610 



WARBURTON, WILLIAM. 



WARBURTON, WILLIAM. 



620 



to whom he had dedicated his book, was instituted to his first prefer- 

 ment, the small vicarage of Gryesly in his native county. It was in 

 the end of this same year also that he came to London, and formed 

 what we may call his first literary connexion, which was with Theo- 

 bald, Concaneu, aud others, then chiefly held together and banded into 

 a sort of confederacy by their common hostility to Pope, under the 

 scourge of whose satire they had most of thorn smarted. Warburtou 

 entered into all the animosities of his associates, and in particular was 

 unfortunate enough to indite au epistle to Concanen, dated January 

 2nd, 1726 (that is, 1727), in which he said that Dry den borrowed for 

 want of leisure, and Pope for want of genius, and which, much to his 

 annoyance, was published long afterwards, in 1766, by Akenside the 

 poet, whom ho had offended, from the original, discovered in 1750 by 

 Dr. Gavin Knight of the British Museum, iu fitting up a house in 

 Crane-court, Fleet-street, whore it is supposed Concaaen had lodged. 

 (See Akenside's ' Ode to Thomas Edwards, Esq.,' and Bucke's ' Life of 

 Akenside,' pp. 149-171.) Warburtou'a connexion with Theobald at 

 this time also led him to furnish some notes to that gentleman's 

 edition of Shakspere, which appeared iu 1733. 



In 1727 Warburton published, in 12mo, his ' Critical aud Philoso- 

 phical Enquiry into the Causes of Prodigies aud Miracles ;' aud the 

 same year his only contribution to the literature of his original pro- 

 fession, a treatise entitled ' The Legal Judicature in Chancery stated.' 

 The latter work appeared anonymously, and is stated to have been under- 

 taken at the particular request of Samuel Burroughs, Esq., afterwards 

 a master in chancery, who put the materials into Warburton' s hands. 

 In Reed's' Law Catalogue,' London, 1809, it is described as " said to be 

 written by Master Spicer, but generally ascribed to Lord King." 



In April 1728, Warburton, by the interest of Sir Robert Sutton, was 

 placed in the king's list of masters of arts for creation at Cambridge, on 

 his majesty's visit to the university ; and in June the same year he was 

 pre-ented by the same friend and patron to the rectory of Burnt or 

 lBr<int Broughton, near Newark. His next publication of any im- 

 portance, and the first which made him generally known, did not 

 appear till 1736 his famous treatise entitled ' The Alliance between 

 Church and State ; or, the Necessity and Equity of an Established 

 Religion and a Test Law demonstrated from the Essence and End of 

 Civil Society, upon the Fundamental Principles of the Law of Nature 

 and Nations.' This work equally startled and offended one party by 

 its conclusions aud their opponents by its mode of arriving at them ; 

 but it has come, we believe, to be very generally accepted by moderate 

 churchmen as the soundest vindication of national religious establish- 

 ments. It was described by Bishop Horsley, half a century after its 

 appearance, as "one of the finest specimens that are to be found, 

 perhaps, in any language, of scientific reasoning applied to a political 

 subject." 



In January of the following year 1738, Warburton published the 

 first volume, containing the first three books, of his great work, 

 ' The Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated on the Principles of 

 a Religious Deist, from the Omission of the Doctrine of a Future 

 State of Rewards and Punishments in the Jewish Dispensation.' It 

 immediately, as was to be expected, raised a storm of controversy, 

 which lasted for many years, and in the course of which the author 

 had to defend himself against Drs. Stebbing, Sykes, Pococke, R. Grey, 

 Middleton, and other assailants, in some respects agreeing as little 

 among themselves as with the common object of their attacks. War- 

 burton treated them all, Middleton alone excepted, much as a school- 

 master might treat so many of his pupils who should have ventured 

 to enter into a dispute with him or to clamour against his authority. 



The leading idea of the ' Divine Legation ' is, that so important a 

 doctrine as that of a future state, which must be regarded as the chief 

 natural cement and bond of human society, could not possibly have 

 been dispensed with in any scheme of mere human legislation, and 

 that hence the Mosaic dispensation, in which according to Warburtou's 

 view, it is omitted, must have come from heaven, and must also have 

 been maintained in a peculiar manner by a divine or miraculous 

 influence. Whatever other merit it had, or had not, this view was at 

 least undeniably a new one ; and it was developed by its author with 

 an ingenuity, a fulness and variety of learning, and an unflagging 

 animation, such as certainly never had been combined before, and 

 perhaps have not been exhibited together since, in any English theo- 

 logical work. But in truth mere theological discussion forms only a 

 small portion of the book ; the author is continually making excur- 

 sions from the straight path of his argument, and in this way the 

 reader is conducted, in the course of their journey together, over some 

 of the most interesting fields of literature and philosophy. 



A second edition of the first volume of the ' Divine Legation ' was 

 called for before the end of the year in which it first came out. The 

 second volume, containing the fourth, fifth, and sixth books appeared 

 in 1741. The first volume, enlarged and divided into two volumes, 

 was published for the fourth time in 1755 ; and a now edition of the 

 second, similarly extended, appeared in 1758. In a third edition, 

 which appeat-ed in 1765, this second part of the work was extended 

 to three volumes ; so that the whole now consisted of five volumes. 



