|
A COLLECTION OF LETTERS |
By William Law
Revised and
printed in the year of our Lord 2000 by the Old Truth Publishing Company,
'United States
Of America'
Original
printing in London: Printed for J. RICHARDSON, Pater-Noster Row. 1760.
Table Of Contents
About the
“Letters”
The Letters in this Collection having
been found of great private benefit, the consent of the author has been
obtained to their being made public. And as they contain a rich treasure of
Divine truths, that come home to the bosoms of men, comprehending the fullness
of religion, and resolving a great variety of important points, the editors
have great pleasure, in being allowed to publish them.
In Answer to a Question
Letter 6
You tell me, sir, that after twenty
years of zeal, and labor in matters of religion, it has turned to so little
account, that you are forced, most earnestly to desire a speedy answer to this
question, Where you shall go, or what you shall do, to be in the truth?
Allow me to expound upon
the first premise. Every man in his fallen state, has all that in him, though
in a state of death, and hiddenness, which was the living glory, and perfection
of the first created man. Just as the root of the lily, in the winter's cold,
has all that in it, though as in a state of death, which was the glory and
beauty of the summer's flower. What is hidden in the root of the lily, lies no
longer in its seeming death, than until the spring-sun calls forth its life.
Now, one divine dispensation after another, is to do that same to the fallen
soul, which the spring, and daily advancing sun does to the lily root; namely,
to call it out of its state of death, and make something of its first glory
come to life, and spring forth out of it. Hence it is that the kingdom of God
(which was that to which Adam died) is like to treasure hid in a field; and
again, the kingdom of God is within you. But this could not be true, unless all
that glory, which Adam lost, was still preserved, as a seed, or a shut-up root
of life within him: and all this, through the mercy, and free grace of God, who
foreseeing the fall of Adam, willed, that a seed of His first glory, should be
preserved in him; declared, and made known to him, by a seed of the woman,
which through the Word made flesh, should, in spite of death and hell, grow up
to the fullness of the stature in Christ Jesus.
And as the kingdom of heaven, is every man's treasure, as surely within him, as his own soul, so that which hides, and covers it from us, is that awakened, bestial life, which is called Adam in us, and in which, the immortal soul, that was born for heaven, is wedded to the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and subject to the workings of that satanical nature, which our Lord calls the prince of this world. And so it is, that every man comes into this world in a twofold state; Adam and Christ are both in him. And if this was not the state of man, nothing within you, would, or could ask, as you have done, or have any anxiety after the truth. And your being either led from this true knowledge of your state, or having never been sensible of it, is the reason of your having made so many religious inquiries in vain, both from yourself, and other people. For nothing can tell you the truth, or establish you in a just and solid discernment of right from wrong, in doctrines, opinions, and practices of religion, but this personal knowledge of yourself, namely, that Christ and Adam, are not only both of them essentially within you, but the whole of you; that nothing is life or salvation, but that, which is the life and growth of Christ in you, and that all that is done from the life, the power and natural capacity of the Adamical nature, is heathenish, is mere vanity and death, however gloriously set forth by the natural gifts of wit and learning.
Religion has no good in it, but as it
is the revival, and quickening of that divine nature, which your first father had
from God, and nothing can revive it, but that which first created it. God is no
otherwise your God, but as He is the God of your life, manifested in it; and he
can be no otherwise the God of your life, but as His Spirit is living within
you. Satan is no other way knowable by you, or can have any other fellowship
with you, but as his evil spirit works, and manifests itself along with the
workings of your own spirit. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you"; but he is nowhere to be resisted, but as a working spirit within
you, therefore to resist the devil, is to turn from the evil thoughts, and
motions that arise within you. "Turn to God, and He will turn to
you": but God is a universal Spirit, which you cannot locally turn to, or
from; therefore to turn to God, is to cleave to those good thoughts and motions
which proceed from His Holy Spirit, dwelling and working in you. This is the
God of your life, to whom you are to adhere, listen, and attend, and this is
your worshipping Him in spirit and truth. And that is the devil that goes about
as a roaring lion, who has no voice but that which he speaks within you.
Therefore, my friend, be at home, and keep close to that which passes within
you, for be it what it will, whether it be a good, in which you delight, or an
evil, at which you grieve, you could have neither the one, nor the other, but
because a holy God of light and love is essentially dwelling in you. Seek
therefore for no other road, nor call anything the way to God, but solely that,
which is His eternal, all-creating WORD, and SPIRIT working within you. For if
anything else could have been man's way to God, the WORD would not have been
made flesh.
The last words in your question, to be in the truth, are well expressed, for to be in the truth, is the finished state of man returning to God, therefore declared by Christ Himself, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"; free from the blindness and delusion of your own natural reason, and free from forms, doctrines and opinions, which others would impose upon you. To be in truth, is to be, where the first holy man was, when he came forth in the image and likeness of God. When he lost paradise, he lost the truth; and all that he felt, knew, saw, loved, and liked of the earthly, bestial world, into which he was fallen, was but a separation from God, a veil upon his heart, and scales upon his eyes. Nothing of his first truth could be spoken of to him, even by God Himself, but under the veil of earthly things, types, and shadows. The Law was given by Moses; but Moses had a veil upon his face, the Law was a veil, prophecy was a veil, Christ crucified was a veil, and all was a veil, until grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, in the POWER of His HOLY SPIRIT. Therefore to be in the truth, as it is in Jesus, is to have the veil lifted, to have passed through all those dispensations, which would never have begun, but that they might end in a Christ spiritually revealed, and essentially formed in the soul. So that now, in this last dispensation of God, which is the first truth itself restored, nothing is to be thought of, trusted to, or sought after, but God's immediate, continual working in the soul, by his Holy Spirit. This, sir, is he where you are to go, and what you are to do, to be in the truth. For the truth as it is in Jesus, is nothing else but Christ come in the Spirit, and His coming in the Spirit, is nothing else but the first lost life of God, quickened, and revealed again in the soul. Everything short of this, has only the nature of outward types and figures, which in its best state, is only for a time. If therefore you look to anything but the Spirit, seek to any power, but that of the Spirit, expect Christ to be your Savior, any other way, than as He is spiritually born in you, you go back from the grace and truth, which came by Jesus, and can at best be only a legal Jew, or a self-righteous Pharisee; you can go no further than these states, but by being born of the Spirit, living by the Spirit, as His child, His instrument, and holy temple, in which He dwells, and works all His good pleasure. Drop this full adherence to, and dependence upon the Spirit, act as in your own sphere, be something of yourself, and through your own wisdom, etc., and then, though all that you say, or do, is with the outward words of the spiritual gospel, and in the outward practices of the spiritual apostles, yet for all this, you are but there, where those were, who worshipped God with the blood of bulls and goats; for nothing but the Spirit of God can worship God in spirit and in truth.
