'The trembling earth is God's herald': Earthquakes, religion and public life in Britain during the 1750s

Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century

Volumn 2005, Issue 2, 2005, Pages

  Ingram, Robert G ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 67650065547     PISSN: 04352866     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (112)

1. Philosophical transactions 46 (1749-1750), p.602-604
2. See also G. S. Rousseau, 'The London earthquakes of 1750', Cahiers d'histoire mondiale 11 (1968), p.436-51
3. T. D. Kendrick, The Lisbon earthquake (London 1956), p.1-23
4. The Diaries of Thomas Wilson, D. D., 1731-7 and 1750, ed. C. L. S. Linnell (London 1964), p.231
5. Tobias Smollett, The History of England (Oxford 1827), p.421-22
6. Letters from a late eminent prelate to one of his friends (Kidderminster 1793), p.149
7. The Autobiography and correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, ed. Lady Llanover (London 1861), iii.378-79
8. Elizabeth Montagu, the queen of the blue stockings: her correspondence from 1720 to 1761, ed. E. J. Climenson (London 1906), ii.85
9. James Bate, The Practical use of public judgments. A sermon, preached at St. Paul's, Deptford, Kent, on February 6, 1756 (London 1756), p.4
10. Compare, for instance, John Brewer, The Pleasures of the imagination: English culture in the eighteenth century (London 1997)
11. and J. C. D. Clark, English society, 1660-1832: religion, ideology, and politics during the Ancien Regime (Cambridge 2000)
12. Susan Neiman, Evil in modern thought: an alternative history of philosophy (Princeton, NJ 2002), p. 1
13. and Susan Neiman, 'What's the problem of evil?', in Rethinking evil: contemporary perspectives, ed. Maria Pia Lara (Berkeley, CA 2001), p.41
14. See also D. K. Chester, 'The theodicy of natural disasters', Scottish journal of theology 51:4 (1998), p.485-505
15. B. W. Young, 'Religion history and the eighteenth-century historian', Historical journal (2000), p.849-68, examines the secularisation of eighteenth-century historiography
16. Jeremy Gregory, 'Christianity and culture: religion, the arts and sciences in England, 1660-1800', in Culture and society in Britain, 1660-1800, ed. Jeremy Black (Manchester 1997), p. 102-23
17. is a useful corrective to Blair Worden, 'The question of secularization', in A Nation transformed: England after the Restoration, ed. Alan Houston and Steve Pincus (Cambridge 2001), p.20-40
18. and C. John Sommerville, The Secularization of early modern England: from religious culture to religious faith (New York 1992)
19. This paragraph is drawn from Robert G. Ingram, 'William Warburton, divine action, and enlightened Christianity', in Religious identities in Britain, 1660-1832, ed. William Gibson and Robert G. Ingram (Aldershot 2005)
20. Alexandra Walsham, Providence in early modern England (Oxford 1999)
21. Blair Worden, 'Providence and politics in Cromwellian England', Past and present (1985), p.55-99
22. John Spurr, '"Virtue religion, and government": the Anglican uses of providence', in The Politics of religion in Restoration England, ed. Tim Harris, Paul Seaward, and Mark Goldie (Oxford 1991), p.29-47
23. Tony Claydon, William III and the godly revolution (Cambridge 1996), p.31-52
24. Craig Rose, 'Providence, protestant union and godly reformation in the 1690s', Transactions of the Royal historical society (1993), p.151-69
25. Patricia Bonomi, Under the cope of heaven: religion, society and politics in colonial America (Oxford 1998), p.98
26. William E. Burns, An Age of wonders: prodigies, politics and providence in England, 1657-1727 (Manchester 2002), p. 185-87
27. Michael P. Winship, Seers of God: puritan providentialism in the Restoration and early Enlightenment (Baltimore, MD 1996), p.138-52
28. Roy Porter, The Creation of the modern world: the untold story of the British Enlightenment (New York 2000), p. 100, argues along these lines
