’s classic View of the principal deistical writers that have appeared in England during the last and the present century (1754-1756), Thomas Morgan has been steadfastly reckoned among the deists.4 It is all the more surprising therefore that his name does not appear in some late 20th-century and early 21st-century encyclopedias about the 1 N. Slenczka, ‘Die Kirche und das Alte Testament’, in: E. Gräb-Schmidt, ed., Das Alte Testament in der Theologie, (Marburger Jahrbuch für Theologie 25), Leipzig, 2013, 83-119. 2 P. Gay, The Enlightenment: an interpretation, Volume 1: The rise of modern paganism, reprint, London, 1973, 374; in spite of his criticism of the reputation of the Deists, Gay has called the historical significance of the Deists considerable: ‘They redrew the religious map of Europe’.