such sentiments so excited, than if the same sentiments had been excited by the view of a Picture of the Crucifixion suppose, such as is commonly placed, and with this very design, in foreign Churches, and indeed in many of our own? Both the instances here adduced, it is very possible, may be far from being approved, even by those who are under the most sincere convictions of the importance of true Religion and it is easy to conceive how open to scorn and censure they must be from others, who think they have a talent for ridicule, and have accustomed themselves to regard all pretensions to Piety as hypocritical or superstitious. But Wisdom is justified of her Children*. Religion is what it is, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear; and whatever in the smallest degree promotes its interests, and assists us in performing its commands, whether that assistance be derived from the medium of the Body or the Mind, ought to be esteemed of great weight, and deserving of our most serious attention.

However, be the danger of Superstition what it may, no one was more sensible of that danger, or more in earnest in maintaining that External Acts of themselves are nothing, and that Moral Holiness, as distinguished from bodily observances of every kind, is that which constitutes the Essence of Religion, than Bishop BUTLER. Not only the Charge itself, the whole intention of which is plainly nothing more than to enforce the necessity of Practical Religion, the reality as well as form, is a de

* Matth. xi. 19.

+ Ezek. ii. 5.

monstration of this, but many passages besides to the same purpose, selected from his other writings. Take the two following as specimens. In his Analogy he observes thus: "Though “ mankind have, in all ages, been greatly prone "to place their Religion in peculiar positive "rites, by way of equivalent for obedience to "Moral Precepts; yet, without making any comparison at all between them, the Nature "of the Thing abundantly shews all notions. "of that kind to be utterly subversive of true religion as they are, moreover, contrary to "the whole general tenor of Scripture; and "likewise to the most express particular de"clarations of it, that nothing can render us

66

66

66

accepted of God, without Moral Virtue*." And to the same purpose in his Sermon, preached before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in February 1738-9: "Indeed amongst creatures naturally formed "for Religion, yet so much under the power "of Imagination as men are, Superstition is "an evil which can never be out of sight. "But even against This, true Religion is a great security, and the only one. True Religion takes up that place in the mind, which Superstition would usurp, and so leaves little room for it; and likewise lays us under the "strongest obligations to oppose it. On the contrary, the danger of Superstition cannot "but be increased by the prevalence of Ir"religion; and by its general prevalence the "evil will be unavoidable. For the common

66

66

66

66

66

4

* Analogy, Part II. Chap. 1. p. 187.

66

66

People, wanting a Religion, will of course "take up with almost any Superstition which "is thrown in their way; and, in process of "time, amidst the infinite vicissitudes of the political world, the leaders of Parties will "certainly be able to serve themselves of that. Superstition, whatever it be, which is getting ground; and will not fail to carry it to the utmost length, their occasions require. The general Nature of the thing shews this: and History and Fact confirm it. It is therefore "wonderful, those people who seem to think "there is but one evil in life, that of Supersti"tion, should not see that Atheism and Pro"faneness must be the Introduction of it*."

66

66

He who can think and write in such a manner can never be said to mistake the nature of real Religion: And he, who, after such proofs to the contrary, can persist in asserting of so discreet and learned a person, that he was addicted to Superstition, must himself be much a stranger both to Truth and Charity.

And here it may be worth our while to observe that the same excellent Prelate, who by one set of men was suspected of Superstition, on account of this Charge, has by another been represented as leaning to the opposite extreme of Enthusiasm, on account of his two Discourses On the Love of God. But, both opinions are equally without foundation. He was neither superstitious nor an Enthusiast: His mind was much too strong, and his habits of thinking and

* Serm. XVII. p. 339, 340. Ed. 4th, 1749.

reasoning much too strict and severe, to suffer him to descend to the weaknesses of either character. His Piety was at once fervent and rational. When, impressed with a generous concern for the declining cause of Religion, he laboured to revive its dying interests; nothing he judged would be more effectual to that end, among creatures so much engaged with bodily things, and so apt to be affected with whatever strongly solicits the senses as men are, than a Religion of such a frame as should in its exercise require the joint exertions of the Body and the Mind. On the other hand, when penetrated with the dignity and importance of the first and great Commandment*, Love to God, he set himself to inquire what those movements of the heart are which are due to Him, the Author and Cause of all things; he found, in the coolest way of consideration, that God is the natural Object of the same affections, of Gratitude, Reverence, Fear, Desire of Approbation, Trust,and Dependence, the same affections in kind, though doubtless in a very disproportionate degree, which any one would feel from contemplating a Perfect Character in a Creature, in which Goodness with Wisdom and Power are supposed to be the predominant qualities, with the further circumstance that this Creature was also his Governor and Friend. The subject is manifestly a real one; there is nothing in it fanciful or unreasonable: This way of being affected towards God is Piety in the strictest sense: This is Religion, considered as a habit of

* Matth. xxii. 38.

mind; a Religion, suited to the nature and condition of man*.

is easy:

II. From Superstition to Popery the transition No wonder, then, that, in the progress of detraction, the simple imputation of the former of these, with which the attack on the character of our Author was opened, should be followed by the more aggravated imputation of the latter. Nothing, I think, can fairly be gathered in support of such a suggestion from the Charge, in which Popery is barely mentioned, and occasionally only, and in a sentence or two; yet even there, it should be remarked, the Bishop takes care to describe the peculiar observances required by it, "some as in them"selves wrong and superstitious, and others of "them as being made subservient to the pur66 poses of superstition." With respect to his other writings, any one at all conversant with them needs not to be told, that the matters treated of both in his Sermons and his Analogy, did, none of them, directly lead him to consider, and much less to combat, the opinions, whether relating to Faith or Worship, which are peculiar to the Church of Rome: It might therefore have happened, yet without any just conclusion arising from thence of being himself inclined to favour those opinions, that he had never mentioned, so much as incidentally, the subject of Popery at all. But fortunately for the reputation of the Bishop, and to the eternal disgrace of his calumniators, even this poor resource is wanting to support their malevolence.

* See Note [B], at the end of this preface.