on the durable basis of learning, and upheld by the decent and attentive performance of every duty incident to his station; yet we do not find that he received any addition to the preferment given him in 1728 by sir Robert Sutton (except the chaplainship to the prince' of Wales) until April 1746, when he was unanimously called by the society of Lincoln's Inn to be their preacher. In November he published A Sermon preached on the Thanksgiving appointed to be observed the 9th Oct. for the suppression of the late unnatural Rebellion," 1746, 8vo. In 1747 appeared his edition of "Shakspeare," from which he derived very little reputation. Of this edition, the nameless critic already quoted, says, "To us it exhibits a phænomenon unobserved before in the operations of human intellect―a mind, ardent and comprehensive, acute and penetrating, warmly devoted to the subject and furnished with all the stores of literature ancient or modern, to illustrate and adorn it, yet by some perversity of understanding, or some depravation of taste, perpetually mistaking what was obvious, and perplexing what was clear; discovering erudition of which the author was incapable, and fabricating connections to which he was indifferent. Yet, with all these inconsistencies, added to the affectation, equally discernible in the editor of Pope and Shakspeare, of understanding the poet better than he understood himself, there sometimes appear, in the rational intervals of his critical delirium, elucidations so happy, and disquisitions so profound, that our admiration of the poet (even of such a poet), is suspended for a moment while we dwell on the excellencies of the commentator."

In the same year he published, 1. "A Letter from an author to a member of parliament, concerning Literary Property," 8vo. 2. "Preface to Mrs. Cockburn's remarks upon the principles and reasonings of Dr. Rutherforth's Essay on the nature and obligations of Virtue," &c. 8vo. 3. Preface to a critical enquiry into the opinions and practice of the Ancient Philosophers, concerning the nature of a Future State, and their method of teaching by double Doctrine," (by Mr. Towne), 1747, 8vo, 2d edition. In 1748 a third edition of "The Alliance between Church and State corrected and enlarged." In 1749, a very extraordinary attack was made on the moral character of Mr. Pope from a quarter whence it could be the least expected. His "Guide, Philosopher, and Friend," lord Bolingbroke,

published a book which he had formerly lent Mr. Pope in MS. The preface to this work, written by Mr. Mallet, contained an accusation of Mr. Pope's having clandestinely printed an edition of his lordship's performance without his leave or knowledge. (See POPE.) A defence of the poet soon after made its appearance, which was universally ascribed to Mr. Warburton, and was afterwards owned by him. It was called "A Letter to the editor of Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism, the Idea of a patriot King, and the State of Parties, occasioned by the editor's advertisement;" which soon afterwards produced an abusive pamphlet under the title of "A familiar epistle to the most Impudent Man living," &c. a performance, as has been truly observed, couched in language bad enough to disgrace even gaols and garrets. About this time the publication of Dr. Middleton's "Enquiry concerning the Miraculous Powers," gave rise to a controversy, which was managed with great warmth and asperity on both sides. On this occasion Mr. Warburton published an excellent performance, written with a degree of candour and temper which, it is to be lamented, he did not always exercise. The title of it was "Julian; or, a discourse concerning the Earthquake and Fiery Eruption which defeated the emperor's attempt to rebuild the Temple' at Jerusalem, 1750," 8vo. A second edition of this discourse," with Additions," appeared in 1751. The critic above quoted has some remarks on this work too important to be omitted. "The gravest, the least eccentric, the most convincing of Warburton's works, is the Julian, or a discourse concerning the Earthquake and Fiery Eruption, which defeated that emperor's attempt to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, in which the reality of a Divine interposition is shewn, and the objections to it are are answered.' The selection of this subject was peculiarly happy, inasmuch as this astonishing fact, buried in the ponderous volumes of the original reporters, was either little considered by an uninquisitive age, or confounded with the crude mass of false, ridiculous, or ill-attested miracles, which with no friendly voice' had been recently exposed by Middleton. But in this instance the occasion was important: the honour of the Deity was concerned; his power had been defied, and his word insulted. For the avowed purpose of defeating a well-known prophecy, and of giving to the world a practical demonstration that the Christian scriptures contained a lying prediction, the emperor Julian VOL. XXXI.

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undertook to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem; when, to the astonishment and confusion of the builders, terrible flames bursting from the foundations, scorched and repelled the workmen till they found themselves compelled to desist. Now this phænomenon was not the casual eruption of a volcano, for it had none of the concomitants of those awful visitations: it may even be doubted whether it were accompanied by an earthquake; but the marks of intention and specific direction were incontrovertible.--The workmen desisted, the flames retired,--they returned to the work, when the flames again burst forth, and that as often as the experiment was repeated.

"But what, it may be asked, is the evidence by which a fact so astonishing is supported? Not the triumphant declamations of Christian, even of contemporary Christian writers, who, after all, with one voice, and with little variety of circumstances, bear witness to the truth of it, but that of a friend of Julian himself, a soldier of rank, an heathen though candid and unprejudiced; in one word, the inquisitive, the honest, the judging Am. Marcellinus. The story is told by that writer, though in his own awkward latinity, very expressively and distinctly. We will add as a specimen of our author's power, both in conception and language, the following rules for the qualification of an unexceptionable witness.

