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An Humble Affectionate And Earnest Address To The Clergy

An Humble Affectionate And Earnest Address To The Clergy

By William Law

Title Page
Address 1: The reason of my humbly and affectionately addressing this discourse to the clergy
Address 2: If it be asked, What this one thing is? It is the SPIRIT OF GOD
Address 3: Everything else, be it what it will, however glorious and divine in outward appearance
Address 4: All scripture bears full witness to this truth, and the end and design of all
Address 5: The grounds and reasons of which are as follow.
Address 6: All possible goodness that either can be named, or is nameless
Address 7: All that can be called goodness, holiness, divine tempers
Address 8: God could not make the creature to be great and glorious in itself
Address 9: But now, if all that is divine, great, glorious
Address 10: The matter therefore plainly comes to this, nothing can do
Address 11: Now the reason why no work of religion, but that which is begun
Address 12: All TRUE religion is, or brings forth, an essential union and communion of the spirit
Address 13: Now as no animal could begin to respire, or unite with the breath of this
Address 14: Take away inspiration, or suppose it to cease, and then no religious acts or affections
Address 15: A religious faith that is uninspired, a hope, or love that proceeds not from the
Address 16: A religion that is not wholly built upon this supernatural ground
Address 17: No man therefore can reach God with his love
Address 18: Divine inspiration was essential to man's first created state.
Address 19: Hence it plainly appears that the gospel state could not be God's last dispensation
Address 20: Now from these words let this conclusion be here drawn
Address 21: Now as infinitely absurd as this conclusion is, no one that condemns continual immediate inspiration
Address 22: Behold a pride, and a humility, the one as good as the other
Address 23: The necessity of a continual inspiration of the Spirit of God
Address 24: Now when Christ had told them of the necessity of an higher state than that
Address 25: Here are two most important and fundamental truths fully demonstrated
Address 26: Secondly, that as the apostles could not, so no man
Address 27: For why could not the apostles, who had been eye witnesses to all the whole
Address 28: But if the belief of the necessity and certainty of immediate continual divine inspiration
Address 29: Now this middle way has neither scripture nor sense in it
Address 30: And here lies the TRUE unchangeable distinction between God
Address 31: This must be the case of all fallen Christendom
Address 32: But to return now to the doctrine of continual inspiration.
Address 33: And what is well to be noted, everyone, however high in human literature
Address 34: Our divine master compares the religion of the learned Pharisees |to whited sepulchers
Address 35: Now whence was it, that a religion, so serious in its restraints
Address 36: And yet, sad and satanical as this self is
Address 37: But to all this it must yet be added
Address 38: Let then the writers against continual immediate divine inspiration take this for a certain truth
Address 39: Hence it is, that grieving, quenching, or resisting the Spirit
Address 40: |When I am lifted up from the earth,| says Christ
Address 41: Now that which we are here taught, is the whole end of all scripture
Address 42: |Ye are not in the flesh,| says the apostle
Address 43: |Lo, I am always with you,| says the holy Jesus
Address 44: Again, Christ, after his glorification in heaven, says, |Behold I STAND at the DOOR and
Address 45: Now the matter is not at all about the different effects or works proceeding from
Address 46: It is to no purpose to object to all this
Address 47: But as I do not begin to doubt about the necessity
Address 48: Another charge upon me, equally false, and I may say
Address 49: I have elsewhere shown the gross darkness and ignorance which govern that which is called
Address 50: And here truth obliges me to say, that scholastic divinity is in as great ignorance
Address 51: Now hard as this may seem to unregenerate nature
Address 52: |Except ye be converted, and become as little children
Address 53: Now whether this self broken off from God, reasons
Address 54: Hence also it is, that Christendom, full of the nicest decisions about faith
Address 55: A scholar, pitying the blindness and folly of those who live to themselves in the
Address 56: But that I may fully show the perverseness of my accusers
Address 57: |You shall see reason possessed of all that belongs to it.