But you will perhaps say, that you are still, exactly where you were, because you don’t know how to find the continual guidance of the Holy Spirit. If you know how to find your own thoughts, you need not be at a loss to find the Spirit of God. For you have not a thought within you, but that is either from the good of the Spirit, or from the evil of the flesh. Now the good and the evil that are within you, and always more or less sensible by turns, do each of them teach you the same work and presence of the Spirit of God. For the good, could not appear as good, nor the evil be felt as evil, but because the immediate working of the Spirit of God creates, or manifests this difference between them, and therefore be in what state you will, the power of God's Spirit within you, equally manifests itself to you; and to find the immediate, continual, essential working of the Spirit of God within you, you need only know what good, and evil are felt within you. For all the good that is in any thought or desire, is so much of God within you, and while you adhere to, and follow a good thought, you follow, or are led by the Spirit of God. And on the other hand all that is selfish and wicked in thought, or affection, is so much of the spirit of Satan within you, which would not be known, or felt, as evil, but because it is contrary to the immediate, continual working of the Spirit of God within you. Turn therefore inwards, and all that is within you, will demonstrate to you, the presence, and power of God in your soul, and make you find, and feel it, with the same certainty, as you find and feel your own thoughts. And what is best of all, by doing this, you will never be without a living sense of the immediate guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, always equal to your dependence upon it, always leading you from strength to strength in your inward man, until all your knowledge of good and evil, is become nothing else, but a mere love of the one, and mere aversion to the other. For the one work of the Spirit of God, is to distinguish the good, and evil, that is within you, not as in notion, but by affection; and when you are wholly given up to this new-creating work of God, so as to keep your mind upon it, abide with it, and expect all from it. This, my friend, will be your returning to the rock, from whence you were hewn, your drinking at the fountain of living water, your walking with God, your living by faith, your putting on Christ, your continual hearing the WORD of God, your eating the bread that came down from heaven, your supping with Christ, and following the Lamb wherever he goes.
For all these seeming different
things, will be found in every man, according to his measure, who is wholly
given up to, and depending upon the blessed work of God's Spirit in his soul.
But your mistake, and that of most
professing Christians, lies in this; you try to be good by some outward means,
you would have methods, opinions, forms, and ordinances of religion, alter and
raise your fallen nature, and create in you a new heart, and a new spirit, that
is to say, you would be good in a way that is altogether impossible, for
goodness cannot be brought into you from without, much less by anything that is
creaturely, or the action of man; this is as impossible, as for the flesh to
sanctify the spirit, or for things temporal, to give life to things that are
eternal.
The image and likeness of Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, are in every man, antecedent[1]
to every outward work, or action that can proceed from him: it is God thus
within him, that is the sole cause that anything can be called godly, that is
done, observed, or practiced by him. If it were not so, man would only have his
being from God, but his goodness would be from himself.
All of man's outward good works, are
only like his outward good words; he is not good, because he frequently uses
them, they bring no goodness into him, nor are of any worth in themselves, but
as a good, and godly spirit speaks forth itself in the sound of them. This is
the case of every outward, creaturely thing, or work of man, no matter what
kind it is, either hearing, praying, singing or preaching, etc., or practicing
any outward rules, and observances; they have only the goodness of the outward
Jew, no, are as vain, as sounding brass, and tinkling cymbals, unless they be
solely the work, and fruits of the Spirit of God: for the divine nature, is
that alone, which can be the power to any good work, either in man, or angel.
When a man, first finds himself
stirred up with religious zeal, what does he generally do? He turns all his
thoughts outwards, he runs after this, or that man, he is at the beck and call of every new opinion, and thinks
only of finding the truth, by resting in this, or that method, or society of
Christians. Could he find a man, that did not want to have him of his party,
and opinion, that turned him from himself, and the teaching of man, to a God,
not as historically read in books, or preached of in this, or that society, but
to a God essentially living and working in every soul, him he might call a man
of God; as leading him from himself to God, as saving him from many vain
wanderings, from fruitless searching into a Council of Trent, a Synod of Dort,
and Augsberg Confession, an Assembly's catechism, or a Thirty-nine Articles.
For had he an hundred articles, if they were anything else but a hundred calls
to Christ come in the Spirit, to a God within him, as the only possible light,
and teacher of his mind, it would be a hundred times better for him, to be
without them. For all man's blindness and misery lies in this, that he has lost
the knowledge of God, as essentially living within him, and by falling under
the power of an earthly, bestial life, thinks only of God, as living in some
other world, and so seeks only by notions, to set up an image of an absent God,
instead of worshipping the God of life and power, in whom he lives, moves, and
has his being. Whoever therefore teaches you to expect great things from this,
or that sort of opinions, or calls you to anything as saving, and redeeming,
but the manifestation of God in your own soul, through a birth of the holy
nature of Christ within you is totally ignorant of the whole nature, both of
the fall, and the redemption of man. For the first is nothing else, or less,
than a death to the divine life, or Christ-like nature, which lived in the
first man; and the other, is nothing else, but Christ new-born, formed, and
revealed again in man, as He was at the first. These two great truths are the
most strongly asserted by Christ, when He said, "If any man will be my
disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me."
Let him "deny himself," is the fullest declaration, and highest
proof, that he has lost his first divine and heavenly nature, that he is not
that self, which came first from God, or he could not be called to deny it.
Say, if you will, that he has not lost that first heavenly life in God, and
then you must say, that our Lord calls him to deny, crucify, and renounce that
holy, and Godlike self, which was the first gift of God to him.
To read whole libraries on these
matters, is only to be bewildered in the strife of fictions, and contradictions
about them. But to read this one single line of Christ, is to be led into the
open, full truth of the whole nature, both of the fall, and redemption. And
indeed, if we were but freed from the Babel of opinions, which have so long
confounded the first truths of the gospels, it would be plain from every part
of it, that nothing could be called the fall of man but his loss of the divine
life, or nature, nor anything be called his redemption, or the real means of
it, but solely that, which God is, and does in him. For what can be a good, or
work good, in man, but God, or the divine nature in him? All the divine truths,
that ever came from God, speak only to the pearl of the divine nature, that is
hidden in our earthly field of flesh and blood, because nothing else wants
them, or has any capacity to receive them; that which is divine, can only
receive the divine things from God. And so it is, that unless a "Man be
born again from above, it is not possible for him to see, or enter into the
kingdom of God," that is, the divine life must arise again, in the
power of a new birth, or there is nothing in fallen man, that can partake of
the kingdom of God. And the reason is, because "The kingdom of God is
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," and therefore
not possible to be anywhere, but where it proceeds from the Holy Ghost. "Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength." Now what is this God, that you are
thus to love? Is it some abstract idea, that learned men have helped you to
form of him? No such thing. This would be but a poor fiction of God, and a poor
fiction of love. God is all good, the only good, and there is nothing good
besides him, therefore to love God with all your heart, etc., is to love all
goodness, and to love nothing else but goodness, and then, and only then, do
you love God with all your heart, and soul, and strength. But now, to what
purpose could this precept of such a love be given to man, unless he
essentially partook of the divine nature? For to be in heart, and soul, and
spirit, all love of God, and yet have nothing of the nature of God within you,
is surely too absurd for anyone to believe. So sure therefore as this precept
came from truth itself, so sure is it, that every man (however loath to hear of
anything but pleasures, and enjoyments in this vain shadow of a life) has yet a
divine nature concealed within him, which, when allowed to hear the calls of
God, will know the voice of its heavenly Father, and long to do his will on
earth, as it is done in heaven.
The conclusion then, is this, if to
love God with your whole heart, and soul, is to love all goodness, and nothing
else but goodness; and if all that is done without this love, whether in
religious duties, of common life, is but mere separation from God, then it must
be the grossest blindness, to believe you can have any love of God, or goodness
in any duties you perform, any further, or in any other degree, than as the
eternal, Holy Spirit of God, lives and loves in you.
Again, to see the divinity of man's
origin, you need only read these words: "Be ye perfect, as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect." For what could man have to do with the
perfection of God, as the rule of his life, unless the truth and reality of the
divine nature was in him? Could there be any reasonableness in this precept, or
any fitness to call us to be good, as God is good, unless there was that in us,
which is in God? Or to call us to the perfection of an heavenly Father, if we
were not the real children of his heavenly nature? Might it not be as well, to
bid the heavy stone to fly, as its flying father the eagle does?
But this precept from the lip of
truth, is another full proof, that by the fall, a death, or suppression is
brought upon our first divine life, and also that it is yet in a state, capable
of being revived again, in us. For if it was not in a state of death, or
suppressed in us, there could be no need of calling us to live according to it;
for every being naturally acts according to the life, that is manifested in it.
