WARBTJRTON, WILLIAM, a distinguished English divine, commonly known as bishop Warburton, was born at Newark, in the county of Nottingham, ou Dec. 24, 1698. Hi was the eldest son of George Warburton, an attorney of that place, who claimed descent from an old Cheshire family. Young Warburton received his education at the school of his native town, and afterward at Oakham iu Rutlandshire, which he left in the year 1714, returning home to pursue the profession of his father, who had died some years before. Having served the necessary apprenticeship, he practiced as an attorney at Newark for some years, but with no distinguished success. His natural bent was toward literature; and he had all along expressed a desire to take orders in the church of England. Finally, he quitted the legal profession with this object in view; and having gone through the necessary course of study, he,, was presented by sir Robert Sutton, in 1728, to the rectory of I3rand-Broughton, in the diocese of Lincoln, where he remained for many years. After publishing some comparatively unimportant pieces, he issued, in 1736, a treatise, entitled The Alliance between Church and State; or the Necessity and Equity of an Established Religion and a Test Law. This work, which is still recognized as one of the most masterly statements of the subject from the point of view of the writer, drew great and immediate attention; and in January, 1737-38, it was followed by the first volume of the opus magnum, on which his fame as a theologian must mainly continue to rest. This celebrated work, The Divine Legation of Hoses, 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, though it encountered a storm of adverse criticism, to which the writer thought it neces sary to reply in A Vindication, etc., at once established the position of Warburton es one of the most potent intellects of the period; and though its main argument has since been extensively discredited as more or less " precarious," not the less the book, in virtue of its vast learning, its vigor, and originality, will always maintain its reputation as one of the masterpieces of the great period of our English theology. In 1739, a new and revised edition of the first part of the work appeared. This was followed, in 1741, by the pub lication of the second part; and the third and concluding section, rather supplemen tary to the argument thafi essential to it, was only given to the world after the death of the writer.
Becoming involved in the controversy which followed the appearance of Pope's Essay on Man, Warburton undertook the defense of the poet, and, in 1739-10, issued a series of seven letters, entitled A Vindication of Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, by the Author of as Divine Legation. The poet was much gratified; and between him and his vindicator a warm friendship was the result, which only terminated with the death of Pope, in 1744. He died, bequeathing to Warburton one-half of his library, and such profit as might accrue from any edition of his works published after his death. To Pope, Warburton
was indebted for opportunities of cultivating the friendship of some of the most distin guished men of the time—among others, of the well-known Ralph Allen, of Prior park, near Bath, to whose niece, Miss Gertrude Tucker, he was married in 1745.
Though Warburton's important services to literature and religion. were admitted, they did not for a long time bring him any very great recognition in the way of substantial preferment. On the appearance of The Divine Legation, indeed, lie had been appointed chaplain to the prince of Wales; and in 1746, nearly ten years later, the society of Lin coln's inn unanimously elected him to be their preacher. In 1757, he was promoted to the deanery of Bristol; and finally, in 1760, Mr. Pitt, afterward earl of Chatham, bestowed on him the bishopric of Gloucester, declaring that "nothing of a private nature, since he had been in office, had given him so much pleasure" as this exercise of his pat ronage. In the later years of his life his mind became seriously impaired; and he was utterly prostrated by the loss of his only son, whom he did not long survive. He died on June 7, 1779.
Warburton was a keen polemic, and deeply engaged in all the intellectual warfare of his time. In nearly everything he wrote, there is the impress of a vigorous and fertile mind, with an arrogance of tone, which tends, in his treatment of adversaries, to degen erate into truculence and scurrility. In addition to those already mentioned, it, seems sufficient to give the titles of a few of his more notable performances. In 1750 appeared his Julian, or a Discourse concerning the Earthquake and Fiery Eruption which defeated that Emperor's Attempt to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, apropos of Dr. Middleton's Inquiry concerning the Miraculous Powers of the Christian Church. Shortly after came two volumes entitled The Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion occasionally Opened' and Explained; and in 1755, A View of Bolingbroke's Philosophy, in a Series of Letters to a Friend, which was held to be much the ablest of all the answers to Bolingbroke which, appeared. in 1757, he attacked Hume, in a publication entitled Remarks on Mr: Hum,e's Natural History of Religion by a Gentleman of Cambridge, in a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Warburton. The blind deceived no one; and if we may estimate the success of the attack by the annoyance it gave the philosopher, his allusion to " that low fellow War burton" may he held to indicate success. In 1747, he went somewhat out of his way to issue an edition of Shakespeare, with notes critical and emendatory, which last, though ingenious, and occasionally happy, did not greatly add to his reputation. A complete and splendid edition of his works was published in 1788, at the expense of his widow, by his friend, bishop Hurd, who prefaced it with a biography.