Article contents
William Law, Behmenism, and Counter Enlightenment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2011
Extract
The importance of William Law has never been in doubt. Scholars have regarded him as an extremely effective High Church apologist by virtue of his replies to Bishop Benjamin Hoadly on ecclesiology and eucharistic theology, and as an influential pastoral guide by virtue of the success of his Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. He is also considered the most notable post-Reformation English mystic by virtue of his later works, written under the influence of the early seventeenth-century Silesian theosophist, Jacob Bohme. This Behmenism, however, has served to reduce the admiration expressed for him. Even sympathetic contemporaries regarded Law's enthusiasm for Böhme as certainly eccentric, and perhaps even more objectionable than that. Retrospection did not blunt eighteenth-century disapproval. Dean (later Bishop) George Home, who was an ardent admirer and indeed disciple of the pre-Behmenist Law, lamented the descent of “one of the brightest stars in the firmament of the church…into the sink and complication of Paganism, Quakerism, and Socinianism, mixed up with chemistry and astrology by a possessed cobbler.” The writers of the Romantic era were far more disposed to acknowledge the value of that from which the eighteenth-century had recoiled as “enthusiasm.”
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1998
References
1 Home, George, The Works of the Right Reverend George Horne (6 vols.; London: Johnson, 1809) 1.213Google Scholar (emphasis in the original). For the character of Home's thought in general, see Aston, Nigel, “The Dean of Canterbury and the Sage of Ferney: George Home Looks at Voltaire,” in Jacob, W. M. and Yates, Nigel, eds., Crown and Mitre: Religion and Society in Northern Europe since the Reformation (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 1993) 139–60Google Scholar.
2 For Germany, see Walsh, David, The Mysticism of Innerworldly Fulfillment: A Study of Jacob Boehme (University of Florida Humanities Monographs 53; Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1983) 26–35.Google Scholar For England, see Hopkinson, Arthur W., About William Law: A Running Commentary on His Works (London: SPCK, 1948) 71–72Google Scholar , and Walker, Arthur Keith, William Law: His Life and Thought (London: SPCK, 1973) 107Google Scholar.
3 See, for example, Warren, Austin, “Introduction,” in Stanwood, Paul G., ed., William Law: A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [and] The Spirit of Love (New York: Paulist, 1978) 11–32Google Scholar , esp. 24.
4 See, for example, , Hopkinson, About William Law, 14 and 68Google Scholar ; or Grisbrooke, William Jardine, “The Nonjurors and William Law,” in Jones, Cheslyn, Wainwright, Geoffrey and Yarnold, Edward, eds., The Study of Spirituality (London: SPCK 1986) 452–54Google Scholar.
5 Weeks, Andrew, German Mysticism from Hildegard of Bingen to Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Literary and Intellectual History (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993).Google Scholar
6 Scholem, Gershom G., Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Jerusalem: Schocken, 1941).Google Scholar
7 Broxap, Henry, The Later Non-Jurors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924) 216–17.Google Scholar
8 Hobhouse, Stephen, William Law and Eighteenth Century Quakerism: Including Letters and Fragments of William Law and John Byrom (London: Allen & Unwin, 1927) 298.Google Scholar
9 William Law to J. L., 28 Feb. 1756, Lfangcake], T[homas] and W[ard], Gfeorge], eds., A Collection of Letters on the Most Interesting and Important Subjects, and on Several Occasions. By William Law (London: Richardson, 1760) 1-24, esp. 14–21Google Scholar.
10 Quoted in , Hobhouse, Law and Quakerism, 305.Google Scholar See also , Broxap, Later Non-Jurors, 216–17Google Scholar.
11 Overton, John Henry, William Law, Nonjuror and Mystic …: A Sketch of His Life, Character and Opinions (London: Longmans, Green, 1881) 421–22.Google Scholar
12 , Hobhouse, Law and Quakerism, 274–81.Google Scholar This work was originaly published in 1740. Here it is cited as published in Law's An Appeal to All That Doubt, or Disbelieve the Truths of the Gospel, Whether They Be Deists, Arians, Socinians, or Nominal Christians (London: Innys, 1742) 215–332Google Scholar.
13 Ibid., 272-73, 280-86.
14 Ibid., 282-83.
15 Brett, Thomas, Tradition Necessary to Explain and Interpret the Scriptures…. (London: Bettenham, 1718) 44–53Google Scholar , esp. 51.
16 This was the name given to the continuing Usager body after the reunion of the greater part of it with the main (Nonusager) Nonjuring communion in 1732. See Broxap, Henry, A Biography of Thomas Deacon: The Manchester Non-Juror (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1911) 89–101Google Scholar.
17 See, for example, Deacon to Pierce, 4 May 1750. Chetham's Library, Manchester (Mun. A6. 71). Transcription of a letter in the Scottish Episcopal Church Library, Edinburgh.
18 See, for example, Law's declaration of faith (Appeal to All That Doubt, 279), in which he declared a desire to be found acceptable to God, as if he “had been a faithful member of the one whole Church before it was broken into separate Parts.”
