conceptions were involved. William
Law, the Nonjuror, was thoroughly fascinated by them, and their
influence upon him forms an episode of considerable interest in the
religious history of the period.

Yet if it had been only as the translator and exponent of 'the Teutonic
theosophy' that William Law had become prominent, and incurred on every
side the hackneyed charge of 'enthusiasm,' this excellent man might have
claimed but a passing notice. His theological position in the eighteenth
century is rendered chiefly remarkable by the power he showed (in his
time singularly exceptional) of harmonising the ideas of mediaeval
mysticism with some of the most characteristic features of modern
religious thought. A man of deep and somewhat ascetic piety, and gifted
with much originality and with a cultured and progressive mind, he had
many readers and a few earnest and admiring adherents, yet was never
greatly in sympathy with the age in which he lived. Three or four
generations earlier, or three or four generations later, he would have
found much more that was congenial to one or another side of his
intellectual temperament. At the accession of George I. in 1716 he
declined to take the oaths, and resigned his fellowship at Cambridge,
although, like others among the moderate Nonjurors, he remained to the
last constant to the communion of the National Church.[522] In 1726 he
wrote the 'Serious Call,' one of the most remarkable devotional books
that have ever been published. Dr. Johnson, upon whom it made a profound
and lasting impression, describes it as 'the finest piece of hortatory
theology in any language.'[523] Gibbon, in whose father's house Law
lived for some time as tutor and chaplain, says of it that 'if it found
a spark of piety in the reader's mind it would soon kindle it to a
flame.'[524] Southey remarks of it that 'few books have made so many
religious enthusiasts.' The reading of it formed one of the first epochs
in Wesley's religious life. It did much towards forming the character of
the elder Venn. It was mainly instrumental in effecting the conversion
from profligacy to piety of the once famous Psalmanazar.[525] Effects
scarcely less striking are recorded in 1771 to have resulted upon its
copious distribution among the inhabitants of a whole parish.[526] And
lastly it may be added that Bishop Horne made himself thoroughly
familiar with a kindred work by the same author--on 'Christian
Perfection'--and was wont to e