The Divine Legation of Moses
The Divine Legation of Moses is the best-known work of William Warburton, an English theologian of the 18th century who became bishop of Gloucester. As its full title makes clear, it is a conservative defence of orthodox Christian belief against deism, by means of an apparent paradox: the afterlife is not mentioned in terms in the Pentateuch (i.e. Torah – see Jewish eschatology), making Mosaic Judaism distinctive among ancient religions; from which, Warburton argues, it is seen that Moses received a divine revelation. The "Divine Legation" was published in two parts and nine books from  1738 by Warburton, who left it unfinished, however. It is a learned and discursive work, and excited extensive controversy in Warburton's lifetime, which the author pursued with acrimony. One side-issue, the history of writing, was treated by Warburton in a manner that proved influential. A modern opinion, from J. G. A. Pocock, is that the book is a "strange and flawed work of undisciplined genius".