'The Spirit of Prayer.

313

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

314

'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.

315

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

316 Law's Disgust at Unprofitable Disputings

the Clementine Constitutions is the book of books, and that all that lies loose and scattered in the New Testament, stands there in its true order and form; and though he will not say that Dr. Clarke and Mr. Whiston are in the right, yet it might be useful to me to read all the Arian and Socinian writers, provided I stood upon my guard, and did it with caution. The last person I consulted advised me to get all the histories of the rise and progress of heresies, and of the lives and characters of heretics. These histories, he said, contract the matter, bring truth and error close in view, and I should find all that collected in a few pages, which would have cost me some years to have got together. He also desired me to be well versed in all the casuistical writers and chief schoolmen; for they debate matters to the bottom; dissect every virtue and every vice into its many degrees and parts; and show how near they can come to one another without touching, And this knowledge, he said, might be useful to me when I came to be a parish priest. Following the advice of all these counsellors as well as I could, I lighted my candle early in the morning, and put it out late at night.' This labour he continued for many years, when (to cut a long story short) the unlearned Rusticus appeared and taught this learned scholar to find the true way to Divine knowledge, and let the dead bury their dead,'

These two passages seem to me to furnish the right clue to the explanation of Law's change of opinions—so far as there was a change-when he became a mystic. It must be remembered that, just before his lighting upon Behmen, Law had plunged into the thick of the controversy which was then everywhere raging. Deism was the fashionable topic of the day. In coffee-houses and in drawing-rooms, by men of pleasure and by ladies, as well as by grave divines, from the Court of Queen Caroline down almost to

prepared him for the Influence of Mysticism. 317

the very kitchen, profound questions concerning natural and revealed religion were being glibly discussed on all sides; and the saddest feature of all was that practical piety seemed to be in inverse ratio to theological speculation. Law's last two ante-mystic writings were the 'Case of Reason,' against the Coryphæus of the Deists, and the 'Letters to a Lady inclined to enter into the Communion of the Church of Rome.' In both instances it is evident that his mind was painfully impressed with the weariness and unprofitableness of religious disputings. To a spiritually minded man like Law, both the Deistical and the antiDeistical literature must have seemed sadly wanting in spirituality; while the 'restless, inquisitive, self-seeking temper,' which he is so constantly rebuking in his lady correspondent, showed him another phase of the harm which this spirit of dispute did to the soul. No one can read these two last works of Law's earlier career without perceiving how thoroughly ripe he was when he wrote them for some such influence as that which Behmen exercised over him. Bury all your reasonings and speculations, all your doubts and distrusts, in such resignation, such faith and confidence in the love and goodness of God, and then all trials and temptations will but increase your safety, and give you a more confirmed repose in God.' These were the last words of Law that have been published, before the 'illuminated Jacob' comes upon the scene to do for him the office which Rusticus did for Academicus. How ready Law must have been when he wrote them to echo Behmen's

1

The concluding words of his last letter to the lady inclined to enter the Church of Rome, written May 29, 1732. It has sometimes been doubted whether these letters or the 'Case of Reason' were published first, but that question is quite cleared by the original first edition of the 'Case of Reason,' of which I have been fortunate enough to gain possession; the date of its publication is 1731. The first letter to the lady is dated May 24, 1731, so this possibly may have been written before the Case of Reason,' but the last, dated by Law himself, May 29, 1732, could not have been.