William Law

William Law was born in 1686 in King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, to a family of modest means. His father was a grocer, but the family possessed enough resources to secure William a place at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself as a scholar. He was elected a fellow of the college in 1711 and took holy orders in the Church of England. His academic career seemed assured until the Hanoverian succession of 1714, when his life took a decisive turn. As a nonjuror — one who refused to swear allegiance to the new monarchy — Law forfeited his fellowship and any prospect of ecclesiastical advancement. The decision was costly but consistent with his conviction that he had already sworn an oath to the Stuart line that could not be honorably broken.

Returning to King's Cliffe, Law lived for several years in relative obscurity until 1727, when he accepted a position as tutor to Edward Gibbon (father of the historian) at Putney. There he remained for nearly a decade, serving not only as tutor to young Edward but as spiritual guide to the household, including Gibbon's sister Hester. When the family no longer required his services, Law returned once more to King's Cliffe, where he established what amounted to a religious community. Joined by Hester Gibbon and a widow named Mrs. Hutcheson, he devoted himself to prayer, charitable works, and writing. They rose at five for private devotion, attended public worship, visited the poor, and maintained schools for local children. The arrangement continued until Law's death in 1761, a model of serious Anglican piety lived outside conventional ecclesiastical structures.

His Writing and Its Influence

Law began writing in the 1720s with works of controversy and apologetics, including a sharp response to Benjamin Hoadly in the Bangorian controversy. But it was A Practical Treatise Upon Christian Perfection (1726) and A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728) that established his lasting reputation. The latter work in particular became one of the most influential devotional texts in English Christianity, calling readers to surrender every aspect of life to God with a thoroughness that left no room for nominal Christianity. Law argued that devotion was not an occasional religious exercise but the fundamental orientation of a truly Christian existence. The book's impact was immediate and enduring — it shaped figures as diverse as John Wesley, Samuel Johnson, and Henry Venn.

In his later years, Law's writing took a mystical turn under the influence of Jakob Böhme, the German shoemaker-theologian whose visionary writings had captivated him. Works like The Spirit of Prayer (1749) and The Spirit of Love (1752) reflected this new direction, emphasizing divine illumination and the soul's return to God through spiritual rebirth. This phase puzzled and sometimes alienated readers who had valued his earlier, more practical works. Wesley, who owed much to Law's early influence, found himself unable to follow his former mentor into what he considered speculative mysticism. The shift was real, but Law saw it as deepening rather than abandoning his fundamental concerns. Throughout both periods, he insisted that Christianity demanded nothing less than the total transformation of human nature through divine grace.

Law's influence extended far beyond his immediate Anglican context. His insistence on serious devotional practice helped shape the Evangelical Revival, even as his later mystical writings influenced figures in the Romantic movement. His prose style — precise, uncompromising, often stinging in its exposure of religious pretense — became a model for devotional writing that sought to convict rather than comfort.

Who should read Law: Christians who suspect their religious practice has become too comfortable and who are prepared for a devotional writer who offers no quarter to spiritual mediocrity. He is essential for those interested in the intersection of Anglican spirituality and Continental mysticism, and for readers who want to understand the spiritual currents that fed the eighteenth-century revival movements. He is not for those seeking gentle encouragement or practical tips for spiritual growth — Law assumes you are serious about holiness and writes accordingly.