'Christian Perfection."

43

or the Kingdom of Heaven, has no other interests in this world than as it takes its members out of it; and when the number of the elect is complete, this world will be consumed with fire, as having no other reason for its existence than the furnishing members for that blessed society which is to last for ever.' 'Every condition in the world is equally trifling and fit to be neglected for the sake of the one thing needful.'

Such being Law's theory of life, it naturally follows that he should recommend a course of severe austerity. Our cares and our pleasures are to be strictly limited to the necessities of nature. 'Self-denial and self-persecution are even more necessary now than they were in the first days of Christianity, when there was persecution from without.' 'There is no other lawful way of employing our wealth (beyond our bare necessities) than in the assistance of the poor.''Suffering is to be sought, to pay some of the debt due to sin.' The word of Christ, " deny himself," points to a suffering and self-denial which the Christian is to inflict upon himself. He must, in his degree, recommend himself to the favour of God on the same account and for the same reasons that the sufferings of Christ procured peace and reconciliation. Repentance is a Repentance is a hearty sorrow for sin; and sorrow is a pain or punishment which we are obliged to raise to as high a degree as we can, that we may be fitter objects of God's pardon.'1

Law reminds us that he wrote in the eighteenth century by going on to prove the reasonableness of his views; for 'reasonableness' was the very keynote of the theology of the period, and the writer who did not pay his homage to it would have had little chance of being listened to. He shows that while self-abasement is strictly according to

It is hardly necessary to remark how very inadequate and erroneous many of these sentiments would seem to the later evangelical school.

44

'Christian Perfection.

reason, 'pride is the most unreasonable thing in the world

-as unreasonable as the madman who fancies himself to be a king, and the straw to which he is chained to be a throne of state. Self-denial is no more unreasonable than if a person who was to walk upon a rope across some great river was bid to deny himself the pleasure of walking in silver shoes, or the advantage of fishing by the way. In both cases the self-denial is reasonable, as commanding him to love things that will do him good, or to avoid things that are hurtful.'

Law then descends into details; and, first of all, insists strongly upon the duty of fasting, devoting no less than twenty-five pages to the subject. Almost every ill temper, every hindrance to virtue, every clog in our way of piety, and the strength of every temptation, chiefly arises from the state of our bodies. If S. Paul thought his own salvation in danger without this subjection of his own body, how shall we, who are born in the dregs of time, think it safe to feed and indulge in ease and plenty?

Then idleness, ambition, and worldly occupations are dealt with in the same spirit, in connection with self-denial. In this part of his work Law begins the plan, which he elaborated more carefully and in greater fulness in the Serious Call,' of illustrating his meaning by imaginary characters. Philo, who thinks all time to be lost that is not spent in the search of shells, urns, inscriptions, and broken pieces of pavement; Patronus, who never goes to the sacrament, but will go forty miles to see a fine altarpiece; who goes to church when there is a new tune to be heard, but never had any more serious thoughts about salvation than about flying; Eusebius, who would be wholly taken up in the cure of souls, but that he is busy in studying the old grammarians, and would fain reconcile some differences amongst them before he dies; Lucia, who

'Christian Perfection.

45

must be the same sparkling creature in the church as she is in the playhouse; Publius, who died with little or no religion through a constant fear of popery; Siccus, who might have been a religious man, but that he thought building was the chief happiness of a rational creature; who is all the week among dirt and mortar, and stays at home on Sundays to view his contrivances, and who will die more contentedly if his death does not happen while some wall is in building;—are all admirable touches, combining the sparkling wit of Addison and a little of the cynicism of Swift with an intense earnestness of Christian conviction which is all Law's own.

Law next dwells largely upon the baneful effects of idle and unprofitable conversation- a favourite topic with him, for of all things he disliked ‘a talkative spirit ;' and he then condemns sweepingly the reading of all corrupt, impertinent, and unedifying books,' and especially books of plays. But he does not sufficiently distinguish between books which are, to say the least, harmless, if not instructive, and those which are positively noxious. It is true that the majority of works of imagination, which, in Law's day, mostly took the dramatic form, were utterly abominable, and unfit reading for any Christian; but it is unlike Law's usual acumen to argue from what was obviously only the abuse of a thing against the use of it. And the worst of such wholesale, indiscriminate censure is, that it tends to aggravate the very evil which it deplores. When all writers who appeal to the imagination are thus put under one general ban, they naturally become reckless, and thus one important element of the human mind has poison, not food, administered to it.

The next chapter, on the constant state of devotion to which Christians are called, is full of beautiful thoughts, beautifully expressed. We are here reminded that we are

46

Defects of the Christian Perfection.'

still under the guidance of the High Churchman, for we are told that we are most of all to desire those prayers which are offered up at the altar where the Body and Blood of Christ are joined with them.' The connection between self-denial and prayer is well worked out. His arguments also against short prayers are ingenious and unanswerable; but, as this subject is more fully dealt with in The Serious Call,' it is not necessary to say more of it here. Nor need we dwell on the arguments adduced to show that Christians are required absolutely and in the minutest particulars to imitate the life and example of Christ. The subject is a well-worn one, but, like almost every subject which Law touches upon, it is presented to us by him in a forcible and original manner. In the last chapter he gives a summary of the whole treatise; and concludes with a persuasive exhortation to all to aim at nothing short of this Christian perfection.

As, above all things, it is desired to be perfectly fair, it is necessary to notice some of the defects of the Christian perfection.'

1. In this work Law begins that crusade against all kinds of human learning which henceforth almost amounted to a life-long craze with him. The most illiterate of Methodist preachers did not express a more sublime contempt of mental culture than this refined and cultured scholar. Every employment which is not of a directly religious tendency is contemptible in his eyes. 'If a man,' he says, ' asks why he should labour to be the first mathematician, orator, or statesman, the answer is easily given, because of the fame and honour of such a distinction.' The answer may be easily given, but it is by no means a conclusive or satisfactory answer. Law altogether ignores the higher and less selfish motives which surely may

Christian Perfection, Works, vol. iii. c. xii. p. 367.

stimulate the nobler kind of men to follow such pursuits. What! had Newton, when he was engrossed with his mathematics and astronomy, no higher object than fame? Is not truth of all kinds a worthy object of pursuit? Was it no advantage to mankind to know the true nature of the glorious work of the Creator? When Demosthenes was stirring the hearts of his countrymen in behalf of their native country, was he actuated by no higher motive than a love of fame ? Is there no such thing as a pure, disinterested patriotism? Had such statesmen as the two Pitts and Burke no higher object than the gratification of their own personal vanity?1

This tendency in Law is noticeable on account of the widespread and by no means wholly beneficial effects which it produced. It was obviously a convenient doctrine for those who could never have distinguished themselves to hold that all such distinction is contemptible. The alienation of Christianity from mental culture is a most disastrous thing. Law himself, indeed, by a happy inconsistency, was saved from the extravagances which the strict application of his own principles is apt to engender. Though he abused scholarship, he always wrote as a well-read scholar.

2. The Christian Perfection' is a somewhat melancholy book: the brighter side of Christianity is certainly not brought out into full relief; Law's own character was, particularly at this period, of the stern, austere type, and his book reflects his character. These defects, however, will be more fully considered in connection with 'The Serious Call.'

3. Once more.

Law himself was the most unselfish

It is only fair, however, to add that the politicians of Law's day were, as a rule, very different from the Pitts and the Burkes. Disinterested patriotism was quite at a discount in the age of the Walpoles and Pelhams.