Joseph Butler, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The preacher of conscience owes the order he defends the same thing he owes his hearers: the whole of the law of their nature, pressed upon the people it binds, and not the part that flatters the station of those who listen. Begin with what I held to be binding on every man. Man is by his make and constitution a law to himself; he hath the rule of right within, and what is wanting is only that he honestly attend to it.1
And that rule is no private fancy, for conscience carries its own authority with it, as the guide assigned us by the Author of our nature, so that to follow it is our duty, without looking about to see whether we may not possibly forsake it with impunity.2 Now observe the consequence for the preacher. If every man has this guide, the master has it and the slave has it, and I have no warrant to address the one as a conscience and the other as cattle.
The authority of conscience is a part of its very idea, and how often soever men rebelliously refuse to submit to it for supposed interest, this makes no alteration in its right and office.3 A planter's interest in a servant is exactly such a supposed interest, and I told the Society as much when I said that those held in bondage are members, inferior members, but members, and not merely goods.
As to the order itself, I defended it, and I will not pretend I defended less than I did. Before the Lords on the anniversary of the King's death I argued that liberty in its very nature requires, and even supposes, that people be able to govern themselves in those respects in which they are free; otherwise their wickedness will be in proportion to their liberty, and this greatest of blessings will become a curse.4
Government is a divine appointment, and submission to it a most evident duty of the law of nature.4 But mark the shape of the claim. I put that obligation on the same foot with all other general ones, which are not absolute and without exception, and said our submission is due in all cases but those which we really discern to be exceptions.4 The order is defended as an order under law, and what stands under the law of conscience cannot be exempt from the questions conscience asks.
I held further that a constitution is broken in upon and violated when power and strength prevail over authority.5 That was my account of the soul, and it is no less true of the colony and the kingdom. A society in which the strongest interest governs, because it is strongest, is the very disorder I described in a man, and the preacher who blessed it would be preaching against his own principle.
What the order is owed, then, is honest instruction in its duties, charity toward those it burdens, and the plain reminder that no title of property cancels an obligation to a fellow creature. I will say what my sermons did not do. They pressed the duties the institution left standing; they did not turn the principle of justice upon the institution itself.
Whether the faculty I described reaches further than I carried it on those occasions is a question my sermons do not settle. That it reaches every man, and binds every man, I hold.
The gospel is to be preached to all nations, and every man in the colonies is a creature of God for whom Christ died. The slaves are members of the colonial societies, inferior members, but members and not merely property, and no property in them cancels the obligation to instruct them; the natives are owed the same charity more strictly, since we hold their country.
The rich and poor meet together and the Lord is maker of them all: the poor are to be relieved and their children taught religion and honest labour. Liberty is not to be used as a cloak, and the established church guards the nation against both popery and the levelling spirit.678910
he is in the strictest and most proper sense a law to himself. He hath the rule of right within: what is wanting is only that he honestly attend to it.Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel, with the Preface of 1729
Conscience does not only offer itself to show us the way we should walk in, but it likewise carries its own authority with it, that it is our natural guide; the guide assigned us by the Author of our natureFifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel, with the Preface of 1729
And how often soever men violate and rebelliously refuse to submit to it, for supposed interest which they cannot otherwise obtain, or for the sake of passion which they cannot otherwise gratify; this makes no alteration as to the natural right and office of conscience.Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel, with the Preface of 1729
liberty, in the very nature of it, absolutely requires, and even supposes, that people be able to govern themselves in those respects in which they are free; otherwise their wickedness will be in proportion. to their liberty, and this greatest of blessings will become a curse.Six Sermons Preached upon Public Occasions
as in civil government the constitution is broken in upon, and violated by power and strength prevailing over authority; so the constitution of man is broken in upon and violated by the lower faculties or principles within prevailing over that which is in its nature supreme over them all.Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel, with the Preface of 1729
No one has a right to be called a Christian, who doth not do somewhat in his station, towards the discharge of this trust; who doth not, for instance, assist in keeping up the profession of Christianity where he lives.Six Sermons Preached upon Public Occasions
Every thing of this kind is, in some degree, a safeguard to religion; an obstacle, more or less, in the way of those who want to have it extirpated out of the world. Such societies also contribute more especially towards keeping up the face of Christianity among ourselves; and by their obtaining here, the gospel is rendered more and more a witness to us.Six Sermons Preached upon Public Occasions
T/ie unlearned and unbelievers, falling down on their faces, would worship God, and report that God is in us of a truths * 1 Cor. xiv. 24 SERMON II. PREACHED BEFORE THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD MAYOR, THE COURT Oi ALDERMEN, THE SHERIFFS, AND THE GOVERNORS OF THE SEVERAL HOSPITALS OF THE CITY OF LONDON, AT THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST BRIDGET, ON MONDAY IN EASTER- WEEK, 1740.Six Sermons Preached upon Public Occasions
Now it should seem, that employing some share of the children's time in easy labour, suitable to their age, which is done in some of our charity schools, might be done in most others of them, with very good effect; as it is in all those of a neighbouring kingdom.Six Sermons Preached upon Public Occasions
We are most strictly bound to consider these poor uninformed creatures, as being in all respects, of one family with ourselves, the family of mankind; and instruct them in our common salvation that they may not pass through this stage of their being like brute beasts; but be put into a capacity of moral improvements, how low soever they must remain as to others, and so into a capacity of qualifying themselves for a…Six Sermons Preached upon Public Occasions
The sermons where modern readers press him hardest: a moralist of conscience preaching to the slave-holding Society, who argued for the slaves' instruction and their humanity and did not argue against the institution.