At his primary visitation, which was in 1751, he de livered the famous charge to his clergy, which was printed at Durham. Of this his first and indeed last charge, the principal object was " external religion." For, having long observed the growing indifference of the people, and particularly of the lower orders, to sacred matters, he, on this occasion, strenuously insisted on the usefulness of outward forms and institutions, and of call ing in the aid of the senses to excite feelings of duty and devotion. The forms of religion he would have to occur as frequently as possible, so as ultimately to produce some general effect ; and this he shelved to have been the policy under all the other systems of religion. Under these, he observes, religion " has had a conspicuous part in all public appearances, and the face of it has been kept up with great reverence throughout all ranks, from the highest to the lowest, not only upon occasional so lemnities, but also in the daily course of behaviour. in the heathen world, their superstition was the chief sub ject of statuary, sculpture, painting, and poetry. It mixed itself with business, civil forms, diversions, do mestic entertainments, and every part of common life. The Mahometans are obliged to short devotions five times between morning and evening. In Roman Ca tholic countries, people cannot pass a day without hav ing religion recalled to their thoughts, by some or other memorial of it ; by some ceremony or public religious form occurring in their way ; besides their frequent ho lidays, the short prayers they are daily called to, and the occasional devotions enjoined by confessors. By these means, their superstition sinks deep into the minds of the people, and their religion also into the minds of such of them as are serious and well disposed." It is evident, from the general strain of the good bishop's charge, that he highly approved of this policy, and that he even regretted that partial diminution of pomp and splendour which the Reformation had introduced into the service of the English church. " Indeed," says lie, " in most ages of the church, the care of reasonable men has been, as there has been for the most part occasion, to draw the people off from laying too great weight upon external things ; upon formal acts of piety. But the state of matters is quite changed now with us. These things arc neglected to a degree, which is, and cannot but be, attended with a decay of all that is good. It is highly seasonable now, to instruct the people in the im portance of external religion." We are fully aware of the reverence due to such a character as Bishop Butler ; but we cannot help regret Gil• that he should seem to have recommended so em p1e.,tica1ly those mechanical expedients for etiritimlg devo tion, %%Lich in all ages have degenerated into superstition. It is singular enough, that, among all these outward means, he does not once allude to education. The bishop asks, vi hethe r it would be superstition, win e men brought to be affected with devout feelings at the sight of a church ? We conceive their feelings would be much mote rationally excited, were the English poor more ge nerally unight to read the Bible : and all the excellent methods of external religion recommended in the charge would certainly be multiplied in their effects, by the sin gle addition of a competent education.
We can easily conceive, that the bishop would have gone much farther in reviving external pomp, did the constitution of his church admit of it. And this conclu sion we are warranted to draw, not merely from the ge neral strain of the charge, which some how or other has narrowly escaped being suppressed ; but from another circumstance still more unequivocal : we allude to the marble cross which he erected in his chapel at Bristol, to enliven his own private devotions. This bold attempt
at reviving ancient forms, calculated to impose on the senses, gave great and universal offence to the church ; and, combined with the theory inculcated in the charge, gave rise to public discussions, which, though anonymous, were yet sufficiently important to command attention. In 1752, there appeared an able and spirited pamphlet, understood to be written by a clergyman of the church of England, entitled, di serious Enquiry into the Use and Importance of external Religion, addressed to the bishop. The writer, the only direct antagonist that Dr Butler ever met with, accused him, in a pretty sharp style, of speaking favourably of pagan and popish ceremonies, and countenancing, in some degree, the cause of supersti tion : he animadverts on his number, variety, and fre quency of forms, as being too apt to be considered by the vulgar as commutations for their vices, and as something substituted in lieu of repentance ; and insinuates, not ob scurely, that his lordship was no enemy to the Roman Catholic form of worship. We have been the more par ticular in our account of the Charge, as we wished to lead the reader to the true foundation of the report which was afterwards raised, that Bishop Butler had actually died in the Roman Catholic communion. This was for mally asserted, fifteen years after his death, in an anony mous pamphlet, entitled, The Root of Protestant Errors examined ; which has been answered by Archbishop Seeker, and others. But, in truth, there was not the least reason for such an aspersion. The plain statement has already been given. The bishop, in conformity to his theory, wished to introduce a more ceremonious form of worship, and probably would have had aversion to pictures and statues, any more than to crosses in churches ; but all this has evidently no more to do with the Roman Catholiefaith, than it has with Presbyterian ism. If he took delight in perusing the legends and miraculous lives of Roman Catholic saints, this was no more than has been often done by many other Pro testants : besides, as Seeker justly observes, Dr Butler was a man who knew how to draw instruction from any book.
By his promotion to the sec of Durham, he was plac ed in a situation highly favourable to the exercise of that beneficence and liberality which constituted one of his greatest enjoyments. Blessed, too, with ample means of encouraging and promoting nu n of piety and fidelity, and thus prontoting practically that religion of which he was one of the ablest defenders, his prospect of doing much good was almost as extensive as his wishes. But this prospect ,,ion v anished. His health began visibly to decline soon after his removal to his new bishopric. When complimented on his great resignation during his indisposition, be is reported to have expressed his ye grt t, that he should be called away so soon from this world, alter he had become capable of doing more good in it. During this his last illness he was carrkd to Bris• tol, to make trial of the waters of that place : but no be befit resulting from these, he removed to Bath ; where, being completely exhausted, he calmly breathed his last, at the age of sixty, on the 16th of June 1752. Ilis corpse was conveyed to Bristol, and interred in the cathedral. A flat inarble stone, plat ed over the spot where his re mains arc deposited, contains a Latin epitaph, now nearly obliterated, said to have been written by his own chap lain, the learned Dr Nadi. Forster.