Address 58: |Man, considered as a member of this world, who is to have his share of
Address 59: |Now besides these organs of sense, he has a power or faculty of reasoning upon
Address 60: |Now how is it, that the good things of this world are communicated to man?
Address 61: |Now here, you must degrade reason just as much as it is degraded by religion
Address 62: |Now it is only thus helpless and useless in religion
Address 63: |For the good of religion is like the good of food and drink to the
Address 64: |But as soon as it is known and confessed
Address 65: Hence may be seen the great and like blindness both of infidels and Christians
Address 66: Our Lord says, |It is expedient for you that I go away
Address 67: Christ says further: |I have many things to say unto you
Address 68: Christ also says, |If any man loves me, my Father will love him
Address 69: Christ from heaven says, |Behold I stand at the door
Address 70: |Rabbi,| says Nicodemus to Christ, |we know that thou art a teacher come from God.
Address 71: It would be great folly and perverseness, to charge me here with slighting
Address 72: I exceedingly love, and highly reverence the divine authority of the sacred writings of the
Address 73: But now, if this is not thought that fullness of regard that is due to
Address 74: I shall now only add this friendly hint to the doctor
Address 75: Now if the doctor did that, though it was only from humility
Address 76: Let it be supposed, that our Lord was to come again for a while in
Address 77: Let the doctor figure to himself the gaudy pageantry of a divine high mass in
Address 78: O vainest of all vain projects! For what is Christianity
Address 79: I come now to the quotation from the pastoral letter of Mr.
Address 80: I cannot more illustrate the sense, or extol the judgment
Address 81: |A judicious naturalist observes, that sound and strong lungs are that on which
Address 82: These two instances are proof enough, that as soon as any man trusts to natural
Address 83: Whence is it, that we see genius and natural abilities to be equally pleased with
Address 84: The other instance of delusion from book learning, relates to Mr.
Address 85: |The things of God,| says St.
Address 86: The reports that are to be acknowledged as TRUE concerning the Holy Spirit and his
Address 87: |I am the way, the truth, and the life
Address 88: Here again may be seen, in the highest degree of certainty
Address 89: Take away this power and working life of the Spirit from being the one life
Address 90: How much then is it to be lamented, as well as impossible to be denied
Address 91: How is it that the logical, critical, learned Deist comes by his infidelity? Why just
Address 92: Through all scripture nothing else is aimed at or intended for man
Address 93: But this truth being lost or given up, vain learning and a worldly spirit
Address 94: Hence it is, that the scripture-scholar is looked upon as having divine knowledge of its
Address 95: Now to call such scripture skill divine knowledge, is just as solid and judicious
Address 96: That one light and Spirit, which was only one from all eternity
Address 97: |Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Address 98: For where can God's kingdom be come, but where every other power but his is
Address 99: What now have parts, and literature, and the natural abilities of man
Address 100: Now let this simple question decide the whole matter here
Address 101: Look now at the present state of Christendom, glorying in the light of Greek and
Address 102: In the first gospel church, heathen light had no other name than heathen darkness
Address 103: The simplicity indeed, both of the gospel letter and doctrine
Address 104: But now, what follows from this new risen light? Why
Address 105: And indeed, if we consider the nature of our salvation
Address 106: His intellectual faculties are, by the fall, in a much worse state than his natural
Address 107: Who then can enough wonder at that bulk of libraries
Address 108: What a grossness of ignorance, both of man and his savior
Address 109: This will be more or less the case with all the salvation- doctrines of Christ