19 Ibid., 275.
20 , Brett, Tradition Necessary, 58.Google Scholar
2 l[Nathaniel Spinckes], No Sufficient Reason for Restoring the Prayers and Directions of King Edward the Sixth's First Liturgy (2 vols.; London: Morphew and Bettenham, 1718) 1. 103–4Google Scholar.
22 [Jeremy Collier], A Vindication of “Reasons” and “Defence,” etc. (2 vols.; London: Bettenham, 1718-1719) 1. 35–37Google Scholar.
23 Campbell, Archibald, Doctrines of the Middle State between Death and the Resurrection (London: Tayler, 1721) 243.Google Scholar
24 Brett, Thomas, A Farther Proof of the Necessity of Tradition, to Explain and Interpret the Holy Scriptures (London: Bettenham, 1720) xixGoogle Scholar (emphasis mine).
25 Leslie, Charles, The Theological Works of the Reverend Mr. Charles Leslie (2 vols.; London: Bowyer, 1721) 1. 175-89 and 193Google Scholar , esp. 187.
26 Champion, Justin A.I., The Pillars of Priestcraft Shaken: The Church of England and Its Enemies 1660-1730 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) 10.Google Scholar
27 Law, William, Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor (London: Innys, 1753) 3.Google Scholar
28 Hobhouse, Stephen, “Fides et Ratio: The Book Which Introduced Jacob Boehme to William Law,” JTS 37 (1936) 350–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29 , Weeks, German Mysticism, esp. 10–13.Google Scholar
30 , Walker, William Law, 108–9.Google Scholar
31 Law, William, The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration, or, the New-Birth: Offered to the Consideration of Christians and Deists (2d. ed.; London: Bradford, 1742).Google Scholar
32 , Overton, William Law, 291–92.Google Scholar
33 Spencer, Sidney, ed., The Spirit of Prayer and the Spirit of Love by William Law (Cambridge: 1969) 67–68.Google Scholar
34 Ibid., 82.
35 Robert Pattison sees John Henry Newman's true historical significance to lie in the profundity of his reactionary criticism of modernity. See his The Great Dissent: John Henry Newman and the Liberal Heresy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991)Google Scholar.
36 Wormhoudt, Arthur L., “William Law and Jacob Boehme” (Ph.D. thesis, State University of Iowa, 1948) 75–102.Google Scholar
37 , Overton, William Law, 314–18.Google Scholar
38 There is no doubt that Hopkinson is making reference to this when he speaks of the later Law's “dogmatism.” See , Hopkinson, About William Law, 14Google Scholar.
39 , Hobhouse, Law and Quakerism, 257.Google Scholar
40 Goldie, Mark, “The Theory of Religious Intolerance in Restoration England,” in Grell, Ole Peter, Israel, Johnathan and Tyacke, Nicholas, eds., From Persecution to Toleration: The Glorious Revolution and Religion in England (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991) 331–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41 , Law, Three Letters, 4.Google Scholar
42 Ibid., 17-19.
43 , Pattison (Great Dissent, 118)Google Scholar conceives the notion to be fundamental to Newman's rejection of distinctively modern patterns of thought. See note 35 above.
44 Leighton, Cadoc Douglas Auld, Catholicism in a Protestant Kingdom: A Study of the Irish Ancien Régime (London: MacMillian, 1994) 95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45 , Stanwood, William Law: Serious Call, 51.Google Scholar
46 , Wormhoudt, “William Law and Jacob Boehme,” 22.Google Scholar
47 Law, William, The Way to Divine Knowledge: Being Several Dialogues between Humanus, Academicus, Rusticus, and Theophilus. As Preparatory to a New Edition of the Works ofJacob Behmen; and the Right Use of Them (London: Innys and Richardson, 1752) 18–27.Google Scholar
48 Copenhaver, Brian P., “Astrology and Magic,” in Schmitt, Charles B. et al., eds., The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) 264–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49 Marenbon, John, Later Medieval Philosophy (1150-1350) (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1991) 146–47.Google Scholar
50 Papadakis, Aristeides and Meyendorff, John, The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy: The Church 1071-1453 A. D. (Crestwood: St. Vladimir's Press, 1994) 293–306.Google Scholar For fuller treatment, see Meyendorff, Jean, Introduction à l'étude de Grégoire Palamas (Paris: Seuil, 1959)Google Scholar.
51 Martensen, Hans L., Jacob Boehme …: Studies in his Life and Teaching (2d. ed.; London: Rockliff, 1949) 131–33.Google Scholar
52 , Law, Way to Divine Knowledge, 12–14Google Scholar , 24 and 28.
