William Law

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It may be due to the fact that his writings are close to two hundred years old. In his day, he was mainly known for his polemic writings in defending the faith and upholding a high standard of Christian living. Whyte, in the introduction of his book <I>Characters and Characteristics of William Law</I> gives us a few of the rules that Law had set for himself. "That the greatness of human nature consists in nothing else but in imitating the Divine nature. To avoid all idleness. To avoid all excess in eating and drinking. To call to mind the presence of God whenever I find myself under any temptation to sin, and to have immediate recourse to prayer. To think humbly of myself and to think with great charity of all others. To forbear all evil-speaking. To pray privately three times a day besides my morning and evening devotions. To spend some time in giving an account of the day, previous to evening prayer." This article will consider the highlights of his life, comment on two of his writings and consider his impact on Christian history.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Biographical Sketch</B></div> <bR> <div> Law was born in King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, England. He was the only child of eight sons and three daughters to have higher education. Upon completing his education he was elected to a fellowship (post doctorate) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and took Holy Orders in the Church of England in 1711. When King George I came to the throne in 1716, Law refused to take the oath of allegiance. This resulted in the loss of his fellowship and any chance of a position in the Church of England. To his family, this meant his education was going to waste. For ten years he was employed as a private tutor to the father of the famous historian Edward Gibbon. In 1736 he retired to King's Cliffe where he remained for the remainder of his life. During this time, besides writing, he spent his days in private devotion, studying the Bible, and taking care of the poor. He also established schools for orphan boys and girls.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Law's Writings</B></div> <bR> <div> Since William Law was denied any position in the educational institutions and in the church he used his only recourse - the pen. He wrote many works in defense of the faith and also on Christian perfection. His first writing was done in 1717 as an open letter to the Bishop of Bangor. He is best known for his work <I>A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.</I> This was written in 1729 and could be considered one of his earlier writings. His last writing, published in 1761, was originally published under the title <I>An Humble, Earnest, and Affectionate Address to the Clergy.</I> In 1896 Andrew Murray brought it back into print under the title <I>The Power of the Spirit. </I></div> <div> To understand Law, it is worthwhile to compare two of his writings. I will compare his most popular work <I>A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, </I>and his last writing, <I>The Power of the Spirit.</I> This comparison will show the spiritual development and advancement of his writing. </div> <bR> <div> Both of these writings convey a deep concern for the daily life of believers. He observed that the living of professing Christians did not match the Word of God. Both of these books have this same thought, but the way in which Law exhorts his readers differs in these two writings. </div> <bR> <div> <B>The Believers'Salvation</B></div> <bR> <div> In <I>A Serious Call</I> Law stresses the need of a strong determination on the part of believers to change their ways. In <I>The Power of the Spirit,</I> Law stresses the work of the Holy Spirit in changing people's lives. Let us compare a few quotes. </div> <div> In Law's <I>A Serious Call</I> he says:</div> <bR> <div> The salvation of our souls is set forth in Scripture as a thing of difficulty, requiring all diligence and to be worked out with fear and trembling. The Christian life is pictured as continuous striving, and many will fail to attain salvation, not because they took no pains or care about it, but because they did not take pains and care enough.</div> <bR> <div> Weak and imperfect men shall - notwithstanding their frailties and defects - be received as having pleased God if they have done their utmost to please him. We cannot offer to God the service of angels. We cannot obey him as if we were in a state of perfection. But fallen men can do their best, and this is the perfection that is required of us. If we stop short of this we stop short of the mercy of God under the terms of the gospel. God has there made no promises of mercy to the slothful and negligent. His mercy is offered only to our frail and imperfect but best endeavors to practice all manner of righteousness.</div> <div> The best way for anyone to know how much he ought to aspire after holiness is to consider how much he thinks will make him easy at the hour of death. Now any man who dares be so serious as to put this question to himself will be forced to answer that at death he will wish he had been as perfect as human nature can be. Is not this, therefore, sufficient to make us not only wish for but work for that degree of perfection ? (p. 26-27)</div> <bR> <div> Concerning salvation, Law stresses difficulty, diligence, continuous striving, doing one's utmost to please God, no mercy to the slothful and negligent and doing our best to endeavor. This implies that salvation is dependent upon man's effort. If you don't try hard enough you will not obtain salvation. </div> <bR> <div> This is in contrast to his last writing. In <I>The Power of the Spirit </I>he writes:</div> <div> A new birth of this Spirit of God in man is as necessary to make fallen man alive again unto God as it was to make Adam at first in the image and likeness of God. And a constant flow of the divine life by the Spirit is as necessary to man's continuance in his redeemed state as light and moisture are to the continued life of a plant. A religion that is not wholly built upon this supernatural ground, but which stands to any degree upon human powers, reasonings, and conclusions, has not so much as the shadow of truth in it. Such religion leaves man with mere empty forms and images that can no more restore divine life to his soul than an idol of clay or wood could create another Adam.