Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

fessed in his youth: and when head of a college, he still found leisure to study and also to teach, both by word of mouth and through the press.

Law's acquaintance, during his first residence at Cambridge, was principally with Jortin, Waterland and John Taylor (Paley).

Jortin thought the question of an intermediate state of no importance; ... for himself he differed from Law, whom he had found in this and many other controverted points, invincibly attached to his own opinions' (Nichols Lit. Anecd. II. 728).

For many years Law maintained a philosophical correspondence with David Hartley (ibid. 69).

Jer. Markland had a high regard for him, and accepted pecuniary aid from him in 1766, at the same time that he refused a liberal offer of abp. Secker's (ibid. IV. 290).

Other friends were Dan. Watson, who was also intimate with Warburton, Sterne and lord Lyttleton, and was honoured by the patronage of Butler (ibid. VIII. 343); Dr. Tho. Edwards of Clare, translator of the Psalms, editor of Theocritus, author of a dissertation On the absurdity and injustice of religious bigotry and persecution. 1767 8vo. 'Their sentiments were congenial, and their pursuits similar, being principally devoted to the prosecution and promotion of Sacred Literature' (ibid. IX. 515); Dr Disney, his chaplain and biographer, to whom we are indebted for memoirs of A. A. Sykes, Jo. Jebb, Jo. Jortin, T. B. Hollis etc. (Nichols Lit. Illustr. vI. 481; Ann. Biogr. 1818, 50); Jo. Jones of Welwyn, a diligent collector of anecdotes of bp. Law amongst others, and zealous opponent of subscription, whom Law introduced to Fras. Blackburne (Nichols Lit. Anecd. 1. 591, 594, 628, 630; II. 70; III. 15); Jo. Jefferson, for whom he procured a fellowship at Peterhouse (Lit. Illustr. V. 238); his relation Jos. Robertson (Lit. Anecd. III. 501).

Fras. Blackburne, author of The Confessional, writes to Warburton 26 Feb. 1751: 'Dr Law I have personally known as one of the kindest of friends and honestest of men for 30 years,' their intimacy having begun when they were undergraduates (Life xxii, xxiii).

To Blackburne Law wrote in Aug. 1750, wishing him joy of his appointment to the archdeaconry of Cleveland, as it will give him frequent opportunity of indoctrinating his brethren in those parts, and may add somewhat to his authority in promoting the good work of Reformation in which he is so happily engaged' (ibid. 16; Blackburne's Life xii). Blackburne defended, against P. S. Goddard and others, Law's opinions on the state of the soul between death and the resurrection, and published in 1765 a Historical View of the controversy. Sam. Clarke's reasoning, in his introduction to The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, a MS. half sheet of Law's, and the liberal concession in Art. VI. of the Church of England, induced Blackburne to qualify himself by subscription to hold his archdeaconry and the prebend of Bilton (Nichols ibid. 17; Life xxviii, xxxi).

When, in 1756, Jo. Towne of Clare hall in his Free and Candid Examination of the principles advanced in [Bp. Sherlock's] ... Sermons

lately published, assailed Law for reviving 'the old exploded hypothesis of the sleep of the soul,' Blackburne defended his friend in Remarks on Dr Warburton's Account of the Sentiments of the early Jews concerning the Soul [Works 11. 261].

Warburton seems to have been long jealous. He writes 10 Apr. 5 1742: The provocation Law has given is intolerable. I saw it but by accident' (Nichols Lit. Anecd. 11. 153). Again 22 Sept. 1751: 'Our friend Browne [Jo. B. of St John's] is now on a visit.. at Mr Geo. Lyttelton's... Dr Law takes this opportunity to visit his friend the bp. of Litchfield. Which will prove the better Patron, the 10 Layman or the Archpriest, for an even wager? And you shall choose your side. I think they might as well have gone to Hell (I mean the Classical Hell) to consult Tiresias in the ways of thriving. God help them! for they are a couple of helpless creatures in the ways of this world! and nothing to bear their charges but a little honesty' 15 (ibid. 71). Again Apr. 1753: 'Your reflexions on poor Law please me for your own sake... But what are fifty years to a man whose studies have never been occupied upon man; the only study from whence true wisdom is to be got! For,

Whether in Metaphysics at a loss,

Or wandering in a wilderness of moss,

20

'tis pretty much the same for all improvements in life. Hence, in his speculations, this poor man has been hurried from extreme to extreme. One while persecuting Dr Middleton, at another time writing Theses ten times more licentious and paradoxical than the Doctor's.- 25 And now at fifty! what a miserable thing, to have his head turned about a mastership: of which, by the way, he is not half so fit as Sancho Panza was for his government' (ibid.). Again 30 June 1753: 'Our friend, little Brown, seems to have been much pleased with the observation I communicated to him about poor Law's folly' (ibid. 212). 30

Blackburne shared Law's opinion respecting an intermediate state, and wrote, but did not at once publish, a reply (1) to Queries to the Rev. Dr. Law, relative to what he . . advanced on the soul of man and a separate state, by Dr. Thos. Morton rect. of Bassingham, 1757; (2) to Jo. Steffe's Five Letters 1757, and Two Letters, 1758; (3) to the 35 Socinian minister Caleb Fleming (Life xxix-xxxi).