53 Ibid., 3.
54 , Law, Appeal to All That Doubt, 66.Google Scholar
55 Redwood, John, Reason, Ridicule and Religion: The Age of Enlightenment in England (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976) 9–13, esp. 11.Google Scholar
56 Colligan's, J. Hay work (The Arian Movement in England [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1913])Google Scholar is of value only to furnish the names of important authors and their tracts. A brief account of the content of the Arian controversy of the period can be found inHoltby, Robert T., Daniel Waterland 1683-1740: A Study in Eighteenth-Century Orthodoxy (Carlisle: Thurnam, 1966) 12–49.Google Scholar For the significance of the debate see Clark, Johnathan C. D., English Society 1688-1832: Ideology, Social Structure and Political Practice during the Ancien Regime (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) 277–348.Google Scholar
57 Kroll, Richard, Ashcraft, Richard, and Zagorin, Perez, eds., Philosophy, Science and Religion in England 1640-1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) 19–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
58 Law, William, A Demonstation of the Gross and Fundamental Errors of a Late Book, Called ‘A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,’ etc. (London: Innys, 1737) 4–5Google Scholar (emphasis mine).
59 Ibid., 8-11.
60 Ibid., 44.
61 Whitney, Charles, Francis Bacon and Modernity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986) 70–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
62 Vickers, Brian, “Analogy versus Identity: The Rejection of Occult Symbolism, 1580-1680,” in Vickers, Brian, ed., Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984) 95–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
63 Nicholls, David, God and Government in an “Age of Reason” (London: Routledge, 1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
64 Brown, David, “Butler and Deism,” in Cunliffe, Christopher, ed., Joseph Butler's Moral and Religious Thought: Tercentenary Essays (Oxford: Clarendon, 1992) 7–28.Google Scholar
65 Nockles, Peter Benedict (The Oxford Movement in Context: Anglican High Churchmanship 1760-1857 [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994] 13–14)CrossRefGoogle Scholar gives a useful listing of the important Hutchinsonians. For an understanding of their system see, in addition to those mentioned below, the following articles: Cantor, G. N., “Revelation and the Cyclical Cosmos of John Hutchinson,” in Jordanova, L. J. and Porter, Roy S., eds., Images of the Earth: Essays in the History of the Environmental Sciences (Chalfont St. Giles: British Society for the History of Science, 1979) 3–22Google Scholar ; Kuhn, A. J., “Glory or Gravity: Hutchinson vs. Newton,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 22 (1961) 303–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
66 Mildert, William Van, An Historical View of the Rise and Progress of Infidelity: … in a series of sermons preachedfor the lecture founded by … Robert Boyle … (4th ed.; 2 vols.; London: Rivington, 1831).Google Scholar For some comments on this, see Varley, Elizabeth A., The Last of the Prince Bishops: William Van Mildert and the High Church Movement of the Early Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) 39–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
67 White, G., “Hutchinsonianism in Eighteenth-Century Scotland,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society 21 (1982) 157–69Google Scholar ; Hornberger, Theodore, “Samuel Johnson of Yale and King's College: A Note on the Relation of Science and Religion in Provincial America,” New England Quarterly 8 (1935) 378–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Carroll, Peter N., The Other Samuel Johnson: A Psychohistory of Early New England (Rutherford, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1978) 199Google Scholar.
68 One of Hutchinsonianism's most readable expositors was Duncan Forbes of Culloden, the Lord President of the Court of Session. See Some Thoughts concerning Religion, Natural and Revealed (London: Woodfall, 1735).Google Scholar There were other enthusiasts in the Kirk.
69 Brown, “Butler and Deism,” 8.
70 Quoted in Penelhum, Terence, Butler (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985) 93.Google Scholar
71 Wilde, C. B., “Hutchinsonianism, Natural Philosophy and Religious Controversy in Eighteenth Century Britain,” History of Science 18 (1980) 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar , esp. 4.
72 , Law, Appeal to All That Doubt, 66.Google Scholar
73 , Spencer, Spirit of Prayer, 68.Google Scholar
74 , Law, Way to Divine Knowledge, 34.Google Scholar
75 , Law, Appeal to All That Doubt, 68.Google Scholar
76 Ibid., 63 and 65.
77 , Wilde, “Hutchinsonianism,” 5 and 10.Google Scholar
78 , Law, Appeal to All That Doubt, 63–64.Google Scholar
79 Ibid., 30-33.
80 Ia m not, of course, disputing that Roman Catholic thinkers on the European mainland did attempt to assimilate Enlightenment thought. A good example appears in O'Connor, Thomas, An Irish Theologian in Enlightenment France: Luke Joseph Hooke 1714-96 (Blackrock, Ireland: Four Courts Press, 1995).Google Scholar It may well be disputed, however, whether such assimilation could ever have been successful. In any case, such efforts were largely confined to a period after Law's.
81 Gascoigne, John, Cambridge in the Age of the Enlightenment: Science, Religion and Politics from the Restoration to the French Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
82 Fitzpatrick, Martin, “Latitudinarianism at the Parting of the Ways: A Suggestion,” in Walsh, John, Haydon, Colin, and Taylor, Stephen, eds., The Church of England c. 1689-1833: From Toleration to Tractarianism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 209–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 2
- Cited by