Author Description

Excerpt from The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature IN some editions, this preface is preceded by a few pages, designed to shield Bishop Butler's character against the charge of superstition; placing too much stress curites and ceremonies in religion: a tendency to substitute penances and forms in the room of Christianity. We have omitted these pages as they are in no way connected with this work, and add nothing to its interest or value. There seems, how: ever, to have been no just grounds for such a calumny. Bishop Buder, like many good men of the present age, was deeply affected by the growing indifference of the mass of the people to religious duties and Observances; and in his pri mary charge to the Clergy of his Diocese in 1751, he boldly asserted the usefulness of forms and rites addressed to the senses as aids to devotion and piety a charge, which, at the time, gave very general offence to the Church, and which, taken in connection with some other facts in the history of this good man's life, formed the stuff, out of which the alle gations, we have referred to, were manufactured several years after his death. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.