BUTLER. 



ercellfnt hifliop of Worcofter, and the very ingenious Dr. 

 Dmict of the Charter houfc. From a low tlioiigh honour- 

 able beginning, he arrived at great rank and profperitv, 

 a-id left a minieroiis progeny, of wliich he lived to fee the 

 third generation. He was aftive and well verfcd in bufi- 

 nefs ; a;id hij talenti, though not of the firil clafs, enabled 

 him to apivar with reputation in fcvcral difficult conjunc- 

 tures." IViOg. Drit. Gen. Bio^. 



BuTLtR, Joseph, an eminent prelate of the Englifh 

 church, was born at Waiitavje in Berkihire, in 1692, and 

 was inten-ied bv his father for the miiii;lry among proteftant 

 dilfenters of the prelbvterian denomination. With this 

 view, after hriving finilhcd his grammatical education at his 

 n.itiv'e place, he was fent to a difienting academy, kept by 

 Mr. Simiiel Jones, firft at Glouceller and afterwards at 

 Tewklbury. Of his application and proficiency as a 

 theological Ihidcnt, he exhibited a fignal evidence in two 

 letter3°addrelTcd to Dr. Clarke, and containing a ftatement 

 of doubts that had occurred to him concerning the con- 

 clufivenefs of fome arguments i[i the Doftor's " Demonftra- 

 tion of the Being and Attributes of God." The i'wH of thefe 

 letters, dated Nov. 4, 17 13, difplayed a fagacity and 

 depth of thought which excited the particular notice of 

 Dr. Clarke. Encouraged by this condefcenfion, Mr. But- 

 ler adJrefled the dodor again upon the fame fubjetl ; and 

 received an anfwer. The whole correfpondenee, which 

 comprifed three other letters, was annexed to the celebrated 

 treatife above-mentioned, and retained in all the fubfequent 

 e;iitions. The correfpondenee was fecretly condufted by 

 Mr. Seeker, the friend and fellow-pupil of Mr. Butler ; 

 and procured for him, as foon as he became known, tlie 

 fricnddiip of Dr. Clarke. Wliilll he was engaged in the 

 profccution of his lludies at Tewklbury, he entered into 

 an examination of the principles of nonconformity ; and the 

 refult of his inquiry was a refolution of conforming to the 

 ellabli(hed church. His father was at firft difTatisfied with 

 his purpofe, and attempted to divert him from it: but, 

 finding tiiat his foil's refolution was fixed, he confented to 

 his removal to Oxford, where he was admitted a com- 

 moner of Oriel college in 17 14. Here he formed an inti- 

 mate friendfliip with Mr. Edward Talbot, fecond fon of 

 bifliop Talbot, and to this circumftance he owed all his 

 future preferments in the church. Having taken orders 

 foon after his admilTion at Oxford, he was recommended, 

 in 171S, by Mr. Talbot and Dr. Clarke to Sir Jofeph 

 Jekvll, who appointed him preacher at the Rolls chapel. 

 In this fituatlon he continued till the year 1726, when he 

 p::bliflied, in one volume oftavo, " Fifteen Sermons preached 

 at that Chapel." Tliefe fermons ellabliflitd his charafter 

 as an acute and folid rcafoner ; and as they are rather deep 

 difquifitions, than popular difcourfes, adapted folcly to a 

 learned and attentive audience, the author thought proper 

 to make an apology for their abllrufentfs in a preface to a 

 fecond edition, revifed and improved in 1729; in which 

 preface he has alfo abridged and illullrated the principles 

 laid down in his fermons. The llyle of thefe compofitions 

 13 dclhtute of that eafe and perfpicuity, which might juftly 

 liave been delired, but which Buller was never able fuUy to 

 attain. His friend Seeker is faid to have taken pains 

 in rendering ni.ive familiar the language both of thefe 

 difcnirfts and of his other works. By t!ie judicious reader, 

 nof.vithlkanding thefe defetls, they have been always held in 

 high ell'mation. Under the patronage of Dr. Talbot, then 

 bifhop of Durham, to wliom Butler was recommended by 

 his fon on his death-bed, he was prefented, firlt, viz. in 

 17.12, to the re&ory of Houghton near Darlington, and 

 afttrward", vi/. in 1725, to that of Stanhope in the fame 



diocefe. At thin latter place, Mr. Butler, having rcfigned 

 the Rolls chapel in 1726, refidtd during feven years, 

 diligently difcharglng the duties of a good parifli priell. 

