Some Remains (hitherto unpublished) of Joseph Butler, LL.D.

Some Remains (hitherto
unpublished) of Joseph
by
Joseph Butler, Edited by Edward
Steere

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Title: Some Remains (hitherto unpublished) of Joseph Butler, LL.D.
Author: Joseph Butler
Editor: Edward Steere
Release Date: March 12, 2007 [eBook #20801]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME

REMAINS (HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED) OF JOSEPH BUTLER,
LL.D.***

Transcribed from the 1853 Rivingtons edition by David Price, email
[email protected]

SOME REMAINS (HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED) OF JOSEPH
BUTLER, LL.D.
SOMETIME LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM.
"I am more indebted to his writings than to those of any other
uninspired writer, for the insight which I have been enabled to attain
into the motives of the Divine Economy and the grounds of moral
obligation."
From a Letter of the late Bishop Kaye, of Lincoln.
LONDON: RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE. 1853.
LONDON: GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S
SQUARE

PREFACE.
It has long been a subject of regret that we should have so few remains
of so great a writer as the author of the "Analogy," not only the greatest
thinker of his day, but one almost equally remarkable for his personal
religion and amiability.
The few fragments and letters which remain unpublished, derive from
this circumstance a value wholly incommensurate with their extent,
though, as to the few I have been able to recover, they seem to me
worthy of notice even for their own sake.

There can, I suppose, be no doubt but that many letters on subjects
connected with their common pursuit,--the defence of religion by
rational arguments,--must have passed between Dr. Clarke and the
"Gentleman in Gloucestershire," even up to the time of the former's
decease; and the specimen I am now able to exhibit certainly excites a
wish that one could recover more of a series which it is most likely that
Dr. Clarke at least carefully preserved. The three letters now printed
were all addressed to Dr. Clarke; the first and last, though little known,
were published many years ago in the European Magazine.
The second and third Fragments are printed as they were written,
having apparently been noted down from time to time as the ideas
occurred to their author; thus at the end of the first paragraph of the
third Fragment, the word "direction" was originally written "advice,"
but was subsequently altered in a different ink, being the same with that
in which the sentences immediately following were written. I have not
thought myself at liberty to make any attempt to reduce these
Fragments to better consistency; indeed, their present disordered state
seems to me rather to add to their interest, as showing the mode in
which the stones were gathered for building up such works as the
"Analogy" and the "Sermons." It will be observed that I have found a
difficulty in reading the last part of the third Fragment, and I am by no
means sure that I have quite hit the sense intended; I should like it to
apply either to the Cross set up at Bristol, or to the famous Charge
delivered at Durham.
I have added a cotemporary notice of the buildings at Bristol, and an
anecdote showing how they were thought of, as well as a statement,
made after the Bishop's death, of his proceedings with regard to the
church, which is now St. George's, near Bristol, in order to establish the
fact of the separation of the property there mentioned from the bulk of
his estate;--showing his desire to do something for the benefit of the
people of Kingswood, a district the moral degradation of which had
already attracted the attention of Whitefield and Wesley.
The following extract has been kindly communicated to me from the
Diary of Dr. Thomas Wilson, the son of the great Bishop of Sodor and

Man; and I print it here more especially to invite the attention of all
who take an interest in these things to the fact, that a copy may have
been made for the King of the sermon there mentioned, and may
possibly even yet be in existence somewhere; if so, it cannot but be
worth the trouble of recovery and publication.
1737, December, Friday, 23rd. "The Master [i.e. Sir Joseph Jekyll,
Master of the Rolls] told me that the King desired that Dr. Butler, Clerk
of the Closet to the late Queen, might preach before him in the Princess
Amelia's apartments. He preached upon the subject of being bettered