The Works Joseph Butler, LL. D., Late Lord Bishop of Durham, Vol. 1 of 2: Containing, the Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature, and Two Dissertations on Personal Identity (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Works Joseph Butler, LL. D., Late Lord Bishop of Durham, Vol. 1 of 2: Containing, the Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature, and Two Dissertations on Personal Identity

And the mind may concur in rendering our religious ser vices acceptable to God, and at the some time useful to ourselves. And what way can-this be, but precisely that which is recommended in the Charge; such a cultivation of outward as well as inward religion, that from both may result, what is the point chiefly to he laboured, and at all events to be secured, a correspondent temper and behaviour; or, in other words, such on application of the forms of godliness, as may be subservient in promoting the power and spirit of it? No man, who believes the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and under stands what he believes, but must know, that external religion is as much enjoined, and constitutes as real it part of revelation, as that which is internal. The many ceremonies in use among the. Jews, in consequence of a divine commend; the baptism of water, as an emblem of moral purity; the. Eating and drinking of bread and wine, as symbols and representations of the body and bloodof Christ, required of Christians, are proofs of this. On comparing these two parts of religion together, one, it is immediately seen, is of much greater importance than the other; and, whenever they happen to interfere, is always to be preferred: But does it follow from hence, that therefore that other is of little or no importance, and, ia' cases where there is no competition, may entirely be neglected? Or rather, is not the legitimate conclusion directly the reverse, that nothing is to be looked upon as of little importance, which is of any use at all in preserv ing upon our minds a sense of the Divine authority, which recalls to our remembrance the obligations we are under, and helps to keep us, as the Scripture expresses it, in the fear of the Lord all the day long {t} to adopt the instance mentioned in the Charge, the. Sight of a church should remind a man of some sentiment ofo.

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