Warburton in his bishopric, to Peachum in the
Beggar's Opera--who, as Keeper of Newgate, was for hanging all
his old accomplices!

[150] Warburton was far more extravagant in a later attempt which he
made to expound the odd visions of a crack-brained Welshman, a
prophesying knave; a knave by his own confession, and a
prophet by Warburton's. This commentary, inserted in Jortin's
"Remarks on Ecclesiastical History," considerably injured the
reputation of Jortin. The story of Warburton and his Welsh
Prophet would of itself be sufficient to detect the shiftings
and artifices of his genius. RICE or ARISE EVANS! was one of
the many prophets who rose up in Oliver's fanatical days; and
Warburton had the hardihood to insert, in Jortin's learned
work, a strange commentary to prove that Arise Evans, in
Cromwell's time, in his "Echo from Heaven," had manifestly
_prophesied the Hanoverian Succession_! The Welshman was a
knave by his own account in subscribing with his _right_ hand
the confession he calls his prophecy, before a justice, and
with his _left_, that which was his recantation, signed before
the recorder, adding, "I know the bench and the people thought
I recanted; but, alas! they were deceived;" and this Warburton
calls "an uncommon fetch of wit," to save the truth of the
prophecy, though not the honour of the prophet. If Evans meant
anything, he meant what was then floating in all men's minds,
the probable restoration of the Stuarts. By this prelude of
that inventive genius which afterwards commented, in the same
spirit, on the AEneid of Virgil, and the "Divine Legation,
itself," and made the same sort of discoveries, he fixed
himself in this dilemma: either Warburton was a greater
impostor than Arise Evans, or he was more credulous than even
any follower of the Welsh prophet, if he really had any. But
the truth is, that Warburton was always writing for a present
purpose, and believed, and did not believe, as it happened.
"Ordinary men believe _one_ side of a contradiction at a time,
whereas his lordship" (says his admirable antagonist)
"frequently believes, or at least defends _both_. So that it
would have been no great wonder if he should mai