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WilliamLaw Books
The Spirit of Prayer
The Spirit of Prayer
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The scope of The Spirit of Prayer was and is to provide a practical way for a soul to turn its vain desires from self and the things of the world, back toward God...that the desire of the heart really must become the Spirit of Prayer...in a continual panting after God and that the most radical enemy to that necessary rebirth within, is a worldly spirit, which is the desire of the heart turned toward the world.
William Law published The Spirit of Prayer in two parts, with a deliberate interval between them and a deliberate difference in their presentations. As the vastness of the subject to be covered was made known to him, he perceived that one of the evils and vanities which would attend the 'opening out' of the {genuine} philosophy of religion, in some of the individuals to whom he was immediately addressing himself, would be the arousing only of curiosity in them, rather than to elicit compunction and amendment.
As the actual application of such a philosophy to the highest interests of man, the contents of the "First Part" of the Spirit of Prayer may be considered to be a universal grammar of, a re-statement of, a re-introduction to {the true} gospel Christianity, which "First Part" was necessary to be presented as a text, or preliminary to what was to follow: — Mr. Law's call from the Lord being to preach the {true} gospel to the educated, who, "not having fathomed the philosophy of Nosce te ipsum {Know Thyself}, and being indeed entirely ignorant of their own nature and condition, are unbelievers in the truth of that redemption into which they are born, and which only requires ...the turning of their desires from Self to God, to become their salvation."
Mr. Law told a friend that he... "had met with very few persons whose awakened zeal had not turned into curiosity"; that is, who, instead of devoting themselves with all the more earnestness, constancy, and diligence, to the attainment of the Divine Life, by the superior light and instruction which they had acquired, they chose to hold fast, contenting themselves with their own imaginary conceptions of the mysteries of salvation, or with procuring for themselves a fine collection of books on mystical subjects! Mr. Law therefore resolved to expose and correct this common frailty, by making it the object of the introductory subject of the "Second Part", which is so much to that point.
The "Second Part" of the Spirit of Prayer was published one year after the first. Mr. Law composed his message in the form of Three Dialogues — that mode of presentation being shown to set forth his subject to the best advantage.
William Law published The Spirit of Prayer in two parts, with a deliberate interval between them and a deliberate difference in their presentations. As the vastness of the subject to be covered was made known to him, he perceived that one of the evils and vanities which would attend the 'opening out' of the {genuine} philosophy of religion, in some of the individuals to whom he was immediately addressing himself, would be the arousing only of curiosity in them, rather than to elicit compunction and amendment.
As the actual application of such a philosophy to the highest interests of man, the contents of the "First Part" of the Spirit of Prayer may be considered to be a universal grammar of, a re-statement of, a re-introduction to {the true} gospel Christianity, which "First Part" was necessary to be presented as a text, or preliminary to what was to follow: — Mr. Law's call from the Lord being to preach the {true} gospel to the educated, who, "not having fathomed the philosophy of Nosce te ipsum {Know Thyself}, and being indeed entirely ignorant of their own nature and condition, are unbelievers in the truth of that redemption into which they are born, and which only requires ...the turning of their desires from Self to God, to become their salvation."
Mr. Law told a friend that he... "had met with very few persons whose awakened zeal had not turned into curiosity"; that is, who, instead of devoting themselves with all the more earnestness, constancy, and diligence, to the attainment of the Divine Life, by the superior light and instruction which they had acquired, they chose to hold fast, contenting themselves with their own imaginary conceptions of the mysteries of salvation, or with procuring for themselves a fine collection of books on mystical subjects! Mr. Law therefore resolved to expose and correct this common frailty, by making it the object of the introductory subject of the "Second Part", which is so much to that point.
The "Second Part" of the Spirit of Prayer was published one year after the first. Mr. Law composed his message in the form of Three Dialogues — that mode of presentation being shown to set forth his subject to the best advantage.
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