as this Therefore learne to vnderstand the Doctrines that crosse and contradict one another and whilst thou beleeuest Christ saying This is my body beleeue so as thou maist not crosse the Articles of thy Faith but know it is his body after no carnall and fleshly maner for the flesh profits nothing Ioh 6. but after a spirituall and diuine manner Not food for thy stomacke thy teeth thy belly but food for thy soule thy vnderstanding thy faith And so hee cals the bread his body heere as himselfe a dore and a vine and a rocke and Peter astone in other places of Scripture And therefore consider after Christ ascended he neuer appeared to his Apostles in body againe as he vsed to do often before Act. 7 55. But in heauen he appeared personally to Stephen to confirme his faith And when before his ascension he appeared to the twelue with whome Thomas Didimus was Iohn 20. he did not vrge Thomas to beleeue any thing contrary to his sense of seeing hearing and feeling but rather willed him to confirme his faith by seeing and seeing what before he doubted And then hee addes Happy are those which see not and yet beleeue he doth not say Happy are they who beleeue contrary things to that they see as they must do who beleeue the bread to be changed into his naturall body which they see and feele to be true bread still but Happy are those who beleeue when they see nothing to the contrary hauing the word of God which cannot contradict it selfe for their warrant As wee do beleeue his Resurrection and Ascension which wee saw not and his comming to Iudgement in glory which we hope to see Thus when thou shalt heare Christ command thee to take Bread and Wine in the Sacrament 1. Cor. 11. and a Priest countermand this and will thee to take bread only Saint Paule commanding thee from God to pray with vnderstanding 1. Cor. 14. 16. and a Romane Priest willing thee to pray in a strange tongue God himselfe blessing Matrimony and permitting all men to marry and the Apostle Paule saying Mariage is honorable with all men and in speciall tearmes a Bishop or Deacon ought to be the husband of one wife â— Tim. 3. 2. c. and hearest a Romane Priest say the contrarie nay inioyne thee to do the contrary and to binde thee by an othe to do it Then thou that hast eares to heare heare what S. Iohn saith to thee 2. Ioh. 10. 11. If any come vnto you and brings not this doctrine that is brings any contrary doctrine to Christs receiue him not to house neither bid him good speed And heare what God gaue his people in charge of old in the like case Deut. 13. 1. 2. 3. If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreames and giueth thee a signe or a wonder And the signe or the wonder come to passe whereof he spake vnto thee saying Let vs goe after other Gods which thou hath not knowne and let vs serue them Thou shalt not hearken vnto the wordes of that Prophet or that dreamer of dreames for the Lord your God proueth you to know whether you loue the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soule So thou art not to beleeue him though he confirmes his Doctrine by miracles nay suspect him the more and the rather for that for miracles are the principall shelters and pretences of Antichrist as thou maist see Math. 24. 24. 2. Thes 2. 9. So then beleeue nothing which contradicts the Scripture for the Scripture cannot be contrary to it selfe because it proceeds from the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of vnity of loue and of truth And to shut vp all this with a familiar example which the weakest apprehension may conceaue the sleightest memory retaine Not long since there vvas a tryall before the Iudges of Assize at Thetford betwixt two townes for a Common Oxborough Gooderstone in which both claymed interest The one towne chalenged by prescription and pretended vse and proued the vse by them their forefathers time out of minde The other parties produced an auncient Composition in writing vnder the hand and seale of the Lords and Tenants on both sides The Iudge then determined that against a writing there could be no prescription though without a writing prescription would be currant Because the writing controuled their present custome and shewed Ab initio non fuit sic there was a time when their old vse was not therefore their claime was false In prouing their vse against this composition they proued themselues intruders incrochers trespassers euill neighbors It was so farre from doing them good as it might haue done them hurt laying them open to euery mans action whom they had offended So heere wheere the word is silent there heare Antiquity heare the Church honor tradition preferre prescription custome vse If thou doest not then thou shewest thy selfe a selfe-wild Schismaticke or an obstinate Hereticke But where the Scripture speakes where thou hast that writing vnder hand and seale that old composition betwixt God and Man appointing Man his limits there let not man presume to intercommune with God but let the tongues of men and Angels be silent And whatsoeuer doctrine crosseth that crosse thou it out of thy Creed or God will crosse thee out of the booke of life Heare Saint Paule aduising the Collossians Let no man beare rule ouer you vnder shew of a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels Col. â— 18. intruding into those things which he hath not seene vainely puft vp by his fleshly minde So whatsoeuer humble shew or pretence he hath he is puft vp who presumes to crosse the doctrine of the Scripture And though he comes in sheepes clothing Mat. 7. 