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218

Other Charges against Mysticism.

(5.) A very favourite expression of reproach against the mystics is that they are 'visionary;' if by visionary be meant apt to see and believe in visions, the epithet cannot be applied with truth to the genuine mystic. It is true that many mystics, such as S. Theresa, did see visions, but not qua mystics. The very essence of mysticism is that a man should retire into the temple of his own soul, and he will find God there. He has no need of any vision or appearance from without,-no, not even from God; his state of ecstasy or contemplation is not a manifestation of God from without, but an opening of God from within. Law was in this respect a true mystic; he held that visions were not to be sought; and he looked with considerable suspicion and reserve on those who professed to have been favoured with them.

(6.) 'Mysticism encourages vanity or spiritual pride.'* Theoretically it might be enough to answer that humility is the very cardinal grace of the mystic; but then there is a pride which apes humility, and it is quite possible that spiritual pride might lurk under the garb of mystic selfabasement. But, as a matter of fact, the most pronounced mystics have without exception, so far as I know, been in very truth the humblest of men; nor can I think of one instance in which true mysticism has led to self-conceit.

(7.) Mysticism is charged with using too familiar, not to say improper, expressions to describe the relation between Christ and the Christian. It has been seen that, according

which fell with its time, a stage, however, which retires in obscure idealism into itself, to find in itself all truth and reality. The whole essence of mys ticism lies in a real religious fellowship of the subject with the personal God and of God with him. The religious element must be regarded as the original principle, as the life-germ of mysticism.'

1 Ceux qui traitent les mystiques de visionnaires seraient fort étonnés de voir quel peu de ces ils font des visions en elles-mêmes.'-Dictionnaire de Mystique Chrétienne, Introduction par l'Abbé Migne.

Hey's Lectures on Divinity, i. 470.

The Earthly and the Spiritual Marriage. 219

to the mystic theory, perfect union of the soul with God is to be the aim of the Christian; that this union is to be effected through love; and that all earthly and visible things are types, or rather, more than types, actually lower forms of things spiritual and invisible. It naturally follows that the best figure under which this spiritual union can be represented is the union of two human beings through earthly love. That there is a beautiful analogy between the earthly and the heavenly in this respect no one of course will deny. God has 'consecrated the state of matrimony to such an excellent mystery, that in it is signified and represented the spiritual marriage and unity betwixt Christ and his church.' But in this mystical union' of which our prayer-book speaks, the bride is the church collectively, not the individual Christian. Some mystics not only married the individual soul to Christ, but closely followed out the analogy in the minutest particulars, and, it must be confessed, outraged sometimes one's notions not only of reverence but even of decency. No one worked out this analogy more elaborately than Jacob Behmen; in fact it would be quite impossible to transfer to these pages many passages from him on this subject. Happily, on this point Law did not follow his master; not only is there not one syllable in his writings which could shock the most fastidious; he hardly ever alludes to the analogy at all.

To sum up, it appears to me that the prejudices against mysticism have been excessive, but not altogether without foundation; and that William Law, though he has escaped many of the snares to which mysticism is exposed, has, to some little extent, laid himself open to the charges which were only too freely brought against his system. We may now, after this long discussion return to his outer life.

220

Law at King's Cliffe.

CHAPTER XIII.

LAW'S LIFE AT KING'S CLIFFE.

IT will be remembered that we left William Law in London at the close of the year 1739, in a very unsettled condition. Owing to the death of Mr. Gibbon and the consequent breaking up of the establishment at Putney, his occupation was gone. I do not suppose that he either felt or anticipated the pressure of poverty. He had inherited a little property; possibly, Mr. Gibbon had left him a small legacy. His books were popular, and were selling well; and he might easily have made an arrangement with his publishers which would have secured him at least a moderate competency. But writing with the intense earnestness of purpose that Law did, with no other motive than to do good, he would have regarded it as a prostitution of his pen to write simply for bread and cheese. A ripe scholar of Law's reputation and experience might easily have gained his living by tuition; but his failure with young Gibbon had probably disgusted him with that mode of life, for which he was really not adapted. Other men, again, in Law's circumstances, would have turned their thoughts to matrimony. It is true that Law was now past the prime of life, being fifty-three years of age; but he was wonderfully young and vigorous for his years; he was a personable, and, when he chose, a remarkably agreeable man, and would have had no difficulty in finding a wife. There was one lady, at any rate, with a fortune of her own, who would, we

Law on Clerical Celibacy.

221

may be quite sure, have lent a favourable ear to his suit, Miss Hester Gibbon. But this resource was quite out of the question. Law never swerved one single inch from what he believed to be right. Given Law's opinions, and you might be absolutely certain what his conduct would be, for from the very beginning to the end of his career, it would be impossible to find a single instance of his acting on the principle—

Video meliora proboque,

Deteriora sequor.

Now, no hermit in his cell ever held stricter views on the subject of clerical celibacy than William Law did; and at the very time of which we are speaking, he expressed those views in print with remarkable vigour. 'When,' he wrote in 1739, a clergyman excuses himself from any Heights of the Ministerial Service, by saying, "he has married a wife, and therefore cannot come up to them," it seems to be no better excuse than if he had said, "he had hired a farm,” or "bought five yoke of oxen." It was true that 'the Reformation had allowed Priests and Bishops, not only to look out for wives, but to have as many as they pleased, one after another, but from the beginning it was not so.' The sight of Reverend Doctors in Sacerdotal robes, making love to women,' was an abomination to him. He introduces one of those pictures at which one hardly knows whether to smile or be serious. John the Baptist came out of the wilderness burning and shining, to preach the Kingdom of Heaven at hand. Look at this great saint, all ye that desire to preach the Gospel. Now, if this holy Baptist, when he came to Jerusalem, and had preached a while upon Penitence, and the Kingdom of Heaven at hand, had made an offering of his Heart to some fine young Lady of great accomplishments, had not this put an end to all that was burning and shining in his character?' And surely

222

Law retires to King's Cliffe.

'those clergy who date their mission from Jesus Christ Himself, who claim being sent by Him as He was by His Father, to stand as His representatives, &c. &c., should look upon Love-addresses to the Sex, as unbecoming, as foreign, as opposite to their character, as to the Baptist's. Were not Our Blessed Lord's own words' (Matt. xix. 12) 'more than a volume of human eloquence in praise of the Virgin State. And had not St. Paul done everything to hinder a Minister of Jesus Christ from entering into marriage, except calling it a sinful state? Did not the apologists in primitive times appeal to the members of both sexes consecrated to God in a Virgin Life, as one great Proof of the Divinity of the Christian Religion. But when such arguments as these were used to set forth the glory of the Gospel, need anyone to be told that it must have been highly shameful in those Days for a Priest of such a Religion, to be looking out for a wife?' And so he goes on for several pages. Holding such opinions as these, and always having the courage of his opinions, Law certainly was 'not a marrying man.'

At the close, therefore, of 1740, he quietly retired to King's Cliffe, his native village, where both his parents were buried, where his eldest, and apparently most beloved, brother George still resided, and where he himself owned a house. Here he lived alone for nearly three years, occasionally paying visits to London, for a letter from him to Mr. Spanaugle is preserved by Dr. Byrom, dated April 1742, in which Law says that 'he is about to leave town,' and in another entry in his 'Journal' (May 1743), Byrom describes a visit which he paid to King's Cliffe, when Law 'received a letter [from London] while I was with him, and said he should have gone that day but for me.' As this entry gives us the only glimpse which we can catch of Law in his solitude, a short extract from it is worth insert

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