will free you from the guilt of other men's sins, and the neglect 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 children'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 5:21–24, '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 judgment will free you from the guilt of other men's sins, and the neglect of justice and judgment will wrap 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. 35:33, 34, 'So ye shall not pollute 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 of him that shed it. Defile not, therefore, the land that ye shall inhabit, 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 afflict you, and to humble you? Have you not sins enough of your own to provoke God against you to strike you, to chide you, to wound you, and to lay you 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!