"No New Truths of Religion"

In 1737, William Law (1686–1761) published A Demonstration of the Gross and Fundamental Errors of a late Book, called “A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper." This was the first of his books to reflect the influence of Jacob Boehme, albeit less thoroughly than The Grounds and Reasons for Christian Regeneration, which followed it two years later. Exactly when Law started to read Boehme is unclear, but his adoption of a Behmenist vocabulary is quite sudden and, once adopted, dominates all the major works of the last twenty years of his life. ¹ At some point between 1733 and 1737, Law was introduced to Boehme’s writing through an anonymous treatise, Faith and Reason Compared, recommended to him by the physician George Cheyne. ² Following this up, though, proved strenuous. Law’s first reading of one of Boehme’s works put him “into a perfect sweat.” Boehme’s terms shaping his recollections, Law explained his persistence as due to finding “glimmerings of a deep ground and sense.” The work was worth the sweat: “[I] perceived that my heart felt well and my understanding kept gradually opening.” ³ By the early 1740s, Law was teaching himself the “High German language” necessary for a direct engagement with Boehme’s books.