Address 110: How came the learned heathens by their pride and vanity
Address 111: Self is the root, the tree, and the branches of all the evils of our
Address 112: All the vices of fallen angels and men have their birth and power in the
Address 113: What is then, or in what lies the great struggle for eternal life? It all
Address 114: And here it is to be observed, that every son of Adam is in the
Address 115: The enemies to man's rising out of the fall of Adam
Address 116: There has been much sharp looking out, to see where and what anti-Christ is
Address 117: But to know with certainty, where and what anti-Christ is
Address 118: What therefore has everyone so much to fear, to renounce and abhor
Address 119: This is that full-born natural self, that must be pulled out of the heart
Address 120: Now what is it in the human soul that most of all hinders the death
Address 121: Let then the high accomplished scholar reflect, that he comes by his wit
Address 122: The finest intellectual power, and that which has the best help in it towards bringing
Address 123: Yet so it is, in this fallen state of the gospel church
Address 124: However, to make way for parts, criticism, and language- learning
Address 125: The first and main doctrine of Christ and his apostles was
Address 126: This was the kingdom of God come to them
Address 127: No higher, or other thing is here said, than in these other words
Address 128: But now, is not this kingdom gone away from us
Address 129: What is the difference between man's own righteousness and man's own light in religion? They
Address 130: But lamentable as this is, the letter of scripture has been so long the usurped
Address 131: The TRUE nature, and full distinction between literal and divine knowledge
Address 132: Now clear and evident as this distinction is, between a mere literal direction to a
Address 133: Thus, as soon as a man of speculation can demonstrate that
Address 134: Again, another, forming an opinion of faith from the letter of scripture
Address 135: How trifling therefore to say no worse of it is that learning
Address 136: When the holy church of Christ, the kingdom of God came among men
Address 137: Hence it is, that from a religion of heavenly love
Address 138: It may perhaps be here said, Must there then be no learning or scholarship
Address 139: To this the first answer is, Happy, thrice happy are they
Address 140: Secondly, with regard to the demand of learned knowledge in the Christian church
Address 141: There is no knowledge in heaven, but what proceeds from this birth of love
Address 142: Let this be my excuse to the learned world
Address 143: One of Christ's followers said, |Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father|
Address 144: The holy Jesus said, |I am the light of the world
Address 145: But to see the exceeding folly of expecting ability in divine knowledge
Address 146: For what is, or can be the fall of a divine Adam under the power
Address 147: But if fire and Spirit from heaven can alone make heavenly creatures
Address 148: Behold then your state, ye ministers, that wait at Christian altars
Address 149: Complain then no more of atheists, infidels, and such like open enemies to the gospel
Address 150: Our Lord has said, |The kingdom of God is within you
Address 151: Say now, out of reverence to sound literature, and abhorrence of enthusiasm
Address 152: What a sobriety of faith and sound doctrine is it
Address 153: What wonder, if sacraments, church-prayers, and preachings, leave high and low
Address 154: That the Jewish and Christian church stand at this day in the same kind of
Address 155: But is it not as easy to see, that the whole Christian church are in
Address 156: God said to Moses, |Put off thy shoes, for the place whereon thou standest is
Address 157: But here lies the great mistake, or rather idolatrous abuse of all God's outward dispensations.
Address 158: Need it now be asked, whether the TRUE Christ of the gospel be less blasphemed
Address 159: Christian doctors reproach the old learned rabbis, for their vain faith
Address 160: But nevertheless, in these condemners of rabbinic blindness, St.