29. Derby mercury (16-23 February 1750), p.2, 3
30. The Bath journal (February - April 1750, December - January 1756)
31. The Ipswich journal (February - April 1750, December 1755 - December 1756)
32. The Newcastle intelligencer (December 1755 - February 1756)
33. The Newcastle journal (November 1755 - February 1756), for instance, covered the earthquakes similarly
34. See, for instance, The Diary of Thomas Turner, 1754-1765, ed. David Vaisey (Oxford 1984), p.25
35. Albert J. Kuhn, 'Glory of gravity: Hutchinson vs. Newton', Journal of the history of ideas 22:3 (1961), p.303-22
36. G. T. N. Cantor, 'Revelation and the cyclical cosmos of John Hutchinson', in Images of the earth: essays in the history of the environmental sciences, ed. L. S. Jordanova and Roy S. Porter (Chalfont St Giles 1979), p. 4-22
37. C. B. Wilde, 'Hutchinsonianism, natural philosophy and religious controversy in eighteenth century Britain', History of science 18:1 (1980), p.1-24
38. C. B. Wilde, 'Matter and spirit as natural symbols in eighteenth-century British natural philosophy', British journal for the history of science 15:2 (1982), p.99-131
39. John C. English, 'John Hutchinson's critique of Newtonian heterodoxy', Church history 68:3 (1999), p.581-97
40. and Patricia Fara, 'Marginalized practices', in The Cambridge history of science, vol.iv, ed. Porter (Cambridge 2003), p.503-505, provide useful introductions to Hutchinson and his followers
41. Peter Harrison, 'Newtonian science, miracles, and the laws of nature', Journal of the history of ideas 56:4 (1995), p.531
42. For background, see Roy Porter, The Making of geology: earth science in Britain, 1660-1815 (Cambridge 1977)
43. Roy Porter, 'Creation and credence: the career and theories of the earth in Britain, 1660-1820', in Natural order: historical studies in scientific culture, ed. Barry Barnes and Steven Shapin (Beverly Hills, CA 1979), p.97-123
44. Roy Porter, 'The terraqueous globe', in The Ferment of knowledge: studies in the historiography of eighteenth-century science, ed. G. S. Rousseau and Roy Porter (Cambridge 1980), p.285-324
45. and Rhoda Rappaport, 'The earth sciences', in The Cambridge history of science, vol.iv, ed. Porter, p.400-16
46. [Montagu], A Dissertation upon earthquakes, p.70
47. Simon Schaffer, 'Natural philosophy and public spectacle in the eighteenth century', History of science (1983), p.18
48. See also, Philosophical transactions (1749-1750), p.641-46, 657-69, 731-50
49. Stephen Hales, 'Some considerations on the causes of earthquakes', Philosophical transactions 46 (1749-1750), p.677
50. Brian Young, 'Theological books from The Naked Gospel to Nemesis of faith', in Books and their readers in eighteenth-century England: new essays, ed. Isabel Rivers (London and New York 2001), p.82-86, makes a similar point with regard to theological works and novels during the period
51. David Boyd Hancock, William Stukeley: science, religion, and archaeology in eighteenth-century England (Woodbridge 2002)
52. and Stuart Piggott, William Stukeley: an eighteenth-century antiquary (Oxford 1950) are the only scholarly biographies of Stukeley, but neither considers closely Stukeley's writings on earthquakes
53. The Family memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley, M. D., and the antiquarian and other correspondence of William Stukeley, Roger and Samuel Gale, etc. (1882), p.218-19
54. Stukeley, The Philosophy of earthquakes, natural and religious, p.3, 5g
55. William Stukeley, The Philosophy of earthquakes, natural and religious, iii.40
56. Hales, 'Some considerations on the causes of earthquakes', p.669-70
57. and Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: an interpretation, the rise of modern paganism (New York 1967)
58. and Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Cambridge 1995), p.31-46, recognise the central place of religious debate in the Enlightenment but nonetheless assume that the purpose of enlightenment as conceived by contemporaries was to reform religion by removing its mysterious and mystical elements
