On A Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life

I had heard that this book was a “Christian classic” and now that I have read it myself I know why. Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life is cutting, winsome and insightful. He weaved throughout the pages penetrating analysis of human motives and behavior, witty and logically persuasive arguments and spiritual gems of spiritual wisdom and insight. The first section (chapters 1-13) offers, for the most part, searing critiques of the capacity for double-mindedness in human beings and in professed Christians while the latter sections (chapters 14-23) focus more so on giving practical pastoral advice about how to positively live a devout and holy life by keeping to the hours of prayer. The final chapter (24) is a bit like a closing argument which references the overall points made throughout the book.

Law laid out his assertions in very plain terms, with succinct definitional paragraphs, and then proceeded to explain (at length and with much repetition) his claims. Herein the reader encounters real world examples of human thought, motives, emotional states, keenly described behavior and then analysis of how these either conform to or contradict a profession of faith within Christianity. He also gives lengthy case studies (my phrase) which give real world examples of the observations and critiques he has stated. His overall points are repeated and restated and amplified again and again; as if he were trying to beat down every possible objection that he had heard voiced from others (or that he could imagine being stated).

Law not only names the erroneous ideas about “religion” and “Christianity” (used in an entirely positive sense by Law) but he states at length why they are wrong and what the roots within the human soul of these are. Then he states at length how true devotion to God positively counters these and is the fulfillment of all that God created human beings for. It is not possible to adequately illustrate this without giving quotes from different sections of the book.

So then, here are several select quotes to give a flavor of Law’s writing and themes:

 “Although the goodness of God, and His rich mercies in Christ Jesus, are a sufficient assurance to us, that He will be merciful to our unavoidable weaknesses and infirmities, that is, to such failings as are the effects of ignorance or surprise; yet we have no reason to expect the same mercy towards those sins which we have lived in, through a want of intention to avoid them.” (Chapter 3, p.18)

 “For as all men, and all things in the world, as truly belong unto God as any places, things, or persons that are devoted to divine service, so all things are to be used, and all person are to act in their several states and employments for the glory of God.” (Chapter 4, p.29)

“If there be nothing so glorious as doing good, if there is nothing that makes us so like to God, then nothing can be so glorious in the use of our money as to use it all in works of love and goodness, making ourselves friends, and fathers, and benefactors, to all our fellow-creatures, imitating the divine love, and turning all out power into acts of generosity, care, and kindness, to such as are in need of it.” (Chapter 6, p.51)

 “If religion commands us to live wholly unto God and to do all to His glory, it is because every other way is living wholly against ourselves, and will end in our own shame and confusion of face.” (Chapter 11, p.113)

 “For though the spirit of devotion is the gift of God, and not attainable by any mere power of our own, yet is it mostly given, and never withheld from, those who, by a wise and diligent use of proper means, prepare themselves for the reception of it.                                                                                               And it is amazing to see how eagerly men employ their parts, their sagacity, time, study, application, and exercise; how all helps are called to their assistance when anything is intended and desired in worldly matters; and how dull, negligent, and unimproved they are, how little they use their parts, sagacity, and abilities to raise and increase their devotion.” (Chapter 14, p.158)

 “As devotion of the heart naturally breaks out into outward acts of prayer, so outward acts of prayer are natural means of raising the devotion of the heart.” (Chapter 15, p.168)

 “Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves than we deserve, or in abasing ourselves lower than we really are. But as all virtue is founded in truth, so humility is founded in a true and just sense of our weakness, misery, and sin. He that rightly feels and lives in this sense of his condition lives in humility.” (Chapter 16, p.183)

 “All human spirits, therefore, the more exalted they are, the more they are, the more they know their divine original, the nearer they come to heavenly spirits; by so much the more will they live to God in all their actions, and make their whole life a state of devotion.

 Devotion, therefore, is the greatest sign of a great and noble genius, it supposes a soul in its highest state of knowledge, and none but little and blinded minds, that are sunk into ignorance and vanity, are destitute of it.” (Chapter 24, pp.305-306)

I consider this book an essential part of my library on living out the Christian life. I recommend it to others for reading and study. This is a classic worthy of the name and useful for stirring me and others to pursuing deepening devotion and holiness.

The edition I read and which I recommend:

*A Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life, William Law, preface and Notes by J.H. Overton (Dover Publications:2013)