 The fituation, however, was too retired and folitary for 

 a pcrfou of his gloomy difpofitiou ; and his friend Mr. 

 Seeker, who was appi ifcd of this circ.imllance, was anxious 

 to draw him out of folitude into a more active and confpi- 

 cuous fcene. With this view he took the liberty of men- 

 tioning him to queen Caroline; who, apprehending that he 

 was dead, alked archlnlhop Blackbunie, if this v.zi not the 

 fail: 10 which the archbidiop replied, " No, madam, but 

 he is buried." By the recommendation of Mr. Seeker, 

 the lord chancellor Talbot nominated hi.ti his chaplain ; 

 and Mr. Butler accepting the nomination, came up to 

 London by way of Oxford, in 17 Ji, and was created dodor 

 of laws. The chancellor alfo gave him a prebend in the 

 church of Rochcfler, and it was ftipnlated tliat he fliould 

 continue to refide half the year at Stanhope. In 1736, 

 he was appointed clerk of the clofet to queen Caroline, and 

 in the fame year, he publifaed his celebrated work, entitled 

 " The Analogy of Religion, natural and revealed, to the 

 Conllitulion and Courfe of Nature." 



The firll edition of this work, which for depth and 

 originality of thought and reafoning, is one of the moil 

 mallcrly performances that ever appeared in the world, 

 was publilhed in 17,;6 in 4to : the fubfequent editions have 

 been in Svo., and the laft by Dr. Halifax, bifhop of Glou- 

 celler, was publilhed in 1788. The foundation of the 

 mode of reafoning purfued in this treatife had been laid 

 by the author in his fermons, and particularly in the lall of 

 them " On the Ignorance of Man." For a general account 

 of it ; fee the article Analogy. To the " Analogy" are 

 annexed two Dilfertations ; one on Perfonal Identity, and 

 another on the Nature of Virtue. 



Whilll queen Caroline lived, Dr. Butler attended her for 

 two hours every evening ; and by her urgent recommendation 

 to the king, he was raifed in the year following that of her 

 death, vi/.. in 17J1S, to the fee of Briftol, and in 1740, to 

 the deanry of St. Paul's in London, upon which he refigned 

 his rich living of Stanhope. Bcfides attention to the various 

 duties of his diocefe and deanry, hilltop Butler preached 

 fevcral fermons in the metropolis on particular occafions, 

 which were printed, and which have fince been annexed to 

 the later editions of the fermons at the Rolls chapel. In 

 1746, he fucceeded Dr. Egerton, bilhop of Hereford, 

 as clerk of the clofet to the king; and in 1750, he was 

 tranflated to the fee of Durham. At his primary vifitation 

 in 1751, he delivered a charge to his clergy of which 

 the principal fubjeft was "External Religion." In recom- 

 mending on this occafion the utility of outward forms 

 and inftitutions, towards fixing and preferving in the minds 

 of men a fenfe of devotion and duty, he was thought by 

 feveral pcrfons to have fpoken too favourably of pagan and 

 popifli ceremonies, and to have countenanced, in a certain 

 degree, the caufe of fuperltition. He had alfo put up a 

 plain marble crofs in his chapel at Briftol. The charge was 

 animadverted upon by an able and fpirited writer in I7j2, 

 in a pamphlet entitled, " A Serious Enquiry into the Ule 

 and Importance of external ReVgion, &c." The circum- 

 flance of the crofs at his chapel, and the offence taken by 

 fome perfons at this charge, might poffibly have given rife to 

 the calumny which was advanced, almoll 15 years after his 

 death, in an obfcure and anonymous pamphlet, entitled 

 " The Root of Proteftant Errors examined ;" and which 

 charged him with having died in the communion of the 

 church of Rome. The charge is abfurd and groundlefs, and 

 hardly defervcs refutatiou. It is fufSeieutly expofed in 



bifhop 



