building, grudging it the space it occupied, which, in his view, might be more advantageously occupied by a manufactory or a Mechanics' Institute.

The present work has been undertaken, partly because the writer thinks that such a character as that of William Law will find more sympathisers now than it did in his own day; but chiefly because he believes that Law's life and writings possess more than a mere historical interest. Law anticipated many of the difficulties which weigh upon the minds of thoughtful people nowadays, and answered them, if not always satisfactorily, yet always in a way that deserves and will command the most careful attention. And his character is just such a one as it is important in the interests of Christianity to bring into prominence. When Christianity is represented by some as adapted only for minds of the second order (except for the temporal advantages it may bring), it will be well to call attention to one whose intellect was undeniably of the highest order, and whose intense conviction of the truth of Christianity was obviously stimulated by no interested motive. When religion is assumed by others to be the special province of women and children, a Christian character of a singularly robust and masculine type may be a useful study.

It is strange that no adequate biography of so eminent. a man as Law should have been written in the generation after his death. But it is by no means to be regretted that none was written; for it could hardly have failed to be unsatisfactory. Law was one of those men of strong opinions and independent character who call forth vehement sympathy and vehement antipathy. It would have been all but impossible for a contemporary, or one who was nearly a contemporary, to take a calm and dispassionate estimate of such a man. Even if the writer's own views were not distorted by prejudice on one side or the other, he would

have found it difficult to obtain sufficient information from unbiassed sources to enable him to form a fair estimate of the real value of the man and his work. The time has now arrived, however, when Law can be viewed in the dry light of history; when we ought to be misled neither by the glamour with which his friends surrounded him, nor by the prejudices which prevented his opponents from doing him justice; when, in short, we ought to be able to take him for what he was-a thorough man, full of human infirmities, but a grand specimen of humanity, and a noble monument of the power of divine grace in the soul. If the following sketch of one of the finest minds and most interesting characters of the eighteenth century fail to prove both attractive and instructive, the fault will lie, not in the subject, but in the biographer.

Law's Parentage.

5

CHAPTER II.

LAW'S EARLY YEARS.

We

WILLIAM LAW was born, in 1686, at King's Cliffe, a large village in the north of Northamptonshire, about seven miles from Stamford. His father, Thomas Law, was a grocer; but his social standing was different from that of an ordinary village tradesman in the present day.' The Laws are a family of high respectability and of good means. find the head of the family, so far back as three generations earlier than the subject of this biography, technically described as 'George Law, Gentleman.' Thomas Law married Margaret Farmery, a Lincolnshire lady. The name of Farmery was evidently much thought of in the Law family, for it reappears over and over again as a Christian name of various members. Eight sons and three daughters were the issue of this marriage, viz., George, Thomas, Giles, William, Nathaniel, Benjamin, Farmery, Christopher, Isabel, Margaret, and Ann. If there be any truth in the tradition that the Paternus' of the 'Serious Call' was William Law's own father, and the Eusebia' his widowed mother, he must have been singularly blessed in his parents. At any rate, it is plain that they brought up their large family well, for none of them appear to have given their

1 Professor Fowler, in his Life of Locke ('English Men of I etters') rightly remarks that there was not so marked a distinction between the lesser gentry and the tradesmen in the seventeenth century as there is at the present day.

parents any trouble. William Law tells us himself that up to the time of his leaving Cambridge, he ‘had hitherto enjoyed a large share of happiness,' and in a short account of his life prefixed to an American edition of the 'Serious Call' we are told that 'his education and early years of his life were very serious.' That this was the case is evident from a document found among his papers in his own handwriting, which is entitled 'Rules for my Future Conduct,' and which was probably drawn up by him on entering the University. As these rules throw light upon his character in his youth they are worth quoting :—

I. To fix it deep in my mind that I have but one business upon my hands-to seek for eternal happiness by doing the will of God.

II. To examine everything that relates to me in this view, as it serves or obstructs this only end of life.

III. To think nothing great or desirable because the world thinks it so; but to form all my judgments of things from the infallible Word of God, and direct my life according to it.

IV. To avoid all concerns with the world, or the ways of it, but where religion requires.

V. To remember frequently, and impress it upon my mind. deeply, that no condition of this life is for enjoyment, but for trial; and that every power, ability, or advantage we have, are all so many talents to be accounted for to the Judge of all the world.

VI. That the greatness of human nature consists in nothing else but in imitating the divine nature. That therefore all the greatness of this world, which is not in good actions, is perfectly beside the point.

VII. To remember, often and seriously, how much of time is inevitably thrown away, from which I can expect nothing but the charge of guilt; and how little there may be to come, on which an eternity depends.

VIII. To avoid all excess in eating and drinking.

IX. To spend as little time as I possibly can among such persons as can receive no benefit from me nor I from them.

'See Notes, &c., for a Biography of William Law, printed for private circulation.

His Diligence at Cambridge.

7

X. To be always fearful of letting my time slip away without some fruit.

XI. To avoid all idleness.

XII. To call to mind the presence of God whenever I find myself under any temptation to sin, and to have immediate recourse to prayer.

XIII. To think humbly of myself, and with great charity of all others.

XIV. To forbear from all evil speaking.

XV. To think often of the life of Christ, and propose it as a pattern to myself.

XVI. To pray privately thrice a day, besides my morning and evening prayers.

XVII. To keep from

as much as I can without offence.

XVIII. To spend some time in giving an account of the day, previous to evening prayer: How have I spent the day? What sin have I committed? What temptations have I withstood? Have I performed all my duty?

With these excellent rules for his conduct, Law entered as a Sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1705. He took his B.A. degree in 1708, was elected Fellow of his College and received holy orders in 1711, and took his M.A. in 1712. With his strong sense of duty, it is scarcely necessary to say that Law was a diligent student in his University days. He told his friend Dr. Byrom that 'he was very diligent in reading Horace &c. at Cambridge;' and when Dr. Trap upbraided him for his want of taste for 'his Virgil's, Horace's, and Terence's,' he replied, ‘I own when I was about eighteen, I was as fond of these books as the Doctor can well be now, and should then have been glad to have translated the Sublime Milton, if I had found myself able. But,' he adds, 'this ardour soon went off.'3

The following is the register (not an original one) of Mr. Law's entry at Emmanuel, kindly supplied to me by the present librarian, Dr. Pearson : 'June 7, 1705, Lawe, Wm. S. (sizar). N. ton. Soc.; A. B. 1708, A.M. 1712; a celebrated enthusiast.'

2 Byrom's Journal, ii. 366.

• Appeal to all that Doubt &c., Law's 'Works,' vol. vi. p. 318.

2