15. with shew of mortification and contempt of the world yet inwardly he is a rauening wolfe and desires to swallow widowes houses vnder the colour of long prayers Mat. 23. auricular confession and almes And though he seemes a worme and no man and creeping humbly vpon his belly lickes the dust of the earth yet beware he may be a subtile serpent and no silly worme for vnder the like faire shew Sathan deceiued our Ancestors in Paradise Therefore attend Saint Paules admonition carefully where he saith Gal. 1. 8. But though wee or an Angell from heauen preach any other Gospel to you then that which wee haue preached vnto you let him be accursed And as if this were not sufficient obserue how he riuets this commandement or admonition againe Gal. 1. 9. and againe saying As we sayd before so say I now againe If any man preach any other Gospel vnto you then that yee haue receiued let him be accursed What you haue receiued you know in the Lords Prayer the Tenne Commandements and the Creede for these are Epitomees and abridgements of all If therefore Saint Paule or an Angell an Angell
Pro. 28. 15 As a roaring Lyon and a ranging Beare so is a wicked Ruler ouer the poore people Yet he thought himselfe then also perhaps as vvise as before because he found himselfe as vvitty and forgot vvhat he had vvritten That into a malicious soule wisedome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subiect unto sinne Sap. 1. 4. 5. 6. 7. For the holy Spirit of discipline will flie deceite and remooue from thoughts that are without vnderstanding and will not abide when vnrighteousnes commeth in For wisedome is a louing Spirit and will not acquit a blasphemer of his words for God is witnesse of his reines and a true beholder of his heart and a hearer of his tongue Wherefore for this vvhen he recouered his former publique spirit he cryed peccaui and miserere vvith his father David and vvrote that booke called Ecclesiastes to bemone and manifest his owne fall and forewarne other Princes to beware of the spirit of priuacie that they may hedge in their royall wayes vvith these conscionable restrictions vvhereby they may be obayed for conscience sake by their subiects 1. First Salomon or Caesar must not rule vvithout a Lawe nor by his absolute power make any but see to the execution of those that are made It inclines therefore too much towards tyranny for a Magistrate to exercise an absolute authority vvithout limit and the Superiour who rules vvithout a Lawe or against Lawe vvalkes in no way himselfe but balks his owne high-way for a way is fenced but the champian fields are for the wild-goose-chase and corners and holes for sinister actions When as publique persons should do publique actions in publique Gen. 23. 10. in the Gates of the City in the Kings high-way Deut. 22. 15 in the eye of all For chamber-workes are suspicious and carry a shew of priuacy and parciality And so it is sayd by Liuy that Tarquinius made the name of a King odious at Rome because he ruled all Domesticu consilijs by chamber-Councell as Rehoboam in Israel and Lewes the 11 in Fraunce Thus Kings though they bee in some sort aboue the Law because they are dispeusers of it are not yet without a Lawe because they must rule themselues and others by it And thus much the crowne that a King weares testifieth which is a type of the loue and acknowledgement and consent of the people in his gouernement and lets him see that there is a verge a hoope a compasse for the heades of Kings aswell as of subiects and that wee come to manifest in the second consideration 2. Secondly Gods Lawe is Caesars verge which Caesar must neither transgresse nor suffer to bee transgrest Where God hath set no Lawe there Caesars Lawe I meane the Lawe of the Land which is the hedge to this high-way of the King must stand And this must agree with the equity of the Lawe of God from vvhence it originally takes life and strength For as where it agrees with Gods Lawe wee must obay it for conscience sake so where it contradicts or crosseth the Lawe of God the Apostle Peter giues a generall rule It is there better to obay God then man Act. 4. 