# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scott, John (1639-1695)

1904 Errata appended.
​SCOTT, JOHN (1639–1695), divine, born in 1639, was son of Thomas Scott, a grazier of Chippenham, Wiltshire, and served as a boy a three years' apprenticeship in London. Then altering his course of life, he matriculated at New Inn Hall, Oxford, 13 Dec. 1658. He took no degree at the time, but later in life proceeded B.D. and D.D. (9 July 1685). He became successively minister of St. Thomas's, Southwark, perpetual curate of Trinity in the Minories (before November 1678, Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 920), rector of St. Peter-le-Poor, 1 Feb. 1678 (resigned before August 1691; ib. i. 529), and rector of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, being presented to the last benefice by the king, 7 Aug. 1691 (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 613). He was buried in the rector's vault in St. Giles's Church in 1695. He held a canonry of St. Paul's from 1685 till his death, but was never canon of Windsor, as stated by Wood. An engraved portrait of Scott by Vandergucht is prefixed to ‘Certain Cases of Conscience,’ 1718, and another, by R. White, to his ‘Discourses,’ 1701.
Besides twelve sermons published separately and preached on public occasions (all in the British Museum; cf. Wood, Athenæ Oxon. iv. 415), Scott wrote: 1. ‘The Christian Life from its beginning to its Consummation in Glory … with directions for private devotion and forms of prayer fitted to the several states of Christians,’ pts. i. and ii., London, 1681, 8vo; 2nd ed. 1683–1686, 8vo; 6th ed. London, 1704, 8vo; 9th ed. 1712, 8vo; 9th ed. [sic] 1729–30, fol.; in French, Amsterdam, 1699, 12mo, 2 parts; in Welsh, London, 1752, 8vo. The work ultimately extended to five volumes. 2. ‘Certain Cases of Conscience concerning the Lawfulness of Joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship,’ 1683, 4to; 1685, 4to (as ‘A Collection of Cases and other Discourses’), 2 vols. 1694, fol.; 1718, 2 vols. In reply to this appeared ‘An Answer to Dr. Scot's Case against Dissenters concerning Forms of Prayer and the Fallacy of the Story of Common plainly discovered,’ 1700, 4to. 3. ‘The Eighth Note of the Church Examined, viz. Sanctity of Doctrine’ (in ‘The Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin Examined and Confuted’), London, 1688, 4to; 1839, 8vo; and in Gibson's ‘Preservative against Popery,’ 1738, vol. i., 1848, vol. iii. 4. ‘The texts examined which papists cite out of the Bible for the proof of their doctrine and for prayers in an unknown tongue,’ 1688, 4to; and in Gibson's ‘Preservative against Popery,’ 1738, fol.; 1848, 8vo, vol. vii. 5. ‘Practical Discourses upon Several Subjects,’ 2 vols. London, 1697–8, 8vo (vol. ii. with a separate title-page and with dedication signed by Humphrey Zouch).
Scott wrote a preface for the second edition of J. March's sermons, 1699, 8vo, and his ‘Works,’ with the funeral sermon preached at his death by Zacheus Isham [q. v.], were collected in 1718 (London, fol. 2 vols.; Oxford, 1826, 8vo, 6 vols.). In the ‘Devout Christian's Companion,’ 1708, 12mo; 1722, 12mo, are ‘private devotions by J. S[cott],’ and some quotations from his book are given in P. Limborch's ‘Book of Divinity’ and other devotional works.
W. A. S.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.243 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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