Later, Milton seems
to lean toward the Copernican theory, for, referring to the
earth, he says:
"Or she from west her silent course advance
With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle, while she faces even
And bears thee soft with the smooth air along."
English orthodoxy continued to assert itself. In 1724 John
Hutchinson, professor at Cambridge, published his Moses'
Principia, a system of philosophy in which he sought to build up
a complete physical system of the universe from the Bible. In
this he assaulted the Newtonian theory as "atheistic," and led
the way for similar attacks by such Church teachers as Horne,
Duncan Forbes, and Jones of Nayland. But one far greater than
these involved himself in this view. That same limitation of his
reason by the simple statements of Scripture which led John
Wesley to declare that, "unless witchcraft is true, nothing in
the Bible is true," led him, while giving up the Ptolemaic theory
and accepting in a general way the Copernican, to suspect the
demonstrations of Newton. Happily, his inborn nobility of
character lifted him above any bitterness or persecuting spirit,
or any imposition of doctrinal tests which could prevent those
who came after him from finding their way to the truth.
But in the midst of this vast expanse of theologic error signs of
right reason began to appear, both in England and America.
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