I don't know if you read the article, but I thought this paragraph was especially notable:

"There may be a limit to what the human mind can figure out about our universe. But how presumptuous it would be for me to claim that if I can't solve a problem, neither can any other person who has ever lived or who will ever be born. Suppose Galileo and Laplace had felt that way? Better yet, what if Newton had not? He might then have solved Laplace's problem a century earlier, making it possible for Laplace to cross the next frontier of ignorance."

He is refering to the story earlier in the article about how Laplace solved the problem that Newton had answered with an unsatisfactory "god does it." So yes, Newton did cop out. There was more knowledge to be had, but he found it too difficult and quit.