WAY, or Path, Via. This Word is taken in a moral Sense, 1. For Conduct. For example, Make your Path strait. The Paths of the Wicked are crooked. The Lord knows the Way of the Just, &c. 2. Ways are put for the Laws of the Lord. To follow the Ways of the Lord, to forsake the Ways of the Lord: Lord, guide me in thy Paths, &c. 3. This Word is put for Custom, Manners, and Way of Life. All flesh had corrupted his Way upon the Gen. vi. 12.earth. The Way of all Flesh, the Custom of Gen. xix. 31.all Nations, the manner of all the earth, the Ways of the Children of Adam. 4. The Jerem. xxxii. 19.Way of the Lord expresses his Conduct in respect of us. My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways Isai. lv. 8, 9.higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. The Lord possessed me Prov. viii. 22.in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. The meek will he teach his Psal. xxv. 9.way. Lastly, we find every where through the whole Scripture these kinds of Expression, The Way of Peace, of Justice, of Iniquity, of Truth, of Darkness. To go the way of all the earth, is put Josh. xxiii. 14.to signify Dying and the Grave.
A hard Way is often put to represent the Way of Sinners, a Way of Impiety: Non dimiserunt viam durissimam, per quam ambulare consueverant. In the Book of Wisdom the Wicked complain, that they have pursued difficult Ways. Ambulavimus vias difficiles, viam autem Domini ignoravimus. And Ecclesiasticus, xxxii. 25. Ne credas te viæ laboriosæ, ne ponas animæ tuæ scandalum. In a contrary Sense, the Ways of God, the Way of Piety, are often named straight, narrow, difficult to Psal. xvi. 4.find and to walk in. Propter verba labiorum tuorum ego custodivi vias duras: I have guided my self with the same Circumspection as a Man that walks over Precipices. And Jesus Christ, in the Gospel, Quam angusta porta & arcta via est, quæ ducit ad vitam, & pauci sunt qui inveniant eam.
The Way of Life. The Psalmist says, Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life. Thou hast taught me to know thy Will, and thy Commandments, which give Life to Man, and to the keeping of which thou hast annexed the Promise of long Life. Jesus Christ, by his Resurrection, hath shewed us the Way of Life, a Way that before was unknown to Men. The Wiseman in the Proverbs says in the same Sense, Mandatum lucerna est, & lex lux, & via vitæ increpatio disciplinæ. The Commandments of God, and his Laws, are a shining Light, and the Reproofs of a wise Man are the Way of Life. They lead us to Life, and procure a long and happy Life. The Books of the Old Testament are full of such Promises; but the more enlightened Saints raised their Hopes and Contemplations to a Life far above this. See Prov. x. 17. Via vitæ custodienti disciplinam.
Via is taken for all the Means by which any thing is done, and by which it happens to us. Job says, Where is the way where light dwelleth? the Way that leads Job xxxviii. 19, 24, 25.to its Palace. Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of water, or a way for the lightning and thunder? The Wiseman acknowledges, that there are three things which appear difficult to him, and a fourth which he is entirely ignorant of: The Way of an Eagle in the Air, the Way of a Serpent upon the Earth, the Way of a Ship at Sea, and the Way of a Man in his Youth: Via viri in adolescentula. And Ecclesiasticus saith, You know not the Way of the Wind: Ignoras quæ sit via spiritûs.
In certain Passages of Scripture it is said, that God turns us away from his Ways: Errare nos fecisti Domine, de viis tuis; indurasti cor nostrum ne timeremus te.
And the Psalmist says, Declinasti semitas nostras à via tua, &c. But all these Expressions only insinuate that God suffers the Enormities of Men, which he might hinder, if the Laws of his Justice and Mercy required it, and if Men, by their Depravity and Hardness of their Hearts, did not often put a Stop to his Grace and Mercy. God does not harden the Sinner by promoting his Wickedness, but by not granting his Mercy to him, according to St. Austin.
The Pharisees tell Jesus Christ by their Matth. xxii. 16. Mark i. 3.Disciples, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth: That is, the true Principles of Religion, without accepting any Man’s Person. Prepare the way of the Lord, says St. Mark; dispose your Hearts and Minds to receive Jesus Christ, and to hear the Words of Life. Our Saviour says, that he is the Way, the Truth, and the John xiv. 6. Acts ix. 2. 2 Pet. ii. 2.Life. He teaches the Way to Heaven, he is the most perfect Pattern of Perfection; he is the essential Truth, and the Fountain of all Truth; he is the Life of the Soul. St. Paul departed from Jerusalem with a Resolution of seizing all such as should make Profession of this Way of Christianity: Ut si quos invenisset hujus viæ viros ac mulieres, vinctos perduceret in Jerusalem. The Way of Truth is blasphemed by Hereticks, says St. Peter. That is to say, the Truths of the Christian Religion are corrupted by false Teachers. They have gone in the way of Cain, says St. Jude, ver. 2. They have followed his Example.