</div> <bR> <div> True Christianity is nothing but the continual dependence upon God through Christ for all life, light, and virtue; and the false religion of Satan is to seek that goodness from any other source. So the true child of God acknowledges that "no man can receive anything except it be given him from above." All goodness comes from God just as surely as all life comes from God....</div> <bR> <div> Man's fall from his first state brought a separation from God and thus from the life, light, and virtue which is in Him. Man's salvation can therefore only be effected by a reconciling union of his spirit with the Spirit of the Creator. "Be ye reconciled to God," wrote Paul. Nor can this reconciliation be accomplished by man's own efforts, but it must by its very nature be a gift from God. No angel or man could begin to show any love, faith, or desire toward God, without a living seed of these divine affections being first formed within him by the Spirit of God. ... Therefore the continuous inspiration and working of the Holy Spirit in the spirit of man is no less essential to that salvation which God has provided through Jesus Christ than the new birth itself. ( p. 15-16) </div> <bR> <div> This excerpt shows reconciliation (a part of salvation) as being a gift from God. Salvation does not stand upon human powers, reasonings, and conclusions. Reconciliation is a gift from God. Furthermore, it is the Spirit of God that forms love, faith, and desire within man toward God. This shows a development in Law's writing from man's effort to God's operation through the Spirit.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Use of Man's Reason</B></div> <bR> <div> Another portion from <I>A Serious Call</I> indicates Law's view concerning the use of man's reason, living by law and conducting oneself by rules and principles that others admire:</div> <div>  </div> <div> Any devout man makes a true use of his reason. He sees through the vanity of the world, discovers the corruption of his nature, and admits the blindness of his passion. He lives by a law that is not visible to vulgar eyes; he sets eternity against time; and he chooses rather to be forever great in the presence of God than to have the greatest share of worldly pleasure while he lives.</div> <bR> <div> He who is devout is full of these great thoughts. He lives upon these noble reflections, and conducts himself by rules and principles that can be apprehended, admired, and loved only by reason. There is nothing, therefore, that shows so great a genius, nothing that so plainly declares a heroic greatness of mind, as great devotion. When you suppose a man to be a saint you have raised him as much above all other conditions of life as a philosopher is above an animal....</div> <bR> <div> Reason is our universal law that obliges us in all places and at all times. No actions have any honor but so far as they are instances of our obedience to reason.</div> <div> (pp. 157-158)</div> <bR> <div> Compare this excerpt with the following. In <I>The Power of the Spirit </I>Law seems to have developed a different understanding concerning the exercise of reason regarding the spiritual things. </div> <bR> <div> What makes a man a sinner? Nothing but the power and working of his own will in independence from God. And what does his will follow in determining its choice, if not his own natural reason? Did not Satan appeal to Eve's reason, in enticing her to eat of the forbidden fruit? And therefore, if our natural reason is not to be denied, we must keep up and follow that which works all sin in us. For no man could be responsible or judged of God any more than the beasts except that his carnality has all its evil from his intelligent nature, reason being the life and power of it. "For the carnal mind is at enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And what is the carnal mind, if it is not our natural reason? p. 97</div> <bR> <div> We have no spiritual need except for a restoration of the divine nature in us. And if this be true, then nothing can be our salvation except that which brings us into a right relationship with God, making us partakers of the divine nature in such a manner and degree as we need. But to reason about life cannot communicate it to the soul, nor can a religion of rational notions and opinions logically deduced from Scripture words bring the reality of the gospel into our lives. Do we not see sinners of all sorts, and men under the power of every corrupt passion, equally zealous for such a religion? How is it then that Christian leaders spend so much time reasoning about Scripture doctrines, and yet remain so blind to the obvious fact that filling the head with right notions of Christ can never give to the heart the reality of His Spirit and life? For logical reasoning about Scripture words and doctrines will do no more to remove pride, hypocrisy, envy, or malice from the soul of man, than logical reasoning about geometry. The one leaves man as empty of the life of God in Christ as the other.</div> <div> Yet the church is filled with professing Christians whose faith has never gone beyond a conviction that the words of Scripture are true. They believe in the Christ of the Bible, but do not know Him personally. