Letter II.

Madam,

I proceed upon this supposition, that schism and corruption, speculative and practical errors, are more or less the common charge and guilt of all the divided parts of Christendom: and I only consider, how a person, who has no way been the cause of the beginning or continuance of this corrupt schismatical state of the Church, nor has any power of altering it, is to behave in such a state; and how he may escape the guilt of the schism and corruption, and live in truth, and love, and unity, a true member of the One Holy Catholic Church, in the midst of such external confusion and disorder. Here I have frankly and sincerely laid open to you the state of my own mind; and shown you every principle of my own particular conduct, and, as far as the compass of such a letter would permit, the reasons on which it is founded.

This, Madam, is the plain state of my own heart, and the foundation of my own peace and conduct, in the midst of this external division and disorder in the Church of God: I pray to God, in the name of Christ, united in heart and spirit with His Whole Church in Heaven and on Earth; and, therefore, I trust, that the schism, which reigns and runs through the whole Church, no more affects me than any other public or national guilt, in which I am neither an actor or an abettor. I hope, therefore, I may safely recommend it to your practice, to continue a member of one particular part of the Church, upon these principles of union and communion with the whole; to love the Church of Rome or Greece with the same affection, and with the same sense of Christian fellowship, as you love the Church of England; and to consider yourself, not as an external member of one in order to renounce communion with the other, but as necessarily forced into one externally divided part, because there is no part free from external division. And if there should be any mistake or weakness of judgment in this conduct, yet this I think may be said for it, that it seems to have so much foundation in humility, meekness, and Christian charity, and is at the same time so much the support of all those virtues in our hearts; that I think you cannot well be in a better state, either to have your error entirely pardoned, or your understanding better directed by God himself.

The apostle says, "His commandments are not grievous;" but does he by this mean, that, therefore, he is no longer "crucified 'to the world, and the world crucified to him'? The short of the matter is this: man fallen from innocence and perfection, can only turn to God as a penitent: he is, therefore, as such, turned out of Paradise, a place of heavenly enjoyment, into a world cursed for his sake, full of cross, and trouble, and burthen, and vanity, that he may there have continual occasion to exercise all the humble tempers of a pious penitence, and meet with every trial that may best purify and prepare his soul for its return to God. And when one considers how poorly and vainly human philosophy has, in all ages, talked about God, and religion; and, on the other hand, what a depth of wisdom and treasure of knowledge is discovered to us in the Scriptures, without any help from human parts, or human learning; it is easy to see from whence our light and knowledge in religion is to be expected, and who are the best qualified to partake of it.

If we look into history, we can hardly find any churchman remarkable for an uncommon extent of human learning, without having troubled the world with some inventions of his own, some fancied improvements upon the Common Christianity. The great Origen was one of the first instances of this kind; he was celebrated as the oracle of learning, as a possessor of all the sciences; along with this, he was of a very pious and mortified life, and full of contempt of the world: but, for my own part, I should have left his conversation, his deep discoveries, and allegorical explanations of Scripture, to have spent my time and learned religion with a poor mechanic that I have somewhere read of, whose heart and life was governed by this spirit: 'I am nothing, I have nothing, I am worth nothing: I desire nothing, but to love, adore, praise and obey God, in everything, and for everything.'

Were the world to see this remark upon learning, they would in all probability impute it to my want of learning; and though they would be very right in judging my pretensions to learning not to be great, yet it would be unjust to think me an entire stranger to the nature of it. But I profess to you, that whatever parts or learning I am possessed of, I think it as necessary to live under a continual apprehension of their being a snare and temptation to me, as of any worldly distinctions, whether of riches or dignity, that I should be possessed of: and I desire no other improvement of science or knowledge, nor to see into any depths, but such as penitence, humility, faith, hope, charity, the pure love of God, and an absolute resignation to his Providence, shall discover to me. These virtues fill the mind with more light and knowledge of God, than all the libraries of human learning in the world; and are a much shorter and surer way to the possession and enjoyment of Divine Truth, than that of turning over the endless volumes of the learned. They are the keys of Divine Knowledge, and afford an easy entrance to those that keep them: they make us friends of God; and, as such, always in a state of finding his certain care and guidance of us: they are, as it were, so many inward eyes of the soul, always receiving a sufficiency of light from God: and we never are at loss or perplexity, but when some of these Divine Virtues are either too imperfectly practised, or wholly neglected by us. I take the matter to be just thus with relation to the discourses about the restoration of all things, amp;c., they are about something that we have not the least knowledge of, nor any faculties or foundation for such knowledge: we have nothing certain or plain within ourselves about it, and so have nothing to oppose to any thing that is told us; we are, therefore, easily taken by every writer, that has parts and abilities to form an agreeable scheme of it.