19. To cleere this Thou sayest thy conscience tels thee the Religion commanded by the King or some ceremony vsed in the Church according to the Lawes established is not agreeable but contrary to the truth If thou canst manifest this by the word of God then thy Conscience tels thee right and thou art not to doe what is commanded by man though he speakes humane Lawe but yet thou art to suffer vvhat is inioyned by him so speaking with the Law or so doeing as Executor of the Lawe and both these wayes thou obayest God and Caesar too God actiuely doing vvhat he vvils and Caesar passiuely submitting thy will to Gods holy ordinance and obaying the Magistrate for conscience sake But if thy conscience tels thee this or that and cannot proue what it tels thee but by shifts and shadowes then it is not truly thy conscience at least no true but a lying conscience that so misleads thee nay rather it is thy phantasie thy imagination thy peeuish preiudiciall and froward conceit And thou art bound to resist and breake thine owne crooked and peruerse vvill aud to subiect it to the will of God who hath subiected thee to Caesar For Conscientia non est contra scientiam sed cum scientia Conscience is ioyned with knowledge that 's the ground otherwise thou setst vp an Idol in thy owne heart and worshippest it vvhilst thou obayest an erring and ignorant conscience For an Idol saith Saint Paule is nothing in the world and such is thy conscience a bug-beare a Scar-crow a Chimera of thine owne melancholly imagination or maleuolent invention And howsoeuer it may seeme right to thy selfe thy Sectators or Sect masters the Yssues thereof are the wayes of death 3. Thirdly as the Lawes of God must guide our consciences in our rellgious duties so the positiue Lawes of the Kingdome must be the high-way wherein euery one must vvalke in actiue obedience And Kings and Iudges are the dispensers and disposers of these Lawes according to reason Neither shall they need in the execution to satisfie euery priuate curious and contentious head which pretending conscience vvill disobey or to satisfie euery delinquent with arguments for then his worke were infinite but strictly and directly to open the booke and to execute the Lawe of the Land and euery liege-man is to acquiesse therein For the Iudge is or ought truly to bee Lex loquens and doth but tell vs the Lawe and shew vs the high-way in which wee must walke and if wee list not to walke in it wee must be content to suffer for our willfull folly or walke out of the vvay out of the reach of the Lawe And there is great reason for this for God hath set Kings as his Deputies to execute Iustice and Iudgement he expects it at their hands and where any euill fals out for lacke of execution the fault is the Magistrates if there be Law to preuent it of him shall the soule be required which perisheth for lacke of gouernment as the soule shal be required at the Pastors hands which perisheth for lacke of instruction in the truth Great reason is it therefore he should haue power ouer such as he must answere so strictly for that he may punish them or compell them to come in or keepe them for drawing others out of his folde So wee see Iudg. 17. Micha sets vp an Idol contrary to Gods Lawe he will haue a parlor-worship a religion by himselfe The reason of this error of knowledge and conscience is giuen there Then there was no King in Israel but euery man did what seemed good in his owne eyes So the King is to see to Religion and if Idolatry increaseth or sects or schismes arise it is counted the Kings fault if there bee a King the fault
THE HIGH-WAIES OF GOD AND THE KING WHEREIN ALL MEN OVGHT to vvalke in holinesse here to happinesse hereafter Deliuered in tvvo Sermons preached at Thetford in NORFOLKE Anno 1620. By THOMAS SCOT Batchelor in Diuinity Qui ambulat in via vna Regia non laborat Hier. Com. in Esa cap. 57. Printed at London 1623. TO THE READER THat which I preached once with approbation of the godly hearers I publish now for the vse of all beholders No other reason perswading me to it then the necessitie of the Times which begin to bee like those wherein S. Augustine would haue all men write Farewell and the Lord make it as I intend it a blessing to thee for Instruction Admonition Reformation Amen Tho. Scot. THE HIGH-WAYES Of God and the King Proverb 14. 12. ⧠There is a way which seemeth right vnto a Man But the end thereof are the wayes of death THE Philosopher Pythagoras whose Ipse dixit was warrant and reason enough to satisfie or silence at least his whole Schoole considering the birth of all Mankind to be after one manner and their deathes a like certaine exprest his conceit by the Greeke letter Y shewing thereby that all haue alike common entrance into the world the King and the beggar the foole and the Philosopher and that only the difference betwixt Man and Man was in the different vse of themselues and the choyce of their wayes heere vvhere there was a way of wisedome and vertue and a way of ignorance and vice propounded to all and as Men walkt in the one or in the other so was their liues and the issue of their liues their deathes either miserable or happy Our blessed Sauiour the true Pythagoras the wisdome of his Father whose Ipse dixit must silence the most curious and satisfie the most contentious hath sayd Mat. 7. that there are two wayes A strait gate and narrow way which leades to life and a wide gate and broad way which leades to destruction And euery Man that is borne of a woman walkes in one of these wayes and to one of these ends Iosuah 23. 