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Law's Meetings with Byrom.

Aug. 1, 1739. To Somerset Gardens. Mr. Law there; asked me if I had scholars; I said Yes; he said he thought it was to be published after I had said that I was desired, &c. [sic], and I took out my book and showed him the proposal; but he just looked at it, and gave it me again, and seemed to say that, if he knew it, it would be no use to him; that he could write faster than he could think; that, for them, indeed, that wanted to write down what others said, it might do. I said, valeat quantum valere potest. He said that they talked of the Pretender's coming

was not I afraid of it? I said, No, not at all; and he talked in his favour. [Then follows a sentence in cipher.] And, as we came away, gave him (the father) a most excellent character for experience, wisdom, piety. I said that I saw him once. He said, Where? I said, At A. He said, Did you kiss hands? I said, Yes; and parted. He said that Mr. Morden and Clutton had been with him; that there should not be so much talk about such matters; that the time was not now; that he loved a man of taciturnity.' This, with the exception of one other incidental hint, is the only allusion, so far as I am aware, which Law ever made-either in conversation or writingto Jacobitism.

It would be wearisome to relate all these meetings in Somerset Gardens: all of them give one the idea of Law being in a troubled, weary, and, to tell the truth, rather a petulant frame. Now we find him telling Byrom that 'he has been to the city, and is tired;' now that he has a tooth-ache, and he said, "Well, what say you?" as he does often; and I said, Say! I say nothing, but how do you do? I am glad to see you-what would you have me to

say?' Now we find him complaining that 'Charles

Wesley had brought to him Mr. Cossart, who said nothing, but sighed deeply.' Now he rebukes poor Byrom 'for his

Law in an unsettled State.

1

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incontinency;' now he tells him that learning had done more mischief than all other things put together,' and that it was useful only 'like a carpenter's business, or any other.' Now, on Byrom's showing him a book he had 'writ to him about the gift of tongues,' he tells him, 'Well, go on and finish it; I am busy while I am here.' Now 'he mentioned the philosopher's stone as what he believed to be true, but not to be found by philosophers.' On Byrom's complaining, after he had rebuked his incontinency, 'I will be continent, but I have none to converse with, and it is a desolate condition, he said that when our king came over I should go into orders. I said, Probably you think too well and ill of me; for that is so far too well that He said [evidently cutting his disciple short rather impatiently], He had conversed with clergymen, and thought he knew.' After these accounts, the reader will not be surprised at the following entry: Mrs. Hutton came and said, she, having asked a young man-one Ackers, of Barbadoes-how Mr. Law did, he said that he was strangely altered-grown sour.' The fact is, that Law was an excellent Christian; but, like other excellent Christians, he had his human infirmities, and circumstances, at this time, tended to aggravate the irascibility and impatience of temper to which he was naturally prone. As a fitting conclusion to this sketch of the relationship between Law and Byrom at this period of the life of the former, I may quote one more entry which illustrates very fairly the difference between the two men. 'I went home with Mr. Law, and in his room he told me that his thought and mine had great sympathy; but that I was more easily wrought upon, and that his strings were more hard. I said that I was like an instrument that was pinned too soft, and wanted to be better quilled.' Here, for the present, we may dismiss this quaint, gentle, lovable

II.e. in talk.

80

Law and the Brothers Wesley.

man. We shall meet him again when Law's life at King's Cliffe comes before our notice.

