Inspirational Quotes by William Law
“that I planted that little tender elm which you there see. I myself am not half the age of this shady oak under which we sit. Many of our fathers have sat under its boughs; we have all called it ours in our turn, though it stands and drops its masters as it drops its leaves. Look at this wide and large firmament over our heads, where the sun and moon and all the stars appear in their turns. If you were to be carried up to any of these bodies at this vast distance from us, you would still discover others as much above you as the stars that you see here are above the earth. If you were to go up or down, east or west, north or south, you would find the same height without any top, and the same depth without any bottom.”
“was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom Job blessed and praised in the greatest afflictions, who delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Egyptians, who was the Protector of righteous Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and holy Daniel, who sent so many prophets into the world, and who sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind. It is this God who has done all these great things, who has created so many millions of people who lived and died before you were born, with whom the spirits of good men who are departed from this life now live, whom infinite numbers of angels now worship in heaven. This great God is the Creator of worlds, of angels, and of mankind. He is your loving Father and Friend, your good Creator and Nourisher, from whom, and not from me, you received your being ten years ago, at the time”
“Observe, farther, how the same doctrine is taught by St. Peter: "As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." [1 Pet. i. 15]”
“And yet, my child, God is so great, that all these bodies added together are but as a grain of sand in His sight. This great God and Father of all worlds and all spirits cares as much about you as if He had no son but you, or there was no creature for Him to love and protect but you alone. He numbers the hairs of your head, watches over you while you are sleeping and awake, and has preserved you from a thousand dangers, which neither you nor I know anything about. You have often see how poor my power is and how little I am able to do for you. Your recent sickness has shown you how little I could do for you in that condition, and the frequent pains of your head are plain proofs that I have no power to remove them. I can bring you food and medicine, but I have no power to turn them into your relief and”
“- For God can have no Delight or Union with any Creature but because his well-beloved Son, the express Image of his Person, is found in it.”
“If, therefore, God be our greatest good; if there can be no good but in His favour, nor any evil but in departing from Him, then it is plain, that he who judges it the best thing he can do to please God to the utmost of his power, who worships and adores Him with all his heart and soul, who would rather have a pious mind than all the dignities and honours in the world, shows himself to be in the highest state of human wisdom.”
“Christ is the breathing forth of the heart, life and spirit of God into all the dead race of Adam. He is the seeker, the finder, the restorer of all that, from Cain to the end of time, was lost and dead to the life of God. He is the love that prays for all its murderers; the love that willingly suffers and dies among thieves, that thieves may have a life with him in Paradise; the love that visits publicans, harlots and sinners, and wants and seeks to forgive where most is to be forgiven.”
“God is unwearied Patience, a Meekness that cannot be provoked; he is an ever-enduring Mercifulness; he is unmixed Goodness, impartial, universal Love; his Delight is in the Communication of himself, his own Happiness, to every thing, according to its Capacity. He does every thing that is good, righteous and lovely, for its own sake, because it is good, righteous, and lovely. He is the Good from which nothing but Good cometh, and resisteth all Evil, only with Goodness.”
“He that rightly understands the reasonableness and excellency of charity will know that it can never be excusable to waste any of our money in pride and folly.”
“know, would be ready to break with grief if you thought this was the last day that I would be with you. But, my child, though you now think yourself mighty happy because you have hold of my hand, you are now in the hands and under the tender care of a much greater Father and Friend than I am, whose love to you is far greater than mine, and from whom you receive such blessings as no human being can give. This is the God whom you have seen me daily worship, whom I daily call upon to bless both you and me, and all mankind, whose wondrous acts are recorded in those Scriptures which you constantly read. This is that God who created the heavens and the earth, who brought a flood upon the whole world, who saved Noah in the ark, who”
“Whatever littleness and vanity is to be observed in the minds of women, it is, like the cruelty of butchers, a temper that is wrought into them by that life which they are taught and accustomed to lead.”
topics: Character
“Redemption, this alone delivers from the Guilt and Power of Sin, this alone redeems, renews, and regains the first Life of God in the Soul of Man. Every Thing besides this, is Self, is Fiction, is Propriety, is own Will, and however coloured, is only thy old Man, with all his Deeds. Enter therefore with all thy Heart into this Truth, let thy Eye be always upon it, do every Thing in View of it, try every Thing by the Truth of it, love Nothing but for the Sake of it.”
“Whenever a man allows himself to have anxieties, fears, or complaints, he must consider his behaviour as either a denial of the wisdom of God or as a confession that he is out of his will.”
topics: Anxiety
“From Morning to Night keep Jesus in thy Heart, long for Nothing, desire Nothing, hope for Nothing, but to have all this within Thee changed into the Spirit and Temper of the Holy Jesus. Let this be thy Christianity, thy Church, and thy Religion.”
“This Truth, therefore, that the Kingdom of God is within us, that its light is solely the Lamb of God, its Spirit solely the Spirit of God, stands upon a Rock, against which all Attempts are in vain.”
“Nourish it with good works, give it peace in solitude, get it strength in prayer, make it wise with reading, enlighten it by meditation, make it tender with love, sweeten it with humility, humble it with penance, enliven it with psalms and hymns, and comfort it with frequent reflections upon future glory.”
“Is not a spiritual and devout life here made the common condition on which all men are to become sons of God?”
“Jeremiah lived about three hundred years ago. He had only one son, whom he educated himself in his own house. As they were sitting together in the garden when the child was ten years old, Jeremiah began talking to him. He said: The little time that you have been in the world, my child, you have spent entirely with me. My love and tenderness to you has made you look upon me as your only friend and benefactor, and the cause of all the comfort and pleasure that you enjoy. Your heart,”
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William Law was an English cleric and theological writer. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was elected a fellow in 1711, the year of his ordination. He declined to take the oath of loyalty to King George I, in 1714, and was deprived of his fellowship. He became the tutor of Edward Gibbon, father of the famous historian. Later he returned to his birthplace of King's Cliffe where he lived the rest of his life, though he was known throughout England for his speaking and writing.
His writing of A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), together with its predecessor, A Practical Treatise Upon Christian Perfection (1726), deeply influenced the chief actors in the great Evangelical revival.
John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Henry Venn, Thomas Scott, and Thomas Adam all express their deep obligation to the author. The Serious Call also affected others deeply.
William Law, born inKing's Cliffe, England, in 1686, became a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1711, but in 1714, at the death of Queen Anne, he became a non-Juror: that is to say, he found himself unable to take the required oath of allegiance to the Hanoverian dynasty (who had replaced the Stuart dynasty) as the lawful rulers of the United Kingdom, and was accordingly ineligible to serve as a university teacher or parish minister.
He became for ten years a private tutor in the family of the historian, Edward Gibbon (who, despite his generally cynical attitude toward all things Christian, invariably wrote of Law with respect and admiration), and then retired to his native King's Cliffe. Forbidden the use of the pulpit and the lecture-hall, he preached through his books. These include - Christian Perfection, the Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration, Spirit of Prayer, the Way to Divine Knowledge, Spirit of Love, and, best-known of all, A Serious Call To a Devout and Holy Life, published in 1728.
Law's most influential work is A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, written in 1728. In this book, he extols the virtue of living a life totally devoted to the glory of God. Although he is considered a high-churchman, his writing influenced many evangelicals, including George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, Henry Venn, Thomas Scott, Henry Martyn, and others such as Samuel Johnson. In addition to his writing, Law spent the final years of his life founding schools and almshouses, and in other practical ministries.
William Law died in 1761 just a few days after his last book, An Affectionate Address to the Clergy, went to the printers.