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Law Accused of Spinozism.

element in outward nature, and in the soul of man, to the absorption of all nature in God, is an easy one; and the rapturous expressions which the more extravagant mystics, such as Eckart and Ruysbrock, were wont to use respecting God and nature, often seem to go to the full lengths of Pantheism. But Pantheism is a vague word—almost as vague as mysticism itself. Wordsworth, the pious poet of nature, has been called a Pantheist; and, in this sense, Pantheism might even be predicated of him who wrote as the conclusion of his truly mystic hymn

Thou who hast given me eyes to see

And love this sight so fair,

Give me a heart to find out Thee,

And read Thee everywhere.

Now Law dwelt very largely upon these two aspects of mysticism, the Divine element in outward nature, and the Divine Seed in man; and. therefore, it is no wonder that his enemies charged him with Pantheism. But the charge was brought against him by one enemy in its most objectionable form; he was accused by Warburton of Spinozism, that is, of confounding nature with God. Whether this Spinozism was really the doctrine of Spinoza, is not now the question. It was in this sense that Spinozism was understood in the eighteenth century, and by Law himself. No charge wounded him more deeply. As a rule, he made very light of the accusations that were brought against him; but this touched him to the quick. It seemed to him not only untrue, but a most mischievous perversion of the truth; for he contended that Behmenism (the exposition of which laid him open to the charge) was not only free from Pantheism, but that it was the only system which explained the real distinction between God and nature. 'The charge,' he wrote, 'of Spinozism, brought against me by Dr. Warburton, has all the folly and weakness that

Law and Pantheism.

429 can well be imagined; for, as Spinozism is nothing else but a gross confounding of God and nature, making them to be only one and the same thing, so the full absurdity and absolute impossibility of it can only be fundamentally proved by that doctrine which can go to the bottom of the matter, and demonstrate the essential, eternal, and absolute distinction between God and nature-a thing done over and over, from page to page, in those books from which the doctor has extracted Spinozism.' Law then goes on to show that Behmen alone set forth the why, the how, and in what God and nature were essentially different.' We need not follow him in detail; but, whether we agree or not with the positive part of his argument, it must be owned that he fully proved the negative part. Law was no Spinozist. God was to him a true, personal Being, absolutely distinct from all His creatures, who were, at most, but the image, the dim, faint reflection of the Creator. No unprejudiced reader can possibly be led even to the verge of that Pantheism which practically amounts to Atheism by anything that Law ever wrote.

These were the principal schools of thought with which Law's mysticism brought him into contact, or rather, collision, for he agreed with none of them.

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Law's last Work.

CHAPTER XXIII.

LAW'S LAST WORK, AND DEATH.

THE last work which Law wrote is entitled 'An Humble, Earnest, and Affectionate Address to the Clergy.' The title is rather misleading, for the work does not deal with matters exclusively clerical; but Law gives us the explanation of his choice of a title for his last utterance in its opening paragraph. The reason,' he says, ' of my humbly and affectionately addressing this discourse to the clergy, is not because it treats of things not of common concern to all Christians, but chiefly to invite and induce them, as far as I can, to the serious perusal of it, and because whatever is essential to Christian salvation, if either neglected, overlooked, or mistaken by them, is of the saddest consequence both to themselves and the churches in which they minister. I say essential to salvation, for I would not turn my own thoughts, or call the attention of Christians, to anything but the one thing needful.'

By the one thing needful' Law of course meant the reviving and cherishing the Divine life in the soul. This, he contended, could only be effected by the immediate, continual inspiration of God's Holy Spirit-a doctrine which was branded as enthusiasm by the rational' divines of the eighteenth century, but which was in Law's view the very pith and marrow of Christianity. Dr. Warburton had made the following extraordinary assertion: By the writings of the New Testament the prophetic promise of

On the Influence of the Holy Spirit.

431

our Saviour that the 'Comforter should abide for ever,' was eminently fulfilled. For though his ordinary influence occasionally assists the faithful, yet his constant abode and supreme illumination is in the Sacred Scriptures.' It was not difficult for Law to show that this middle way had neither Scripture nor sense in it, for (he argued) an occasional influence is as absurd as an occasional God, and necessarily supposes such a God. Nothing godly can be alive in us but what has all its life from the Spirit of God living and breathing in us.'

This last sentence contains the gist of the whole address. It was a last solemn warning to those who, from various causes, were neglecting this inner spiritual life. Some were doing so by a perverse use of those very Scriptures which were their best guide to such a life. 'I exceedingly love,' writes Law,' and highly reverence the divine authority of the sacred writings of apostles and evangelists, and would gladly persuade every one to be as deeply affected with them, and pay as profound a regard to them, as they would to an Elijah, a St. John the Baptist, or a Paul, whom they knew to be immediately sent from Heaven with God's message to them. I reverence them as a literal Truth of and from God;' but when it was argued that the Spirit's constant abode is in the Scriptures alone, this, he thought, was making positive nonsense of numerous statements in those very Scriptures themselves. There is a flash of the old humour which lighted up the controversy of nearly half a century before, between Law and another bishop, who, so far as belief was concerned,' occupied much the same ground as Warburton now did, in our author's exposure of this absurdity. Our Lord says,

I say, 'so far as belief was concerned,' because on other matters, such as politics, &c., Bishop Warburton, of course, differed very widely indeed from Bishop Hoadly.

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Law's last Address to the Clergy.

"It is expedient for you that I go away," or "the Comforter will not come unto you;" that is, it is expedient for you that I leave off teaching you in words, that sound only into your outward ears, that you may have the same words in writing, for your outward eyes to look upon; for if I do not depart from this vocal way of teaching you, the Comforter will not come; that is, ye will not have the comfort of my words written on paper." Christ says, "If any man love Me, My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him;" that is, according to the Doctor's theology, certain books of Scripture will come to him and make their abode with him. Christ from Heaven says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man will hear My voice, and open unto Me, I will come in to him, and sup with him;" according to the Doctor, we are to understand that not the heavenly Christ, but the New Testament continually stands and knocks at the door, wanting to enter into the heart and sup with it;' and so on with many other texts. In short, those who claimed for the Scriptures a function which could not be admitted without rendering ridiculous countless texts of those Scriptures themselves, were, in fact, making an idolgod of the Bible. I say an idol-god,' he repeats, 'for to those who rest in it as the "constant abode and supreme illumination of God with them," it can be nothing else. For, if nothing of Divine Faith, Love, Hope, or Goodness, can have the least birth or place in us but by Divine inspiration' (and this was an axiom with Law), 'they who think these virtues may be sufficiently raised in us by the letter of Scripture, do in truth and reality make the letter of Scripture their inspiring God.'

Law, however, touches but lightly upon this part of his subject. It was not necessary to do more; for the statement of Warburton could not bear a moment's discussion.

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