...Private Thoughts, 1709. )175 Thirty years later Butler writes, that 'it is come to be taken for granted that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry; but that it is now, at length, discovered to be f1ctitious. Accordingly they treat it as if in the present age this were an agreed point among all...

...place in the latter part of the eighteenth. Butler says in his preface to the Analogy : " It is come to be taken for granted by many persons that Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they...

...horrid contempt was put upon the ministry of the word.* And in England Bishop Butler said in 1736 : — It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted,...agreed point among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of...

...wary of 'wandering reason', was echoing churchmen's fears regarding the inroads made by free-thinking. 'It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons,' agonized Joseph Butler, later bishop of Durham, 'that Christianity is ... now at length discovered...

...The words which Bishop Butler wrote in 1736 are curiously applicable to our own days:— "It is come to be taken for granted by many persons, that Christianity is not even a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly...

...Constitution and Course of Nature.1 In the preface or 'advertisement' to this book Butler remarks that 'it is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted...agreed point among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of...

...of Scripture and church tradition, had a valuable place. His preface or 'advertisement' is famous:16 It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted,...it is now, at length, discovered to be fictitious. Where have we heard that recently? It seems there is nothing new under the sun, and predictions of...

...However, the proper force of the following treatise lies in the whole general analogy considered together. It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted,...by many persons, that Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they...