...against religion, for I did not much tit in I: against it; and this lasted till I went to Oxford, when I took up Law's Serious Call to a Holy Life, expecting...find it a dull book (as such books generally are), but I found Law quite an overmatch for me; and this was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest.'...

...said Dr. Samuel Johnson, referring to his student days, " I took up Law's Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, expecting to find it a dull book (as such...religion, after I became capable of rational inquiry." And other notable testimonies to the influence of Law's writings could be cited. Some years after being...

...not much think against it; and this lasted till I went to Oxford, when I took up Law's Serious Gall to a Holy Life, expecting to find it a dull book (as such books generally are), but I found Law quite an overmatch for me ; and this was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest.'...

...he went to Oxford he was a lax talker against religion, but then he discovered A Serious Call and ' found Law quite an over-match for me ; and this was...first occasion of my thinking in earnest of religion ' . Gibbon also was impressed by the power of the same book. Its force lay in the emphasis it laid...

...not much think against it ; and this lasted till I went to Oxford, where it would not be suffered. When at Oxford, I took up Law's ' Serious Call to...occasion of my thinking in earnest of religion, after I l,trame capable of rational enquiry."1 -From this time forward religion was the predominant object...

...against religion, for I did not much think against it; and this lasted till I went to Oxford, when I took up Law's Serious Call to a Holy Life, expecting...find it a dull book (as such books generally are), but I found Law quite an overmatch for me ; and this was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest.'...

...of his nature. It was at Oxford that, after reading Law's "Serious Call," he wrote in his diary : " This was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest...religion after I became capable of rational inquiry." But doubtless the soil was well prepared ; lie had a devout nature and a religious mother, and the...

...possible to be a Christian without any loss of intellectual integrity. " I expected," said Johnson, " to find it a dull book (as such books generally are),...religion after I became capable of rational inquiry." Though there have been many reprints of Law's most famous work, the present volume represents something...

...and Holy Life (1729), which Johnson had first read at Oxford, "expecting to find it a dull book . . . and perhaps to laugh at it. But I found Law quite...first occasion of my thinking in earnest of religion." Already, in Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), we can see two strains combining, though with...

...this lasted till I went to Oxford, where it would not be suffered. When at Oxford, I took up Law^s " Serious Call to a Holy Life," expecting to find it...religion, after I became capable of rational inquiry." * In a letter from Miss Hill Boothby to Johnsou, dated 1755, is the following passage : " Have you...