276 Earthly Light, etc., a Lower Form of Heavenly.

do.' And therefore, also, 'eternal death in an angel is the same thing, and has the same nature, as the hard death that is in a senseless flint.' '

2

All those Scriptural expressions which speak of fire, and light, and air, and darkness, and seed, &c., in reference to spiritual things, Law took not in a metaphorical, but in a perfectly literal sense. Thus, there is but one fire throughout all nature and creature, standing only in different states and conditions. That fire which is the life of our bodies is the life of our souls; that which tears wood in pieces is the same which upholds the beauteous forms of angels; it is the same fire that burns straw that will at last melt the sun; the same fire that kindles life in animals that kindled it in angels.' So, too, earthly light was not a type, but a lower form of heavenly light. The heaven in this world began when God said, "Let there be light," for so far as light is in anything, so much it has of heaven in it, and of the beginning of a heavenly life. This shows itself in all things of this world, chiefly in the life-giving power of the sun, in the sweetness and meekness of qualities and tempers, in the softness of sounds, the beauty of colours, the fragrance of smells, and richness of tastes, and the like; as far as anything is tinctured with light, so far it shows its descent from heaven, and its partaking of something heavenly and paradisaical.' 'When God said, "Let there be light and there was light," it could not be the present light of this world which now governs the night and the day; for the sun, the moon and stars were not created till the

་

Appeal to all that Doubt, Works,' vol. vi. p. 78. It is hardly fair to take such assertions as these simply as they stand, detached from their context, which explains them. But space does not allow more; therefore the reader must be referred to Law's own works for their explanation. They are quoted simply as illustrative of the thoroughness with which Law accepted the my ic theory of the close relationship between the spiritual and the material worlds. 3 Ibid. p. 145.

2 Ibid. (2), p. 171.

Analogy between the Visible and Invisible. 277

1

fourth day. But the light which God then spake forth, was a degree of heaven, that was commanded to glance into the darkened deep, which penetrated through all the depth of the chaos, and intermixed itself with every part; . . . it was God's baptizing the dead chaos with the spirit of life, that it might be capable of a resurrection into a new creation; for darkness is death and light is life;' or, which in Law's view would come to the same thing, 'the darkness is the evil and the light is the good that is in everything; darkness is natural, essential, and inseparable from hell; light is natural, essential and inseparable from heaven; it belongs only to heaven, and, wherever else it is, it is only there as a gift from heaven.' The effects of the sun on this world, the exact analogy between the birth and growth of the seed of a vegetable and of the heavenly seed in the soul, the law of attraction which governs all bodies, 'from vegetables to angels,' and many other points on which Law traced the closest correspondence between the worlds of matter and of spirit, cannot here be described without taking up too much space. It must suffice to add that, as a necessary consequence of these views of the oneness throughout all nature, Law took a much wider view of the purposes of redemption than the popular one. All the design of Christian redemption,' he says, 'is to remove everything that is unheavenly, gross, dark, wrathful, and disordered from every part of this fallen world; and when you see earth and stones, storms and tempests, and every kind of evil, misery, and wickedness, you see that which Christ came into the world to remove, and not only to give

4

Spirit of Prayer, 'Works,' vol vii. (2), pp. 29-31.

2 See Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration, 'Works,' vol. v. (2), p. 69; Appeal to all that Doubt, vol. vii. (2), pp. 73, 140; Spirit of Prayer, vol. vii. (2), p. 16; Spirit of Love, vol. viii. (2), p. 42.