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is sound doctrine to their minds, but their lives are empty of His manifest power either to overcome the power of sin within, or to convert others to Christ. Though many are zealous to preach the gospel, yet instead of bringing men to Christ, they seek to reason them into a trust in their own learned opinions about Scripture doctrines. In contrast to Paul, their gospel is in word only, without the demonstration and power of the Spirit. Nor can they see their need of the Holy Spirit to fill them with Christ, and then to overflow through them in rivers of living water to others, because reason tells them that they are sound in the letter of doctrine. pp. 102-104</div> <bR> <div> God does not demand a faith that is unreasonable - but He does demand a faith that goes beyond the limits of human reason. And thus there is a point where faith and reason divide the human race into two kinds of men fully distinct from each other. The faithful through every age are the children of God, and sure heirs of His redemption through Jesus Christ. Those who trust in reason alone are of the seed of the serpent, and real heirs of that confusion which happened to the first builders of the tower of Babel. To live by faith is to be truly and fully in covenant with God; to reject that which reason cannot verify is to be merely and solely in compact with ourselves, with our own vanity and blindness, and with Satan who first led the race into this sad state. pp. 106-107</div> <bR> <div> Law sees that man's fall was due to his exercise of reason in independence from God. If man does not deny his natural reason but continues in it then he will continue in the way of sin. Reasoning does not bring us into a relationship with God. However, Law states that a relationship with God is brought about by being a partaker of the divine nature. </div> <bR> <div> <B>The Believers' Living and Conduct</B></div> <bR> <div> In addressing the believers living and conduct, Law, in <I>A Serious Call,</I> stresses practising doctrines. </div> <bR> <div> If the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, they would make a man as different from other people as a civilized man is different from a savage. If the doctrines of Christianity were practiced, it would be as easy a thing to know a Christian by the outward course of his life as it is now difficult to find a person who lives the Christian life. (p.20)</div> <bR> <div> Again, let the gentleman of birth and fortune but have this intention and you will see how it will carry him from every appearance of evil to every evidence of devotion and goodness. He does not ask what is allowable and pardonable, but what is commendable and praiseworthy. He will not, therefore, look at the lives of Christians to learn how he ought to spend his estate, but he will look into the Scriptures and make every doctrine, parable, precept, or instruction that relates to rich men a law to himself in the use of his estate. He will deny himself the pleasures and indulgences that his estate could procure because our blessed Saviour saith, " Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation" (Luke 6:24)· (p. 22)</div> <bR> <div> In Law's later writing he emphasizes the Holy Spirit's inspiration of God's Word, and the Spirit's dwelling in and working in the believers.</div> <bR> <div> Without the present illumination of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God must remain a dead letter to every man, no matter how intelligent or well-educated he may be....To say that because we now have all the writings of Scripture complete we no longer need the miraculous inspiration of the Spirit among men as in former days, is a degree of blindness as great as any that can be charged upon the scribes and Pharisees.... the Scriptures should only be read in an attitude of prayer, trusting to the inward working of the Holy Spirit to make their truths a living reality within us. pp. 61-62</div> <bR> <div> The fruits of the Spirit, so often mentioned in Scripture, are not things different or separate from the Spirit; and if the Spirit be not dwelling and working in us, His fruits must be as absent from us as He is. If there is not granted by God a "divine encounter" and the inner realization that the fruits and gifts of the Spirit proceed from His present workings in our hearts, then how could we know that they are of the Spirit? For the fruits of the Spirit are living, and can only be living in us as the Spirit manifests Himself through us. And since the "manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit thereby," how can any deny such present workings of the Holy Spirit in the church, unless they also deny His presence? p. 66</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Highlights from </B><I><B>The Power of the Spirit</B></I></div> <bR> <div> This last book by William Law is not well known, yet of all his books it may be the most profitable in knowing the Lord. Below are some good quotes from this book.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Having a Vital relationship with Christ:</B></div> <bR> <div> Law stresses the need of the believers continuing in a vital relationship with Christ after their conversion. </div> <bR> <div> Every branch of a tree, though ever so richly brought forth, must wither and die from the moment it ceases to have a life union with the root. To this truth - grounded as absolutely in the spiritual as in the natural -<I> </I>our Lord appeals as an illustration of the necessity of His constant indwelling and continuous working in the redeemed soul of man. p. 18</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Gospel - an inward experience:</B></div> <bR> <div> According to Law, salvation was an inward experience and a spiritual operation of God in man.