William Law

Paper Summary:

William Law was one of the non-jurors, English and Scottish clergymen who refused to break their oath of allegiance to James II and take the oath to William III after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Though he was influenced by many mystics, from the pseudo-Dionysius in the fifth century to Madame Guyon in the seventeenth, beginning in the 1730s Law became increasingly enraptured by the mystic, Jacob Boehme (1575-1624). Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Henry Venn, William Wilberforce each described reading the book as a major turning-point in his life and Law's influence has continued down through the ages including his popularity with Evangelicals and Charismatics in the current age.

From the Paper:

"William Law was born in 1686, the son of a grocer and died in1761. Not much is known of his early life but even at the age of about eighteen whilst attending Cambridge he showed a very determined approach to life, making a list of rules for his self-conduct. The rules revolved around doing Gods' will and not wasting one second of precious time in any unfruitful activity. Perhaps the last rule sums their tenor up: "To spend some time in giving an account of the day" how have I spent the day? what sin have I committed? What temptations have I withstood? Have I performed all my duties?"

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