light as heaven from earth,’[539] and wholly useless to one who would ’be well qualified to write notes upon the spirit and meaning of the words of Christ;’[540] it is impossible not to feel that he is approaching very closely to the morbid pietism of the recluse.  His was indeed no mere contemplative asceticism, but fruitful in practical virtues; and even its weaker points stand out in noble contrast with the deficiencies of an age which admired prudential religion, and took in good earnest the words of the Preacher as to being righteous overmuch.[541] But his writings would probably have had greater and wider influence if his piety had been less austere, and his ideal of life more comprehensive.

Yet, on the whole, William Law’s mysticism had a most elevating effect on his theology, and has done much toward raising him to the very foremost rank of eighteenth-century divines.  It broadened and deepened his views, so that from being only a luminary of the estimable but somewhat narrow section of the Nonjurors, he became a writer to whom some of the most distinguished leaders of modern religious thought have thankfully acknowledged their obligations.  He learnt to combine with earnest piety and strong convictions an unreserved sympathy, as far as possible removed from the sectarianism of religious parties, with all that is good and Christlike wherever it might be found, wherever the Light that lighteth every man shines from its inward temple.  He would like no truth, he said, the less because Ignatius Loyola or John Bunyan or George Fox were very zealous for it;[542] and while he chose to live and die in outward communion with the Church of England,[543] he desired to ’unite and join in heart and spirit with all that is Christian, holy, good, and acceptable to God in all other Churches.’[544] He deplored the ’partial selfish orthodoxy which cannot bear to hear or own that the spirit and blessing of God are so visible in a Church from which it is divided.’[545] He grieved that ’even the most worthy and pious among the clergy of the Established Church are afraid to assert the sufficiency of the Divine Light, because the Quakers who have broken off from the Church have made this doctrine their corner-stone.’[546] Of Romanism he remarked that ’the more we believe or know of the corruptions and hindrances of true piety in the Church of Rome, the more we should rejoice to hear that in every age so many eminent spirits, great saints, have appeared in it, whom we should thankfully behold as so many great lights hung out by God to show the true way to heaven.’[547]

Nor would he by any means limit the operations of true redeeming grace to the bounds of Christendom.  Ever impressed with the sense that ’there is in all men, wherever dispersed over the earth, a divine, immortal, never-ending Spirit,’[548] and that by this Spirit of God in man all are equally His children, and that as Adam is spoken of as first father of all, so the second Adam is the regenerator of all,[549]