In existographies, Joseph Butler (1692-1752), aka “Bishop Butler”, was an English theology apologist philosopher noted for his 1736 Analogy of Religion: Natural and Revealed, wherein he employs the term “living powers”, cited by Peter Tait and Balfour Stewart in their conservation of force speculations about death, among other religio-science blends. [1]

Living powers | Dead atoms
The following is an abstract of Butler's “living powers” based natural religion theory:

This discussion of living powers (a power that is alive), wherein "power" is defined as force (moving an object) times distance (moved) per unit time, or energy (or work) per unit time in short:

$P = \frac{E}{t}\,$

naturally enough leads to further contentious speculations about incongruous terms such as "living force" or "living energy", and or more subtle terms such as "living work", the embodiment of the latter captured well in the existence defining query "what do yo do for a living"?, all of which are but religio-science neoplasms.

In 1874, in this sense, Irish physicist John Tyndall in his debated erupting Belfast BAAS Address (see: Tyndall-Stewart-Tait debate), invoked Butler as the antagonist in an imaginary debate with Lucretius on the issue of how all terrestrial things, or "living agents" as Butler phrased things, could have arisen from "dead atoms". [2]

Quotes | On

The following are quotes on Butler:

“Bishop Butler dug up more snakes than he killed—suggested more difficulties than he explained—more doubts than he dispelled.”
— Robert Ingersoll (1896), “Why I Am an Agnostic” [3]

References
1. (a) Butler, Joseph. (1736). Analogy of Religion: Natural and Revealed (living powers, 8+) . Harper & Brothers, 1857.
(b) Stewart, Balfour and Tait, Peter G. (1875). The Unseen Universe: or Physical Speculations on a Future State (pgs. 4-5). Macmillan.
2. (a) Tyndall, John. (1874). “Address” (pg. 32), Delivered before the British Association assembled at Belfast. Longmans, Green, and Co.
(b) Burroughs, John. (1915). The Breath of Life (pg. 220). Publisher.
3. Ingersoll, Robert. (1896). “Why I Am an Agnostic” (Ѻ), in: The Works of Robert Ingersoll, Volume Four. Publisher.

External links
● Joseph Butler – Wikipedia.