Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	gospel_n	law_n	life_n	7,267	5	5.2543	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67236	Of Christian magistracy A sermon preach'd in the Cathedral-Church of St. Peter in York, at the assizes held there, July the 26th, 1697. Before the right honourable Mr. Justice Nevill and Baron Turton. By Christopher Wyvill, D.D. and Dean of Ripon.	Wyvill, Christopher, 1651?-1711.	1697 (1697)	Wing W3786A; ESTC R222179	17,177	31

Of Christian Magistracy A SERMON Preach'd in the Cathedral-Church OF St. PETER in YORK AT The ASSIZES Held There July the 26 th 1697. Before the Right Honourable Mr. Justice Nevill and Baron Turton By CHRISTOPHER WYVILL D. D. And Dean of Ripon LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhill and F. Hildyard Bookseller in York 1697. TO THOMAS PVLLEINE Esq HIGH-SHERIFF OF THE County of YORK SIR YOV have been pleased to set too great a Value upon my serving You at the last Assizes by thinking my Sermon fit to be made Publick in so Critical and Judicious an Age as this is However in complyance with Your Request I have suffer'd it to appear in Print and do Dedicate it to You not only because I Composed it for Your Service to whom therefore in right it doth belong but because I Respect and Honour You for that You are a true Lover of Your Country of the Church of England and of His Present Majesties Happy Government The real Good and Prosperity of all which is aim'd at and intended in the ensuing Discourse and is most heartily pray'd for and shall upon all Occasions be sincerely endeavoured after to the utmost of his Power by him who is Your most Obedient And Most Humble Servant Chris. Wyvill Of Christian Magistracy 1 COR. vj. 1 2 3. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world And if the world shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters Know ye not that we shall judge angels how much more things that pertain to this life THAT which is the great Blessing and Happiness as well as the main stay and support of any Nation or Society of Men next under Gods Providence and Protection is the right Administration of its Civil Government whereby the Publick Safety is provided for every Mans Rights and Priviledges are secured to him and wholesome Laws put in execution for the good of the whole Community Which great Blessing there have been some who would deprive all Christian Societies of who under the specious pretence of Christian Liberty have taught that Christians were under no obligation to any Humane Ordinance that Courts of Judicature are not necessary in a Christian State that the Christian Religion hath abrogated the Authority of Civil Powers and that the Office of a Judge or Civil Magistrate is inconsistent with the Profession of a Christian. These were the wild Fancies of the Gnosticks in the times of the Apostles and of the Anabaptists and other Sectaries in this latter Age. Thus by pulling down Magistracy they would erect a Babel of Confusion and by making way for Liberty introduce Licentiousness and Disorder For the confutation of which fond Conceits besides many other passages that might be produced out of the Holy Scriptures this Chapter of my Text may be sufficient Wherein although St. Paul doth indeed blame the Christians of the Church of Corinth for impleading one another at the Bar of Heathen Judges yet he allows them to do so before Judges that professed the Christian Faith and for that purpose would have them constitute and appoint fit and proper Persons amongst themselves of their own Religion to be Judges of their Law-suits who should hear their Causes and determine their Controversies and to whose decretory Sentence they were to submit Which Permission we may be sure he would not have granted unto them if to be a Christian and to be a Judge were incompatible or if it were unlawful for Chirstians to make use of or to apply themselves unto a Christian Court of Judicature For dare any of you saith he i. e. will any of you having a matter against another i. e. against another Christian go to law i. e. implead or accuse one another before the unjust that is before Heathens or Unbelievers as they are called in the 6th Verse and not before the saints i. e. before Christian Judges For by the word Saints we must in this place understand no more than Believers or Professors of the Gospel that is Christians Of whom he saith Do ye not know that the saints i. e. Christians shall judge the world i. e. all wicked Men And if the world shall be judged by you are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters Know you not that we i. e. that we Christians shall judge angels i. e. the Apostate Spirits how much more things that pertain to this life These Interrogatives do imply so many strong Affirmatives As if he should have said You ought not to go to Law before Heathen Judges but rather before Christians You know very well that you shall one day judge these Infidels and Unbelievers and all wicked Men and therefore surely you are fit to judge in matters of less moment you are not unworthy of smaller Judicatures You cannot be ignorant that you shall judge even Angels and therefore you are now much more worthy of Inferiour Seats of Judgment to judge of matters which pertain to this Life He attributes you see a sort of a Judicature to the Saints hereafter and therefore would have them to be Judges now He adviseth them to set out those amongst them who should try their Causes so as that they need not go to Heathen Courts Wherefore saith he in the Verse immediately following my Text if ye have judgment of things pertaining to this life that is if ye have any secular Controversies set them to judge who are least esteem'd in the church v. 4. Which Expression may perhaps at first sight or at first hearing seem very strange and unreasonble For what Would he have the Judgment-seats fill'd with Persons who were the least esteemed in the Church When St. Paul advised them to set up Judges amongst themselves to hear and determine their Causes would he have them to be the refuse and scum of the People When the Office of a Judge requires the greatest Wisdom Knowledge and Experience which gains him Esteem and Reputation and Honour in the World would he have such to be Judges amongst them who are destitute of those Qualities that must make them fit for so high a Calling as those who are least esteemed in the Chruch must be presumed to be No surely this could not be the meaning or intention of the Apostle We must not conceive that he spoke this by way of Precept commanding them to set the weakest and the simplest of their Brethren to judge betwixt one Christian and another but it must be supposed that he spoke this only by way of comparison that they had better do so than implead one another at the Bar of Infidel Judges But what if we should make another construction of the words different indeed from the common interpretation but more agreeable to St. Pauls meaning and to the Original Greek What if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we should understand

