A SERMON Preached March 6. 1675.  
In the Cathedral Church of S. Peter in YORK; Before the Right Honourable Sir TIMOTHY LITTLETON, Kt. AND VERE BERTIE, Esquire, His Majesty's Judges of ASSIZE for the Northern Circuit.  
By William Stainforth, M. A. Rector of St. Marry Bishop-hill the Elder in the CITY of YORK.  
LONDON, Printed for R. Royston, Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty, and R. Lambert Bookseller in York, 1676.   

To the Right Worshipful Sir EDMUND JENNINGS, High Sheriff of the County of YORK.  
SIR,  
IT was by your Command that this SERMON was first Preached, and now Printed; and I have very good grounds to hope, that so urgent a Reason of its Publication will secure me against the censure and imputation of Vainglory, and also recommend the Discourse, and entitle it to a fairer Acceptance; for it is no inconsiderable advantage to have the Approbation of so discerning, and yet so  a Judgement, as you are known to excel in. And as nothing but this consideration could have tempted me to expose any thing of mine to so public a View; so seeing this is exposed, I humbly beg that you would continue to it the Honour and Aid of your Protection: and that you would be pleased to accept of it as a sincere, though small, acknowledgement of those undeserved favours, which you have bestowed upon,  
SIR, Your most humble and most obedient Servant; Will. Stainforth.   

A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable Sir Timothy Littleton, Knight; and Vere Bertie, Esquire, His Majesty's Judges of Assize for the Northern Circuit.  Prov. XXI. 3. To do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. 
AS the Jews were a carnal and fleshly People, so were they chief intent on, and mindful of those Duties, that were most consistent with their earthly Lusts and Inclinations; and because God had separated them from the rest of the World, and taken them into his immediate Care and Government, and had given them particular Laws and Rules for the celebration of his public Worship, they fond imagined, that God would be indulgent to them, in an extraordinary manner: and that if they did but rigorously observe the outward Rites and Ceremonies of Religion, they should by that means atone for all their other Guilts, and render God propitious and favourable to them. And this conceit took such deep Roots in their hearts, and prevailed so generally amongst them, that though never any people was more regardless of the essential and fundamental Duties of Religion, nor less concerned for inward Purity and Holiness of mind, yet never was any more strictly observant of the external and formal parts of Devotion. Thus they would fast often, and pray much, and think no sacrifices too chargeable or expensive for them; and yet at the same time they would gripe and oppress their Neighbours, offer all kinds of injustice and fraud to one another, cherish in their hearts evil Lusts and foul desires, and offend God by plain, open, and direct Immoralities. This God often complains of by his Prophets, and tells them, that for this reason he abhorred and detested all their religious Formalities and costly Sacrifices; and if they would not reform and repent, he would withdraw his favour and protection from them, and pour down the fiercest instances of his Wrath and Indignation upon them: for that which he delighted most in, was the Purity and Holiness of their minds, and the observance of such Duties, as tended most to the interest and preservation of Societies, and the mutual benefits and advantages of one another. And for this very Reason Solomon tells them, To do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice.  
The Text is one entire Sentence or Proposition, and hath within itself a complete sense (as the rest of the Proverbs of this Book for the most part have) without either any necessary dependence upon any thing going before, or reference to any thing coming after. And the words are plain, obvious, and accommodated to the most ordinary understandings. So that as I need not spend any time in searching into the Contexture of the words, so neither in examining the explication of several Commentators and Expositors upon them. And therefore I shall only further endeavour to confirm the Proposition deduced from the Text,  

