Readers of the first edition of Newton's \textit{Principia} on the relation between gravity, matter, and divine and natural causation: British public debates, 1687--1713 (Q6604582)

This article examines how Newton's \textit{Principia} was invoked, to various purposes, in theological discussions of late-17th- and early-18th-century Britain. Some of the participants in these debates were active in both the mathematical/scientific and the clerical spheres. For example, William Whiston was chaplain to the bishop of Norwich and, later, Newton's immediate successor to the Lucasian chair of mathematics at Cambridge. Likewise, Samuel Clarke replaced Whiston as chaplain and also was commissioned by Newton to translate the latter's \textit{Opticks} into Latin. The present article surveys how Whiston, Clarke, and other contemporaries used Newton's work to bolster their own respective theological and philosophical stances, noting that the \textit{Principia}'s treatment of the existence of a vacuum received particular attention from many of these people.