3 See Appeal to all that Doubt, vol. vi. (2), p. 79; Spirit of Prayer, vol. vii. (2), p. 146, &c.

See Appeal to all that Doubt, vol. vi. (2), pp. 32, 33, 65

278

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The Glassy Sea.'

a new birth to fallen man, but also to deliver all outward nature from its present vanity and evil, and set it again in its first heavenly state.' This first heavenly state is called in the Revelation of S. John a 'glassy sea,' as being the nearest and truest representation of it that can be made to our minds. On this 'glassy sea' Law loves to descant; but we must not dwell upon it, at any rate in this place, where the object is simply to show how thoroughly Law was at one with the mystics. Enough, it is hoped, has now been said to show this; but, if more be needed, let us hear his own eloquent vindication of them. 'Writers,' he says to Dr. Trapp, like those I have mentioned there have been in all ages of the Church; but, as they served not the ends of popular learning, as they helped no people to figure and preferment in the world, and were useless to scholastic controversial writers, so they dropt out of public use, and were only known, or rather unknown, under the name of mystical writers, till at last some people have hardly heard of that very name; though, if a man were to be told what is meant by a mystical divine, he must be told of something as heavenly, as great, as desirable as if he was told what is meant by a real, regenerate, living member of the mystical body of Christ; for they were thus called for no other reason than as Moses and the prophets, and the saints of the Old Testament, may be called the "spiritual Israel," or the true "mystical Jews." These writers began their office of teaching as John the Baptist did, after they had passed through every kind of mortification and self-denial, every kind of trial and purification, both inward and outward. They were deeply learned

1 Spirit of Love, 'Works,' vol. viii. p. 21.

2 Law had just mentioned S. Cassian, a recorder of the lives, spirit, and doctrine of the Holy Fathers of the desart,' Dionysius the Areopagite, Rusbrochius, Thaulerus, Suso, Harphius, Johannes de Cruce, J. Behmen, Fénélon, Guion, and M. Bertot.

Law's Praise of the Mystic Writers.

279

in the mysteries of the kingdom of God, not through the use of lexicons, or meditating upon critics, but because they had passed from death unto life. They highly reverence and excellently direct the true use of everything that is outward in religion; but, like the Psalmist's king's daughter, they are all glorious within. They are truly sons of thunder, and sons of consolation; they break open the whited sepulchres; they awaken the heart, and show it its filth and rottenness of death; but they leave it not till the kingdom of heaven is raised up within it. If a man has no desire but to be of the spirit of the Gospel, to obtain all that renovation of life and spirit which alone can make him to be in Christ a new creature, it is a great unhappiness to him to be unacquainted with these writers, or to pass a day without reading something of what they wrote.' What Law preached, that he practised; no day passed without his reading something of what the mystics wrote, and all his later writings show how thoroughly saturated he was with their spirit.

1 Works, vol. vi. (2), pp. 320, 321.

280

Law on the Sacraments.

CHAPTER XV.

LAW ON THE SACRAMENTS.

THE first work which Law wrote in his mystic stage is entitled 'A Demonstration of the Gross and Fundamental Errors of a late Book, called "A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper."' The reputed author of the Plain Account' was Law's old antagonist Bishop Hoadly, now advanced to the wealthy see of Winchester. The Bishop never claimed the authorship of the work, but he never disclaimed it, and internal evidence is decidedly in favour of his authorship, for both the style and sentiments are very similar to those of his avowed writings. Moreover, it is pretty clear that the younger Hoadly, who must have been acquainted with the facts of the case, was of opinion that it was his father's work.'

He inserts it in full in his edition of Bishop Hoadly's works (1773), but without asserting that it was his father's composition. In his preface he quotes without comment the following passage from the Biographia Britannica (Art. Hoadly'), the last sentence of which, it will be seen, plainly implies that Bishop Hoadly was the author. 'He [Bishop Hoadly] was the reputed author of A Plain Account, &c. As this masterly performance rationally limited the nature and effects of this positive rite to the words and actions of our Lord Himself, and to those of S. Paul afterwards (the only certain inspired accounts of it), it was consequently unfavourable to the commonly received opinions of its peculiar efficacies and benefits, and accordingly met with a very warm, though weak opposition. . . . A new edition (the fifth) was printed off when Bishop Warburton's Rational Account, &c., was published in 1761, and the publication was some time deferred, as the author designed to have added a postscript on that occasion, but his death prevented it, and we are informed no papers remain on the subject.'--Preface, pp. xxii. xxiii.

The article on Hoadley' in the Penny Cyclopædia says: His Plain Ac