1. From other places of Holy Scripture.  
2. From the different nature of these two Duties.  
3. From the different ends of them.  
4. From the different effects of them.   
I. From other places of Holy Scripture, wherein we find God rejecting and abhorring their Sacrifices, if they were not accompanied with a real Repentance, and inward sincerity of mind, and the outward works of Mercy and Justice. For though God did solemnly enjoin the Jews the use of Sacrifices, adopted them by his express Command into their Religion and public Worship, and gave them particular Rules and Canons for their performance and observation; yet he was so far from intending that they should be either their only Righteousness, or the principal part of it, that he never accepted of them, when they were not in conjunction with other Duties. And for this reason, the Sacrifices of the wicked are said to be an abomination to the Lord, especially when he brings it with a wicked mind, Prov. 21. 27. and such are all the sacrifices of unjust and unrighteous men, who have no regard to the known Laws of Equity, and make no difference betwixt what is profitable, and what is just; but having rooted out of their minds all sense of moral Honesty, make use of all the Arts of Cunning, and the force of Power to defraud and oppress, to undermine and lay hold on the Rights and Properties of others. And accordingly Micah 6. 6, 7. we have the Prophet putting this Question, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the most High? shall I come before him with  Offerings, with Calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams, and with ten thousand Rivers of Oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul? The Answer to all this is in the Verse following, Viz. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God? From whence it is plain, that though God had commanded sacrifices as the principal part of his external Worship, yet he had all along the chiefest regard to the Duties of Justice, Mercy and Humility. These were the most especial Objects of his Delight and Pleasure; and without the Union and Combination of these Virtue's Sacrifice was an Abomination to him. Sacrifice without Justice was as ungrateful as Robbery; Sacrifice without Mercy, as provoking as Murder; and Sacrifice without Humility, as affronting as Hypocrisy. The wickedness of the man shed a guilt into the Offering; and a Sacrifice of Atonement, when it was brought by an unjust hand, was so odious and offensive to God, that it stood in need of another for its expiation. And therefore God speaks to all unjust and unrighteous men, To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices? Bring no more vain Oblations to me; Incense is an Abomination to me, Isa. I. 11. From all which places, and several others which I forbear to mention, it is evident, that God rejected Sacrifices, though they were Duties of his own appointment, though they were established parts of his public worship, if they were not accompanied with Justice and other moral Duties, and consequently that to do Justice is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice.  
II. To do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice is evident from the different Nature of these two Duties, and the different Grounds, from whence ariseth our Obligation to them. For Sacrifice was grounded upon a positive Precept and Institution: It had its rise from the mere will and good pleasure of God Almighty; so that if Mankind had not received some express Revelation concerning the necessity of this Duty, in all likelihood they would never of themselves have found out any reason for its Observation: But Justice has its foundation in the Nature of God; and if God had never delivered to Mankind any promulgate Law concerning Justice, yet the very natural Notion we have of God and his Essential Justice would have sufficiently instructed us in our indispensable Obligations to its practide: and both these I shall endeavour to make appear.  
1. Sacrifices were grounded upon a positive Precept, and the Reason of their Obligation was derived from the Express and Revealed Will of God. It's true indeed, that all Nations that have had any sense of God, and owned his Being by any public Worship and solemn Acknowledgement, have made use of Sacrifices for this very end and purpose; and from this universal consent in practice some have inferred Sacrifices to be a Natural Duty, and that it was founded in some common principle in Reason. So Paulus Burgensis: In qualibet aetate, & apud quaslibet hominum Nationes, semper fuit aliqua Sacrificiorum Oblatio; Quod autem est apud omnes, naturale est. In all Ages (saith he) and among all Nations, there was always some kind of Sacrifices. Now that which was so universal, must of necessity spring from some common principle in Nature. Thus far indeed I confess sacrificing Natural, as it was a solemn and sensible Ri●e of Worship, because Nature which teacheth us to worship God in public, doth also instruct us to express this public Worship by some external Rites and sensible Instances: But that Nature doth so point out and determine the kind, as to teach us to do this by Sacrifices, which consists in the destruction of living and the consumption of useful things, none I presume will ever be able to make out any tolerable proof or evidence to confirm it. For to use the words of a late Learned Prelate, in his excellent Discourse concerning Natural Religion: When it is well considered (saith he) what little ground there is to persuade a man, left to his own free Reason, that God should be pleased with the kill and burning of Beasts, or with the destroying of such things by fire, of which better use might be made, if they were disposed of some other way; I say when it is well considered what little reason there is to induce such a man to believe, that the kill or burning of Beasts or Birds, or any other thing useful to mankind, should of itself be a proper and natural means to testify our subjection to God, or to be used by way of expiation from sin; it will rather appear probable, that the original of this practice was from Institution, and that our first Parents were by particular Revelation instructed in this way of Worship, from whom it was delivered down to their successive Generations by verbal Tradition; and by this means was continued in those Families who departed from the Church, and proved Heathen in the first Ages of the World; amongst whom this Tradition was in course of time, for want of care and frequent renewals, corrupted with many humane superinducements, according to the genius or interests of several Times or Nations.  
