LAW, WILLIAM (1686-1761), English divine, was born at King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire. In 1705 he entered as a sizar at Emmanuel college, Cambridge; in 1711 he was elected fellow of his college and was ordained. He resided at Cambridge, teach ing and taking occasional duty until the accession of George I., when his conscience forbade him to take the oaths of allegiance to the new government and of abjuration of the Stuarts. His Jacobitism had already been betrayed in a tripos speech (1713) which led to his being suspended from his degrees; and he was now deprived of his fellowship and became a non-juror. For the next few years he is said to have been a curate in London. By 1727 he was domiciled with Edward Gibbon (1666-1736) at Putney as tutor to his son Edward, father of the historian, who says that Law became "the much honoured friend and spiritual director of the whole family." In the same year he accompanied his pupil to Cambridge, and resided with him for the next four years. His pupil then went abroad, but Law was left at Putney, where he remained in Gibbon's house for more than ten years, acting as a religious guide not only to the family but to a number of earnest-minded folk. The most eminent of these were the two brothers John and Charles Wesley, John Byrom the poet, George Cheyne the physician and Archibald Hutcheson, M.P. for Hast ings. The household was dispersed in 1737. Law was parted from his friends, and in 174o retired to King's Cliffe, where he had inherited from his father a small property.
Law's writings fall under three heads Controversy.— In this field he had no contemporary peer save perhaps Richard Bentley. The first of his controversial works was Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor (1717), a most powerful contri bution to the Bangorian controversy (see HOADLY, BENJAMIN) on the high church side. In his Remarks on Mandeville's Fable of the Bees (1723), Law vindicates morality on the highest grounds ; for pure style, caustic wit and lucid argument this work is remarkable; it was enthusiastically praised by John Sterling, and republished by F. D. Maurice. Law's Case of Reason (1732),
in answer to Tindal's Christianity as old as the Creation is to a great extent an anticipation of Bishop Butler's famous argument in the Analogy. In this work Law shows himself at least the equal of the ablest champion of Deism.
2. Practical Divinity.—The Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), together with its predecessor, A Treatise of Chris tian Perfection (1726), deeply influenced the chief actors in the great Evangelical revival. The Wesleys, George Whitefield, Henry Venn, Thomas Scott and Thomas Adam all express their obliga tion to the author. Samuel Johnson, Gibbon, Lord Lyttelton and Bishop Horne all spoke enthusiastically of its merits; and it is still the only work by which its author is popularly known. It has high merits of style, being lucid and pointed to a degree. His tract The Absolute Unlawfulness of Stage Entertainments (1726) provoked some effective criticism from John Dennis in The Stage Def ended.
3. Mysticism.—Though the least popular, by far the most inter esting and original of Law's works are those which he wrote in his later years, after he had become an enthusiastic admirer (not a disciple) of Jacob Boehme (q.v.). These mystical works include A Demonstration of the Gross and Fundamental Errors of a late Book called a "Plain Account, Etc., of the Lord's Supper" ( I 737) The Spirit of Prayer (I749, 1752); The Way to Divine Knowledge (1752); The Spirit of Love (1752,1i54); a Dialogue between a Methodist and a Churchman (176o) ; and An Humble, Earnest and Affectionate Address to the Clergy (1761).
See the edition of his Works by G. H. Morgan ( i892-93). See C. Walton, Notes and Materials for a Complete Biography of W. Law (1848) ; Sir Leslie Stephen, English Thought in the 28th century (1876) ; W. H. Lecky, History of England in the 18th Century (1878 foll.) ; C. J. Abbey, The English Church in the 18th Century; J. H. Overton, William Law, Nonjuror and Mystic (1880 ; A. Whyte, Character and Characteristics of William Law, Nonjuror and Mystic (2893 ; a selection with introd. by Whyte).