Two far more illustrious disciples of Mr. Law, at Putney, were the brothers John and Charles Wesley. These two great and good men were deeply impressed with Law's practical treatises, and for some time they were both respectful admirers of the author. The relation between Law and John Wesley, in especial, is a very interesting study. I was at one time,' wrote Law, 'a kind of oracle with Mr. Wesley;' and the oracle was frequently consulted, both in person and by writing. On one occasion we find Wesley demurring to Law's view of Christian duty as too elevated to be attainable;. whereupon Law silenced and satisfied him by saying, 'We shall do well to aim at the highest degree of perfection, if we may thereby, at least, attain to mediocrity.' On another, Wesley complained to Law that he felt greatly dejected because he saw so little fruit of his labours, and received from his mentor this very sensible advice: 'My dear friend, you reverse matters from their proper order. You are to follow the Divine Light, wherever it leads you, in all your conduct. It is God alone gives the blessing. I pray you calmly mind your own work, and go on with cheerfulness, and God, you may depend upon it, will take care of His. Besides, sir, I see you would fain convert the whole world; but you must wait God's own time. Nay, if after all He is pleased to use you only as a hewer of wood and drawer of water, you should submit; yea, be thankful to Him that He has honoured you so far.' On another occasion Law gave Wesley some counsel which evidently made a very deep impression upon him, and which, as we shall see, he retorted upon Law many years later. You would have,' said Law to him, ' a philosophical religion; but there can be no such thing. Religion is the most plain, simple thing

Law's Influence over John Wesley.

81

After detailing the

in the world; it is only, "We love Him because He first loved us."" On another occasion we find Wesley writing to Law for advice as to how he should treat a young man who had left off the Holy Eucharist.' symptoms of the case, he concludes: 'I therefore beseech you, sir, that you would not be slack, according to the ability God shall give you, to advise and pray for him.' When Law became fascinated with mysticism, which happened while he was still at Putney, Wesley for a time followed the example of his friend, and succumbed to the same charm, though always somewhat doubtfully, and never entering fully into the spirit of the system; and, finally, when Wesley was in doubt as to whether it was his mission to go to Georgia, he at once consulted the Putney oracle, and was, to a great extent, determined by Law's advice. Wesley's visits to Putney were all made on foot, that he might save the money for the poor,'

It is easy to see the reasons why Law gained this ascendency over John Wesley. From his childhood Wesley had been brought up with persons of earnest piety, without a tincture of cant about it; of principles of a very marked High Church type; of plain, straightforward good sense, sometimes rather bluntly and curtly expressed. These were more or less the characteristics of his father, mother, brothers, and sisters; above all of his mother, whose influence over her son John was deservedly almost unbounded. All these characteristics he found in an eminent degree in William Law. The thorough reality of the man, his ardent piety, his clear and logical intellect, his raciness, his strong and vigorous common sense, his outspokenness, the very bluntness and abruptness of his manner, his uncompromising High Churchmanship,-all these features in his character would commend him to the founder of Methodism. Wesley's first visit to Putney was in 1732. G

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Rupture between Law and Wesley.

The rupture between these two great and good men is a painful subject, but it cannot be wholly passed over in a life of Law. It occurred during the latter part of Law's residence at Putney, soon after Wesley's return from Georgia. It appears to be now the popular opinion that Wesley's conduct in the matter is wholly to be blamed.' This is an opinion with which I must venture utterly to disagree. Let us examine the circumstances of the case. In the spring of 1738 Wesley gained, through the instrumentality of Peter Böhler, an abiding peace and joy in believing which he had not found under the guidance of Mr. Law. This is plain matter of fact. Whether the fault lay with the master or the disciple is not now the question. The letter which Wesley wrote to Law upon his conversion may have been ill-judged-Wesley's judgment was often at fault; it may have laid him open to the crushing retort which he received; but that it was written in a real spirit of Christian charity, that the writer had no other motive than anxiety for the spiritual welfare of Law himself (whom he still loved and respected more than almost any living man) and of those over whom Law was exercising a vast influence, that there was no conscious presumption or rudeness in it, no one, I think, who examines dispassionately the circumstances, can deny. In fact, believing what he did, Wesley, as a Christian, could hardly, in common charity, have helped writing as he did. If Law was taken by many as their spiritual director, and was directing them wrongly or inadequately, was it not the duty of the discoverer of the wrong to deliver his own soul, and for the sake both of the guide and the guided to tell the former of his error? Bearing these circumstances in mind, let us now turn to the famous letter, and its still

1 This seems to be the view even of Mr. Tyerman. See his Life of Mr. Wesley, vol. i. p. 188.