And indeed if we consult merely natural Light, we shall discover no necessary Foundations in that for Sacrifices; for that does not at all teach us, that the slaying of living Creatures, or the consumption of any useful thing by Fire should be any way pleasing or grateful to God; or that he should accept of it as an acknowledgement of our dependence and subjection, or as a satisfaction for sin and disobedience. For what are Blood & Smoak to the God of Spirits? or what compensation can the slaying of my Beasts make to Divine Justice for not mortifying my lusts? Can the Blood of a Bull, which is a corporeal thing, cleanse the guilt of my Soul, which is a moral defect? Or does the Immortal God stand in need of Meat and Drink? Some of the Heathens indeed fancied, that their Gods were delighted and refreshed with the steams and vapours, that ascended from the Sacrifices; and therefore they used to call their Sacrifices, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Food of God; but the reason of this mistake, might be, as I humbly conceive, either First, the malice and cunning of the Devil, who because he could not wholly root out of men's minds the belief of a God, did therefore endeavour to adulterate the true Notion of Him; that so men having their Souls possessed with false conceptions and representations of the Deity, they might the more easily mistake both the right manner and the true Object of their Worship; and by that means be more readily drawn to give and appropriate it to the Devil. Or Secondly, men finding that Sacrifice had been the constant and general way of Worshipping God; and understanding neither the Original nor the true Reason of its Practice; they might fond imagine (since they knew no better) their Lusts having darkened their understandings) that God might some way or other be pleased and recreated with the Fumes that rise from the Altar. But this was a ridiculous mistake and folly, altogether repugnant to the perfections of the Divine Nature, and the Sentiments of sober Reason, and is sufficient to convince us, that Sacrifice was a Duty not directed by the light of Nature, but that it must be derived from some Positive Precept and Institution.  
But now Justice is a Virtue, that has its foundation in the Nature of God: For as the Notion of God does include in it all possible and conceivable perfection, so from thence do we discern Justice to be one of his most Essential Attributes. For it would be unreasonable to imagine, that he who is immutably good and perfect, could fall under any Temptation of doing any thing, that would not suit with the strictest Rules of Justice and Equity. And therefore the Heathens, who had no knowledge of God, but what was conveyed unto them by the Light of natural Reason, reckoned Justice amongst the fundamental Properties of the Divine Nature; and Plato affirmed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That cannot be said in any kind or respect whatsoever to be unjust, but so far as is possible to be most just. And that this was the general belief amongst them may appear by that universal Custom of Attesting God by solemn Oaths, whereby amongst other of his Attributes, they particularly owned that of his Justice, and that he would certainly avenge all fraud and unrighteousness. And what was thus dictated by the Light of Nature, is fully confirmed unto us by God's Revelations in his own Word; wherein he has made such ample discoveries of his own Nature, and of his Deal with men, that we must needs conclude, that Justice is one of the moral perfections of the Divine Nature, and that God may as soon cease to be, as fail to be just. Shall not the Judge of all the world 
Gen. 16. ●5.  do right? says Abraham. Which Question is an emphatical Affirmation that he will do so. And the Apostle St. Paul rejecteth all suspicions to the contrary, with an Absit. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness 
Rom. 9 14.  with God? God forbidden! And for this Reason Princes and Governors, Magistrates and Judges, who are Gods Vicegerents and Representatives, and to whom he has entrusted the care and government of the People committed to their charge, are said to 
Psal. 82. 6.  be Gods. And Gods they are not so much in respect of the sacredness of their Character, and greatness of their Power, as in the due exercise of their Authority and regular Administration of Justice. For when conscience is their Councillor, and the Law their Rule, and the public Good their End; when they defend the Innocent and punish the Criminal, and distribute Justice without the mixtures of Passion, and the corruptions of Partiality, then do they shine with Divinity indeed, and they resemble God not only in the participations of his Greatness, but also in the likeness of his Integrity, which adorns their Office, and justifies their Titles more than all their Furs and Robes and Ensigns of Honour. Zeal for Justice and orderly execution of it, is that which Deify; Magistrates, exalts their Stations, raiseth them above the common level of Mankind, sets a glory and a lustre upon their persons, makes them sit Objects of our Homage and Reverence; and we may justly affirm of such, that Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.  
