William Law

Background

Law was born at Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom in 1686,  the son of a grocer and one of 11 children.

Education

In 1705 he was sent to Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1708, was ordained in 1711, and became a fellow of Emmanuel in 1712.  In the same year he accompanied his pupil to Cambridge, and resided with him as governor, in term time, for the next four years.

Career

In 1714 at the accession of George I, he refused to take the oath of allegiance, becoming, in the nomenclature of the day, a nonjuror. Through their assistance Law was able to devote himself to study and charitable activities until his death.

His Jacobitism had already been betrayed in a tripos speech which brought him into trouble.   As a result, Law entered into a number of controversies with leading thinkers of his day. In 1723 a critique of Bernard Mandeville's Fable of the Bees appeared, in which Law defended morality against Mandeville's argument that man was motivated completely by self-interest. In 1731 Law published a forceful rejoinder to the deist Mathew Tindal, in which Law denied the total efficacy of reason.  For the next few years he is said to have been a curate in London.

The most eminent of these were the two brothers John and Charles Wesley, John Byrom the poet, George Cheyne the physician and Archibald Hutcheson, M. P. for Hastings.

The household was dispersed in 1737.

Law was a busy writer under three heads.  In this field he had no contemporary peer save perhaps Richard Bentley.

The first of his controversial works was Three betters to the Bishop of Bangor (1717), which were considered by friend and foe alike as one of the most powerful contributions to the Bangorian controversy on the high church side.

Law's next controversial work was Remarks on Mandeville's Fable of the Bees (1723), in which he vindicates morality on the highest grounds; for pure style, caustic wit and lucid argument this work is remarkable; it was enthusiastically praised by John Sterling, and republished by F. D. Maurice.

His controversial writings have not received due recognition, partly because they were opposed to the drift of his times, partly because of his success in other fields.

The Wesleys, George Whitefield, Henry Venn, Thomas Scott and Thomas Adam all express their deep obligation to the author.

The Serious Call affected others quite as deeply.

Samuel Johnson, Gibbon, Lord Lyttelton and Bishop Horne 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 this work Law shows himself at least the equal of the ablest champion of Deism. His Letters to a Lady inclined to enter the Church of Rome are excellent specimens of the attitude of a high Anglican towards Romanism. Though the least popular, by far the most interesting, original and suggestive of all Law's works are those which he wrote in his later years, after he had become an enthusiastic admirer (not a disciple) of Jacob Boehme, the Teutonic theosophist.

Law was parted from his friends, and in 1740 retired to King's Cliffe, where he had inherited from his father a house and a small property.

Achievements

• Law's A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728) which is regarded as his most enduring work.

Works

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  • The Complete Works of WILLIAM LAW (17-in-1)

    (** Searchable, Fully Edited, with an Active Table of Cont...)

  • The Power of the Spirit

    (“In all my reading I have never found anyone who has so h...)

  • A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

    (William Law was a priest at the Church of England in the ...)

Religion

Dwelling on the "inner spirit" of Christ within man, his thought became less orthodox and his conception of religion less formal, though he never left the Church of England.

Emphasizing the need to be a Christian in spirit and deed as well as in name, his tract (A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life) is an uncompromising demand for continual and heartfelt Christian dedication.

In an age when much theological thought was deeply affected by the rationalism of John Locke and Isaac Newton, Law became a vocal spokesman for the need to return to a religion of piety and feeling.

Views

Quotations: If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead. Be intent upon the perfection of the present day. Humility is nothing else but a right judgment of ourselves.

Connections

divorced:

Lav

Lav's mystic tendencies divorced him from the practical- minded Wesley, but in spite of occasional wild fancies the books are worth reading.

Sister:

Mrs

aunt:

Hester

In 1740 Law returned to King's Cliffe, soon to be joined by Hester Gibbon, the aunt of the historian, and another lady of quality, Mrs. Hutchenson.

Friend:

Edward