Nor could we be called to be heavenly, but because the heavenly nature has its
seed in our soul in a readiness to come to life in us.
Lastly, "You shall love your
neighbor as yourself," is another full proof, that God is in us of a
truth, and that the Holy Spirit has as certainly, an essential birth within us,
as the spirit of this world have. For this precept might as well be given to a
fox, as to a man, if man had not something quite supernatural in him. For mere
nature, and natural creature, is nothing else, but mere self, and can work
nothing but to, and for itself. And this, not through any corruption, or
depravity of nature, but because it is nature's best state, and it can be
nothing else, either in man, or beast.
"I say unto you, love your
enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use and
persecute you," etc. Every word here is demonstration, that nothing
but the new birth from above, can be a Christian. There is no other nature, or
spirit that can breathe forth this universal love and benevolence, but that
same Spirit, which laying aside its own glory, came down from heaven, to
forgive, to love, to save, and die for a whole world of enemies and sinners.
This is the Spirit of Christ, that
must as essentially live and breathe in you, as it did in Him, or all
exhortations, to do as He did, to walk as He walked, are but in vain. The
natural man is in full separation from this holiness of life, and though he had
more wisdom of words, more depth of literature, than was in Cicero, or
Aristotle, yet would he have as much to die to, as the grossest publican, or
vainest Pharisee, before he could be in Christ, a new creature. For the highest
improved natural abilities, can as well ascend into heaven, or clothe flesh and
blood with immortality, as make a man like-minded with Christ in any one divine
virtue. And that for this reason, because God, and divine goodness, are
inseparable.
No precept of the gospel, supposes man
to have any power to effect it, or calls you to any natural ability, or wisdom
of your own to comply with it. Christ and His apostles called no man, to
overcome the corruption and blindness of fallen nature, by learned cultivation
of the mind. The wisdom of the learned world, was the same pitiable foolishness
with them, as the grossest ignorance. By them, they only stand thus
distinguished, the one brings forth a publican which is often converted to
Christ, the other a Pharisee, that for the most part, condemns Him to be
crucified. They (Christ and his apostles) taught nothing but death, and denial
to all self, and the impossibility of having any one divine disposition, but
through faith, and hope of a new nature, "Not born of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
To speak of the operation of the Holy Spirit,
as only an assistance, or an occasional assistance, is as short of the truth,
as to say, that Christ shall only assist the resurrection, of our bodies. For
not a spark of any divine virtue can arise in us, but what must wholly and
solely be called forth, by that same power, which alone can call our dead
bodies, out of the dust and darkness of the grave.
If you turn to your own strength, to have Christian piety, and goodness; or are so deceived, as to think, that learning, or logical abilities, critical acuteness, skill in languages, church-systems, rules and orders, articles and opinions, are to do that for you, which the Spirit of Christ did, and only could do for the first Christians; your diligent reading the history of the gospel, will leave you as poor, and empty and dead to the divine life, as if you had been only a diligent reader of the history of all the religions in the world. But if all that you trust to, long after, and depend upon, is that Holy Spirit, which alone made the scripture-saints able to call Jesus Lord; if this is your one faith, and one hope, the divine life, which died in Adam, will find itself alive again in Christ Jesus, IN YOU. And be assured, that nothing but this new birth, can be the gospel Christian, because nothing else can possibly love, like, do, and be that, which Christ preached in His divine sermon on the mount. And be assured also, that when the Spirit of Christ, is the spirit that rules in you, there will be no hard sayings in the Gospel; but all that the heavenly Christ taught in the flesh, will be as meat and drink to you, and you will have no joy, but in walking, as he walked, in saying, loving, and doing, that which he said, loved, and did. And indeed, how can it be otherwise? How can notions, doctrines, and opinions about Christ, what he was, and did, make you in Him a new creature? Can anyone be made a Samson, or a Solomon, by being well versed in the history of what they were, said or did?
Ask then, my friend, no more, where
you shall go, or what you shall do, to be in the truth; for you can have the
truth, nowhere, but in Jesus, nor in Him, any further, than as His whole
nature, and Spirit is born within you.
Letter 10 By William Law
To Mr. J. T.
My dear worthy Friend,
Whom I much love and esteem, your
letter, though full of complaints about the state of your heart, was very much
according to my mind, and gives me great hope, that God will carry on the good
work he has begun in you, and lead you by His Holy Spirit, through all those
difficulties, under which you are presently laboring.
The desire that you have, to be better
than you find yourself at present, is God's call begun to be heard within you,
and will make itself to be heard, even more within you, if you but, give way to
it, and reverence it as such; humbly believing that He that calls, will, and
only can, help you to pay right and full obedience to it.
As to the advertisement in the public
paper, it deserves no regard from you, or anyone else. It must have come,
either from a very ignorant and weak friend, or from a very insignificant enemy
to the writings of Jacob Behman. But be it as it will, it was not an object of
your attention, nor could be of any use to you.
But to come to your own state, you
seem to yourself to be all infatuation and stupidity, because your head, and
your heart are so contrary, the one delighting in heavenly notions, the other
governed by earthly passions, and pursuits. It is a happy thing for you, that
you know and acknowledge this: for only through this truth, through the full
and deep perception of it, can you have any entrance, or so much as the
beginning of an entrance into the liberty of the children of God. God is in this
respect dealing with you, as He does with those, whose darkness is to be
changed into light. Which can never be done, until you fully know,
1.
The real badness of your own heart, and
2.
Your utter inability to deliver yourself from it, by any sense,
power, or activity of your own mind.
And if you thought that you were in a
better state, the matter would be worse with you. For the badness in your
heart, though you had no sensibility of it, would still be there, and would
only be concealed, to your much greater hurt. For there it certainly is,
whether it is seen and found, or not, and sooner or later, must show itself in
its full deformity, or the old man will never die the death which is due to
him, and must be undergone, before the new man in Christ can be formed in us.
All that you complain of in your heart
is common to man, as man. There is no heart that is without it. And this is the
one ground, why every man, as such, however different in disposition,
complexion, or natural endowments from others, has the same full reason, and
absolute necessity, of being born again from above.
Flesh and blood, and the spirit of this world, govern every spring in the heart of the natural man. And therefore you can never enough adore that ray of divine light, which breaking in upon your darkness, has made it known to be the state of your heart, and raised only those faint wishes that you desire to be delivered from.
For faint as they are, they have their
degree of goodness in them, and as certainly proceed solely from the goodness
of God working in your soul, as the first dawning of the morning, is solely
from, and wrought by the same sun, which helps us to the noonday light. Firmly,
therefore, believe this, as a certain truth, that the present sensibility of
your incapacity for goodness, is to be cherished as a heavenly seed of life, as
the blessed work of God in your soul. Could you like anything about your own
heart, or so much as think that any good could be found in it, or believe that
you had any power of your own to embrace and follow the truth, this opinion,
would be your turning away from God and all goodness, and building iron walls
of separation between God and your soul.
For conversion to God, only then
begins to be in truth, and reality, when we see nothing that can give us the
least degree of faith, of hope, of trust, or comfort in anything, that we
are of ourselves. To see vanity of vanities in all outward things, to
loath and abhor certain sins, is indeed something, but yet as nothing, in
comparison of seeing and believing the vanity of vanities within us, and
ourselves as utterly unable to take one single step in true goodness, as to add
one cubit to our stature.
Under this conviction, the gate of life is opened to us. And therefore it is, that all the preparatory parts of religion, all the various proceedings of God either over our inward, or outward state, setting up, and pulling down, giving, and taking away, light, and darkness, comfort, and distress, as independently of us, as he makes the rain to descend, and the winds to blow, are all of them for this one end, to bring us to this conviction, that all that can be called life, good, and happiness, is to come solely from God, and not the smallest spark of it from ourselves. When man was first created, all the good that he had in him was from God alone. This must be the state of man for ever. From the beginning of time through all eternity, the creature can have no goodness, but that which God creates in it.
