46

Defects of the Christian Perfection.

still under the guidance of the High Churchman, for we are told that we are most of all to desire those prayers which are offered up at the altar where the Body and Blood of Christ are joined with them.' The connection between self-denial and prayer is well worked out. His arguments also against short prayers are ingenious and unanswerable; but, as this subject is more fully dealt with in 'The Serious Call,' it is not necessary to say more of it here. Nor need we dwell on the arguments adduced to show that Christians are required absolutely and in the minutest particulars to imitate the life and example of Christ. The subject is a well-worn one, but, like almost every subject which Law touches upon, it is presented to us by him in a forcible and original manner. In the last chapter he gives a summary of the whole treatise; and concludes with a persuasive exhortation to all to aim at nothing short of this Christian perfection.

As, above all things, it is desired to be perfectly fair, it is necessary to notice some of the defects of the Christian perfection.'

1. In this work Law begins that crusade against all kinds of human learning which henceforth almost amounted to a life-long craze with him. The most illiterate of Methodist preachers did not express a more sublime contempt of mental culture than this refined and cultured scholar. Every employment which is not of a directly religious tendency is contemptible in his eyes. 'If a man,' he says, 'asks why he should labour to be the first mathematician, orator, or statesman, the answer is easily given, because of the fame and honour of such a distinction.' The answer may be easily given, but it is by no means a conclusive or satisfactory answer. Law altogether ignores the higher and less selfish motives which surely may

1 Christian Perfection, Works, vol. iii. c. xii. p. 367.

Defects of the Christian Perfection.'

47

stimulate the nobler kind of men to follow such pursuits. What! had Newton, when he was engrossed with his mathematics and astronomy, no higher object than fame? Is not truth of all kinds a worthy object of pursuit? Was it no advantage to mankind to know the true nature of the glorious work of the Creator? When Demosthenes was stirring the hearts of his countrymen in behalf of their native country, was he actuated by no higher motive than a love of fame? Is there no such thing as a pure, disinterested patriotism? Had such statesmen as the two Pitts and Burke no higher object than the gratification of their own personal vanity?1

This tendency in Law is noticeable on account of the widespread and by no means wholly beneficial effects which it produced. It was obviously a convenient doctrine for those who could never have distinguished themselves to hold that all such distinction is contemptible. The alienation of Christianity from mental culture is a most disastrous thing. Law himself, indeed, by a happy inconsistency, was saved from the extravagances which the strict application of his own principles is apt to engender. Though he abused scholarship, he always wrote as a well-read scholar.

2. The Christian Perfection' is a somewhat melancholy book: the brighter side of Christianity is certainly not brought out into full relief; Law's own character was, particularly at this period, of the stern, austere type, and his book reflects his character. These defects, however, will be more fully considered in connection with 'The Serious Call.'

3. Once more. Law himself was the most unselfish

It is only fair, however, to add that the politicians of Law's day were, as a rule, very different from the Pitts and the Burkes. Disinterested patriotism was quite at a discount in the age of the Walpoles and Pelhams.

48

Testimonies to the Value of the Work.

of men, and yet there is some ground for the charge that this book advocated too much a selfish religion. You are to aim at Christian perfection because it is your only chance of happiness here and hereafter. It is true that the means by which this end is to be attained are the very reverse of selfish. Self-denial and mortification are of the essence of his scheme; but it is mortification and denial of the lower self for the advantage of the higher. Beyond the actual requirements of nature, the rich are to spend nothing upon themselves, but give all to the poor. Is this selfishness? In one sense, no; but in another, possibly, yes. If the poor are regarded simply as a sort of 'spiritual plate-powder for polishing up our own souls' (to use a rather flippant but very forcible expression of a writer of our own day), there may lurk selfishness even in this apparently most unselfish rule. It must be added that nothing was further from Law's thoughts than selfishness; but that is not to the point.

In spite, however, of these blemishes, the 'Christian Perfection' is a great work-a noble protest against the prevalent irreligion; and the practical good which it effected far overbalanced the possible harm which a misuse of some of its sentiments may to a slight extent have caused.

Weighty testimony to the beneficial effects which it produced might be multiplied to an almost indefinite extent. A few of the most striking evidences must here suffice. The saintly Bishop Wilson says of it: 'Law's "Christian Perfection" fell into my hands by providence ; and after reading it over and over, I recommended it so heartily to a friend of mine near London, that he procured eighteen copies for each of our parochial libraries; I have recommended it to my clergy after the most affecting manner, as the likeliest way to bring them to a most serious

Influence of Christian Perfection.'

3

2

49 temper. The elder Venn (his biographer tells us) tried to realise Law's Christian Perfection.' John Wesley, who was himself deeply impressed by the work, informs us that all the Methodists were greatly profited by it. Bishop Horne (says Bishop Ewing) either copied, or was sufficiently conversant with the 'Christian Perfection' to quote from memory whole passages from it in his sermon On the Duty of Self-denial.' And, not to weary the reader, it may suffice to quote one more very practical illustration of the influence which the 'Christian Perfection' exercised. Shortly after its publication, it is reported that as Law was standing in his publisher's shop, in London, a stranger, after inquiring whether his name was the Rev. Mr. Law, placed in his hands a letter, which, on being opened, was found to contain a banknote for 1,000l., sent, it is presumed, by some anonymous writer who was impressed with his practical treatise. It is rumoured that with this money Law founded part of the school which still exists in his native village.

1 Letter from Bishop Wilson to Lady Elizabeth Hastings, dated Warrington, September 13, 1729.

2 Wesley's 'Sermons,' vol. iii. p. 228; Sermon CVII. on 'God's Vineyard.' Present-Day Papers on Prominent Questions in Theology, p. 13.

E

50

Law at Putney.

CHAPTER VI.

LAW AT PUTNEY.

AFTER a period of about ten years' occultation, which Law probably spent in London, and, as we may gather from an incidental notice, in somewhat straitened circumstances,' he emerges from his obscurity and appears before us in very distinct individuality henceforth to the end of his life-thirty-four years later. It is said to have been about the year 1727 when he became an inmate of the family of Mr. Gibbon, grandfather of the historian, at Putney, acting in the capacity of tutor to his only son, Edward. The story of the life at Putney is immortalised in perhaps the most finished piece of literary biography in the English language-Gibbon's 'Memoirs of My Life and Writings.' Mr. Gibbon, the master of the house, had been

66

The incidental notice is in a pamphlet entitled, 'An Account of all the Considerable Pamphlets that have been published on either side in the present controversy between the Bishop of Bangor and others to the end of the year 1718, with occasional observations on them by Philagnostes Criticus, 1719.' The writer has a very strong bias in favour of Bishop Hoadly, and against Law. After vehemently condemning Law's letters, he writes, "There has been for Reply to the Bishop of Bangor's Answer to the Represome time advertised a sentation" by Law, to be published by subscription, and the following right zealous and orthodox divines of the Church of England, Dr. Pelling, Dr. Fiddes, Dr. Astry, and Mr. Thorold, have charitably taken the trouble of solliciting (sic) and receiving subscriptions for this great nonjuring defender of the rights of the clergy.' I think that slight as this notice is, we may certainly gather from it that Law was at the time in straitened circumstances; otherwise, with his independent character, he would never have allowed such an arrangement.