Address 161: But now corruption, sin, death, and every evil of the world
Address 162: Let then the eager searcher into words for wisdom
Address 163: Now strange as all this may seem to the labor-learned possessor of far-fetched book- riches
Address 164: Show me a man whose heart has no desire
Address 165: On the other hand, show me a scholar as full of learning
Address 166: Again, all learned Christendom agrees in the same charge against temporal power in the church
Address 167: And first, can it be said that Mammmon is less served by Christians
Address 168: Look at things spiritual, and things temporal, and say if you can
Address 169: Again, secondly, |Ye have heard,| says our Lord, |that it hath been said by them
Address 170: |He that despiseth me,| says Christ, |despiseth not me
Address 171: If the swearing law was to order, that instead of kissing the gospel-book
Address 172: If it here be asked, whether I would have all private Christians to beggar themselves
Address 173: What I write, is not to show that Christendom's oaths
Address 174: When the matter of an oath is a manifest lie
Address 175: When a person swears of his own accord, or wantonly
Address 176: But here let it be well observed, that nothing that has here been said
Address 177: In a word, that which calls for, and requires oaths among Christians
Address 178: But to proceed now to a third and last instance
Address 179: In the darkest ages of Romish superstition, a martial spirit of zeal and glory for
Address 180: The light which broke out at the reformation, abhorred the bloody superstitious zeal of these
Address 181: Now who can help seeing, that satan, the prince of the powers of darkness
Address 182: Now fancy to yourself Christ, the Lamb of God
Address 183: But if this be too blasphemous an absurdity to be supposed
Address 184: Blinded Protestants think they have the glory of slaughtering blind papists
Address 185: When a Most Christian Majesty, with his catholic church
Address 186: A glorious Alexander in the heathen world is a shame and reproach to the human
Address 187: Can the duelist, who had rather sheathe his sword in the bowels of his brother
Address 188: Now imagine the duelist fasting and confessing his sins to God today
Address 189: What blindness can well be greater, than to think that a Christian kingdom
Address 190: Look at that which the private Christian is to do to his neighbor
Address 191: Love, goodness, and communication of good, is the immutable glory and perfection of the divine
Address 192: And if long and long ages of fiery pain
Address 193: O poor sinner, whoever thou art, repent and turn to God
Address 194: To prevent all this, and make thee a child of the first resurrection
Address 195: Now from this view of God's infinite love and mercy in Christ Jesus
Address 196: The temporal miseries and wrongs which war carries along with it
Address 197: But there is still an evil of war much greater
Address 198: That God's providence over his fallen creatures is nothing else but a providence of love
Address 199: Among unfallen creatures in heaven, God's Name and nature is LOVE
Address 200: Sing, O ye heavens, and shout all ye lower parts of the earth
Address 201: Look now at warring Christendom, what smallest drop of pity towards sinners is to be
Address 202: Here my pen trembles in my hand; but when
Address 203: For the GLORY OF HIS MAJESTY'S ARMS, said once a Most Christian king
Address 204: Again, would you further see the fall of the universal church
Address 205: Here now, let the wisdom of this world be as wise as ever it will
Address 206: |Demas,| says St. Paul, |hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Address 207: This wisdom has asked me, how it is possible for Christian kingdoms in the neighborhood
Address 208: This question is so far from needing to be answered by me
Address 209: But to know whether Christianity wants, or admits of war
Address 210: Now what follows from this going up of the nations to the mountain of the
Address 211: Would you see when and where the kingdoms of this fallen world are become a
Address 212: See here a kingdom of God on the earth
Address 213: As to the present fallen state of universal Christendom
Address 214: But the Christendom which I mean, that neither wants
Address 215: In these last ages of fallen Christendom, many reformations have taken place
Address 216: The wisdom of this world, with its worldly spirit
Address 217: This wisdom was the great evil root, at which the reforming ax should have been
Address 218: St. Paul speaks of a natural man, that cannot know the things of God
Address 219: This is the great anti-Christ, which is neither better nor worse
Address 220: If therefore you take anything to be church- reformation
Address 221: On this ground it is, that the apostle said
Address 222: Many are the marks, which the learned have given us of the TRUE church
Address 223: The scripture knows no Christians but saints, who in all things act as becometh saints.
Address 224: The same which Paul says, is said by Christ in other words
Address 225: The pleader for imperfection further supports himself by saying
Address 226: But surely he that is left under a necessity of sinning as long as he
Address 227: Of Christ it only can be said, that he is in himself the TRUE vine
Address 228: The sober divine, who abhors the pride of enthusiasts
Address 229: Our Lord has said this absolute truth, that unless we be born again from above
Address 230: Whence now comes all this folly of doctrines? It is because the church is no
Address 231: See how St. Paul sets forth the salvation
Address 232: What now is become of this TRUE church, or where must the man go
Address 233: Look at all that is outward, and all that you then see
Address 234: But truth, to the eternal praise and glory of God
Address 235: That this new birth of the Spirit, or the divine life in man

An Humble Affectionate And Earnest Address To The Clergy

By William Law

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