Our first created goodness is lost,
because our first father departed from a full, absolute dependence upon God.
For a full, continual, unwavering dependence upon God, is that alone which
keeps God in the creature, and the creature in God. Our lost goodness can never
come again, or be found in us, until by a power from Christ living in us, we
are brought out of ourselves, and all selfish truths, into that full and
blessed dependence upon God, in which our first father should have lived.
What room now, my dear friend, for
complaint at the sight, sense, and feeling of your inability to make yourself
better than you are? If you truly wanted this, every part of your religion
would only have the nature and vanity of idolatry. For you cannot come unto
God, you cannot believe in Him, you cannot worship Him in spirit and truth,
until He is regarded as the only giver, and you yourself as nothing else but
the receiver of every heavenly good, that can possibly come to life in you. Can
it trouble you, that it was God that made you, and not you yourself? Yet this
would be as unreasonable, as to be troubled that you cannot make heavenly
affection, or divine powers to spring up, and abide in your soul.
God must for ever be God alone;
heaven, and the heavenly nature are His, and must for ever and ever be received
only from Him, and for ever and ever be only preserved, by an entire dependence
upon, and trust in Him. Now as all the religion of fallen man, fallen from God
into himself, and the spirit of this world, has no other end, but to bring us
back to an entire dependence upon God, so we may justly say, blessed is that
light, happy is that conviction, which brings us into a full and settled
despair, of ever having the least good from ourselves. Then we are truly
brought, and laid at the gate of mercy: at which gate, no soul ever did, or
could lay in vain.
A broken and contrite heart God will
not despise. That is, God will not, God cannot pass by, overlook, or disregard
it. But the heart is then only broken and contrite, when all its strong holds
are broken down, all false coverings taken off, and it sees, with inwardly
opened eyes, everything to be bad, false, and rotten, that does, or can proceed
from it as its own.
But you will perhaps say, that your
conviction is only an uneasy sensibility of your own state, and has not the goodness
of a broken and contrite heart in it. Let it be so, yet it is on the road to
it, and it can only begin, as it begins at present in you. Your conviction is
certainly not full and perfect; for if it was, you would not complain, or
grieve at inability to help or mend yourself, but would patiently expect, and
only look for help from God alone. Know therefore your want of this, as of all
other goodness. But know also at the same time, that it cannot be had through
your own willing and running, but through God that shows mercy; that is to say,
through God who gives us Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ is the one and only
mercy of God to all the fallen world.
Now if all the mercy of God is only to
be found in Christ Jesus, if he alone can save us from our sins; if he alone
has power to heal all our infirmities, and restore original righteousness, what
room for any other pains, labor, or inquiry, but where, and how Christ is to be
found.
It matters not what our evils are,
deadness, blindness, infatuation, hardness of heart, covetousness, wrath,
pride, and ambition, our remedy is always one and the same, always at hand,
always certain and infallible. Seven devils are as easily cast out by Christ as
one. He came into the world, not to save from this, or that disorder, but to
destroy all the power and works of the devil in man. If you ask where, and how
Christ is to be found? I answer, in your heart, and by your heart, and nowhere
else, nor by anything else. But you will perhaps say, it is your very heart
that keeps you a stranger to Christ, and Him to you, because your heart is all
bad, as unholy as a den of thieves. I answer, that the finding this to be the
state of your heart, is the real finding of Christ in it. For nothing else but
Christ can reveal, and make manifest the sin and evil in you. And he that
discovers, is the same Christ that takes away sin. So that, as soon as
complaining guilt, sets itself before you, and will be seen, you may be
assured, that Christ is in you of a truth.
For Christ must first come as a
discoverer and reprover of sin. It is the infallible proof of His holy presence
within you.
Hear Him, reverence Him, submit to Him
as a discoverer and reprover of sin. Own His power and presence in the feeling
of your guilt, and then He that wounded, will heal, He that found out the sin,
will take it away, and He who showed you your den of thieves, will turn it into
a holy temple of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
And now, sir, you may see, that your
doubt and inquiry of me, whether your will was really free, or not, was
groundless.
You have no freedom, or power of will,
to assume any holy temper, or take hold of such degrees of goodness, as you
have a mind to have. For nothing is, or ever can be goodness in you, but the
one life, light, and spirit of Christ revealed, formed, and begotten in your
soul. Christ in us, is our only goodness, as Christ in us, is our hope of
glory. But Christ in us, is the pure, free, gift of God to us.
But you have a true and full freedom
of will and choice, either to leave, and give up your helpless self to the
operation of God in your soul, or to rely upon your own rational industry, and
natural strength of mind. This is the truth of the freedom of your will, in
your first setting out, which is a freedom that no man wants, or can want so
long as he is in the body. And every unregenerate man has this freedom.
If therefore you have not
that which you want to have of God, or are not that which you ought to be in
Christ Jesus, it is not because you have no free power of leaving yourself in
the hands, and under the operation of God, but because the same freedom of your
will, seeks for help where it cannot be had, namely, in some strength and
activity of your own faculties.
Of this freedom of will it is said,
"According to your faith, so be it done to you"; that is to say,
according as you leave and trust yourself to God, so will His operation be in
you. This is the real, great magic power of the first turning of the will; of
which it is truly said, that it always has that which it wills, and can have
nothing else.
When this freedom of the will wholly
leaves itself to God, saying, not mine, but Your will be done, then it has
that, which it wills. The will of God is done in it. It is in God. It has
divine power. It works with God, and by God, and comes at length to be that
faith which can move mountains; and nothing is too hard for it.
And so it is, that every unregenerate
son of Adam has life and death in his own choice, not by any natural power of
taking that which he will, but by a full freedom, either of leaving, and
trusting himself to the redeeming operation of God, which is eternal life, or
of acting according to his own will and power in flesh and blood, which is
eternal death.
And now, my dear friend, let me tell
you, that as here lies all the true and real freedom, which cannot be taken
from you, so in the constant exercise of this freedom, that is, in a continual
leaving yourself to, and depending upon the operation of God in your soul, lies
all your road to heaven. No divine virtue can be had in any other way.
All the excellency and power of faith,
hope, love, patience, and resignation, which are the true and only graces of
the spiritual life, have no other root or ground, but this free, full leaving
of yourself to God, and are only so many different expressions of your willing
nothing, seeking nothing, trusting to nothing, but the life-giving power of His
holy presence in your soul.
To sum up all in a word. Wait
patiently, trust humbly, depend only upon, seek solely to a God of light and
love, of mercy and goodness, of glory and majesty, ever dwelling in the inmost
depth and spirit of your soul. There you have all the secret, hidden, invisible
upholder of all the creation, whose blessed operation will always be found by a
humble, faithful, loving, calm, patient introversion of your heart to Him, who
has His hidden heaven within you, and which will open itself to you, as soon as
your heart is left wholly to His eternal ever-speaking WORD, and ever-sanctifying
Spirit within you.
Beware of all eagerness and activity
of your own natural spirit and temper. Run not in any hasty ways of your own.
Be patient under the sense of your own vanity and weakness; and patiently wait
for God to do His own work, and in His own way. For you can go no faster, than
a full dependence upon God can carry you.
You will perhaps say, Am I then to be
idle, and do nothing towards the salvation of my soul? No, you must by no means
be idle, but earnestly diligent, according to your measure, in all good works,
which the law and the gospel direct you to, both with regard to yourself and
other people. Outward good works to other people, may be justly considered as
God's errand on which you are sent, and therefore to be done faithfully, according
to His will, and in obedience to Him, who sent you.
