Quotes from William Law

Redemption, this alone delivers from the Guilt and Power of Sin, this alone redeems, renews, and regains the first Life of God in the Soul of Man. Every Thing besides this, is Self, is Fiction, is Propriety, is own Will, and however coloured, is only thy old Man, with all his Deeds. Enter therefore with all thy Heart into this Truth, let thy Eye be always upon it, do every Thing in View of it, try every Thing by the Truth of it, love Nothing but for the Sake of it.

Nothing hath separated us from God but our own will, or rather our own will is our separation from God.

The more we pay for any truth, the better is our bargain.

If, therefore, God be our greatest good; if there can be no good but in His favour, nor any evil but in departing from Him, then it is plain, that he who judges it the best thing he can do to please God to the utmost of his power, who worships and adores Him with all his heart and soul, who would rather have a pious mind than all the dignities and honours in the world, shows himself to be in the highest state of human wisdom.

Be intent upon the perfection of the present day.

A lack of this complete submission to the will of God, and a failure to realize that our salvation can only be worked out by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit forming the very life of Christ within the redeemed heart, has placed the Christian church today in the same apostasy that characterized the Jewish nation.

For Nature and Creature, without the Christ of God or the Divine Life in Union with it, is and can be nothing else but this mere Emptiness, Hunger, and Want of all that which can alone make it good and happy.

And thus we understand, how the Whole of our Redemption (according to the plain language of Scripture) is inwardly and outwardly solely the Work of the Light and Spirit of God, a Kingdom of God both within and without us, and to which we do not, cannot live, but so far as we are inspired, moved, and led, by the Spirit of God.

True Christianity is nothing but the continual dependence upon God through Christ for all life, light, and virtue; and the false religion of Satan is to seek that goodness from any other source. So

We often charge Men, both in Church and State, with changing their Principles; but the Charge is too hasty; for no Man ever did, or can change his Principles, but by a Birth from above.

Observe, farther, how the same doctrine is taught by St. Peter: "As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." [1 Pet. i. 15]

For God can have no Delight or Union with any Creature but because his well-beloved Son, the express Image of his Person, is found in it.