Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	law_n	sin_n	transgression_n	4,002	5	11.2412	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87676	A sermon preached at the assizes held for the county of Cornwall, at Lanceston, March xviii. MDCLXXXV. By Nicolas Kendall, A.M. and Rector of Sheviock in Cornwall	[Kendall, Nicholas, fl. 1686]	1686 (1686)	Wing K288A; ESTC R230349	9,241	27

A SERMON PREACHED AT THE ASSIZES Held for the County of CORNWALL AT LANCESTON MARCH xviii MDCLXXXV By NICOLAS KENDALL A. M. and Rector of Sheviock in Cornwall LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty and are to be sold by George May Bookseller in Exeter 1686. TO THE Right Honourable Sir EDWARD HERBERT Lord Chief Justice of England AND Sir ROBERT WRIGHT One of the Judges of his Majesty's Court of King's Bench. My LORDS YOVR Lordships having express'd a desire that the Discourse You were pleased to hear with patience at the Assizes in Cornwall should be made publick I have adventured it into the World upon no other ground but in obedience to Your Lordships Commands and in hope of Your favourable Protection which as it must wholly proceed from Your own Goodness and Generosity and is not pretended unto by any merit either in the Author or the thing it self so I trust it will be a clearer Instance of Your Lordships Endeavours to promote any thing that may tend to the good of the Publick and it will also lay a greater obligation upon April 10. 1686. Your Lordships in all Duty most highly obliged Servant Nicolas Kendall 1 Sam. ii 25. former part of the Verse If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him IT has been observed concerning the Sanctions of humane Laws that they have generally respect rather to the bad Examples of Crimes and the influence they may have upon the Publick than to the nature of the Crimes themselves And hence it comes to pass that severer punishments are inflicted upon some Offenders though their guilt in it self considered may be less than that of those who escape unpunish'd For the great end of all Laws being the conservation of the Publick Good and maintaining a Common Interest as long as that is secur'd men trouble not themselves so much about those things wherein the Commonweal is not concern'd Not to give instances of this nearer home 't is said that in the Eastern Parts of the World where men live promiscuously together and have all things as it were in common a small theft is thought to deserve the utmost penalty because it is impossible they should subsist in their way of living unless they were very secure that one dar'd not invade what was another man's So true is it what old Eli has observ'd in the words before us That if one man sin against another if one man touches another in his Person or Interest the Remedy is easie the Law is open or as Dr. Hammond more critically renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Assizes are held they may implead one another and the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against God the case is not so he is not in a capacity of making any satisfaction to the Divine Majesty and few will dare to interpose on the behalf of such an Offender If a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him In which Words there is an evident distinction suppos'd between two sorts of sins one of those whereby one man sins against another and then they have their remedy at Law Est cognitio Civilis aut Ecclesiastica quâ res componi possunt saith Junius in his Notes upon this place the other is of such sins whereby a man sins against the Lord not only as God is the great Legislator and Governour of the World for so all sins are against him as transgressions of his Laws but sins wherein God is a Party whereby he is prejudiced or dishonoured in those things that relate unto him such was the sin of Eli's Sons who prophaned the Sanctuary of God and brought his Worship and Religion into contempt and in this case they could not hope to escape either by the mercy and lenity of a Judge or the skill of an Advocate not by the intercession of Friends or making an interest with Great Persons or the like If a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him I shall not trouble you with the different ways of rendring these words by several Interpreters occasioned chiefly by the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though a Noun of the Plural Number yet by a peculiar Idiom of the sacred Language sometimes signifies the only one supreme God and at other times those whom the Psalmist calls Gods Psal 82.1 i. e. Magistrates and Judges but taking our English Version to be most agreeable both to the Hebrew truth and to the intent of Eli in reproving his Sons I shall in my following Discourse speak distinctly to both these sorts of Sins I. Those whereby one man sins against another II. Those whereby a man sins against God I. Of Offences between man and man of which it is said If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him Whence I observe these three things 1. That Courts of Judicature for the decision of such Causes as might happen between man and man was one of God's own Institutions among his people the Jews Where if one man sinn'd against another the Judge did judge him 2. That 't is the great happiness of any people when there are such Courts of Judicature open and the Laws have their free course that so if one man sin against another the Judge may judge him 3. That 't is the Duty of every private person to submit himself to such Judgments and Sentences For when one man sins against another the Judge must or shall judge him 1. That Courts of Judicature for the decision of c. While the Lord was their Political Sovereign and their Government was what Josephus truly calls it a Theocracy In lib. contra Appion we find such Courts as these erected among them At the instance of Jethro together with the command of God himself did Moses chuse able men out of all Israel and made them Heads over the people rulers of thousands rulers of hundreds rulers of fifties and rulers of tens and they judged the people at all seasons the bard Causes they brought unto Moses but every small matter they judged themselves Exod. 18. Out of these men as some think or at least such as these did Moses again by God's command chuse seventy men of the Elders of Israel Numb 11. and God indued them with a Spirit of Prophecy that they might be able to instruct the people in the Law and help to bear the burthen of them which Moses had complain'd was too heavy for him in agreement to which the Jews had always among them a supreme Court called the Sanhedrim consisting of seventy one persons seventy from the number Moses called unto him and one whom they looked upon as his Successor and therefore called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princeps Senatus or Lord-Chief-Justice and this High Court exercis'd Jurisdiction over them not only under those extraordinary Judges whom God raised