59. Samuel Chandler, The Scripture account of the cause and intention of earthquakes, in a sermon preached at the Old-Jury, March 11, 1749-50, on occasion of the two shocks of an earthquake, the first on February 8, the other on March 8 (London 1750), p.7
60. William Nowell, A Sermon preached at the parish church of Wolsingham, [...] on the 6th of February, 1756, being the day appointed by his Majesty for a general fast, on account of the dreadful earthquake at Lisbon, Nov. 1. 1755 (Newcastle 1755), p.7
61. Henry Guerlac and Margaret C. Jacob, 'Bentley, Newton, and providence (the Boyle lectures once more)', Journal of the history of ideas 30:3 (1969), p.307-18
62. David Kubrin, 'Newton and the cyclical cosmos: providence and the mechanical philosophy', Journal of the history of ideas 28:3 (1967), p.325-46
63. James E. Force, 'Hume and the relation of science to religion among certain members of the Royal Society', Journal of the history of ideas (1984), p.519-26
64. and Margaret C. Jacob, 'Christianity and the Newtonian world-view', in God and nature: historical essays on the encounter between Christianity and science, ed. David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers (Berkeley, CA 1986), p.238-55 all explore this point
65. P. M. Heimann, 'Voluntarism and immanence: conceptions of nature in eighteenth-century thought', Journal of the history of ideas 39:2 (April - June 1978), p.271-83, argues that this Newtonian voluntarist synthesis was supplanted in the late eighteenth century by Joseph Priestley and James Hutton's theories of activist matter that did not require God's continued sustenance to operate
66. Climenson, Elizabeth Montagu, the queen of the blue-stockings, i.274
67. See, for instance, A Series of letters between Airs Elizabeth Carter and Miss Catherine Talbot from the year 1741 to 1770 [...] in the possession of the Rev. Montagu Pennington (London 1809), i.332
68. Secret comment: the diaries of Gertrude Sovile, 1721-1757, ed. Alan Savile (Devon 1997), p.291
69. Calendar of the correspondence of Philip Doddridge DD (1702-1751), ed. Geoffrey Nuttall (London 1979), p.326
70. Quoted in Kendrick, The Lisbon earthquake, p.13-14
71. Gentleman's magazine (March 1750), p.125
72. Thomas Seeker, 'Sermon preached in the parish-church of St. James, Westminster, March 11, 1749-50, on occasion of the earthquake, March 8', in The Works of Thomas Secker (London 1825), vol.166
73. Roger Pickering, An Address to those who have either retired, or intend to leave the town, under the imaginary apprehension of the approaching shock of another earthquake: being the substance delivered on the last Lord's-day, the first of this instant April (London 1750), p.30
74. The Letters of David Hume, ed. J. Y. T. Greig (Oxford 1969), i.141
75. Edward Carpenter, Thomas Sherlock, 1678-1761 (London 1936), p.286
76. D. Napthine and W. A. Speck, 'Clergymen and conflict, 1660-1763', Studies in church history 20 (1983), p.238
77. Samuel Squire, A Speedy repentance the most effectual means to avert Gods judgements. A sermon preached at the parish church of St. Anne, Westminster, February 6, 1756 (London 1756), p.11
78. Bayly, A Sermon preached at St. James's church in Bath, on Friday, February 6, 1756, p.24-26
79. th, 1756 (London 1756), p.21
80. Thomas Anguish, A Sermon preached at St. Nicholas, Deptford, on the fast day appointed by royal proclamation, on February 6, 1756 (London 1756), p.9
81. John Cradock, A Sermon preached in the parish church of St. Paul, Covent Garden, on Friday, February 6, 1756 (London 1756), p.19
82. and Maxine Berg and Helen Clifford, Consumers and luxury: consumer culture in Europe, 1650-1800 (Manchester 1999), which posit the de-moralisation of luxury in the mid-modern period
