Spiritual court

“ Your personal jurors, in the Material Court of Error, are myths. Your attorney, Belief, is an impostor, persuading Mortal Minds to return a verdict contrary to law and gospel. The plaintiff, Personal Sense, is recorded in our Book of books as a perjurer. Our Teacher of Spiritual Jurisprudence speaks of him, as “a murderer from the beginning.” We have no trials for sickness before the tribunal of Spirit. Man is adjudged innocent of transgressing physical laws, because there is no spiritual statute relating thereto. The law of God, or Truth, is our only code. ”

“ With all respect, I think the Court has misapplied a great constitutional principle. I cannot see how an "official religion" is established by letting those who want to say a prayer say it. On the contrary, I think that to deny the wish of these school children to join in reciting this prayer is to deny them the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of our Nation. ”

“ Plaintiffs in this case seek nothing less than the imposition of tort liability for the core religious practices of the Unification Church--group
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meditation and prayer, proselytizing, confessing sins, and fasting for spiritual purification. The First Amendment guarantee of "free exercise of religion" forbids official prohibition of religious practices unless the government can show a compelling need for the prohibition. Plaintiffs have not made such a showing in this case; no compelling governmental interest in public health or safety justifies their claim. ”

“ With truths of the theological order, with dogmas which often depend for their existence on a particular exegesis, with propositions which rest for their evidence upon a balance of probabilities, or upon the weight of authority; with doctrines which every age and nation may make or unmake, which each sect may tamper with, and which even the individual may modify for himself, a second court of appeal has become an imperative necessity. ”

“ Therefore, thirdly, they must ingenuously and honestly confess, that if it be the duty of the magistrate to punish the church in spiritual cases, he must then judge according to his conscience and persuasion, whatever his conscience be: and then let all men judge into what a woful state they bring both the civil magistrate and church of Christ, by such a church-destroying and state-destroying doctrine. ”

“ The cases of religion, wherein we allow civil magistrates to be judges are so fundamental and palpable, that no magistrate, studious of religion,—but, if he have any spiritual discerning, he cannot but judge of such gross corruptions as are insufferable in religion. ”

“ If, therefore, there is a ministry of the Spirit in the world, it must be wholly different in kind from that spoken of above. And this is what we learn from Christ's teaching: "He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." There is a ring of judicial sternness in the words; they call up to our minds the solemnities of a court of justice--the indictment, the conviction, the condemnation. ”

“ God’s people must enjoy their liberty of conscience, and not be forced; but all the subjects in a kingdom or monarchy, or the whole world beside, must be compelled by the power of the civil sword to assemble thus and thus.
Secondly, I demand, who shall judge whether they are God’s people or no? for they say, whether the magistrate consent or consent not, that is, judge so or not, they ought to go on in the ordinances, renuente magistratu.
If the civil magistrate be to build the spiritual or Christian house, he must judge in the matter. ”

“ If the end of spiritual or church power is bonum spirituale, a spiritual good: and the end of civil or state power is bonum temporale, a temporal good; and secondly, if the magistrate have no spiritual power to attain to his temporal end, no more than a church hath any temporal power to attain to her spiritual end, as is confessed:—I demand, if this be not a contradiction against their own disputes, tenets, and practices, touching that question of persecution for cause of conscience. ”

“ If they are crimes, then to teach, advise, and counsel their practice is to aid in their commission, and such teaching and counseling are themselves criminal, and proper subjects of punishment, as aiding and abetting crime are in all other cases. The term 'religion' has reference to one's views of his relations to his Creator, and to the obligations they impose of reverence for his being and character, and of obedience to his will. It is often confounded with the cultus or form of worship of a particular sect, but is distinguishable from the latter. ”

“ But it must not be forgotten that this tribunal is nothing but the inner court where man and God meet each other face to face, where man is accused by his own conscience, and where the sentence which absolves him is the inward witness of the Holy Spirit, heard by him alone. ”

“ In all the courts of Christendom it binds the consciences, if it does not mold the convictions, of judge and jury in passing judgment upon the rights of life, liberty, and property. The Bible is everywhere to be found. ”

“ For one hundred years we have known the sad effects of this doctrine, which takes away from the church the power of judging without appeal in matters spiritual. What country could remain at peace if there were not a supreme judge from whom there {599} could be no appeal? Can any justice be done where the culprits are their own judges and interpreters of the law, equally with those who are set on high to render justice? ”

“ To the Burman all these words had one set of meanings; to the Englishman they had another, a very different one. And each of them took his ideas from his religion. To all men the law here on earth is but a reflection of the heavenly law; the judge is the representative of his god. The justice of the court should be as the justice of heaven. Many nations have imagined their law to be heaven-given, to be inspired with the very breath of the Creator of the world. Other nations have derived their laws elsewhere. ”

“ We do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion. We believe that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the liberty of the soul.
THE BOOK OF DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS.—Edition printed by John Taylor, at Nauvoo, Illinois, 1844 ”

