Bishop of Carlisle, was born at Cartmel, in Lancashire, in 1703. After attending school at Cartmel, and afterwards at Kendal, he finished his education at St John's College, Cambridge, and was soon after elected a fellow of Christ College. While residing at Cambridge, he published a translation of Archbishop King's Essay on the Origin of Evil; and this raising a controversy between him and Dr Clarke, led soon afterwards to the publication of his Inquiry into the Ideas of Space, Time, &c. To
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1 Even in this season of calamity, the French exemplified the indestructible gaiety of their national character, by sporting with their own misfortunes in jests and epigrams. The following hebdomadal record is, perhaps, unique amongst jeux d'esprit.
Lundi j'achetai des actions; Mardi je gagnai des millions; Mercredi j'arrangeai mon ménage; Jeudi je pris un équipage; Vendredi je m'en fis un bal; Et Samedi à l'hôpital.
The Abbé, afterwards Cardinal, de Tencin, having had the principal share in Mr Law's conversion, a service for which he was rewarded by the bishopric of Grenoble, is thus addressed by a malicious epigrammatist:
Poin de ton rèle séraphique, Malheureux Abbé de Tencin! Depuis que Laws est Catholique, Tout le royaume est Capucin. this is added a valuable dissertation by Waterland, containing one of the happiest refutations of Clarke's *a priori* demonstration. His edition of Stephen's *Thesaurus* was printed about the same time. In 1737 the University presented him with the living of Graystock, in Cumberland; and to this were added in 1743 the archdeaconry of Carlisle, and the living of Salkeld, a village on the River Eden. Living in retirement at this village, he wrote *Considerations on the Theory of Religion*, with *Reflections on the Life and Character of Christ*. In 1756, upon his succeeding Dr Keene as master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, he resigned his archdeaconry, and in 1760 became principal librarian of the university, and afterwards professor of casuistry. In a few years more, honours came rapidly upon him. He was presented with the archdeaconry of Staffordshire, and a prebend in the church of Lincoln. To a stall, obtained in 1767 in the church of Durham, was added in the following year, through the recommendation of the Duke of Grafton, the bishopric of Carlisle. Law had chosen Locke for his master in philosophy; and in 1777 he published an edition of that philosopher's works in 3 volumes with a preface and a life of the author. He died at Rose Castle, his episcopal residence, in 1787, in his eighty-fourth year.
Bold and independent in speculation, and tenacious of his own dogmas, Law was still tolerant of the opinions of his opponents, and treated them with respect and candour. His openness to conviction was shown in the important alterations he made in the second editions of his two principal works. Among other peculiar tenets, he holds that without Divine interposition the dead would continue for ever in that state of insensibility which is the result of the fall. In disposition he was cheerful and contented; but his bashfulness and his fondness for literary ease, rendered him too inactive and too facile for his high position in the church.