God will divert and turn away his judgment from a nation. In Ps.
Right Honourable, that this may stick, give me leave to propound to your serious thoughts these few considerations:—
1. First, Consider this, when men do execute their just judgment, then God will divert and turn away his judgment from a nation. In Ps. 106:30, 31, 'Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, and the plague was stayed,' that not a man died after. When men stand 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. 5:1, '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. 22:29–31, '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!] 'that might make up the hedge,' alluding to Moses that magistrate—'I 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 throw all your religious services as dung in your faces: Isa. 1:11, '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, דמים מלאו, 'your hands are full of