</div> <bR> <div> No one can know the truth of salvation by a mere rational consent to that which is historically said of Christ. Only by an inward experience of His cross, death, and resurrection can the saving power of the gospel be known. For the reality of Christ's redemption is not in fleshly, finite, outward things - much less in verbal descriptions of them - but is a birth, a life, a spiritual operation, which as truly belongs to God alone as does His creative power. p. 26</div> <bR> <div> Law also addresses the disparity between many professing Christians' position in Christ and their outward living.</div> <bR> <div> Many Christians are careful to observe certain times, places, and rituals of worship; but when the service of the church is over, they are but like those that profess no regard for religion. In their manner of life, in their cares and worries, fears and pleasures, indulgences and diversions, it is often impossible to distinguish professing Christians from the rankest unbelievers, until they once again unite to sing of their love and devotion to Jesus. Little wonder that the skeptic makes such false standard-bearers the object of his scorn and jest, because he sees that their devotion goes no deeper than the words they use in song and prayer. How can this be called Christianity, when such a manner of life finds its proper condemnation in every page of the New Testament? p. 32</div> <bR> <div> <B>Worship of the Letter a Denial of the Spirit:</B></div> <bR> <div> Law strongly states that the appreciation of Biblical scholarship of the letter is in opposition to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This results in a scholar who is empty of the reality of the gospel.</div> <bR> <div> This scholarly worship of the letter has greatly opposed the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and blinded men to the living reality which the gospel holds out to those who believe. The manner in which Greek and Hebrew scholarship is admired and sought after in the church would lead one to believe that a man has all the divine life and reality of a Paul if he can only say his epistles by heart. What could such a man truly be said to have, except the letter of the gospel without the Spirit? And what would be the advantage if he knew this letter in the original Greek, and had thoroughly mastered all the niceties of grammar and shades of ancient meanings? Such a man, while more thoroughly grounded in the letter, must remain just as empty of the reality of the gospel, unless he knows in his own experience the immediate inspiration and quickening power of the Holy Spirit. p. 38 </div> <bR> <div> Finally, Law gives a strong denunciation of leaders who gain positions by their intellectual attainments and eloquence.</div> <bR> <div> The Bible teacher and religious leader who gain and hold a church position through intellectual attainments and oratorical skills can be said to differ from lesser men only as the serpent differed from the other beasts of the field - in that it was more subtle. p. 41</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Wisdom of the World Denies the Spirit:</B></div> <bR> <div> In commenting on 1 Corinthians 4:15 "For though you have ten thousand guides in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers..." he says:</div> <bR> <div> "Thousands stand ready to split doctrinal hairs and instruct others in the fine meaning of Scripture words - but there are so few through whom the Holy Spirit can work to bring men to new birth in the kingdom of God." p. 48</div> <bR> <div> Law's provocative style of writing is again displayed in his desire to turn his reader away from the natural pursuit of knowledge to a genuine experience of God's salvation with regards to his entrance into God's kingdom.</div> <bR> <div> Natural genius and human wisdom can feed on no other food than the deceptive fruit of that ancient tree of knowledge. What a gross ignorance, both of man's need and Christ's salvation, to run to Greek and Hebrew schools to learn how to put off Adam and to put on Christ! How absurd to seek to be wise in scholarship concerning the letter of Scripture in order to obey Christ's command that we must become like a little child to enter into His kingdom! p. 51</div> <bR> <div> There are many more worthy quotes from this book that could be highlighted. Considering the time period in which this book was written, (1761) it is quite advanced in the experience and understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in man. Law influenced Andrew Murray (1828-1917), especially by <I>The Power of the Spirit.</I> Murray eventually wrote his classic work <I>The Spirit of Christ</I>. For anyone who desires to be brought into a deeper experience of the Christian life it is worthwhile to delve into these books by William Law and Andrew Murray. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Sources:</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Law, William edited and abridged by John W. Meister and others. </B><I><B>A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life</B></I><B>. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1955. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Law, William edited by Alexander Whyte. </B><I><B>Characters and Characteristics of William Law</B></I><B>. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1893.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Law, William edited by Dave Hunt. </B><I><B>The Power of the Spirit</B></I><B>. Fort Washington: Christian Literature Crusade, 1971. </B></div> <bR> <div> see also <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#00BF00" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Quotes from Church History"><U>Quotes From Church History</U></A></FONT></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>