The purpose of this article is to explore in some detail the controversy between William Law and John Wesley. Drawn into this argument were especially John Wesley's brother Charles, Law's friend and versifier of his works John Byrom, the Methodist George Whitefield, whose Calvinist theology led him to break with the Wesley brothers in 1741, as well as the Newtonian physician and Behmenist George Cheyne and the printer and novelist Samuel Richardson, both great admirers of Law.
............In the article I argue that it is wrong to associate Law with Methodism or to claim that Law defended Methodism in any of his works. Law most strongly advocated the universal Love of God and was dismayed at the disputes among the various sects of Christianity, as expressed in Byrom's poem "A Catholic Christian's Dying Speech".

This article in its final and definitive form has been published in English Studies, Volume 87 Issue 4, August 2006 (c) 2006 Taylor & Francis; English Studies is available online at:

http://www.journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/(43dok0fgt4zrjbi0dygq2ybb)/app/home/main.asp

Erratum: Editors of Boehme's Works

In the article (References, p. 465) is printed: Boehme, The Works of Jacob Behmen. Edited by M. Richardson and G. Robinson. This is not correct. M. Richardson and G. Robinson were the publishers. The editors were two friends of Law, i.e. George Ward and Thomas Langcake, as mentioned on p. 445 and footnote 14. In Werner Buddecke's Die Jacob Böhme-Ausgaben, Part II, pp. 49 ff., is mentioned that Volumes I and II were printed for M. Richardson, in Paternoster Row (1764) and Volumes III and IV for G. Robinson, in Paternoster Row (1772 and 1781).