Again, there is another thing which prepares our minds for a reception of such discourses. The irrecoverable state of men, or angels, is a dreadful thought to us; our sense of misery, tenderness, and compassion for our fellow-creatures, makes us wish that no creatures might fall into it; and we are unable to show how such a state should result from the Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Perfection of God; and so we are mightily prepared to think every scheme to be rational and well grounded, that puts an end to such a state. But then we must consider, that we are here governed by our passions and weakness, and only form a God according to our own conceptions: we must consider, that the Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Perfection of God, is the fathomless object of our faith and adoration, and not of our comprehension; and to pretend to know what God must do, by virtue of such attributes, in the vast compass of futurity, with regard to his fallen creatures, is as absurd, as to pretend to be infinitely wise ourselves. For as God is so, for this only reason, because he knows what Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Perfection, require of him; so if we knew that, we should be in the same state of perfection.

The inability to account for the present disordered state of the creation, has made many philosophers turn atheists, and deny an Allwise and Good Providence: but these poor men are self-condemned, and fall into the greatest of all absurdities, only to avoid a difficulty that has no absurdity in it. They deny a Providence of an Infinitely Perfect Being, because they cannot account for such a Providence in the present state of things: and yet, if there was such a Providence, it could not be what it is supposed to be, unless it was infinitely above their comprehension: this is their great self-condemnation and absurdity. Again, they reject a First and Governing Cause of Infinite Wisdom, and Goodness, because they see so much evil and disorder in the world. But why do they conclude thus? It is from their own sense of wisdom and goodness: they feel such a goodness and benevolence in themselves, that they would not permit what they see permitted in the present state of things; and, therefore, they conclude, that such a state cannot come from, or be under the direction of a Cause of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness. But here they are again in a state of self-condemnation, and taken in the greatest of absurdities: for if they feel wisdom and goodness in themselves, whence have they them? As their existence is an infallible proof, that something did always exist; as everything finite is a proof of something infinite in the same kind; so their own wisdom and goodness is as plain and infallible a proof that the cause from whence they proceed, and under which they subsist, is Infinitely Wise and Good. So that for a being to argue from his own wisdom and goodness that the first Cause is destitute of both, has all the absurdity in it, as if he should conclude from his own power and life, that the First Cause from which he proceeds, and under which he subsists, is destitute of power and life. These absurdities must be embraced by those, who are too reasonable to adore an Infinitely Wise and Incomprehensible Providence. Deep and long thinking upon the Providence of God has an appearance of a very pious exercise; and a zeal to set it in some new light, or confute adversaries in some better way than common texts of Scripture, has often betrayed well-meaning men into measures prejudicial to religion; and that which they intended as a support to religion, has helped the adversary to oppose it with a greater show of argument. I am not against our using all the arguments that reason and learning can furnish us with, in defence of religion; but I think we are much mistaken, when we place our chief strength there, and conclude that Christianity must prosper, or infidelity decline, accordingly as all objections and difficulties are more or less cleared up and solved. For as religion never entered into the fallen world that way, by condescending to explain all the difficulties, or answer the objections that ignorance, malice, self-love, pride, curiosity, wit, or worldly learning, could bring against it; as no Revelation from God ever dealt in this manner, with this kind of adversaries; so it is against reason to think, that it must now, or at any other time, be supported in that manner. For these tempers have no right or claim to be answered or satisfied in their own way; as they are only so many disorders or corruptions of the soul, so they are to have no relief from religion, but that of dying before it.

