William Law
William Law
#### Full Name and Common Aliases
William Law was born on October 7, 1686, in Childerley, Cambridgeshire, England. He is often referred to as William Law, the Anglican cleric.
Birth and Death Dates
October 7, 1686 – March 9, 1762
Nationality and Profession(s)
English clergyman, theologian, and writer.
Early Life and Background
Law was born into a family of modest means. His father, also named William Law, was a farmer who struggled to make ends meet. Despite the financial difficulties, Law's parents encouraged his early education, recognizing their son's potential for intellectual pursuits.
Growing up in rural England during the late 17th century had a profound impact on Law's worldview. He developed a deep appreciation for nature and the simplicity of country life. These experiences would later influence his theological writings, which often emphasized the importance of humility and detachment from worldly desires.
Major Accomplishments
Law's most notable achievement was his conversion to the ideas of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German philosopher who advocated for reason, tolerance, and intellectual freedom. This exposure had a profound impact on Law's theological views, leading him to question the traditional dogma of the Church of England.
One of Law's most significant contributions was his influence on the development of the Evangelical movement within the Anglican Church. His emphasis on personal faith, moral living, and spiritual growth helped shape the movement's focus on individual salvation and holy living.
Notable Works or Actions
Law's most famous work is A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), which became a widely read and influential book in its time. This comprehensive guide for Christians encouraged readers to cultivate spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, self-reflection, and charity. The book was praised by both Anglicans and Nonconformists alike for its insightful exploration of the Christian life.
Law's advocacy for moral living and personal faith also led him to engage in high-profile controversies. He publicly criticized the excesses of the Church of England during this period, earning him both praise from reformers and criticism from traditionalists.
Impact and Legacy
Law's writings had a lasting impact on English theological thought, influencing prominent theologians such as John Wesley and George Whitefield. His emphasis on reason, personal faith, and moral living helped pave the way for the Evangelical movement within Anglicanism.
Today, Law is remembered as an early advocate of Christian rationalism, which emphasized the importance of intellectual inquiry in understanding faith. His legacy extends beyond his own theological views to inspire future generations of thinkers, writers, and clergy who seek to live out their faith with integrity and conviction.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Law's writings and ideas continue to be studied by scholars and theologians due to their timeless relevance and insight. His emphasis on personal faith, moral living, and spiritual growth resonates with readers seeking a deeper understanding of Christian practice and discipleship.
As a writer who sought to inspire his readers towards a more authentic and fulfilling faith, Law's legacy has endured for centuries. His influence can be seen in the many churches, movements, and writers who have been shaped by his ideas about living a devout and holy life.
Quotes by William Law
William Law's insights on:
Be daily, therefore, on your knees, in a solemn deliberate performance of this devotion, praying for others in such forms, with such length, importunity, and earnestness, as you use for yourself; and you will find all little, ill-natured passions die away, your heart grow great and generous, delighting in the common happiness of others, as you used only to delight in your own.
Wherever Christ is not, there is the Wrath of Nature or Nature left to itself and its own tormenting Strength of Life, to feel nothing in itself but the vain, restless Contrariety of its own working Properties.
True Christianity is nothing but the continual dependence upon God through Christ for all life, light, and virtue; and the false religion of Satan is to seek that goodness from any other source. So.
The natural, called in Scripture, the old Man, is steadily the same in Heart and Spirit in every Thing he does, whatever Variety of Names may be given to his Actions. For Self can have no Motion but what is selfish, which Way soever it goes, or whatever it does, either in Church or State. And be assured of this, that Nature in every Man, whether he be learned or unlearned, is this very Self, and can be nothing else, till a Birth of the Deity is brought forth in it.
From Morning to Night keep Jesus in thy Heart, long for Nothing, desire Nothing, hope for Nothing, but to have all this within Thee changed into the Spirit and Temper of the Holy Jesus. Let this be thy Christianity, thy Church, and thy Religion.
We may justly condemn ourselves as the greatest sinners we know because we know more of the folly of our own heart than we do of other people’s.
Nourish it with good works, give it peace in solitude, get it strength in prayer, make it wise with reading, enlighten it by meditation, make it tender with love, sweeten it with humility, humble it with penance, enliven it with psalms and hymns, and comfort it with frequent reflections upon future glory.
Now the Holiness of the common Christian is not an occasional Thing, that begins and ends, or is only for such a Time, or Place, or Action, but is the Holiness of that, which is always alive and stirring in us, namely, of our Thoughts, Wills, Desires, and Affections.
Never, therefore, allow yourselves to despise those who do not follow your rules of life: but force your hearts to love them, and pray to God for them; and let humility be always whispering it into your ears, that you yourselves would fall from those rules to-morrow, if God should leave you to your own strength and wisdom.
You are to think of yourself as only existing in this world to do God’s will. To think that you are your own is as absurd as to think you are self-created. It is an obvious first principle that you belong completely to God.