Meanwhile the author had also been engaged in a variety of other 

 labours, and hid moreover improved his fortunes in more ways than 

 one. Shortly after the appearance of his first volume, iu 1738, ho was 

 appointed chaplain to tho Prince of Wales. The following year six 



letters which he published in ' The Works of tho Learned,' in defence 

 of the orthodoxy of Pope's ' Essay on Man,' against the attacks of 

 M. de Crousaz, introduced him to the acquaintance of Pope, who 

 proved, for the few years that he lived after this, the steady aud 

 zealous friend of his voluntary champion. A seventh letter, " by the 

 author of the ' Divine Legation,' " completed the vindication of the 

 poem, in June 1740 ; and when Pope died, in May 1744, it was found 

 that he had left Warburton half his library, with the property of all 

 such of his works already printed as he had not otherwise disposed of, 

 and all the profits which should arise from any edition to be printed 

 after his death. In 1749, upon Lord Bolingbroke, iu tho preface to 

 his ' Idea of a Patriot King,' having charged his late friend Pope with 

 having clandestinely printed au edition of that work some years 

 before without his, the author's, leave or knowledge, Warburton is 

 believed to have been the writer of 'A Letter' addressed to Boling- 

 broke, which immediately appeared in vindication of the deceased poet, 

 and which Bolingbroke soon afterwards replied to in what he called 

 ' A Familiar Epistle to the most Impudent Man living.' Warburton 

 and Bolingbroke had once been introduced to each other by Pope, but 

 parted with feelings of mutual disgust ; and it is probable that Pope's 

 intimacy with Warburton in his last days contributed to alienate hioi 

 from his older friend. 



One of the most important services which Warburtou owed to 

 Pope, was his introduction to the house of Ralph Allen, E*q., of Prior 

 Park, near Bath. This led to his marriage, in September 1745, with 

 Allen's niece, Miss Gertrude Tucker, in whose right, on Allen's death, 

 in 1764, he became proprietor of Prior Park. 



Sundry single sermons which he published from time to time must 

 be passed over without notice. It may be mentioned however as 

 illustrating the versatility of his powers, that one of his productions 

 in 1742 was a 'Dissertation on the Origin of Books of Chivalry,' 

 which appeared at the end of the Preface to Jarvis's translation of 

 ' Don Quixote,' and which Pope soon after told him he had imme- 

 diately recognised to be his, exclaiming, before he had got over two pai-a- 

 graphs of it, " Aut Erasmus, aut Diabolus." The same year he pub- 

 lished 'A Critical and Philosophical Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay 

 on Man.' He also persuaded Pope to substitute Colley Cibber for 

 Theobald as the hero of the ' Dunciad,' aud to complete that poem by 

 the addition of a fourth book. 



In April 1746, Warburton, whose literary reputation was now very 

 great, was unanimously elected preacher of Lincoln's Inn. Besides 

 ruany controversial tracts and other minor pieces, the following eight 

 or nine years produced his edition of Shakspere, Lond., iu 8 vols. 8vo, 

 1747 (a performance which did him little credit); his 'Julian, or a 

 Discourse concerning the Earthquake and Fiery Eruption which 

 defeated the Emperor's Attempt to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem,' 

 Svo, 1750 (a treatise of remarkable ability, occasioned by Middleton 's 

 ' Enquiry concerning the Miraculous Powers'); his edition of Pope's 

 Works, with Notes, in 9 vols. Svo, 1751 ; two volumes of Sermons 

 preached at Lincoln's Inn, under the title of ' The Principles of 

 Natural and Revealed Religion occasionally opened and explained,' Svo, 

 1753 and 1 754 ; and ' A View of Lord Bolingbroke's Philosophy, in Four 

 Letters to a Friend,' published, in two parts, in 1754 and 1755. 



In September, 1754, Warburton was appointed one of his majesty's 

 chaplains in ordinary ; and the next year he was presented to one of 

 the rich prebends of Durham. About the same time the degree of 

 D.D. was conferred upon him by Archbishop Herring. In October 

 1757, he was admitted to the deanery of Bristol ; aud in the end of the 

 year 1759 he was made Bishop of Gloucester. 



His principal literary productions after this date were a little work 

 against Methodism, in 2 vols. 12mo, entitled ' The Doctrine of Grace, 

 or the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit vindicated from the 

 Insults of Infidelity and the abuses of Fanaticism,' 1762; several 

 tracts published in the course of a controversy in which he became 

 involved with Dr. Lowth in consequence of some reflections he had 

 made on the character of Lowth's father in the 1765 edition of the 

 second part of his ' Divine Legation ;' and a third volume of Sermons 

 in 1767. His last publication was 'A Sermon preached at St. Law- 

 rence Jewry, on Thursday, April 30th 1767, before his Royal Highness 

 Edward Duke of York, president, aud the governors of the London 

 Hospital,' 4to, 1767. Not long after this his energetic and fervent 

 faculties began gradually to lose their tone, till he sank at last into a 

 state of intellectual slumber or torpor; not however, it is said, un- 

 relieved by occasional though rare and brief returns of his former 

 cheerfulness and even mental vigour. His death took place on the 

 7th of June 1779, not long after the death of his only son, who was 

 carried off by consumption in early manhood. He left no other child, 

 and his widow, iu 1781, married the Rev. John Stafford Smith, who 

 had been her first husband's chaplain, and who thus became owner of 

 Prior Park. 



A complete edition of the works of Bishop Warburton was pub- 

 lished in 1788, by his friend Bishop Hurd, in 7 vols. 4to, at the ex- 

 pense of Mrs. Smith; and in 1794 Hurd added what he called 'A 

 Discourse, by way of general Preface' to this edition, 'containing 

 some Account of the Life, Writings, and Character of the Author.' 

 Meanwhile the late Dr. Parr, with no friendly purpose, had supplied 

 the deficiencies of Hurd's collection by the publication, in 1789, of an 

 Svo volume of 'Tracts, by Wai-burton, and a Warburtouian (Hurd 