'Were infidelity itself, when it would, evade the force of testimony, to prescribe what qualities it expected in a faultless testimony, it could invent none but what might be found in the historian here produced. He was a pagan, and so not prejudiced in favour of Christianity; he was a dependent, follower, and profound admirer of Julian, and so not inclined to report any thing to his dishonour. He was a lover of truth, and so would not relate what he knew, or but suspected, to be false. He had great sense, improved by the study of philosophy, and so would not suffer himself to be deceived: he was not only contemporary to the fact, but at the time it happened resident near the place. He related it, not as an uncertain hearsay, with diffidence, but as a notorious fact; at that time no more questioned in Asia than the project of the Persian expedition: he inserted it not for any partial purpose, in support or confutation of any system, in defence or discredit of any character; he delivered it in no cursory or transient manner; nor in a loose or private memoir; but gravely and deliberately, as the

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natural and necessary part of a composition the most useful and important, a general history of the empire, on the complete performance of which the author was so intent, that he exchanged a court life for one of study and contemplation, and chose Rome, the great repository of the proper materials, for the place of his retirement.'

"To a portrait so finished, is it possible for the greatest judge of evidence to add a feature; to such freedom, fertility, and felicity of language, is it possible for the united powers of taste and genius to add a grace? In the story of the crosses said to have been impressed at the same time on the persons of many beholders, there was probably a mixture of imagination, though the cause might be electric. This amusing part of the work we merely hint at, in order to excite, not to gratify, the reader's curiosity: but with respect to the parallel case detected by Warburton in the works of Meric Casaubon, it is impossible not to admire those wide and adventurous voyages on the ocean of literature, which could enable him to bring together from the very antipodes of historical knowledge, from the fourth to the seventeenth century, from Jerusalem and from our own country, facts so strange, and yet so nearly identical."

In 1751, Mr. Warburton published an edition of Pope's "Works," with notes, in nine volumes, octavo; and in the same year printed "An Answer to a Letter to Dr. Middleton, inserted in a pamphlet entitled The Argument of the Divine Legation fairly stated," &c. 8vo. and "An Account of the Prophecies of Arise Evans, the Welsh Prophet, in the last Century;" the latter of which pieces afterwards subjected him to much ridicule. In 1753, Mr. Warburton published the first volume of a course of Sermons, preached at Lincoln's-inn, entitled "The Principles of natural and revealed Religion occasionally opened and explained;" and this, in the subsequent year, was followed by a second. After the public had been some time promised lord Bolingbroke's Works, they were about this time printed. The known abilities and infidelity of this nobleman had created apprehensions, in the minds of many people, of the pernicious effects of his doctrines; and nothing but the appearance of his whole force could have convinced his friends how little there was to be dreaded from arguments against religion so weakly supported. The personal enmity, which had been excited many years before

between the peer and our author, had occasioned the former to direct much of his reasoning against two works of the latter. Many answers were soon published, but none with more acuteness, solidity, and sprightliness, than "A View of Lord Bolingbroke's Philosophy, in two Letters to a Friend," 1754. The third and fourth letters were published in 1755, with another edition of the two former; and in the same year a smaller edition of the whole; which, though it came into the world without a name, was universally ascribed to Mr. Warburton, and afterwards publicly owned by him. To some copies of this is prefixed an excellent complimentary epistle from the president Montesquieu, dated May 26, 1754. At this advanced period of his life, that preferment which his abilities might have claimed, and which had hitherto been withheld, seemed to be approaching towards him. In September 1754 he was appointed one of his majesty's chaplains in ordinary, and in the next year was presented to a prebend * in the cathedral of Durham, worth 500l. per annum, on the death of Dr. Mangey. About the same time, the degree of doctor of divinity was conferred on him by Dr. Herring, then archbishop of Canterbury; and, a new impression of "The Divine Legation" having being called for, he printed a fourth edition of the first part of it, corrected and enlarged, divided into two volumes, with a dedication to the earl of Hardwicke. The same year appeared "A Sermon preached before his grace Charles duke of Marlborough president, and the Governors of the Hospital for the small-pox and for inoculation, at the parish church of St. Andrew, Holborn, on Thursday, April the 24th, 1755," 4to; and in 1756 "Natural and Civil Events the Instruments of God's moral Government, a Sermon preached on the last public Fast-day, at Lincoln's-inn Chapel," 4to. In 1757, a pamphlet was published, called "Remarks on Mr. David Hume's Essay on the Natural History of Religion;" which is said to have been composed of marginal observations made by Dr. Warburton on reading Mr. Hume's book; and which gave so much offence to the author animadverted upon, that he thought it of importance enough to deserve particular mention in the short account of his life. On Oct. 11, in this year, our author was ad

Soon after he attained this preferment, he wrote the Remarks on

Neal's History of the Puritans, which are now added to his Works.