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                                  THE
                         ANALOGY OF RELIGION,
                                TO THE
                  Constitution and Course of Nature.

                          TO WHICH ARE ADDED
                       TWO BRIEF DISSERTATIONS:
        I. ON PERSONAL IDENTITY.--II. ON THE NATURE OF VIRTUE.

                                  BY
                         JOSEPH BUTLER, D.C.L.

         Ejus [Analogiæ] hæc vis est, ut id quod dubium est ad
         aliquid simile, de quo non quæritur referat ut incerta
         certis probet.--QUINTIL. l. i. c. 6.

                                 WITH
         AN INTRODUCTION, NOTES, CONSPECTUS, AND AMPLE INDEX,
                                  BY
                          HOWARD MALCOM, D.D.
         PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY, LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

                         SEVENTEENTH EDITION.
                             PHILADELPHIA:
                        J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
                                 1873.

      Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
                        J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
       in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United
        States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.




CONTENTS.


                                                                    PAGE

  EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION                                                5

     ”     PREFACE                                                    19

     ”     CONSPECTUS                                                 21

  AUTHOR’S ADVERTISEMENT                                              66

     ”     INTRODUCTION                                               67

                                PART I.

                         OF NATURAL RELIGION.

     CHAP. I.--A Future Life                                          77

    CHAP. II.--The Government of God by Rewards and Punishments       95

   CHAP. III.--The Moral Government of God                           105

    CHAP. IV.--Probation, as implying Trial, Difficulties, and
               Danger                                                128

     CHAP. V.--Probation, as intended for Moral Discipline and
               Improvement                                           136

    CHAP. VI.--The Opinion of Necessity, considered as influencing
               Practice                                              157

   CHAP. VII.--The Government of God, considered as a Scheme or
               Constitution, imperfectly comprehended                171

  CONCLUSION                                                         180

                               PART II.

                         OF REVEALED RELIGION.

     CHAP. I.--The Importance of Christianity                        186

    CHAP. II.--The supposed Presumption against a Revelation,
               considered as miraculous                              202

   CHAP. III.--Our Incapacity of judging, what were to be expected
               in a Revelation; and the Credibility, from Analogy,
               that it must contain things appearing liable to
               Objections                                            209

    CHAP. IV.--Christianity, considered as a Scheme or Constitution,
               imperfectly comprehended                              223

     CHAP. V.--The Particular System of Christianity; the
               Appointment of a Mediator, and the Redemption of
               the World by him                                      230

    CHAP. VI.--Want of Universality in Revelation; and of the
               supposed Deficiency in the Proof of it                247

   CHAP. VII.--The Particular Evidence for Christianity              263

  CHAP. VIII.--Objections against arguing from the Analogy of
               Nature to Religion                                    296

  CONCLUSION                                                         306

                            DISSERTATIONS.

  DISSERTATION I.--Personal Identity                                 317

  DISSERTATION II.--The Nature of Virtue                             324

  INDEX TO PART I                                                    333

  INDEX TO PART II                                                   343




Editor’s Introduction


JOSEPH BUTLER was born at Wantage, England, May 18th, 1692, the
youngest of eight children. The biographies of that day were few
and meagre; and in few cases is this so much to be regretted as in
Butler’s. It would have been both interesting and profitable to trace
the development and occupations of one of the mightiest of human minds.
But no cotemporary gathered up the incidents of his life, and now all
efforts to elicit them have been without success.

His father was a prosperous dry-goods merchant, who, at the time of his
son’s birth, had retired from business with a competency, and resided
in a suburban mansion called “The Priory,” still in existence.

Being a non-conformist, he educated Joseph at a “dissenting” academy
at Gloucester, under SAMUEL JONES, a gentleman of great ability, and
a skilful instructor, who raised up some of the greatest men of their
day.[1]

It was while a member of this academy, and about the age of twenty-one,
that Butler disclosed to the world his wonderful power of abstract
reasoning, in his famous correspondence with Samuel