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The reflection which the reading of such a passage as this calls up must be, Is it possible that this man could have lived in the eighteenth century? This defender of pilgrimages and crucifixes in an age when anti-Popery was rampant? This depreciator of grammarians, criticks,' and the rest, in an age when reason was triumphant? This apologist for enthusiasm in an age which, when it had labelled a man 'enthusiast,' thought that it had put him under an universal ban? Could William Law really have been the contemporary of the Warburtons, the Hoadlys, and the Trapps, ay, or even of the Butlers and the Sherlocks?

Law, he gives up the name: 'As to the nature of enthusiasm, it is undoubtedly a disorder of the mind,' &c. Wesley is far more of an eighteenth century man than his quondam mentor; hence, in part, the far wider influence which he exercised.

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The Spirit of Prayer.

CHAPTER XVII.

'THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER' AND 'THE SPIRIT OF LOVE.' IF the 'Appeal to all that Doubt, &c.,' is the most comprehensive of all Law's mystic works, the two treatises which are the subject of this chapter are certainly the most attractive, and also the most exhaustive in their explanation of particular points. They were written after Law's mysticism had excited much attention and much opposition; and therefore he adopts a method which gave him an opportunity not only of elucidating his own views, but also of answering possible and actual objections to those views. That method was, in both cases, first, to unfold his own sentiments without interruption, and then to introduce speakers who comment upon them; that is, to give first an essay, and then some dialogues upon it.

The first part of the Spirit of Prayer' was published in 1749. It is an essay of about one hundred pages, written in a most fascinating style, and describing on the principles of Behmenism the progress of 'the Soul Rising out of the Vanity of Time into the Riches of Eternity.' This, indeed, is its alternative title, and a very proper one, according to Law's view; for he understands the word 'prayer' in the same sense as he did in the two practical treatises; that is, not merely as the offering up of petitions to God, nor even as holding communion with God, but as synonymous with a life of devotion in the strictest sense of the term.

See the Christian Perfection and Serious Call, passim.

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'The Spirit of Prayer.

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The second part was not published till 1750, because, it is said, Law wished to observe the reception of the first part, and to be in some measure guided by it as to the construction and contents of the remainder. It is, as has been already observed, in the form of dialogues; and these dialogues are singularly characteristic of the writer's own mind and position.

The speakers are Academicus, Rusticus, and Theophilus, with the addition of a dummy, who is called Humanus. Theophilus represents Law's own views, and is completely master of the situation, as Law himself always was; he is an adept in the art of shutting-up, as Law also certainly was; but there is an earnestness, a tenderness, and a thorough reality about him which attract far more than his occasional asperity repels us, and in these respects he exactly resembles Law. Academicus is a professing and, according to his lights, a sincere Christian, but he is so hampered by his 'letter-learning,' that he finds many obstacles to the reception of Christianity according to Behmen. He is, therefore, continually laying himself open to severe snubs from Theophilus; and is still more often being set right by Rusticus, who, being unable to read or write, is in a far better position to receive the truth in its fulness and simplicity. Humanus is a learned unbeliever, a friend and neighbour of Academicus, who is admitted into the company only on the express condition that he is never to open his mouth-a condition which he strictly fulfils in the first two dialogues.

The Way to Divine Knowledge' was published in a volume by itself in 1752, 'as preparatory to a new edition of the works of Jacob Behmen, and the right use of them.' So far as it had this object in view, it may be regarded as a separate work; but in other respects it is, to all intents and purposes, merely a continuation of the Spirit of

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'The Way to Divine Knowledge.

Prayer,' the same speakers taking up the thread of their discourse just where they left it at the end of the preceding dialogue. It opens with a full confession of his errors by the long tongue-tied Humanus, who owns that his objections to Christianity had been due simply to the wrong tactics of its defenders. I had frequently,' he says, 'a consciousness rising up within me that the debate was equally vain on both sides, doing no more real good to the one than to the other; not being able to imagine that a set of scholastic, logical opinions about history, facts, doctrines, and institutions of the church, or a set of logical objections against them, were of any significance towards making the soul of man either an eternal angel of heaven, or an eternal devil of hell. . . . You have taught me that Christianity is neither more nor less than the goodness of the Divine Life, Light, and Love living and working in the soul!' This to some extent represents Law's own experience. Not that he had ever for one moment the slightest temptation to join the ranks of the unbelievers to which Humanus belonged. But it is obvious that Humanus' conclusion may be reached as well from the Christian as from the unChristian side. In fact it was so reached by Academicus, whose long account of his experience is well worth quoting, both as a specimen of Law's quiet humour, and as a vivid picture, mutatis mutandis, of Law's own mental history.

'When,' he says, 'I had taken my degrees, I consulted several great divines to put me in a method of studying divinity. Had I said to them, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" they would have prescribed hellebore, or directed me to the physician as a vapoured enthusiast. It would take up near half a day to tell you the work which my learned friends cut out for me. One told me that Hebrew words are all; that they must be read without points, and then the Old Testament is an open book; he recom

The Vanity of Human Learning.

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mended to me a cartload of lexicons, critics, and commentators upon the Hebrew Bible. Another tells me, the

Greek Bible is the best; that it corrects the Hebrew in many places; and refers me to a large number of books learnedly writ in the defence of it. Another tells me that Church history is the main matter; that I must begin with the first fathers, and follow them through every age of the Church; not forgetting to take the lives of the Roman emperors along with me, as striking great light into the state of the Church in their times. Then I must have recourse to all the councils held, and the canons made, in every age; which would enable me to see with my own eyes the great corruptions of the Council of Trent. Another, who is not very fond of antient matters, but wholly bent upon rational Christianity, tells me, I need go no higher than the Reformation; that Calvin and Cranmer were very great men ; that Chillingworth and Locke ought always to lie upon my table; that I must get an entire set of those learned volumes wrote against Popery in King James's reign; and also be well versed in all the discourses which Mr. Boyle's and Lady Moyer's Lectures have produced; and, then, says he, you will be a match for our greatest enemies, which are the Popish priests and modern Deists. My tutor is very liturgical; he desires me, of all things, to get all the collections I can of the antient liturgies, and all the authors that treat of such matters, who, he says, are very learned and very numerous. He has been many years making observations upon them, and is now clear, as to the time when certain little particles got entrance into the liturgies, and others were by degrees dropt. He has a friend abroad, in search of antient manuscript liturgies, for, by-the-bye, said he, at parting, I have some suspicion that our Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is essentially defective, for want of a little water in the wine. Another learned friend tells me