The Confessional 'lay by him [Blackburne] in manuscript for some years. He had communicated his plan to Dr. Edmund Law, who encouraged him greatly in the progress of it, and appears by many letters in the course of their correspondence to have been extremely impatient 40 to have it published' (ibid. xxxii). 'Dr. Law was the only person who knew of The Confessional for some years, and indeed actually suggested the title of it while the work was yet in embryo, at least ten or eleven years before its publication' (ibid. lxxxviii). He spoke of the published book in a high strain of panegyric (ibid. xxxiv). When 45 Blackburne's Proposals for an Application to Parliament, for relief in the matter of Subscription, were circulated, a friend wrote to him 16 May 1771: 'I gave him [Law] the Proposals; we read them as we walked from the manner of his reading I soon was able to divine

5

ΙΟ

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

his sentiments. In short he immediately and most cordially wished us success... I observed that his Lordship was not made privy to it, in order that he might better answer any questions from Lambeth or elsewhere. He answered, that if such questions were put to him, he should tell them, he approved the scheme, and should think hardly of those who endeavoured to obstruct it; that he would upon every occasion support it though single, that he should gladly attend the Parliament next winter, and that he now had a new reason to rejoice in being made bishop' (ibid. xl, xli).

When Peckard, afterwards master of Magd. coll., was compelled by abp. Secker, as a condition of receiving a dispensation as a pluralist, to subscribe certain articles and to promise to abstain from writing on the intermediate state, Law wrote to Blackburne 'Peter Peckard has escaped out of Lollard's Tower with the loss of his tail' (ibid. xliii, xciv-cvii).

The origin of Warburton's attack on Law in the Divine Legation, ed. 1765, is shewn at length ibid. xliv-xlvi, cviii-cxviii. In 1746 Warburton wrote to Law: 'The hint you are so good as to give me of the natural mortality of the human mind pleases me extremely, as I find my notions confirmed by one for whose judgement I have the highest regard.' Warburton afterwards denied the existence of such a letter, and when supplied with a copy, in 1751, explained it away. 'I took my [D.D.] degree in 1749,' says Law, 'when he (Dr. W.) changed sides.' Law's thesis, which gave great offence, was to the

effect: Non datur status medius inter mortem et resurrectionem.' On Sept. 1765 Law writes to Blackburne respecting 'the very extraor dinary author of that most empirical piece of incoherence, stiled the Divine Legation.'

'As he is always very nimble at calling names, he compliments the scripture doctrine of man's mortality with the title of Sadducean Sophistry, stiling those who hold it, in his random way of ribaldry, Semipagan, because it is the very reverse of what used to be held in pagan systems, and middle-men, because they do not hold a middle state.' See Blackburne's Review of some passages in the last edition of the Divine Legation, with a defence of the Remarks against the objec tions of Caleb Fleming (Works 11.).

With Law Blackburne rejected 'Dr. Clarke's theory of the eternal relations and fitnesses of things, and along with that his demonstration a priori of the moral attributes of God' (Life lxxvi). He early adopted the opinions on the term soul, and the state of death described in Scripture, which Law propounded in the appendix to his Considerations on the theory of religion (ibid. lxxvii).

His Historical view of the controversy concerning an intermediate state, one of the few monographs on the history of doctrine which our litera ture can boast (Works III.), is still of interest.

A letter from Law to Blackburne, 4 Mar. 1775, shews that several bishops at that time were willing to consider proposals for widening the terms of communion (ibid. xc):

Bp. Lowth 'inquired whether your Charges were published. That

question I could not resolve, but offered to lend him them when they were returned from Ely, where they were last, and are now, with a worthy liberal layman, Dr. Heberden, who does more service to the cause than all our bench, though some have offered to confer with me very freely upon such subjects.' 5 In the latter part of their lives, a coolness existed between Law and Blackburne (Meadley's Life of Paley, ed. 2, 357).

Benj. Dawson, a leading opponent of subscription, appended to his Moyer lectures 1765 Two tracts relative to an intermediate state, in which he upholds Law's opinions (Nichols Lit. Illustr. VI. 861, 862).

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Law's exercise for the D.D. degree, 1749, was more of a bona fide vindication of unpopular opinions which he honestly held, than was usual even then, when our higher degrees had not yet lost their value. He maintained the sleep of the soul (Paley). Quaestiones die Martis Jan. 31 [174], discutiendae, sic se habent.—Status animarum in inter- 15 vallo mortis atque resurrectionis agentium aliquid vel sentientium neque ex sacris literis nec ratione colligi potest.-Religio Christiana non minus est credibilis ex eo quod omnibus non innotescit.'