To give pride, self-love, or curiosity, the resolutions they require, would be keeping up the disorder of fallen spirits, which, as such, can only be saved by a religion that calls them to self-renunciation, to penitence, humility, faith, and absolute resignation to God. If speculative instructions, and resolutions of doubts, had been the right way of delivering man from the corruption and disorders of his nature; if nice and determinate decisions of the difficulties and depths of Providence, had been a proper requisite for entering into the Spirit of Christianity; can it be thought that our Blessed Lord would have said, 'Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God'? But if an infant simplicity, if self-renunciation, if humility of heart, and a total resignation of ourselves to the Wisdom and Goodness of God, be proper and necessary dispositions of the soul that is to be saved through Christ; it cannot well be thought that Christianity is then best defended, or the hearts of people best assisted for the reception of it, or adherence to it, when speculative decisions of its matters of faith are most studied and appealed to. If all who wish well to Christianity, and are desirous to stop the growth of infidelity, would oppose it with their lives, and produce the practice of true Christian virtues in defence of religion; infidelity would sink into the utmost shame and confusion, and Christianity would be more than mathematically demonstrated to common-sense. But the misfortune is, that, in every attack, we think there is something wanted in point of argument, and so are racking our thoughts for something new in the way of reasoning; whereas the enemy is in his state of strength, and we in our state of weakness, because we are doing nothing but argue, and are contending for a dead Christianity: did we but begin its defence, by entering upon new lives, the old arguments would be sufficient.

You ask,

"When discoveries of this kind are thrown into our way, is it matter of strict duty to reject, instead of giving them entertainment, and not rather be grateful for them? And if we may not give them the credit of Divine Revelation, yet may we not entertain such things as probabilities, as a harmless entertainment of one's busy thoughts, as things that may innocently be believed or rejected?"

I do not deny that there are such things. But if I knew of anybody that wanted them, or sought for relief in them, I should caution him against them; for such entertainment of our busy thoughts, is often as dangerous as the entertainment of our restless passions; because the activity and curiosity of our minds is not a little prejudicial to true devotion and piety of heart. If it could be supposed, that these probabilities would be always considered as we at first received them, there would be very little to be said for them; for why should our mind, which should be always in a state of reverence and adoration of Divine Truths, and feeding itself with solid enjoyment and satisfaction in them, seek for religious amusement in groundless imaginations? for supposing (what is here supposed) that they may be as innocently denied as believed, they can only be groundless imaginations. But when we consider the weakness of our minds, how easily they are affected with what they admit, and how soon that which was thought of only as an amusement or bare probability, is changed into a solid truth or fundamental point, we shall find that such entertainment is a dangerous indulgence of our thoughts. The matter you here propose, seems to be taking this very turn upon your own mind: you propose it as an innocent probability, or speculative amusement of one's busy thoughts; yet, a few lines after, you say, 'This does not, therefore, seem to be a matter of mere speculation, but of great use and benefit:' and perhaps a little longer dwelling upon it, would make you take it for a fundamental point, and that Christianity could not be received without it; and so the entertainment of busy thoughts would drive you upon a rock. Humility, faith, and a total resignation of ourselves to the fathomless depths of the Divine Providence, are our only guard against this danger. As the fall of our first parents, though in innocence, seems to be owing to the desire of a knowledge not suitable to their state; so we sin in the same temper, when our curiosity searches for higher knowledge than that which is revealed to us. It is an excellent saying of the son of Sirach, 'Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee; neither search the things that are above thy strength; but what is commanded thee, think thereupon with reverence. For it is not needful for thee to see with thine eyes the things that are in secret. Many are deceived by their own vain opinion, and an evil suspicion hath overthrown their judgment,' chap. iii.