But nothing that you do, or practice
as a good to yourself, and other people, is in its proper state, or grows from
its right root, or reaches its true end, until you look for no willing, nor
depend upon any doing that which is good, but by Christ, the wisdom and power
of God, living in you. I caution you only against all eagerness and activity of
your own spirit, so far as it leads you to seek, and trust to something that is
not God, and Christ within you.
I recommend to you stillness,
calmness, patience, not to make you lifeless, and indifferent about good works,
or indeed with any regard to them, but solely with regard to your faith, that
it may have its proper soil to grow in, and because all eagerness,
restlessness, haste, and impatience, either with regard to God, or ourselves,
are not only great hindrances, but real defects of our faith, and dependence
upon God.
Lastly, be courageous then, and full
of hope, not by looking at any strength of your own, or fancying that you now
know how to be wiser in yourself, than you have hitherto been; no, this will
only help you to find more and more defects of weakness in yourself; but be
courageous in faith, and hope, and dependence upon God. And be assured, that
the one infallible way to all that is good, is never to be weary in waiting,
trusting, and depending upon God, manifested in Christ Jesus.
I am your hearty Friend,
and Well-Wisher, William Law.
March 20, 1756.
Highlights
From Brother William Law’s Writings
Brother Law stresses the need of the
believers continuing in a vital relationship with Christ after their
conversion. Every branch of a tree, though ever so richly brought forth, must
wither and die the moment it ceases to have a life union with the root. To this
truth, grounded as absolutely in the
spiritual as in the natural, our Lord appeals as an illustration of
the necessity of His constant indwelling and continuous working in the redeemed
soul of man.
According to brother Law,
salvation is an inward experience, and a spiritual operation of God in man. No
one can know the truth of salvation by a mere rational consent to that which is
historically said of Christ. Only by an inward experience of His cross, death,
and resurrection can the saving power of the gospel be known. For the reality
of Christ's redemption is not in fleshly, finite, outward things, much less in
verbal descriptions of them, but is a birth, a life, a spiritual operation,
which as truly belongs to God alone as does His creative power.
Brother Law also addresses
the disparity between many professing Christians' position in Christ and their
outward living. Many Christians are careful to observe certain times, places,
and rituals of worship; but when the service of the church is over, they are
but like those that profess no regard for religion. In their manner of life, in
their cares and worries, fears and pleasures, indulgences and diversions, it is
often impossible to distinguish professing Christians from the rankest
unbelievers, until they once again unite to sing of their love and devotion to
Jesus. Little wonder that the skeptic makes such false standard-bearers the
object of his scorn and jest, because he sees that their devotion goes no
deeper than the words they use in song and prayer. How can this be called
Christianity, when such a manner of life finds its proper condemnation in every
page of the New Testament?
Brother Law strongly states
that the appreciation of Biblical scholarship of the letter is in opposition to
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This results in a scholar who is empty of the reality
of the gospel. This scholarly worship of the letter has greatly opposed the
ministry of the Holy Spirit, and blinded men to the living reality which the
gospel holds out to those who believe. The manner in which Greek and Hebrew
scholarship is admired and sought after in the church would lead one to believe
that a man has all the divine life and reality that Paul had, if he can only
recite his epistles by heart. What could such a man truly be said to have,
except the letter of the gospel without the Spirit? And what would be the
advantage if he knew this letter in the original Greek, and had thoroughly
mastered all the niceties of grammar and shades of ancient meanings? Such a
man, while more thoroughly grounded in the letter, must remain just as empty of
the reality of the gospel, unless he knows in his own experience the immediate
inspiration and quickening power of the Holy Spirit.
Bible teachers and religious
leaders
Finally, brother Law gives
a strong denunciation of leaders who gain positions by their intellectual
attainments and eloquence. The Bible teacher and religious leader who gain and
hold a church position through intellectual attainments and oratorical skills
can be said to differ from lesser men only as the serpent differed from the other
beasts of the field, in that it was more subtle.
In commenting on 1
Corinthians 4:15 "For though you have ten thousand guides in Christ, yet
you do not have many fathers..." he says: "Thousands stand ready to
split doctrinal hairs and instruct others in the fine meaning of Scripture
words - but there are so few through whom the Holy Spirit can work to bring men
to a new birth in the kingdom of God."
Brother Law's provocative
style of writing is again displayed in his desire to turn his reader away from
the natural pursuit of knowledge to a genuine experience of God's salvation
with regards to his entrance into God's kingdom. Natural genius and human
wisdom can feed on no other food than the deceptive fruit of that ancient tree
of knowledge. What a gross ignorance, both of man's need and Christ's
salvation, to run to Greek and Hebrew schools to learn how to put off Adam and
to put on Christ! How absurd to seek to be wise in scholarship concerning the letter
of Scripture in order to obey Christ's command that we must become like a
little child to enter into His kingdom!
To
a Person burdened with inward and outward troubles
This is the response to a letter sent to
Brother William Law, I believe that it will be as good a help to any other soul
that is not fully in Christ, as it was to the soul that it was addressed
to. Editor.
Worthy Sir,
My heart embraces you, with all the
tenderness and affection of Christian love; and I earnestly beg of God, to make
me a messenger of His peace to your soul.
You seem to apprehend that the account you have given of
yourself might surprise me; but I am neither surprised, nor offended at it; I
neither condemn, nor lament your condition, but shall endeavor to show you, how
it may be made a blessing and great happiness to you. I shall not enter into a
consideration of the different kinds of trouble you have told me about. I think it better to lay
before you the one true ground and root, from which all the evil and disorders of
human life have sprung. This will make it easy for you to see, what that is,
which must, and only can be the full remedy and relief for all of them.
The scripture has assured us, that God made man in His own image
and likeness; a sufficient proof, that man, in his first state, as he came
forth from God, must have been absolutely free from all vanity, want, or
distress of any kind, from anything either within, or without him. It would be
quite absurd and blasphemous, to suppose, that a creature beginning to exist in
the image and likeness of God, should have vanity of life, or vexation of
spirit: a Godlike perfection of nature, and a painful, distressed nature, stand
in the utmost contrariety to one another.
Again, the scripture has assured us,
that man that is born of a woman, has but a short time to live, and is full of
misery: therefore man now is not that creature that he was by his creation. The
first divine and Godlike nature of Adam, which was to have been immortally holy
in union with God, is lost; and instead of it, a poor mortal of earthly flesh
and blood, born like a wild donkey's colt, of a short life, and full of misery,
and is through a vain pilgrimage, to end in dust and ashes. Therefore, let
every evil, whether inward, or outward, only teach you this truth, that man has
infallibly lost his first divine life in God; and that no possible comfort, or
deliverance is to be expected, but only in this one thing, that though man had
lost his God, yet God is become man, that man may be again alive in God, as at
the first. For all the misery and distress of human nature, whether of body or
mind, is wholly owing to this one cause, that God is not in man, nor man in
God, as the state of his nature requires: it is, because man has lost that
first life of God in his soul, in and for which he was created. He lost this
light, and spirit, and life of God, by turning his will, imagination, and
desire, into a tasting and sensibility of the good and evil of this earthly
bestial world.
Now here are two things raised up in
man, instead of the life of God: first, self, or selfishness, brought forth by
his choosing to have a wisdom of his own, contrary to the will and instruction
of his creator. Secondly, an earthly, bestial, mortal life and body, brought
forth by his eating that food, which was poison to his paradisiacal nature.
Both these must therefore be removed; that is, a man must first totally die to
self, and all earthly desires, views, and intentions, before he can be again in
God, as his nature and first creation requires.
