a boy of a Presbyterian linen-draper, he was destined for the ministry of that Church, however within 1714 he decided to enter the Church of Engl&, and attend Oxford. When holding various more preferments he became curate of the rich dwelling of Stanhope.

Within 1736 he was made a head chaplain of King George II's wife Caroline, on the advice of Lancelot Blackburne. Around 1738 he was made bishop of Bristol. He declined an offer to be a archbishop of Canterbury in 1747. He became Bishop of Durham in 1750.

He is best known for his "Fifteen Sermons on Human Nature" (1726) and "Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed" (1736). A Analogy is an crucial function of Christian apologetics in the history of the controversies across Deism. Butler's excusatory concentrated in discerning analogies to the demise & resurrection of Christ in the natural globe (like the caterpillar turning into a butterfly). Butler's arguments combined the accumulative example for faith applying probabilistic abstract thought to persuade Freethinker & others to reconsider orthodox faith. Aspects of his excusatory abstract thought come reflected in the writings of twentieth century Christian vindicator such as C. S. Lewis and John Warwick Montgomery.

A "Sermons on Human Nature" is usually exposed as an guide to Hobbes' philosophy of ethical egoism. These deuce books come considered by his exponent to exist as among a virtually all right & original contributions to ethics, apologetics & theology which keep around ever been processed. It depend for their burden totally upon a click of their abstract thought, for it own there is no graces of style.

Butler died within 1752 in Bath, Somerset. His admirers praise him as an first-class human, & the persevering & scrupulous ecclesiastic. Though indifferent to general literature, he got a few taste in the art, especially architecture.