A comparative analysis of thermal models in the lattice Boltzmann method(LBM) for the simulation of laminar natural convection in a square cavity is presented. A HYBRID method, in which the thermal equation is solved by the Navier-Stokes equation method while the mass and momentum conservation are resolved by the lattice Boltzmann method, is introduced and its merits are explained. All the governing equations are discretized on a cell-centered, non-uniform grid using the finite-volume method. The convection terms are treated by a second-order central-difference scheme with a deferred correction method to ensure stability of the solutions. The HYBRID method and the double-population method are applied to the simulation of natural convection in a square cavity and the predicted results are compared with the benchmark solutions given in the literatures. The predicted results are also compared with those by the conventional Navier-Stokes equation method. In general, the present HYBRID method is as accurate as the Navier-Stokes equation method and the double-population method. The HYBRID method shows better convergence and stability than the double-population method. These observations indicate that this HYBRID method is an efficient and economic method for the simulation of incompressible fluid flow and heat transfer problem with the LBM.