A Forgotten Christian Deist This is a cultural and intellectual biography of a neglected but important figure, Thomas Morgan (1671/2–1743). Educated at Bridgewater Academy, he was active as Presbyterian preacher, medical practitioner, and one of the first who called himself a Christian Deist. Morgan was not only a harbinger of the disparagement of the Old Testament, but also a prolific pamphleteer about things religious, and a publisher of medical books. He received praise for his medical work, but a negative press for his theological visions, and he ended as a forgotten figurein history; this book restores an overlooked writer to his due place in history. It is the firstmodern biography of Morgan and its readership comprises historians of deism, the enlightenment, the eighteenth century, theology and the church, Presbyterianism, and medical history. Jan van den Berg was born in The Hague, studied Theology at Free University Amsterdam, and was lecturer of the Old Testament at the Postgraduate School for Theology of the Methodist University of São Paulo in Brazil. He was minister of the Protestant Church in Oss, Netherlands, and afterward in Brasschaat, Belgium. He obtained his PhD at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, November 8th, 2018. The Enlightenment World Series Editor: Michael T. 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Miller British Jacobin Politics, Desires, and Aftermaths Seditious Hearts James Epstein and David Karr A Forgotten Christian Deist Thomas Morgan Jan van den Berg For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/The-Enlightenment-World/book-series/ENW A Forgotten Christian Deist Thomas Morgan Jan van den Berg First published 2021 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Jan van den Berg The right of Jan van den Berg to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Berg, Jan van den, 1951- author. Title: A forgotten Christian deist : Thomas Morgan / Jan van den Berg, ORCiD 0000-0003-3157-9169. Other titles: Thomas Morgan (1671/2-1743) Description: New York : Routledge, 2021. | Revision of the author’s thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Leiden, 2018, under the title: Thomas Morgan (1671/2-1743) : from Presbyterian Preacher to Christian Deist : a Contribution to the Study of English Deism. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021005776 | ISBN 9780367765262 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367765309 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003167389 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Morgan, Thomas, -1743. | Deism--England-- History--18th century. Classification: LCC BL2790.M67 B47 2021 | DDC 211/.5092 [B]--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005776 ISBN: 978-0-367-76526-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-76530-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-16738-9 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by MPS Limited, Dehradun This is a cultural and intellectual biography of a neglected but important figure, Thomas Morgan (1671/2-1743). Educated at Bridgewater Academy, he was active as Presbyterian preacher, medical practitioner, and one of the first who called himself a Christian Deist. Morgan is a harbinger of the disparagement of the Old Testament in the Christian churches. The book restores a forgotten writer to his due place in history. Contents Preface viii Introduction 1 1 Life of Thomas Morgan 21 2 Morgan’s Early Publications 53 3 The Moral Philosopher 77 4 Contemporary Reactions to The Moral Philosopher 107 5 Morgan’s Answers to His Critics 123 6 Morgan’s Physico-Theology 134 7 Reactions after Morgan’s Death in England and Abroad 143 8 Morgan as a Harbinger of the Disparagement of the Old Testament 162 Conclusion 176 Appendix: Two Doubtful Attributions 181 Bibliography 183 Index 229 Preface This study has a long history. It started as an MA thesis at the Free University in Amsterdam in the 1970s, when I was researching Morgan’s criticism of the Old Testament. For the preparation of that study, I visited the British Library in London in the summer of 1977. I still have the copies of the application forms of the books and the pamphlets I requested. After my exam, I devoted little time further to Morgan, as I worked as a teacher of religious studies at a secondary school in Rotterdam. In 1983, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands sent me as a missionary to teach the Old Testament at the Post-Graduate School for Theology of the Methodist University of São Paulo in Brazil. Following my return to Europe after six years, I worked as a minister of the Reformed Church in Oss in the Netherlands and from 1995 till 2016 in the Protestant Church in Brasschaat in Belgium. Little by little, from the early twenty-firstcentury, my interest in Morgan returned, resulting, from 2008 onwards, in articles published in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Quaker History, and Notes & Queries. In 2011, I sought contact with Professor Dr. Ernestine G.E. van der Wall, Chair of Culture and History of Christianity, at the University of Leiden. I wish to thank her heartily for the many years of critical interest in the subject and her patience with me as my supervisor. This study is a thorough revision of my Ph.D. thesis, defended at the University of Leiden on November 8th, 2018. During these years, I met Dr. Jan Wim Buisman again, with whom I had already discussed Thomas Morgan in the 1970s, when we were both teachers in the same school in Rotterdam. I thank Jan Wim as co-supervisor for his critical interest. I thank Mrs. Lindy Melman, for her painstaking revision of the English text. I thank my friend Hiltjo Bos, for the many linguistic corrections in the text. I thank my son Thomas van den Berg, who helped me during these years, resolving the problems of my PC. I thank the two peer-reviewers for their thoughtful comments. Preface ix I thank Max Novick, senior editor-history at Routledge for his pleasant accompaniment. I thank Michael T. Davis, the academic series editor of The Enlightenment World, for acceptance of my book in the Series. I wish to thank all my friends in Belgium, Brazil, and the Netherlands, for their continued interest in my studies. I wish to remember here the late Professor Henning Graf Reventlow (1929–2010), who wrote to me on 13 May, 1977, hearing of my project about Morgan: ‘Ich würde es sehr begrüssen, wenn eine Monographie sich ausführlicher mit ihm beschäftigen würde’. Last but not least, I thank my beloved wife, Jane Falconi Vaz van den Berg, who helped me to keep working on this book throughout these years and who is a support for me in my illness. Jan van den Berg, Ekeren (Belgium)/ São Paulo (Brasil), January 2021 Introduction A Forgotten Christian Deist: Thomas Morgan * 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. We find kindred spirits in later ages, including the prominent German scholar Adolf von Harnack, and most recently the Berlin theologian, Notger Slenczka.1 There has been a disparagement of the Old Testament in modern times. Important figures of the Enlightenment such as Voltaire in France and Reimarus in Germany criticized the morals of the Old Testament. Liberal theologians such as Semler and Schleiermacher in Germany were putting the Old Testament in a subordinate position. A serious battle about the value of the Old Testament for the church arose in the 1930s in the German Evangelical churches. Not only in Germany but also in the rest of the Christian world, especially after the Second World War, a tendency of ignoring the value of the Old Testament has been growing. In the midst of this history of disparagement of the Old Testament, we found Thomas Morgan. He is commonly classed as a deist, particularly on the base of his most famous publication, The moral philosopher, which appeared anonymously in three volumes between 1737 and 1740.