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William Law, was an English
non-juror and spiritual writer. He was influential in the lives of
John and Charles Wesley, and George
MacDonald amongst others, and lived from 1686 to 1761.
His later works Spirit
of Prayer and Spirit
of Love were profound expressions of the loving character and
goodness of God, and were influenced by the German
Christian Mystic,
Jacob Boehme. Law translated Jacob Boehme's The
Supersensual Life into English. Whilst Law's latter
phase did not meet with John Wesley's approval, it has with many
other Christians seeking a deeper relationship with God.
Andrew Murray said:
I know of no-one who has
put certain aspects of needed truth with the same clearness,
that I cannot but think that he is a messenger from God to call
His Church to give the blessed Spirit the place of honour that
belongs to Him.
And Norman Grubb:
Here at last was a writer
who took me to ultimate foundations and a totality of
understanding which I had long been seeking. I drank and
have been drinking ever since.
The following is an extract from
Law's the Spirit
of Prayer:
he is in himself, in his
holy
Trinity, nothing else but the boundless
abyss of all that is good, and sweet, and amiable, and therefore
stands in the utmost contrariety to everything that is not a
blessing, in an eternal impossibility of willing and intending a
moment's pain or hurt to any creature. For from this unbounded
source of goodness and perfection, nothing but infinite streams
of blessing are perpetually flowing forth upon all nature and
creature, in a more incessant plenty, than rays of light stream
from the sun. And as the sun has but one nature, and can give
forth nothing but the blessings of light, so the holy Triune God
has but one nature and intent towards all the creation, which
is, to pour forth the riches and sweetness of his divine
perfections, upon everything that is capable of them, and
according to its capacity to receive them
and
For this turning to
the Light and Spirit of God within thee, is thy only true
turning unto God, there is no other way of finding him, but in
that place where he dwelleth in thee. For though God be
everywhere present, yet he is only present to thee in the
deepest, and most central part of thy soul. Thy natural senses
cannot possess God, or unite thee to him, nay thy inward
faculties of understanding, will, and memory, can only reach
after God, but cannot be the place of his habitation in thee.
But there is a root, or depth in thee, from whence all these
faculties come forth, as lines from a center, or as branches
from the body of the tree. This depth is called the center, the
fund or bottom of the soul. This depth is the unity, the
eternity, I had almost said, the infinity of thy soul; for it is
so infinite, that nothing can satisfy it, or give it any rest,
but the infinity of God. In this depth of the soul, the Holy
Trinity brought forth its own living image in the first created
man, bearing in himself a living representation of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, and this was his dwelling in God and God in
him. This was the kingdom of God within him, and made paradise
without him. But the day that Adam did eat of the forbidden
earthly tree, in that day he absolutely died to this kingdom of
God within him. This depth or center of his soul having lost its
God, was shut up in death and darkness, and became a prisoner in
an earthly animal, that only excelled its brethren, the beasts,
in an upright form, and serpentine subtlety. Thus ended the fall
of man. But from that moment that the God of mercy inspoke into
Adam the bruiser of the serpent, from that moment all the riches
and treasures of the divine nature came again into man, as a
seed of salvation sown into the center of the soul, and only
lies hidden there in every man, till he desires to rise from his
fallen state, and to be born again from above.
See also William
Law on "Matter"
There are a number of William Law's
writings on the Internet:
-
- Way
to Divine Knowledge by William Law
- Of
Justification by Faith and Works by William Law
- Serious
Call to a Devout and Holy Life by William Law
- Demonstration
of the Errors of a Late Book... by William Law
- Grounds
and Reasons of Christian Regeneration by William Law
- An
Appeal to all who Doubt the Truths of the Gospel by William
Law
- Collection
of Letters . . . on Several Occasions by William Law
- An
Humble, Earnest, and Affectionate Address to the Clergy by
William Law
There are also a number of Law and Boehme texts at Dialogues
and Documents from the Past
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