I hope I shall not offend you by observing of your great and good father, whose memory I esteem and reverence, that his chief foible seems to have lain in a temper too speculative; and perhaps, you may have some reason to resist and guard against it, as a temper to which you have a natural inclination. But be that as it will, thus much I think I may assure you of, that however such curiosity might be innocently indulged, yet, if upon a principle of humility, faith, and resignation to God, you deny it, you will be a much greater gainer by the exercise of these virtues in such an instance of self-denial, than you could possibly be, by any knowledge such curiosity would lead you into. You may perhaps think, that I have too often recourse to these virtues, and seek for too much support from them: but, Madam, they are the highest virtues of the most enlightened souls; and as they lead the mind farthest into the truest deepest knowledge of the mysteries of God, so the best knowledge of the mysteries of God gives the greatest height and strength to these virtues. And when a Christian is at the height of all the perfection which the Spirit and the Grace of the Gospel leads to, though he has been with St. Paul in the third heavens, he will then be, more than ever, all humility, all faith, and all resignation to God; and will find all language too weak, to express that fulness and extent in which he desires to practise these virtues. As to the matter proposed, it cannot well be looked upon as a harmless probability; because the tenor of Scripture, both as obvious to common-sense, and as interpreted by the constant general belief of the church, is contrary to it; and, therefore, till it shall please God to give some new revelation of this matter, and show its consistency with the Divine Revelation already made, there seems to be no room for an innocent reception of it. As to the relief which is sought for in such discoveries, humility, faith, and resignation, make it needless, and give the mind a comfort and rest in God, which cannot be equalled by any such speculative light. For my own part, this one saying, 'Shall not the judge of all the world do right?' is more to me, is a stronger support to my mind, and a better guard against all anxiety, than the deepest discoveries that the most speculative inquisitive minds could help me to. With this one assurance of the infinitely infinite Goodness of God, I resign up myself, my friends, relations, men, and angels, to the adorable and yet incomprehensible disposal of His Wisdom; content and happy with this thought, that myself and all creatures will not only be treated with a goodness and benevolence like mine, but with a goodness so exceedingly superior to it, as no thought can comprehend or language describe.

I do not intend to lessen that tenderness of affection for your brother, which both nature and piety direct us to bear towards our nearest relations: but it must be considered, that there is hardly anything, though ever so good in itself, but may and will become a snare and temptation to us, unless conducted by the principles of piety, and by some higher light than that of nature. The Jews were under the same obligations, both from nature and piety, to love their relations, as we are; but the law of God stood thus with them: 'If thy brother the son of thy mother, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods; thou shall not consent unto him, neither 'shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare him, neither shalt thou conceal him. Thine hand shall be the first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people; and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die,' Deut. xiii. 6, amp;c. Now if the Jew had been too full of tenderness for his nearest relation, to comply with this law of God, then that affection, which is so just and pious under certain limits, had become a snare and temptation to him, and made him prefer the love of an idolatrous fellow-creature, to the love and honour and glory of his infinitely adorable Creator: he had then been in the state of those, of whom our Saviour saith, 'He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.' It is matter of duty to love all people as ourselves, to show the same affection and good wishes towards them, that you do towards your brother; and if we want that fulness of affection for them which we show to our relations, it is owing to the infirmity of our nature, and to some degrees of that self-love which unites us most strongly to those whom we consider as parts of ourselves. When the people said unto our blessed Lord, 'Thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee;' he looked upon them that sat round him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 'for whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, my sister, and mother,' Mark iii. Now our blessed Lord is, in this, as strictly to be considered as our example, as when he says, 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart;' and that spirit by which he was governed, with regard to the relations of flesh and blood, and those which became his kindred by their love and obedience to God, is to be the spirit of those who desire to 'walk as he walked.' And, indeed, the thing considered in itself, without the authority of this infallible example, is highly agreeable and obvious to common reason: for if our relation to God, be our greatest and most important relation; if it is such a relation, as justly demands all the love, honour, and adoration, that our whole heart and mind and spirit is able to offer; must not all those creatures be justly considered as nearest and dearest to us, who are most full of love and duty, honour and adoration, of this our common Sovereign Lord and Father? And if nothing but this can be right in heaven, how can anything contrary to this be right on earth? The apostle saith, 'None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: for to this end Christ both died and rose again, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the living and the dead,' Rom. xiv. But now, Madam, if neither you nor I are to be considered as our own, that are to act for ourselves, or to live to