up at several times and the Kings that succeeded them but also in all vacancies and inter-regnums continuing if we believe their * Josephus Antiq. l. 14. c. 17. Historian until Herod put them down to secure himself of the Kingdom beside this they had inferiour Courts or Consistories in every City from all which there lay an Appeal to the great Sanhedrim at Jerusalem I shall not trouble you with the several places of Scripture that allude to these Courts it being sufficient to my present purpose to know that they were instituted at the command of God supported by his authority and assistance in cases of greater difficulty and that they continued among them † Or as Grot. Notis ad Deut. 17. usque ad tempora Messiae quo misso authoritas Synedrii evanuit until the Romans came and took away both their place and nation Now though we cannot draw Arguments from every particular Law and Divine Institution among the Jews to infer an obligation to the same in any other Nation they being instituted for such peculiar reasons as agree not to other people yet I think in the general an Argument is good That whatsoever God appointed among them the reason continuing the same is expedient and necessary in any Government whatsoever I 'm sure Christ introducing the Christian Religion upon that of the Jews made no alteration as to this Point our Saviour was tried by the Sanhedrim and submitted to their unjust Sentence when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2.23 the Apostles were brought before the Council Acts 4. and never pleaded to the Jurisdiction of the Court St. Paul particularly acknowledges that Ananias sat to judge him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Law Acts 23.3 and begs pardon of the Court when he had reviled him alledging his ignorance for excuse and adding that he was instructed out of the Law not to speak evil of the Ruler of God's people Mark 13.9 And the first Christians when they were brought before Councils and Magistrates and Rulers as our Saviour had foretold of them though the accusations were false and the crimes could not sufficiently be proved against them yet they questioned not the Authority of the Magistrate if the Judge judged them guilty they patiently submitted themselves All this is so plain that I should not have mentioned it but for the Enthusiastick conceits of some of our Northern Neighbours who for the erecting of what they blasphemously call the Kingdom of Christ cry down all Magistrates and Laws as unnecessary under the Gospel and but so many infringements of our Christian Liberty the extravagance of which errour needs no other confutation than the horrid confusions it has and will always raise where-ever it shall be entertained And therefore 2. 'T is certainly the great happiness of a people when there are such Courts of Judicature open and the Laws have their free course that so if one man sin against another the Judge may judge him For either we must suppose men to be so just and equal of themselves as to have no need of Laws or Judges to judge them or else we must allow private revenge and suffer every man to judge for himself The first of these viz. That men should be just and equal without Laws we may well talk of and wish for as a most happy condition and most agreeable to the nature and sublime Excellencies of Mankind but no man that is ever so little acquainted with the World will venture to try the experiment Among all the diversities of Laws and Governments that have been in the World there was no man ever attempted to establish a Society without any at all as well knowing that to be wholly impracticable and those Societies have always been lookt on as the most prosperous and happy where the Laws have been most equal and the execution of them most punctual for let men be never so well instructed in the Precepts of Vertue and let Religion too come in for a new obligation to Duty yet still there are hopes and fears passions natural to mens minds and these must be wrought upon by Rewards and Punishments and all little enough God knows to keep up the face of Order and the Decorum of a Society among men Nunquam tam bene actum est cum rebus humanis ut plures sint meliores the worse are always the most in number and should men be let alone to their own inbred Notions of right and wrong and good and evil the few that would live up to these Rules would be an easie prey to the many that would despise them Without Laws then and the execution of them we cannot be happy or safe Nor on the other side can it be less ruinous to permit private revenge and suffer every man to judge for himself This is what no equal man will desire and what the unjust will always abuse 't is to give way to force and violence and to let Right be determined by the strength of mens Arms and sharpness of their Weapons 't is to expose Innocence which of it self is but a weak defence against blind rage and brutish passion We may guess to what a wretched estate this would reduce us if generally allowed by the evils caused among us by those that will avenge their Quarrels in private Combats and Duels On what slight accounts do men engage in them To what an heighth of revenge are they carried on and how does the shedding of Bloud stain our Shores and the cry of it invade Heaven Rom. 12.19 Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. The Magistrate has provided Laws for the punishment of evil Doers 1 Pet. 2.14 and for the praise of them that do well but these men as neither fearing God nor regarding man acknowledge no Laws but their own will no God ‖ So Mezentius in Virgil Dextra mihi Deus but their own right hand A Barbarity this that was first introduced into these parts of the World by the incursions of the Goths and Vandals for in the ancient Greek and Roman Histories we meet with few or no footsteps of this practice among men of Honour Not that they wanted either Spirit to resent an injury or Courage to right themselves No men ever exprest a more generous contempt of life than these did upon all occasions and if at any time they thought it Great and Roman-like to dye the Draught of Poyson or the Ponyard the Barbers Razor or the River cannot be more ready now than they were then but they had not that false Notion of Honour among them that so prevails now adays whereby men perswade themselves that the least affront is not to be expiated but with the blood of the Offender that 't is beneath a man that wears a Sword to submit his Cause to the decision of the Law and therefore they will be their own Judges and Avengers too in the first they