The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature

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Butler Joseph. The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Preface

Conspectus of the Author’s Introduction

Conspectus of the Analogy

PART I

PART II

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INTRODUCTION

PART I. Natural Religion

CHAPTER I. A FUTURE LIFE.27

CHAPTER II. THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD BY REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS

CHAPTER III.59. THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD

CHAPTER IV. PROBATION, AS IMPLYING TRIAL, DIFFICULTIES, AND DANGER.84

CHAPTER V. PROBATION, AS INTENDED FOR MORAL DISCIPLINE AND IMPROVEMENT

CHAPTER VI. THE OPINION OF NECESSITY, CONSIDERED AS INFLUENCING PRACTICE

CHAPTER VII. THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD, CONSIDERED AS A SCHEME OR CONSTITUTION, IMPERFECTLY COMPREHENDED

CONCLUSION

PART II. Revealed Religion

CHAPTER I. THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY.137

CHAPTER II. SUPPOSED PRESUMPTION AGAINST A REVELATION CONSIDERED AS MIRACULOUS

CHAPTER III. OUR INCAPACITY OF JUDGING, WHAT WERE TO BE EXPECTED IN A REVELATION; AND THE CREDIBILITY, FROM ANALOGY, THAT IT MUST CONTAIN THINGS LIABLE TO OBJECTIONS

CHAPTER IV. CHRISTIANITY, CONSIDERED AS A SCHEME OR CONSTITUTION, IMPERFECTLY COMPREHENDED

CHAPTER V. THE PARTICULAR SYSTEM OF CHRISTIANITY; THE APPOINTMENT OF A MEDIATOR, AND THE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD BY HIM

CHAPTER VI. THE WANT OF UNIVERSALITY IN REVELATION; AND THE SUPPOSED DEFICIENCY IN THE PROOF OF IT

CHAPTER VII. THE PARTICULAR EVIDENCE FOR CHRISTIANITY

CHAPTER VIII. OBJECTIONS AGAINST ARGUING FROM THE ANALOGY OF NATURE, TO RELIGION

CONCLUSION

DISSERTATIONS

DISSERTATION I. Personal Identity

DISSERTATION II. The Nature of Virtue

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The text is the result of a careful collation of the various principal editions. Occasionally solecisms are corrected, and a word transposed or put in italics, when a sentence could thus be made perspicuous. The author had a fashion of beginning a large proportion of his sentences with “and,” “but,” “now,” “indeed,” “however,” &c., which often served to perplex, and in such cases they have been omitted. Long paragraphs, comprehending different topics, have been so divided as to correspond with the true analysis; which will greatly assist the student in detecting the successive stages of the argument. Special pains has been taken to correct and improve the punctuation. Hundreds of sentences have thus been rendered more perspicuous, and many which were obscure, have been made lucid. In no respect was Butler’s style, as printed, so defective.

The Conspectus is made much ampler than any other, for this reason: that students are apt to content themselves with such help instead of mastering the full discussion by the author. In the present case they cannot so do, for such is the fulness of the Conspectus, that if they master this, they have mastered the subject itself in full.

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If Christianity be from God, we must obey, unless we know all his reasons for giving it: and also that those reasons no longer exist; at least in our case. This we cannot know.

The importance of Christianity appears if we regard it

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