But now if this is a certain and
immutable truth, that man, so long as he is a selfish, earthly-minded creature,
must be deprived of his true life, the life of God, the spirit of heaven in his
soul; then how is the face of things changed! For then, what life is so much to
be dreaded, as the life of worldly ease and prosperity? What a misery, what a
curse, is there in everything that gratifies and nourishes our self-love,
self-esteem, and self-seeking? On the other hand, what happiness is there in
all inward and outward troubles, when they force us to feel and know the hell
that is hidden within us, and the vanity of everything without us, when they
turn all our self-love into self-abhorrence and force us to call upon God to
save us from ourselves, to give us a new life, new light, and new spirit in
Christ Jesus.
"Oh thank you for the
famine," the poor prodigal might well have said, "which, by reducing
me to the necessity of asking to eat husks with the swine, brought me to
myself, and caused my return to my first happiness in my father's house."
Now, I will suppose your distressed
state to be as you represent it; inwardly, darkness, heaviness, and confusion
of thoughts and passions; outwardly, ill treatment from friends, relations, and
all the world; unable to strike up the least spark of light, comfort, or
happiness, by any thought or reasoning of your own.
Oh happy famine, which leaves you not
so much as the husk of one human comfort to feed upon! For this is the time and
place for all that is good and life and salvation to happen to you, which
happened to the prodigal son. Your way is as short, and your success as certain
as his was: you have no more to do than he had; you need not call out for
books, or methods of devotion; for, in your present state, much reading, and
borrowed prayers, are not your best method: all that you are to offer to God,
all that is to help you to find Him to be your Savior and Redeemer, is best
taught to you by the distressed state of your heart.
Only let your present and past
distress make you feel and acknowledge this twofold great truth: first, that in
and of yourself, you are nothing but darkness, vanity, and misery; secondly,
that of yourself, you can no more help yourself to light, comfort, and
happiness, than you can create an angel. People at all times can seem to assent
to these two truths; but then it is an assent that has no depth or reality, and
so is of little or no use to them: but your condition has opened your heart for
a deep and full conviction of these truths. Now give way, to this conviction,
and hold these two truths, in the same degree of certainty as you know two and
two is four, and then you are with the prodigal, come to yourself, and more
than HALF YOUR WORK IS DONE!
Being now in full possession of these
two truths, feeling them in the same degree of certainty, as you feel your own
existence, you are, under this sensibility, to give up yourself absolutely and
entirely to God in Christ Jesus, as into the hands of infinite love; firmly
believing this great infallible truth,
that God has no will towards you, but that of infinite love, and an infinite
desire to make you a partaker of His divine nature; and that it is as
absolutely impossible for the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to refuse all
that good and life and salvation which you want, as it is for you to take it by
your own power.
Oh drink deep of this cup! For the
precious water of eternal life is in it. Turn to God with this faith; cast yourself
into this abyss of love; and then you will be in that same state the prodigal
son was in, when he said, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say
to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more
worthy to be called Your son'"; and all will be fulfilled in you, which
was fulfilled in him.
Make this, therefore, the twofold
exercise of your heart: now, bowing yourself down before God, in the deepest
sense and acknowledgement of your own nothingness and vileness; then, looking
up to God in faith and love, consider Him as always extending the arms of His
mercy towards you, and full of an infinite desire to dwell in you, as He dwells
in angels in heaven. Content yourself with this inward and simple exercise of
your heart, for a while; and seek, or look for nothing in any book, but that
which nourishes and strengthens this state of your heart.
"Come to Me," says the holy
Jesus, "all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
you." Here is more for you to lie upon, more light for your mind, more
unction for your heart, than in volumes of human instruction. Pick up the words
of the holy Jesus, and beg of Him to be the light and life of your soul: love
the sound of His name; for Jesus is the love, the sweetness, the compassionate,
the goodness, of the deity itself; which became man, so that men might have
power to become the sons of God. Love, pity and wish well to every soul in the
world; dwell in love, and then you dwell in God; learn to hate nothing but the
evil that stirs in your own heart.
Teach your heart this prayer, till your heart continually says,
though not with outward words: "Oh holy Jesus: meek lamb of God! Bread
that came down from heaven! Light and life of all holy souls! Help me to a true
and living faith in You. Oh do open yourself within me, with all your holy
nature, spirit, tempers, and inclinations, that I may be born again of You, a
new creature, quickened and revived, led and governed, by Your Holy
Spirit."
Prayer so practiced, becomes the life
of the soul, and the true food of eternity. Keep in this state of application
to God; and then you will infallibly find it to be the true way of rising out
of the vanity of time, into the riches of eternity.
Do not expect, or look for the same
degrees of sensible fervor. The matter does not lie there. Nature will have its
share; but the ups and downs of that are to be overlooked. While your will, or
spirit is good, and set right, the changes of creaturely fervor do not lessen
your union with God. It is the abyss of the heart, an unfathomable depth of
eternity within us, as much above sensible fervor, as heaven is above the
earth; it is this that works our way to God, and unites with heaven. This abyss
of the heart, is the divine nature and power within us, which never calls upon
God in vain; but whether helped or deserted by bodily fervor, penetrates
through all outward nature, as easily and effectually as our thoughts can leave
our bodies, and reach into the regions of eternity.
The poverty of our fallen nature, the
depraved workings of flesh and blood, the corrupt tempers of our polluted birth
in this world, do us no hurt, so long as the spirit of prayer works contrary to
them, and longs for the first birth of the light and spirit of heaven. All our
natural evil ceases to be our own evil, as soon as our will, or spirit turns
from it; it then changes its nature, loses all its poison and death, and only
becomes our holy cross, on which we happily die from self and this world into
the kingdom of heaven.
Would you be done with error, scruple,
and delusion? Consider the deity to be the greatest love, the greatest
meekness, the greatest sweetness, the eternal unchangeable will to be a good
and blessing to every creature; and that all the misery, darkness, and death of
fallen angels and fallen men, consist in their having lost their likeness to
this divine nature. Consider yourself, and all the fallen world, as having
nothing to seek or wish for, but by the spirit of prayer to draw into the life
of your soul, rays and sparks of this divine, meek, loving, tender nature of
God. Consider the holy Jesus as the gift of God to your soul, in spite of every
inward or outward enemy. These three infallible truths, heartily embraced, and
made the nourishment of your soul, shorten and secure the way to heaven, and
leave no room for error, scruple or delusion
Expect no life, light, strength, or
comfort, but from the Spirit of God, dwelling and manifesting His own goodness
in your soul. The best of men, and the best of books, can only do you good,
so far as they turn you from themselves, and every human thing, to seek, and
have, and receive every kind of good from God alone; not a distant, or an
absent God, but a God living, moving, and always working in the spirit and heart
of your soul.
They never find God, who seek for Him
by reasoning and speculation; for since God is the highest spirit, and the
highest life, nothing but a like spirit, and a like life, can unite with Him,
find or feel, or know anything of Him. Hence it is, that faith, and hope, and
love, turned towards God, are the only possible, and infallible means of
obtaining a true and living knowledge of Him. And the reason is plain, it is by
this holy attitude, which is the working of spirit and life within us, we seek
the God of life where He is, we call upon Him with His own voice, we draw near
to Him by His own Spirit; for nothing can breathe forth faith, and love, and
hope to God, but that Spirit and life which is of God, and which therefore
through flesh and blood thus presses towards Him, and readily unites with Him.
