Now, Right Honourable, in this labour to hold on, you have begun in the Spirit — as to that point— do not end in the flesh, but hold on in the way of well-doing. Justice is called by Aristotle, Hesperus, the glorious star : by another, the sun of the world. Oh let this glorious sun so shine forth, that the best of men may rejoice, and the worst of men may tremble. Take to yourselves. Right Honourable, the glorious resolution of Jerome, i who once expressed himself thus : ' If my father should stand before me, and my brethren press about me, and my mother hang upon me, I would throw down my father, and break through my brethren, and trample upon my mother, to cleave to Jesus Christ.' 0 Right Honourable, take glorious resolu- tions to yourselves. Though your fathers may stand before you, and your brethren and friends press about you, though your mothers should hang on you, I mean the nearest relations, throw down the one, and break through the other, and trample upon the third, that your souls may cleave to the way of God, to the ways of justice and righteous- ness. You know the rule is. Fiat juslitia et mat mioidus, Let justice be done, though the world be ruined. And that is a true saying, Odia qui nimiiim timet nynare nescit. Oh that upon every worthy mem- ber's heart and forehead that which once Chrysostom spake of himself might be written. Nil 7iisi peccatum timeo, I fear nothing but sin. Oh that this were every member's motto, I fear nothing but sin. I fear not the threats, the rage, the fury, nor the designs and plots of men that are turned into devils : I fear nothing but sin.
Right Honourable, that this may stick, give me leave to propound to your serious thoughts these few con.siderations: —
1. First, Consider this, when men do execute their just judgment, then God ivill divert and turn away his judgment from a nation. In Ps. cvi. 30, 31, ' Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, and the plague was stayed,' that not a man died after. When men stand
' Epist. ad Hcliodorum I.
Ps. XLIV. 18.] PROGRESS OF THE UPRIGHT. 347
up to execute their just judgment, the Lord will divert and turn away his. There are a company of ignorant sottish people that think that the doing of justice will undo a land, and bring all calamities upon it; whereas there is nothing of more power to divert the judgment of God from a nation than the execution of justice and judgment : Jer. v. 1, ' Go,' saith God, ' run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see and know and seek in the broad places thereof if you can find a man' — ay, but it is not every man that will do it, but such a man — * that will execute judgment and seek truth,' and I will pardon you. ' If there be but a man that executes judgment and seeks truth, I will pardon you,' saith God, ' I will turn away my wrath.' So in Ezek. xxii. 29-31, ' The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and vexed the poor and needy ; they oppress the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among you' [mark !J ' that might make up the hedge,' alluding to Moses that magistrate — ' 1 sought for a man among you that might make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I might not destroy it ; but he could not be found.' And what follows ? ' Therefore I poured out my indignation on them, and consumed them with the fire of my wrath ; their own way have I recompensed upon their heads,' saith the Lord.
2. Secondly, Your neglect of justice will provoke God to throiv all your religious services as dung in your faces : Isa. i. 11, 'To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices ? I am weary of your new moons and your burnt-offerings and your sabbaths ; my soul loathes them, they are an abomination to me.' What is the reason ? ' Your hands are full of blood,' ver. 15 — or rather, as the Hebrew hath it, li^'^D D''Q1, 'your hands are full of bloods.' The Hebrew word is taken from a ship under full sail : your hands are full of bloods, as the sails of a ship is full of wind. There is the father's blood and the chil- dren's blood, and there is the master's blood and the servant's blood, and there is the bond-man's blood and the free-man's blood, and the wife's blood and the widow's blood ; your hands are full of blood. Therefore to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices ? God throws them as dung in their faces, because they neglected justice. You have a parallel text, Amos v. 21-24, 'I hate, I despise your feast- days, I will not smell in your solemn assemblies,' &c. What was the reason ? ' Let judgment run down as water, and righteousness as a mighty stream.' Judgment did not run down, and therefore, saith God, ' I hate, I despise your fasting and prayer, and your feast-days.' Ah, Right Honourable, as you would not have your services thrown as dung in your faces, look that justice and judgment run down as a mighty stream.
3. Thirdly, Consider this, that your execution of justice and judg- ment loillfree you from the guilt of other men s sins, and the neglect of justice and judgment ivill ivrap you up in the guilt of other men's sins.
When those that are guilty shall be by you sinfully or wilfully acquitted, that shall be charged on your score. When justice is not executed, a land is defiled : Num. xxxv. 33, 34, ' So ye shall not pol- lute the land wherein ye are ; for blood defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood
348 god's delight in the [Ps. XLIV. 18.
of liim that shed it. Defile not, therefore, the land that ye shall in- habit, wherein I dwell ; for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.' Oh ! Right Honourable, have you not sins enough of your own to awaken you, to startle you, to trouble you, to amaze you, to afliict you, and to humble you ? Have you not sins enough of your own to provoke God against you to strike you, to cliide you, to wound you, and to lay 3'ou low ; but will you wrap yourselves up in the guilt of other men s sins? Will you wrap yourselves up in the treachery, and murder, and blood, and cruelty, and tyranny of others ? The Lord forbid !
It was an ingenuous acknowledgment of an emperor, who, when one had committed murder, and he was importuned to spare his life, and he did it ; suddenly after the same person committed wilful murder again ; then there was com])laint made to the emperor that he had committed murder twice, — No, saith the emperor, he is guilty of the former only ; I am guilty of the latter.
Right Honourable, guilty persons that be by you sinfully acquitted, their sin God will charge upon your account. And therefore as you would not have the guilt of other men's sins upon you, hold on in the way of well-doing: let justice and judgment run down as mighty streams.