It is instructive to compare his treatment with that of Paley, Whiston, and J. H. Newman.

20

John Jones writes, 2 Febr. 1748, in Nichols Lit. Anecd. 1. 594: Let me tell you as a friend and under the rose, that some of the old Dons at Cambridge were much displeased with his Theses; . . and one of the Heads actually refused to sign his paper of recommendation for his degree.' Jones was himself present (ibid. II. 69, 70): 'Dr. [Tho.] 25 Parne, the Moderator pro tempore, was his opponent, who (I believe) was foiled...One great Doctor (Head of a great College) refused to sign his testimonial, saying he did not like either his person or his doctrine; yet afterwards was reconciled, when Law became head of St Peter's college, and made him frequent visits.' Yes, said Law, we begin now, 30 though contrary to my expectation, and without my seeking, to be pretty thick. [Mark the early use of the word in this sense]. A certain great Author, who did not at all know him, nor his character, said that he must be a wicked man for proposing such an opinion....Abp. Potter disliked his doctrine about inspiration and reproved him. War- 35 burton told him, he disparaged the Church, by which he got his bread. Abp. Herring on hearing of his Thesis, . . said to him, I neither justify nor condemn you. If your doctrine be right, I am no loser; if wrong, I am but as I was.... When, in going his rounds to the Heads of Houses, presently after his keeping this act, he came to Dr. [Edm.] 40 Castle,...he said to him in his blunt and honest manner, I know that this is reckoned a Socinian tenet; but I believe you deserve the degree, and will readily sign your testimonial.'

John Jones published in 1749 Free and Candid Disquisitions relating to the Church of England, containing suggestions for a revision of the 45 prayerbook, which were approved by Law and roused an eager controversy for a time (ibid. 1. 593, III. 15).

He describes Law as a gentleman of excellent parts, extensive learning, great integrity, and of a most sweet, benevolent and Christian

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

disposition; very modest, free and open in conversation, devoid of ceremony.' What follows could even then be said of very few heads of colleges: 'On Sundays, in the afternoon, he instructed the young men of his College, designed for orders, in the original language, sense and design, of the New Testament, and of the Old in the Hebrew' (ibid. II. 69, 70).

On 10 Nov. 1773, Jo. Jebb, the reformer of Cambridge education, wrote (Disney's Memoirs of Jebb, 56): the bishop of Carlisle preached a noble sermon on November the 5th, in which he shewed, that the spirit of popery was not peculiar to popish countries; that spiritual tyranny consisted in imposing other articles, as terms of communion, than what Christ had given; that religious liberty was too valuable a right to be complimented away; and that every effort to oppress conscience should be opposed. In short, no petitioner would have wished him to say more.' When on the 23 Nov. Jo. Wilgress, proctor, 'attacked the latitudinarians, and maintained that the liberty of private opinions rent the church,' he was scraped and hissed (ibid. 57).

Gilb. Wakefield (Life, ed. 2, 1. 93, 94) was one of the offending gallery;' and also heard Law's sermon, who 'acquitted himself with an elocution, audible, animated and distinct, beyond the exertions of most young men ; and displayed, with the utmost clearness and conviction, the imperfections of our first reformers, and of their reformation.'

Law acted with his son John Law, Jebb, Paley, and the other promoters of annual examinations in 1774 (Meadley, ed. 2, 95). On 28 Oct. 1774 he was in the minority in favour of subjecting noblemen and fellow commoners to examination (Disney's Memoirs of Jebb, 79).

When an address in favour of the American war was carried 24 Nov. 1775 after opposition in both houses (Cooper's Ann. IV. 380, 381), Law and others 'opposed it so much, that it was carried by a small majority, and was so whittled down, that the king could not be pleased' (Hor. Walpole Last Journ. 1. 525).

On 15 Jan. 1783 Mi. Lort writes (Nichols Lit. Illustr. VII. 443): the Bishop of Carlisle made me a morning visit lately, and appeared to be in very good health and spirits.'

On 2 Febr. 1787 bp. White writes (Memoirs of the Prot. Episc. Church of America 156): 'the very aged bishop of Carlisle, in whom we saw the wreck of one of the first scholars of the age.'

On 9 April 1787 Mi. Lort writes (Nichols ibid. 482): Carlisle does not go to the House, but he is just recovered from an illness that Dr. Heberden declared he never knew any person to get over.'

His eldest son, John, bp. successively of Clonfert, Killala and Elphin (Cotton's Fasti iv. v.). When Tancred student of Christ's, he wrote an English copy of verses in the Cambridge Gratulatio on occasion of the peace of Fontainebleau, sign. Aa 2 (see Cooper's Ann. IV. 327). In 1766 he was senior medallist and second wrangler. He and Paley by their diligence and ability as tutors procured for their college a great reputation; Paley has recorded their friendship in the dedication of Horae Paulinae (see the interesting account of their reforms in Mead

« PreviousContinue »