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453

NOTE.

1

I HAVE not noticed in the text the part which Mr. Law is said to have taken in the dispute which divided the Nonjurors respecting what were termed the Usages.' Carte, the historian, relates that when an attempt was made in 1731 to unite the two parties, those of their presbyters that opposed it drew up a representation against it—a very pompous, empty declamation— the penman supposed to be Mr. William Law.'2 Mr. Lathbury states, but evidently on the authority of Carte only, that 'Law was among the opponents of the union.'3 It seems right that I should state my reasons for believing that Law took no part whatever in the dispute. They are as follows:

(1) At the time in question (1731) we have ample information respecting Law's sayings and doings. He was the most outspoken of men. How is it that he never referred, either in his printed. works or in his reported conversations, to the interest he took in this subject of the 'Usages'?

(2) After the death of that very able man, Mr. Charles Leslie, in 1722, Mr. Blackburn became the leader of the 'Non-usagers.' Now, if Law had taken so prominent a part as Carte supposes against the Usagers,' he must, one would have thought, have been brought into contact with Mr. Blackburn; and yet we have not the slightest hint that he had any acquaintance with him, though we have the fullest account of Law's friends and acquaintances at this period.

(3) I have shown in the text that Law always held the highest views of the Christian sacraments. Now, the 'Usagers' repre

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For a full account of the Usages,' and the controversy between the Usagers' and 'Non-usagers,' see Lathbury's very interesting History of the Nonjurors, pp. 276-303, ch. vii.

2 Nichols' Illustrations, v. 155.

History of the Nonjurors, ch. ix. p. 371.

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sented, broadly speaking, the higher sacramentarians, the 'Nonusagers' the comparatively lower. I cannot believe without strong evidence (of which there is absolutely none beyond the supposition referred to by Carte) that Law would have taken the part of the latter against the former.

(4) Prominent among the Usagers was the Hon. Archibald Campbell, for some time Bishop of Edinburgh, a friend of Mr. Law and a near relation of his disciple Mrs. Hutcheson. Is it not strange that if on this point Mr. Law had been opposed to his friend, no intimation should be given of their difference? But there is a strong presumptive proof that they agreed; for in the King's Cliffe Library, among the 'books of piety to be lent to the neighbouring clergy,' is the very book in which Mr. (in later life he dropped the title of bishop) Campbell expressed fully his sentiments on the Usages.' It is entitled the Doctrine of a Middle State between Death and the Resurrection; of Prayer for the Dead, and the Necessity of Purification proved from Scripture and the Fathers; some Primitive Doctrines restored by the Hon. Archibald Campbell.' Now, of course Mr. Law might have had his friend's book without agreeing with it, but is it conceivable that in that case he would have helped to propagate the obnoxious doctrines by placing the work among those by which he desired to edify his brother clergy?

(5) Mr. Law never took part in controversy except when he considered the issue to be of vital importance. With regard to one of the Usages he has himself distinctly told us that he did not consider it of vital importance,' and the general tenour of his writings shows us that he would certainly think the same of the

rest.

(6) I can scarcely conceive a competent judge (as Carte undoubtedly was) characterising any composition that was really Law's as 'a pompous and empty declamation.' Carte's words seem further to imply that he did not accept the alleged hypothesis as to its authorship.

(7) The last reason I shall adduce is mainly inferential and conjectural, but practically, in my opinion, a very strong one. Among John Wesley's memoranda are found the following rules : (1) To baptise by immersion; (2) to use the mixed chalice; (3)

See p. 315 of this work.

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to pray for the faithful departed. Now, it is clear that Wesley made one at least of these rules in the early part of his life, when Law was 'a sort of oracle with him ;' for the attempt to carry out the first of them was one of the causes of his troubles in Georgia. Law has expressed himself strongly against the Scripture baptism of the whole body under water being only, as it were, mimicked by scattering a few drops of water on a new-born child's face.' It seems to me highly probable that the three rules came from the same source, viz. Mr. Law; and, if so, then we see that Mr. Law agreed with the 'Usagers' in two out of the four points for which they contended.

Two or three other points may here be conveniently noted :

(1) My attention has been called by a friend to the fact that in referring to Gay's pastorals in p. 62 I have not mentioned that they were burlesques. I was aware of the fact, but did not notice it because it did not affect the main point-viz., Gay's talents for that species of composition.

(2) An absurd erratum occurs in the note to p. 137. For 'never' read' much.'

(3) Another point has occurred to me which seems to be a presumptive proof that Mr. Law entered Mr. Gibbon's family as tutor to his son earlier than the date commonly given (1727). Why did Mr. Gibbon, a High Churchman, and all but a Jacobite, send his son to Emmanuel, a Puritan foundation? If Law, the quondam fellow of Emmanuel, was the 'much-honoured friend of the family' before Mr. Gibbon's son was entered at Emmanuel, nothing is more natural than that, in spite of his predilections, he should have chosen, perhaps on Law's recommendation, a college which had trained so worthy a man.

(4) As an amusing illustration of the sway which Law exercised over his friends at Cliffe, I may mention a tradition that during Law's lifetime the ladies dressed in the severely simple style recommended in the Serious Call,' but that after his death the feminine love of finery broke out. Miss Gibbon appeared resplendent in yellow stockings, and Miss Mary Law (Law's favourite niece) had a new dress every month.

See Law's Letters, No. II. in the printed collection.

457

INDEX.

ABJ

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CAM

Behmen, Jacob, 76, 92, 140, 178, 179-

199, 313, 317, 359, 367, 377
Bentley, Dr., 15, 62, 68, 176
Berkeley, Bp., 32, 210n
Bernard, St., 137, 147, 211
Berridge, of Everton, 386
Bertot, M., 145, 170
Berulle, Card. de, 172
Blampignon, Abbé, 171

Blood of Christ in Holy Communion,
193, 305

Böhler, Peter, 82, 83, 237, 421

Bolingbroke, Visct., 52, 295, 356,

402n

Bonaventura, 148

Bonnel, M., 210n

Bossuet, Abp., 55, 160, 165, 167, 176,

319

Boswell, James, 63

Bourignon, Mad., 63, 69, 70, 71, 73,
74, 161, 169, 170
Bramhall, Abp., 92

Brethren of the Free Spirit, 149
Bromley, Thos., 407

Bunsen, Chev., 150, 156

Burnet, Gilb., 129

Butler, Bp., 123, 176, 319

Byrom, Dr., 9, 15, 18, 61-80, 90, 91,
180, 192, 223, 334, 357-363, 373,
383, 392

CALVINISM, 385-388

Cambridge Platonists, 412-418
Campbell, Archibald, 97, 454

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