ourselves, but as creatures that are wholly devoted to the love, and honour, and glory of God; much less are we to live so to any of our fellow-creatures; or become so much theirs, that we cannot find our peace in God, any satisfaction in his Goodness, or continue our love and service to him, unless such relations or friends join with us. As all our virtues are nothing worth, but as they are acts of love, obedience, and conformity to the Will of God; so our love to our relations is no virtue of any worth, but as it is under the direction of the same pious spirit. As God is not the object of our love and adoration because we have such relations, but because he is what he is, the sole adorable Lord of all beings; and as he is equally adorable by us, notwithstanding there are wicked angels and wicked men in the world; so he is not less the object of our love and adoration, because some that are nearly related to us join with those that have wickedly departed from their love and obedience to him. It is a happiness of constitution to have our nature assist us in those affections, which we owe to our fellow-creatures and relations; and this seems to be the happiness of your constitution, which gives great strength to this kind of affections. But then this happiness of constitution has, like other things that are natural to us, the weakness of our nature; and so easily becomes a rock of danger to us, unless we give up ourselves to the directions and assistances of Grace. If you ask Grace and Religion, why you should be more affected with the state of a person that is born of the same parents with you, than with the state of another that has only the same first parents with you, it will not be easy to find an answer. You will there see, that the reasons of flesh and blood, and the principles of kindred, plead as justly for an equal compassion and concern for all that have the same nature, and the same first parents with you, as for those that are related to you by your last parents. And though natural instinct, increased by the familiarity of domestic friendships, fixes our strongest affections on those that received their first breath and nourishment where we received ours; and though this instinct, thus formed and strengthened, has many good ends in this state of human life, as helping us to that assistance from our relations which we stand in need of; yet when we examine things to the bottom, and look into the reasons of kindred affections by the light of Grace and Piety, we shall find, that all mankind, as creatures of the same nature, and as children of the same first parents, are, upon the principles of flesh and blood, and kindred affections, all justly entitled to the same affection and compassion from us. And it is on this ground, that the Scripture calls us to an universal charity; to consider, not our nearest relations, but all mankind, as 'our brethren, whom we are to 'love as ourselves.' But when we take a step further, and consider mankind in a still higher and better view, not as of the same nature, and descended all from one and the same parent, but as creatures made in the Image of God, as the offspring of the Deity, who are blessed with a nature that represents, and with faculties to love, adore, and rejoice in, the infinite riches and perfections of this adorable Creator and Father of all beings and all worlds; then we shall find, that our love to the creatures, whether born with us or before us, whether above us or below us, whether in heaven or in earth, must be more or less in proportion as God has more or less of theirs. For as, in this consideration of God and the creatures, God is All in All, the beginning and the end, the measure and motive of every duty that can be rendered to him; as we are to consider ourselves, as so many beings issued from him, living in and by his Spirit, in union with the Holy Trinity, members of a holy society of which God is the life, the light, the happiness and perfection; so here, we are to have no will but in the Will of God, no desire but in conformity and union with his Desire, nor any love but what flows from his Love and is the effect of it. This state of holy union and society with God, is thus prayed for in those mysterious words of our blessed Lord, 'That they all may be one, 'as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they also may 'be one in us, I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be 'made perfect in one.' It was a sense of this high spiritual union with God in Christ, that made the apostle say, 'Henceforth know we no man after the flesh.' Not as if those, who were thus full of 'a life hid with Christ in God,' had lost all affection and concern for their fellow-creatures, or relations in the flesh; on the contrary, they are fuller of this affection and love than ever: but it is, because they now begin to love with a better spirit, and with a better light, as Christ himself loved mankind; they now act upon a new principle, as servants of God, who do nothing but upon a principle of love and obedience to him, to whom all actions of the spiritual rational world are to be wholly directed. They love all, because all are in the Image of God their Father and Creator: they forget the distinctions of friends and enemies, strangers and domestics, relations and countrymen; and as they love all in God and for God, so they love none more or less, but as the pure and perfect Love of God requires it of them. Now, as true Love, enlightened and governed by Grace and the Spirit of God, loves all things and persons in God, and for God, and God more than all things; so it allows of no love, but that which is in some degree an effect