There is not a more infallible truth
in the world than this, that neither reasoning nor learning can ever introduce
a spark of heaven into our souls: and since this is so, you have nothing to seek,
nor anything to fear, from reason. Life and death are the things in question:
they are neither of them the growth of reasoning or learning, but each of them
is a state of the soul, and only thus differ, death is the want, and life the
enjoyment of its highest good. Reason, therefore, and learning, have no power
here; but only by their vain activity to keep the soul insensible of that life
and death, one of which is always taking the ascendancy in it, according as the
will and desire of the heart worked. Add reason to a vegetable, and you add
nothing to its life or death. Its life and fruitfulness lies in the soundness
of its root, the goodness of the soil, and the riches it derives from air and
light. Heaven and hell grow thus in the soul of every man: his heart is his
root; if that is turned from all evil, it is then like the plant in a good
soil; when it hungers and thirsts after the divine life, it then infallibly
draws the light and Spirit of God into it, which are infinitely more ready and
willing to live and fructify in the soul, than light and air is to enter into
the plant, that hungers after them. For the soul has its breath, and being, and
life, for no other end, but that God may manifest the riches and powers of His
own life in it.
Thus hunger is all, and in all worlds,
everything lives in it, and by it; nothing else eats, or partakes of life; and
everything eats according to its own hunger. Everything hungers after its own
mother, that is, everything has a natural magnetic tendency to partake of that
from which it had its being, and can only find its rest in that from whence it
came. Dead as well as living things bear witness to this truth: the stones fall
to the earth, the sparks fly upwards, for this only reason, because everything
must tend towards that from which it came.
Were not angels and the souls of men
breathed forth from God, as so many real offspring’s of the divine nature, it
would be as impossible for them to have any desire of God, as for stones to go
upwards, and the flame downwards. Thus you may see, and feel, that the spirit
of prayer not only proves that you came from God, but is your certain way of
returning to Him.
When, therefore, it is the one ruling,
never ceasing desire of our hearts, that God may be the beginning and end, the
reason and motive, the rule and measure, of our doing, or not doing, from
morning to night; then everywhere, whether speaking or silent, whether inwardly
or outwardly employed, we are equally offered up to the Eternal Spirit, have
our life in Him and from Him, and are united to Him, by that spirit of prayer,
which is the comfort, the support, the strength and security of the soul,
traveling by the help of God, through the vanity of time into the riches of
eternity. For this spirit of prayer, let us willingly give up all that we
inherit from our fallen father, to be all hunger and thirst after God; and to
have no thought or care, but how to be wholly His devoted instruments;
everywhere, and in everything, His adoring, joyful, and thankful servants. Have
your eyes shut, and ears stopped to everything, that is not a step in that
ladder that reaches from earth to heaven.
Reading is good, hearing is good,
conversation and meditation are good; but then they are only good at times and
occasions, and in a certain degree; and must be used and governed, with such
caution, as we eat and drink, and refresh ourselves, or they will bring forth
in us the fruits of overindulgence. But the spirit of prayer is for all times,
and all occasions; it is a lamp that is to always be burning, a light to be
ever shining; everything calls for it, everything is to be done in it, and
governed by it; because it is, and means, and wills nothing else, but the
whole, of the soul, not doing this or that, but wholly, incessantly given up to
God, to be where, and what, and how He pleases.
This state of absolute resignation,
naked faith, and pure love of God, is the highest perfection, and most purified
life of those, who are born again from above, and who through the divine power
become sons of God: and it is neither more nor less, than what our blessed
Redeemer has called, and qualified us to long and aspire after, in these words:
"Your kingdom come; Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven."
It is to be sought for in the simplicity of a little child, without
being captivated with any mysterious depths or heights of speculation; without
nature, grace, or creature, but so far as it brings us nearer to God, forces us
to forget and renounce everything for Him; to do everything in Him, with Him,
and for Him; and to give every breathing, moving, stirring, intention, and
desire of our heart, soul, spirit, and life to Him.
Let every creature have your love.
Love with its fruits of meekness, patience, and humility, is all that we can
wish for to ourselves, and our fellow creatures; for this is to live in God,
united to Him, both for time and eternity.
To desire to communicate good to every
creature, in as big a degree as we can, and as it is capable of receiving from us,
is a divine disposition; for thus God stands unchangeably disposed towards the
whole of creation: but let me add my request, as you value the peace which God
has brought forth by His Holy Spirit in you, as you desire to be continually
taught by an unction from above, that you would on no account enter into any
dispute with anyone about the truths of salvation; but give them every help,
but that of debating with them; for no man has fitness for the light of the
gospel, till he finds an hunger and thirst, and want of something better, than
that which he has and is by nature. Yet we ought not to check our inclinations
to help others in every way we can. Only do what you do, as a work of God; and
then, whatever may be the event, you will have reason to be content with the
success that God gives it. "He that has ears to hear, let him hear";
may be enough for you, as well as it was for our blessed Lord.
The next thing that belongs to us, and
which is also Godlike, is a true unfeigned patience, and meekness, showing
every kind of good will and tender affection towards those that turn a deaf ear
to us; looking upon it to be as contrary to God's method, and the good state of
our own hearts, to dispute with anyone in contentious words, as to fight with
him for the truths of salvation.
"Come to me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," says our blessed Lord. He
called no one else, because no one else has ears to hear, or a heart to receive
the truths of redemption.
Every man is an ineffective disputer,
till such time as something has disturbed his state, and awakened in him a
sensibility of his own evil and miserable nature. We are all afraid, both of
inward and outward distress; and yet, till distress comes, our life is but a
dream, and we have no awakened sensibility of our own true state.
We are apt to consider intellect and
abilities, as the proper qualifications for the reception of divine truths; and
wonder that a man of a fine understanding should not immediately embrace just
and solid doctrines: but the matter is quite otherwise. Had man kept possession
of his first rich and glorious state, there would not have been any foundation
for the gospel redemption; and the doctrine of the cross, would have appeared
quite unreasonable to be pressed upon him: and therefore says our Lord,
"To the poor the gospel is preached." It is solely to them, and no
one else: that is, to poor fallen man, that has lost all the true natural
riches and greatness of his first divine life; to him is the gospel preached.
But if a man knows and feels nothing of this poverty of his nature, he is not
that person to whom the gospel belongs: it has no more suitableness to his
state, than it had to the un-fallen man: and then the greater his intellect and
abilities are, the better he will be qualified to show the folly of every
doctrine of that salvation, of which he has no need.
Such a man, though he may be of an
humane, ingenuous, generous and frank nature, of lively intellect and have much
candor, is nevertheless entirely ignorant of the depth of the heart of man, and
the necessities of human nature. As yet (though he knows it not) he is only at
play and pastime, pleasing himself with supposed deep inquiries after strict
truth, while he is only entertaining himself with lively, and wandering images
of this and that, just as they happen to occur in his mind. Could but he see
himself in the state of the poor distressed prodigal son, and find that he,
himself is the very person there recorded, he would then, but not till then,
see the fitness and need of that redemption, which is offered him by the mercy
of God in CHRIST JESUS. But such a one, is rich; he is sound; light is in his
own power, goodness is in his own possession: he feels no distress or darkness;
but has a crucible of reason and judgment, that on every occasion separates
gold from dross: and, therefore, he must be left to himself, to his own sweet
bliss, till something more than argument and disputation awakens him out of
these golden dreams.
Let us beware also of the religious
Pharisee, who raves against spiritual religion, because it touches the very
heart string of all systematical divinity, and shakes the very foundation of
every BABEL in every country; for not a system of divinity, since systems were
in being, whether popish or Protestant, deserves a better name.
All preachers of the true spiritual
mystery of the gospel, of a birth, light and life from above, in and by JESUS
CHRIST (which are the mystic writers of every age) were, and will be, treated
by the reigning fashionable orthodoxy, as enemies to the outward gospel, and
its services, just as the prophets of God (who were the mystic preachers of the
Jewish dispensation) were by the then reigning orthodoxy, condemned and
despised, for calling people to a spiritual meaning of the dead letter, to a
holiness infinitely greater than that of their outward sacrifices, types, and
ceremonies.