guard against them for our reparations of them for the recovery of our just Rights and for a Legal determination of what is right or wrong in Disputable Causes that are or may be of great concern to us And in vain it would be to have either Laws or Magistrates if this use might not be made of the benefit of those and the ministry of these 2. But Secondly be the Case what it will upon which we enter an Action at Law or be the occasion of it never so justifiable yet we ought to take great care that we manage it with due Tempers and Dispositions of Mind First then 1. In the commencing of every Suit at Law we should in the first place consider that by Christian Charity we are obliged to manage it with all possible calmness meekness and kindness forbearing all manner of uncharitable Invectives bitter Railings and malicious Accusations of one another We should quietly leave the Matter to be fairly and equally decided by a due Course of Law and the Sentence of the Judge And in the mean time we should embrace one another with a friendly and courteous Behaviour and amicably converse together It is without doubt Lawful for any Man to sue for what may be his own or what he thinks to be so especially if it be a matter of concern and will admit of no other decision But then to proceed in it with a rough and surly Demeanour to bespatter each other with scurrilous and spightful Words to raise Reflections and foment Suspicions extrinsecal to the Business in dispute is neither the right way to obtain the Cause nor agreeable to that Charity which the Gospel enjoyns us 2. Moreover in all Suits of Law we should discharge our Minds from all inclinations to Revenge and beware of a bitter and passionate Spirit We must not hale our Adversary to the Bar of the Magistrate on purpose to be revenged on him but to right our selves and redress our Wrongs nor must we design any more harm to him than what is necessary for our own Lawful Vindication and for the ends of Publick Justice 3. We should consider also farther that it is not becoming us either as Christians or Men when we have carried the Cause and got the better of our Adversary insolently to boast and triumph over him We should not mock or abuse him nor aggravate his loss by reproachful or scornful Language We should rather remember and observe the Advice of Solomon Rejoyce not when thine enemy falleth and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth Prov. 24.17 4. Lastly it is the duty of both Parties in all Actions at Law to rest satisfied with the definitive Sentence and Determination of the Judge He that hath obtain'd his Cause to be sure will he that hath lost it in right Reason and Prudence ought to do so too He should be patient if he thinks himself injured and charitable if he be wronged He should not envy the Adversary that got the better nor murmur at the Jury that brought a Verdict contrary to his mind nor suspect the Integrity of his Councellour as if he had not pleaded for him to the best advantage much less speak ill of the Judge that gave the Cause against him He should quietly sit down and submit to peace if he thinks his just Cause is rejected and oppressed His just Cause Nay he should rather suspect his own Judgment and conclude that his Cause was neither right nor just but that he himself was in the wrong since in a Court of Justice before Wise and Understanding and Impartial Men the Cause was carried against him Thus humbly and meekly should he carry himself rather than rail at or accuse any of the adverse Party and he should depart the Court without regret and quietly rest contented with the loss of his Pains and Cost To do otherwise will but discover a revengeful malicious Spirit inconsistent with the meekness and patience and humbleness of a Disciple of the meek and the patient and the humble Jesus And thus much may suffice to be spoken with respect to the first sort of Matters that may be brought before a Christian Judge or Magistrate and those are Matters of Civil Controversie betwixt one Man and another engaged in Suits of Law 2. The second are Criminal Matters or things done contrary to the Laws by such Offenders and Evil-doers as are to be punished according to their deserts with respect to which I shall shew the Reasonableness and the Necessity of it Now although it be true that the Christian Judges of whom my Text speaks had not the Power of Judging in Criminal Matters nor of punishing Offenders with the Civil Sword because the Civil Power was at that time in the hands of the Heathens yet when a Nation is become Christian and the Civil Power is lodged in the hands of Christian Magistrates 't is but very fit and reasonable that they also should have the cognizance of Criminal Matters and award Punishments according to the Malefactors deserts Without this Power the Christian Common-wealth could not subsist in safety nor the particular Members of it be protected from Violence and Oppression And therefore even a Christian Ruler hath the Power of the Sword committed to him which he ●eareth not in vain for he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Rom. 13.5 And the Governours or Magistrates who are deputed and delegated by him are sent for the punishment of evil-doers as well as for the praise of them that do well 1 Pet. 2.14 And though there be a Judgment to come hereafter when the Wicked shall be condemned to endless Punishments for the Crimes they have committed in this Life yet for the security of Publick Peace and Order in the World it is not safe to leave Men to Terrors at such a distance but to commit to Magistrates the Power of executing Vengeance on Evil-doers here that others by their Examples may learn to do well at least that they may be with-held from offending for Wrath if not for Conscience sake Now there are divers sorts of Criminal Matters that may be brought to the Bar and several sorts of Offenders against the Law that reasonably may and most justly ought to be punished by it But of all sorts there are some so notorious and so very remarkable that I cannot but mention them not barely to excite the Government against them but to shew the Justice and Equity of its Proceedings in Punishing them together with the Reasonableness and the Necessity thereof and to deter others from following their pernicious Examples 1. The first sort of those Offenders which I shall take notice of are those amongst our selves who being the natural born Subjects of this Land do most unnaturally endeavour to disturb our Peace by Commotions and Rebellions who seek to subvert our Laws and Government by promoting a Foreign Invasion and to that end and purpose