or exercise of the Love of God; and so is always ready to submit to that which cannot be disapproved, without disapproving something that God either does or permits. A Christian full of this Spirit of Love, if he had as many lives as he has brethren in the world, would freely lay them down for the salvation of his brethren: but as it is an inexpressible height of the Love of God, and not any instinct of nature or human love, that would make him be thus a sacrifice; so the same height of the Love of God keeps him from the least thought of renouncing God, because the salvation of mankind does not proceed according to his wishes. The more he sees the increase of that part of his brethren and fellow-creatures, that by sin and ingratitude depart from God, and enter themselves amongst those that rebel against him; the more he is inflamed with a love and desire of living in a more exemplary manner, and higher degree, to the glory and honour of God.

This, Madam, is the spirit and temper you are to have recourse to; and I make no doubt, but the piety of your heart, and those degrees of holiness to which you have already attained, will by the Grace of God enable you to find your peace and rest in it. How little is it you owe to your brother, or even to your parents, in comparison of that which you owe to God! so much good as you have in them, is only so much received from God through their hands: there being nothing to give you any affection for any creature, but as it has so much of the Goodness of God in it: it can be nothing in itself, nor anything to you, but as it has so much good derived from God. How unreasonable is it, therefore, to let the love of any creature, or our concern for it, stop the current of our heart and affections to our Infinitely Lovely and Adorable Creator! since we can have no reason for loving any creature, but because it represents so much of our Creator; nor any foundation for delighting in it, but for something of God that we see in it, or receive from God by it. So that, whilst there is anything lovely or the least desirable in any creature, we can never want a reason or motive to believe God to be the only object of our love and adoration; and that all other things are only to be loved in him, and for him, and as related to him. Were you of the same nature and the same birth with some fallen Cherubim, how unreasonable would it be, to let your love for a fallen brother, though of so high a nature, withdraw your zeal, and devotion, and obedience, from God? For look at the height of their nature, and it is only a faint image of something infinitely more high in God; look at all that is near and dear in such a relation, and it is but a poor shadow of that infinitely nearer and dearer relation between God and you, in whom you live, and move, and have your being.' And if it was hard to nature, to lay aside the love of so high a brother; must it not be much harder to nature, to lay aside the love of so much higher a Father and Creator? Never, therefore, fancy, that infidelity or distraction must be your lot, whatever you should live to see, though it should be the departure of all your friends from a belief in God: but reject every such thought with as much abhorrence, as you would the worst actions. If it comes upon you unawares, despise and stifle it; and look upon it only as a vain threat from him, who has no power over you, whilst you seek to God for protection; and let it have no other effect upon you, but that of exciting you to more frequent acts of faith and trust in and resignation to God. When, therefore, difficult questions or objections about the Providence of God, are either suggested to you by the activity of your own mind, or from other people; you must look upon it to be as right and just to silence and confute such suggestions by humility, faith, and resignation to God, as it is right to throw water upon a fire that ought to be quenched, or to use any medicine proper to any distemper. And as this is our strength, so it is always at hand, and nothing can take it from us. Every disorder, calamity, or temptation of life, whether within or without us, only helps us to so many occasions of being more eminent in these virtues, and of finding our relief and strength in them. It is always in your power, to express to God your want of these virtues, and your earnest desire to practise them in the most perfect manner, and to find your strength and protection in them; and so long as you do so, you will put yourself into a condition to say, with the apostle, When I am weak, then am I strong.'

I am,
Madam,
Your sincere friend,
WILLIAM LAW.