Whoever he is that has any situation
of his own to defend, be it that of a celebrated preacher, a champion for
received orthodoxy, a head, a leader, or follower of any sect, or party; or
that seems, both in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others, to have made
himself significant in any kind of religious distinction; every such person,
sooner or later, will find, that he has much of that very same to give up,
which hindered the zealous, and eminently religious Pharisees from being
converted to CHRIST, in the spirit of a little child.
Nor does it help the matter, that such
an one abounds with piety and excellency; for Paul was governed by a spirit of
great piety, great excellency, and zeal for God. He says of himself, that when
he was persecuting the disciples of Christ, he "lived in all good conscience,
as touching the Law blameless, and according to the straightest sect of the
Jewish religion": for the Pharisees, though many of them had all that
hypocrisy and rottenness which Christ laid to their charge, yet as a sect, they
were an order of confessed and resplendent sanctity; and yet the more earnest
and upright they were in this kind of zeal for goodness, the more earnestly
they opposed and condemned the heavenly mystery of a new life from CHRIST, as
appears from St. Paul.
This sect of the Pharisees did not
cease with the Jewish church; it only lost its old name; it is still in being,
and springs now in the same manner from the gospel, as it did then from the
Law: it has the same place, lives the same life, does the same work, minds the
same things, has the same goodness at heart, has the same religious honor, and
claims to piety, in the Christian, as it had in the Jewish church; and as much
mistakes the depths of the mystery of the gospel, as the Pharisees mistook the
mystery signified by the letter of the Law and the prophets.
It would be easy to show in several
instances, how the leaven of that sect works amongst us, just as it did amongst
them. "Have any of the rulers believed on Him?" was the orthodox
question of the ancient Pharisees. Now we Christians readily and willingly
condemn the weakness and folly of that question; and yet who does not see,
that, for the most part, both priest and people, in every Christian country,
live and govern themselves by the folly and weakness of the very same spirit which
put forth that question: for when God, as He has always done from the beginning
of the world, raises up private and illiterate persons, full of light and
wisdom from above, so as to be able to discover all the workings of the mystery
of iniquity, and to open the ground, and truth, and absolute necessity of such
an inward spirit and life of CHRIST revealed in us, as time, carnal wisdom, and
worldly policy have departed from; when all this is done, by the weakest
instruments of God, in such a simplicity and fullness of demonstration, as may
be justly deemed a miracle; do not clergy and laity get rid of it all, though
ever so unanswerable, merely by the strength of the Pharisees' good old
question, saying with them, "Have any of the rulers believed and taught
these things? Has the church in council or convocation? Has Calvin, Luther,
Zwinglius, or any of our renowned system-makers, ever taught or asserted these
matters? "
But hear what our blessed Lord said,
of the place, the power, and origin of truth: He refers us not to the current
doctrines of the times, or to the systems of men, but to his own name, His own
nature, His own divinity hidden in us: "My sheep," says He,
"hear My voice." Here the whole matter is decisively determined, both
where truth is, and who they are that can have any knowledge of it.
HEAVENLY truth is nowhere spoken but
by the voice of CHRIST, nor heard but by the power of CHRIST living in the
hearer. As he is the eternal WORD of GOD, that speaks forth all the wisdom, and
wonders of GOD; so He alone is the Word, that speaks forth all the life,
wisdom, and goodness, that is, or can be in any creature; it can have nothing
but what it has in Him and from Him: this is the one unchangeable boundary of
truth, goodness, and every perfection of men on earth, or angels in heaven.
Literary learning, from the beginning
to the end of time, will have no more of heavenly wisdom, nor any less of
worldly foolishness in it, at one time than at another; its nature is one and
the same through all ages; what it was in the Jew and the heathen, that same it
is in the Christian. Its name, as well as nature, is unalterable, i.e.,
foolishness with God.
I shall add no more, but the two or
three following words.
1. Receive every inward and outward
trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and
desolation, with both Your hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of
dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with Your self-denying,
suffering Savior.
2. Look at no inward or outward
trouble in any other view; reject every other thought about it; and then every
kind of trial and distress will become the blessed day of Your prosperity.
3. Be afraid of seeking or finding
comfort in anything, but God alone: for that which gives you comfort, takes so
much of Your heart from God. "Quid est cor purum? cui ex toto, et pure
sufficit solus Deus, cui nihil sapit, quod nihil delectat, nisi Deus."
That is, what constitutes a pure heart? One to which God alone is totally, and
purely sufficient; to which nothing relishes, or gives delight, but God alone.
4. That state is best, which exercises
the highest faith in, and fullest resignation to God.
5. What is it you want and seek, but
that God may be all in all, in you? But how can this be, unless all creaturely
good and evil become as nothing in you, or to you? "Oh anima mea, abstrahe
te ab omnibus. Quid tibi cum mutabilibus creaturis? Solum sponsum tuum, qui
omnium est author creaturarum, expectans, hoc age, ut cor tuum ille liberum et expeditum
semper inveniat, quoties illi ad ipsum venire placuerit." That is, Oh my
soul! abstract Yourself from everything. What have you to do with changeable
creatures? Waiting, and expecting Your bridegroom, who is the author of all
creatures, let it be Your sole concern, that He may find Your heart free and
disengaged, as often as it shall please Him to visit you.
Be assured of this, that sooner or later, we
must be brought to this conviction, that everything in ourselves by nature is
evil, and must be entirely given up; and that nothing that is creaturely, can
make us better than we are by nature. Happy, therefore, and blessed are all
those inward or outward troubles, that hasten this conviction in us; that with
the whole strength of our souls, we may be driven to seek ALL from, and in GOD,
without the least thought, hope, or contrivance after any other relief: then it
is, that we are made truly partakers of the cross of CHRIST; and from the
bottom of our hearts shall be enabled to say, with St. Paul, "God forbid
that I should glory in anything, save the cross of our Lord JESUS CHRIST: by
which I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to me."
Give up yourself to God without
reserve. This implies such a state or habit of heart, as does nothing of
itself, from its own reason, will or choice, but stands always in faith, hope,
and absolute dependence upon being led by the Spirit of God into everything
that is according to His will; seeking nothing by designing, reasoning, and
reflection, how you shall best promote the honor of God, but in singleness of
heart, meeting everything that everyday brings forth, as something that comes
from GOD, and is to be received, and gone through by you, in such an heavenly
use of it, as you would suppose the HOLY JESUS would have done, in such
occurrences. This is an attainable degree of perfection; and by having CHRIST
and His Spirit always in your eye, and nothing else, you will
never be left to yourself, nor without the full guidance of GOD.
To a Clergyman of Westmoreland
By William Law
Sir,
Concerning the following texts, God
hardened the heart of Pharaoh; "He has mercy on whom He will have mercy,
and whom He will he hardeneth"; "Good and evil are from the
Lord"; "I create light, and I create darkness"; you ask, how
these things can be consistently affirmed of a God, all love and goodness to
His creatures?
I would ask you also, is there any
difficulty of admitting the truth of this scripture, "In God we live, and
move, and have our being"? Does this clash with the idea of a God all love
and goodness to the creatures? Now take all the contrary things that are said
of God, with relation to that which passes between God and man, and they all
imply no more, affirm no more, than the single foregoing text, namely, that in
every state of the life of man, be it what it will, either under a sense and
enjoyment of good, or the power and pain of evil, it is all owing to this
divine, original, essential relation between God and man, or because in Him we
live, and move, and have our being. For man, thus come from God, must through
the whole course, or endless ages of his life, neither know, nor find, nor feel
anything of good or evil, life or death, happiness or misery, but solely
because of that, which God is in him, and to him, and because of that, which he
is in God, and has from Him, by his original birth or creation.