He that is endeavouring to subdue, and root out of his mind,all those passions of pride,envy and ambition,which religion opposes, is doing more to make himself happy, even in this life than he that is contriving means to indulge them.
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), ch.XII
You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough.
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), ch. XV
Man needs to be saved from his own wisdom as much as from his own righteousness, for they produce one and the same corruption.
The Power of the Spirit
William Law was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
cleric, divine and theological writer.
Early life
Law was born at
Kings CliffeKings Cliffe is a village and civil parish in East Northamptonshire, England, between Corby and Peterborough.It once had its own railway station, which is now closed.-Population:...
,
NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
in 1686. In 1705 he entered as a
sizarAt Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....
at
Emmanuel College, CambridgeEmmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
; in 1711 he was elected fellow of his college and was ordained. He resided at Cambridge, teaching and taking occasional duty until the accession of
George IGeorge I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....
, when his conscience forbade him to take the oaths of allegiance to the new government and of abjuration of the
StuartsThe House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
. His
JacobitismJacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
had already been betrayed in a tripos speech. This brought him trouble: he was deprived of his fellowship and became a
non-jurorThe nonjuring schism was a split in the Church of England in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, over whether William of Orange and his wife Mary could legally be recognised as King and Queen of England....
.
For the next few years he is said to have been a curate in London. By 1727 he lived with Edward Gibbon (1666–1736) at
PutneyPutney is a district in south-west London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
as tutor to his son Edward, father of the
historianEdward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
, who says that Law became the much-honoured friend and spiritual director of the whole family. In the same year he accompanied his pupil to Cambridge and lived with him as governor, in term time, for the next four years. His pupil then went abroad but Law was left at Putney, where he remained in Gibbon's house for more than 10 years, acting as a religious guide not only to the family but to a number of earnest-minded people who came to consult him. The most eminent of these were the two brothers
JohnJohn Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
and
Charles WesleyCharles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
,
John ByromJohn Byrom or John Byrom of Kersal or John Byrom of Manchester FRS was an English poet and inventor of a revolutionary system of shorthand. He is also remembered as the writer of the lyrics of Anglican hymn Christians Awake, salute the happy morn.- Early life :John Byrom was descended from an old...
the poet, George Cheyne the physician and
Archibald HutchesonArchibald Hutcheson was a British Member of Parliament .He was the son of Archibald Hutcheson of Stracum or Stranocum, Co. Antrim. He trained as a barrister and was called to the bar in 1683. He was appointed Attorney-General of the Leeward Islands...
, MP for
HastingsHastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
.
The household was dispersed in 1737. Law was parted from his friends and in 1740 retired to Kings Cliffe, where he had inherited from his father a house and a small property. There he was presently joined by two women, a Mrs Hutcheson, the rich widow of his old friend, who recommended her on his death-bed to place herself under Law's spiritual guidance, and Hester Gibbon, sister to his late pupil. This curious trio lived for 21 years a life wholly given to devotion, study and charity, until the death of Law on the 9 April 1761.
Bangorian controversy and after
In this field he had no contemporary peer save perhaps
Richard BentleyRichard Bentley was an English classical scholar, critic, and theologian. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge....
. The first of his controversial works was
Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor (1717), which were considered by friend and foe alike as one of the most powerful contributions to the
Bangorian controversyThe Bangorian Controversy was a theological argument within the Church of England in the early 18th century, with strong political overtones. The origins of the controversy lay in the 1716 posthumous publication of George Hickes's Constitution of the Catholic Church, and the Nature and...
on the high church side.
Thomas SherlockThomas Sherlock was a British divine who served as a Church of England bishop for 33 years. He is also noted in church history as an important contributor to Christian apologetics.-Life:...
declared that Mr Law was a writer so considerable that he knew but one good reason why his lordship did not answer him.
Law's next controversial work was
Remarks on MandevilleBernard Mandeville, or Bernard de Mandeville , was a philosopher, political economist and satirist. Born in the Netherlands, he lived most of his life in England and used English for most of his published works...
's Fable of the Bees (1723), in which he vindicates
moralityMorality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
; it was praised by
John SterlingJohn Sterling , was a British author.He was born at Kames Castle on the Isle of Bute. He belonged to a family of Scottish origin which had settled in Ireland during the Cromwellian period...
, and republished by F. D. Maurice. Law's
Case of Reason (1732), in answer to
TindaMatthew Tindal was an eminent English deist author. His works, highly influential at the dawn of the Enlightenment, caused great controversy and challenged the Christian consensus of his time.-Life:...
l's
Christianity as old as the Creation is to some extent an anticipation of
Joseph ButlerJoseph Butler was an English bishop, theologian, apologist, and philosopher. He was born in Wantage in the English county of Berkshire . He is known, among other things, for his critique of Thomas Hobbes's egoism and John Locke's theory of personal identity...
's argument in the
Analogy of Religion. His
Letters to a Lady inclined to enter the Church of Rome are specimens of the attitude of a high Anglican towards Romanism.
Writings on practical divinity
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), together with its predecessor,
A Practical Treatise Upon Christian Perfection (1726), deeply influenced the chief actors in the great Evangelical revival.
JohnJohn Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
and
Charles WesleyCharles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
,
George WhitefieldGeorge Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
, Henry Venn,
Thomas ScottThe Rev. Thomas Scott was an influential preacher and author who is principally known for his best-selling work A Commentary On The Whole Bible and The Force of Truth, and as one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society.- Life :...
, and
Thomas AdamThomas Adam was a Church of England clergyman and religious writer.-Biography:Adam was born at Leeds, West Yorkshire on 25 February 1701. His father was a solicitor and town clerk of the Leeds Corporation; his mother Elizabeth, daughter of Jasper Blythman—locally distinguished and allied to an...
all express their deep obligation to the author.
The Serious Call also affected others deeply.
Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, Gibbon, Lord Lyttelton and Bishop Home all spoke enthusiastically of its merits; and it is still the only work by which its author is popularly known. It has high merits of style, being lucid and pointed to a degree. In a tract entitled
The Absolute Unlawfulness of Stage Entertainments (1726) Law was tempted by the corruptions of the stage of the period to use unreasonable language, and incurred some effective criticism from
John DennisJohn Dennis was an English critic and dramatist.-Life:He was born in Harrow, London. He was educated at Harrow School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1679. In the next year he was fined and dismissed from his college for having wounded a fellow-student with a sword....
in
The Stage Defended.
Mysticism
Though the least popular, by far the most interesting, original and suggestive of all Law's works are those he wrote in his later years, after he had become an enthusiastic admirer (not a disciple) of Jacob Boehme, the Teutonic theosopher. From his earliest years, he had been deeply impressed with the piety, beauty and thoughtfulness of the writings of the Christian mystics. However, it was not till after his accidental meeting with the works of Boehme, about 1734, that pronounced mysticism appeared in his works. Law's mystic tendencies separated him from the practical-minded Wesley.
Veneration
Law is honored with a feast day on the
liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA)The veneration of saints in the Episcopal Church is a continuation of an ancient tradition from the early Church which honors important people of the Christian faith. The usage of the term "saint" is similar to Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Those in the Anglo-Catholic tradition may...
on April 10.
List of works
See also