Way to Divine Knowledge

William Law's final major work emerged from his deep engagement with the mystical writings of Jacob Boehme and represents the culmination of his theological development. Writing as an Anglican clergyman who had moved far beyond his earlier emphasis on moral reformation, Law composed this treatise as a systematic exposition of how the soul progresses toward immediate knowledge of God. The work responds to critics who found his mystical turn troubling and to sincere seekers who wanted clearer guidance on the contemplative path he had begun advocating in his middle period.

Law argues that divine knowledge comes not through rational inquiry or scriptural study alone, but through the progressive purification and illumination of the soul's deepest center. He distinguishes sharply between notional knowledge about God and the experimental knowledge of God's immediate presence within the regenerated spirit. The treatise traces the soul's movement through successive states of awakening, wherein the false self constructed by fallen reason and worldly attachment gradually yields to the birth of Christ within. Law insists that this transformation requires complete abandonment of self-will and total surrender to the divine working, which operates according to its own mysterious timing and methods. He draws extensively on Boehme's understanding of divine emanation and spiritual cosmology, though he translates these concepts into more accessible Anglican terminology.

The work has remained influential among Christians drawn to apophatic mysticism and those seeking to integrate contemplative practice with Protestant theology. Law's insistence on the possibility of direct divine knowledge challenged both rationalist theology and conventional pietism, inspiring later figures in both Anglican and broader Protestant mystical traditions. Who should read this: Christians already familiar with contemplative spirituality who want to explore a sophisticated Protestant mystical theology, and those studying the development of mystical thought within Anglicanism. This is not suitable for beginners to spiritual formation or readers uncomfortable with highly speculative theological language.