Houghton, and Butler had
a dangerous regard for building works. He was preferred two years
afterwards to the living of Stanhope, which then became vacant, and which
yielded a substantial income. Butler sought nothing for himself, his
simplicity of character, real worth, and rare intellectual power, secured
him friends, and the love of two of them--Talbot first, and afterwards
Secker, who made his own way in the Church, and became strong enough to
put his friend as well as himself in the way of worldly advancement,
secured for Butler all the patronage he had, until the Queen also became
his active friend.

Joseph Butler was seven years at Stanhope, quietly devoted to his parish
duties, preaching, studying, and writing his "Analogy of Religion,
Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature." In
1727, while still at Stanhope, he was appointed to a stall in Durham
Cathedral. Secker, having become chaplain to the Queen, encouraged her
in admiration of Butler's sermons. He told her that the author was not
dead, but buried, and secured her active interest in his behalf. From
Talbot, who had become Lord Chancellor, Secker had no difficulty in
obtaining for Butler a chaplaincy which exempted him from the necessity
of residence at Stanhope. Butler, in accepting it, stipulated for
permission to live and work in his parish for six months in every year.
Next he was made chaplain to the King, and Rector of St. James's, upon
which he gave up Stanhope. In 1736 Queen Caroline appointed him her
Clerk of the Closet, an office which gave Butler the duty of attendance
upon her for two hours every evening. In that year he published his
"Analogy," of which the purpose was to meet, on its own ground, the
scepticism of his day. The Queen died in 1737, and, in accordance with
the strong desire expressed in her last days, in 1738 Butler was made a
Bishop. But his Bishopric was Bristol, worth only 300 or 400 pounds a
year. The King added the Deanery of St. Paul's, when that became vacant
in 1740, and in 1750, towards the close of his life, Joseph Butler was
translated to the Bishopric of Durham. He died in 1752.

No man could be less self-seeking. He owed his rise in the Church wholly
to the intellectual power and substantial worth of character that
inspired strong friendship. Seeing how little he sought worldly
advancement for himself, while others were pressing and scrambling,
Butler's friends used their opportun