“ We thank Thee, Oh God, that Thou didst inspire them to press onward and upward in the building of a civilization that should last and we pray Thee that the same spirit that impelled them may grip our hearts and seize upon us that we may give to the generations that shall yet follow as rich a heritage as they have bequeathed unto us. And, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the courts of justice in our land, where men can come and receive justice and this morning we pray that Thy blessings may rest upon the Court at this hour and upon this occasion. ”

“ There seems something almost ludicrously incongruous in bringing a theological question into the atmosphere and within the technical handling of a law court, and in submitting delicate and subtle attempts to grasp the mysteries of the unseen and the infinite, of God and the soul, of grace and redemption, to the hard logic and intentionally confined and limited view of forensic debate. Theological truth, in the view of all who believe in it, must always remain independent of a legal decision ”

“ Ah! you shall then know yourself before the tribunal of Jesus Christ. You shall see whether the testimony of your conscience, which reproached you not with crimes, and left you scarcely any thing culpable to confess, were not a terrible blindness, up to which the justice of God had always delivered you. From the dread in which you shall see the just, you shall find what ought to be your own fears, and whether the confidence in which you have always lived sprung from the peace of a good conscience, or from the false security of a worldly one. ”

“ It is the interest of the lawyers who have ability and genius, because the dignities in the Supreme Court will interest professional ambition and create emulation which is not now felt. ...It is the interest of the clergy, as civil tumults excite every passion -the soul is neglected and the clergy starve. ”

“ And are not those ten commandments which stand in every church, a witness of the same thing? They are the very root of all law whatsoever. And more, the solemn oath which a witness takes in the court of justice, what is it but a sign of the same thing, that our forefathers, who appointed these forms, believed that law and justice were holy things, and that he who goes into a court of law goes into the presence of God Himself, and confesses, when he promises to speak the truth, so help him God, that God is the protector and the avenger of law and justice? ”

“ This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. ”

“ But, they added, should the point be maintained, that courts and juries are authorized to determine, whether the teacher of a religious sect is a teacher of morality, from his opinion either of the cause, mode, or state of men's happiness or misery in another world, or from his opinion of the nature, or proportion of the rewards for virtue, or the punishments for vice in a future state, no sect or denomination could be safe, it being a matter resting on opinion only, without any earthly tribunal having the ability or authority to settle the question. ”

“ Who else, if not one of their most distinguished representatives, has risen to force upon the attention of the highest Tribunal the world has yet seen the grievances which a Faith, robbed of one of its holiest sanctuaries, had suffered at the hand of the usurper? Who else has succeeded in securing, through patient and persistent effort, those written affirmations which proclaim the justice of a persecuted cause and tacitly recognize its right to an independent religious status? ”

“ Actions take their species or kind from the object and the end, when other circumstances hinder not. Now, a prince's making of laws about things pertaining to religion, is such an action of jurisdiction, as hath both a spiritual end, which is the edification of the church and spiritual good of Christians, and likewise a spiritual object ”

“ While I was at the pontifical court I saw many things which grieved me to the heart. Everyone is so preoccupied with secular and temporal things, with matters concerning kings and kingdoms, litigations and lawsuits, that it is almost impossible to talk on religious matters. ”

“ In the ladder up and the ladder down in the universe, the rungs are in the same side pieces. The self-propagating power of sin and the self-propagating power of Holiness are one law. The law of judicial blindness is one with that law by which the pure in heart see God.'
There is but one law that can save me from 'the law of sin and death,' that is 'the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.' If I refuse to submit to that law, I abide eternally under the law of sin and death and endure eternally its dread penalties. ”

“ For this God’s people ought to give thanks unto God; yea, and all men from this example may learn, not to charge upon the magistrates’ conscience—besides the care of the civil peace, the bodies and goods of men—the spiritual peace, in the worship of God and souls of men; but hence are magistrates instructed favourably to permit their subjects in their worships, although themselves be not persuaded to submit to them, as Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes did. ”

“ It is the common opinion of theologians, that at the very moment and in the very place in which the soul departs from the body, the divine tribunal is erected, the accusation is read, and the sentence is passed by Jesus Christ, the Judge. At this terrible tribunal each of us shall be presented to give an account of all our thoughts, of all our words, and of all our actions. "For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil." ”

“ I sickened at the idea of a Church Tribunal, where none has any authority to judge, and yet to my extreme embarrassment I saw that no Church can safely dispense with judicial forms and other worldly apparatus for defending the reputation of individuals. ”

“ As one of the members of counsel who is not an agnostic, I would like to state the objection from my point of view. Your honor has the discretion to have a prayer or not to have a prayer. There was no exception offered and I can assure the court when we talked it over among ourselves as colleagues, there was no exception felt to the opening of these proceedings by prayer the first day, but I would like to ask your honor whether in all the trials over which your honor has presided, this court has had a clergyman every morning of every day of every trial to open the court with prayer? ”