Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
Ver. 1. Go to law before the unjust] All unbelievers are, 1. Void of Christ's righteousness imputed; 2. Of true civil righteousness, as being self-seekers in all. 3. They oppress the saints, and draw them before the judgment seats,James 2:6, where they are so ill dealt with oftentimes, that they come to be of Themistocles' mind, who professed, that if two ways were showed him, one to hell, and the other to the bar, he would choose that which went to hell, and forsake the other.
And not before the saints] Christians first brought their causes before the bishops to be judged. And hence grew their power (as Paraeus noteth), which the Christian emperors first would not, and afterwards could not, take away from them. This raised papacy and prelacy to such a height, they would be princes as well as bishops.