83. John Sekora, Luxury: the concept in western thought, Eden to Smollett (Baltimore, MD 1977), surveys the history of the concept of luxury
84. Squire, A Speedy repentance the most effectual means to avert God's judgments, p.5
85. John Mason, The Christian's duty in a time of publick danger. A sermon preached at Cheshunt in the county of Hertford, February 6, 1756 (London 1756), p.30
86. Chandler, The Scripture account of the cause and intention of earthquakes, in a sermon preached at the Old-Jury, March 11, 1749-50, p.36
87. Philip Doddridge, The Guilt and doom of Capernaum, seriously recommended to the consideration of the inhabitants of London: in a sermon reached at Sailers-Hall, August 20, 1749. Published on occasion of the late alarm by the second shock of an earthquake, March 8, 1749-50 (London 1750), p.35
88. Charles Bulkeley, The Nature and necessity of national reformation. A sermon, preached at Barbican, Feb. 6. 1756 (London 1756), p.13
89. John Allen, The Destruction of Sodom improved, as a warning to Great Britain. A sermon preached on the fast-day, Friday, February 6, 1756. At Hanover-Street, Long Acre (London 1756), p.18
90. st, 1756 (London 1756), p.1
91. Joseph Baller, Divine alarms and warnings to a sinful people considered and improved: a sermon preached at Barnstaple, in the county of Devon, on February 6. 1756 (London 1756), p.11
92. Charles Moss, A Sermon preached at the parish church of St. James, Westminster, on Friday February 6, 1756 (London 1756), p.6
93. William Warburton, Natural and civil events the instruments of God's moral government. A sermon preached the last public fast-day, at Lincoln's-Inn-Chappel (London 1756), p.4
94. st, 1756, p.10
95. th, 1756, p.7, 8-9
96. Thomas Newman, The Sin and shame of disregarding providences. A sermon preached at Crosby-Square, April 4, 1750. Occasioned by [...] an earthquake (London 1750), p. 16
97. Thomas Hunter, National wickedness the cause of national misery. A sermon preach'd at the parish church of Weverham in Cheshire: on Friday, the sixth of February (Liverpool 1756), p.5
98. Bob Harris, Politics and the nation: Britain in the mid-eighteenth century (Oxford 2002), p.292
99. Jeremy Black, 'Confessional state or elect nation? Religion and identity in eighteenth-century England', in Protestantism and national identity: Britain and Ireland, C.1650-c.1850, ed. Tony Claydon and Ian McBride (Cambridge 1998), p.53-74, is the most nuanced account of its subject, though it underplays the cohesive possibilities of providentialism during the mid-eighteenth century
100. James Joseph Caudle, 'Measures of allegiance: sermon culture and the creation of a public discourse of obedience and resistance in Georgian Britain, 1714-1760', Yale University PhD thesis, 1996, p.262-63
101. Oxford dictionary of the Christian church, p.599-600
102. Roland Bartel, 'The story of public fast days in England', Anglican theological review (1955), p.190
103. Quoted in Harris, Politics and the nation, p.292
104. The Autobiography and correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany, iii.408
105. The Secret comment: the diaries of Gertrude Savile, 1721-1757, p.312
106. The Works of John Wesley: journals and diaries (1755-65), ed. W. Reginald Ward and Richard P. Heitzenrater (Nashville, TN 1992), iv.41
107. Two Yorkshire diaries: the diary of Arthur Jessop and Ralph Ward's journal, ed. C. E. Whiting (1952), p. 188
108. th of February, 1756 (London 1756), p.14
109. Diary of Thomas Turner, p.26
110. Squire, A Speedy repentance the most effectual means to avert God's judgements, p. 17-18
111. The similarities between the earthquake sermons during the 1750s and puritan earthquakes sermons of the seventeenth century are striking: Maxine van de Wetering, 'Moralizing in Puritan natural science: mysteriousness in earthquake sermons', Journal of the history of ideas (July 1982), p.417-38
112. Letters from a late eminent prelate, p.149