14. Now as life is the most sweet and desireable estate and Death of all things the most hatefull and terrible to Nature So the meanes to attaine life and auoyd death should be carefully sought by euery vvise Christian Pro. 19. 19 For he that regardeth not his way saith Salomon shall die This then concerneth euery man to looke to and is a Doctrine fitting all persons all places all times For if the way of life bee so hard to finde that few attaine it and that those who suppose themselues to be in it may bee out of the way vvee cannot bee too wary and sedulous in this inquisition nor need wee feare the losse of our time in seeking but rather the losse of our soules for lacke of seeking This Text containes one of those wise obseruations which Salomon assisted by the Spirit of God made out of his extraordinary experience in the passages of this world and thought so needfull to bee vnderstood of all as he repeates it againe verbatim in the 16. Chap 25. verse and in diuerse other places in a diuerse manner of words to the same purpose Wee obserue heerein two principall parts Diuision 1. An erroneous opinion of Priuacie in these words There is a way which seemes right to a Man 2. An infallible iudgement of verity in these words But the end thereof are the Yssues of Death In the first part we note 1. The subiect or matter propounded There is a way 2. The quality or condition of that way It seemes right 3. The Iudge of that quality A mans selfe The spirit of priuacy In the other part the publike Iudgement we obserue 1. The end or purpose and scope thereof compared with or opposed to the beginning or pretence 2. The certaine ill quality opposed to the seeming good quality It did but seeme good or right but it is certainly it is the way of death 3. The Iudge of this Quality Salomon the Publique Magistrate directed by the Spirit of God opposed to the erring partiall spirit of a Mans selfe of priuacie to whome the way seemes good So the vvay seemes right but it is wrong It seemes the right way to life but it is the ready way to death It seemes good in Mans eyes but it is not so in Gods eyes Multa videntur quae non sunt 1. The Subiect There is a way A way literally and properly is thus defined by some viae vna pars est Locus Com. in Arist Metaphys lib. 8. alia est dispositio in loco per quem initio est possibilis in ea ad finem intentum By others Thus Est via Locus per quem babere iter imnibus licet via est transitus à lòco in locum The Latins call it via as Varro thinketh either ab eundo quasi ia the Impartiue to Eo Or else a vehendo quast primum veba tum deinde via The Greekes call a way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some likewise deriue from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proficiscor or iter facio But none expresseth it so aptly and fully as the Originall which is Derech whose radix is Darech calcauit or conculcauit from the ordinary trampling and beating of the way with the feet of many passengers And thus it is vsed properly for a way or place of iournying and trauaile but metaphorically translated pro more ratione seu vitae institutione seu consuetudine Now in this place it is vsed in a borrowed sense and yet holds proportion or similitude with the thing that lends it And thus it must heere be vnderstood of the wayes of God or the wayes of Man The way of God is considered after a two-fold manner 1. His counsell or secret will which is called a vvay Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches c. 2. His reuealed will in his Word of which the Psalmist speakes Psal 18. 3. The way of the Lord is an vndefiled way This last is likewise two-fold 1. Either via legis mandatorum 2. Or via gratiae promissionis Euangelij The first of these wee walke in vvhen vve performe obediently that vvhich is commanded the second when we beleeue faithfully that vvhich is promised So the first respects obedience life action vvorkes the other knowledge faith hope and the affection of loue which performeth all the Law by being accepted in Christ But of these vvayes as the first of all heere spoken of vvhich is that of Gods Counsell is too deepe for any of vs yea or for Salomon himselfe to vvade in though the shallowest fooles vvilbe busiest in it so the other his reuealed will is the rule of our vvayes and neither of them heere intended by Salomon because they are both good and seeme so Vrim or light of knowledge Thumim prefection or holinesse Exod 28.