But then on the other side, when Magistrates employ their Power to ends contrary to those for which it was given them, and make use of God's Authority in a way repugnant to his Will (i. e.) when they neglect the Works of Mercy and Justice, they are no more Gods but Idols, nay, the worst sort of Idols, which being made to represent, do yet foully reproach the divine Power. Idols did I say? perhaps you'll think them worse, when I tell you, that the Devil is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to invert the Order of things, to change their natural respects and Relations, to disgrace Virtue and countenance Vice, to put shame upon Integrity and security upon Sin, to punish the Innocent and favour the Guilty. And then whom such Magistrates are like, that are seduced by his Temptations, and corrupted by his Example, you'll find no great difficulty in making a conjecture; for it is impossible they should any way resemble God, because Justice is essential to his Nature, and can no more be separated from him, than he can be divided from himself.  
And must it not hence follow, that Justice which is so essential to God's Nature, must be more acceptable to him than Sacrifice which depended merely upon his Will? Is not God best pleased with himself, having all possible and conceivable Perfections and Excellencies within himself? And must not he then in an especial manner be delighted with those Duties, that are most like and agreeable to himself? that bear the Impress of his own Nature, the Character and Signature of his own Being? and is not Justice of this sort? does it not make us like God, and partakers of the Divine Nature? and do not Magistrates, who rule by his Authority, acquire by it a more exalted kind of Divinity, become Gods to the Public Weal, and subordinate Saviour's to the whole Kingdom? And this is sufficient to prove, that to do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice.  
III. To do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice is evident from the different ends of these two Duties. For Sacrifice was not enjoined for its own sake; but Justice always was, and is, and ever will be.  
First, Sacrifice was not enjoined for its own sake; For,  
1. Sacrifices were ordained to be Types of the Sacrifice of Christ, who was to be offered up in the Fullness of Time upon the Cross; they were instituted to be Figures and Shadows (silent Prophecies) of the death of the Messiah; and the virtue they had of expiating legal Gild, was a suitable Type of the infinite efficacy and meritoriousness of the Blood of the Son of God, which was a sufficient Expiation of the Moral and Eternal Gild of the Sins of all Mankind. This is clear from several places of the New Testament, and more especially from St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews.  
2. Sacrifices were enjoined to be as a Guard and Security for other Duties, to be as a Hedge and a Fence for the Moral Precepts, and especially to defend the Jews against Idolatry: for the Jews were an extremely vain and carnal people, and very prone to be in love with, and to follow the superstitions and idolatrous practices of the Gentiles; and therefore rather than God would suffer them to be enticed, and drawn away with the Vanities of the Heathens, he gratifies their childish humour by instituting a pompous way of Worship that was agreeable to their Infant-State and present weakness, and commands them to offer Sacrifice to himself the true God, lest otherwise through the example of the Gentiles they should have been tempted to have done it to Idols. And accordingly Justin Martyr saith particularly of the Sacrifices, That the end of them was to keep the Jews from Idolatry: and this also Trypho acknowledgeth, though he was a Jew, and one that vigorously asserted the Law, and mightily gloried in it. And Tertullian is of the same opinion concerning the end of their Institution, for he saith, Populum pronum Idololatriae 
Adu. Martion. l. 2.  ejusmodi officiis Religioni suae voluit astringere.  
And this shows that Sacrifices were not commanded for themselves, and that the goodness of this Duty was not Natural and Intrinsecal, but Relative and External, and depended merely upon the success that it had in promoting Duties of a higher Nature, and especially in securing the Jews against Idolatry.  
But now Justice always was, and is, and ever will be enjoined for its own sake: It has a natural Goodness and Beauty in it, which at all Times, and in all Ages recommends it to the practice of Mankind. Justice is one of those Duties, that is to be beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as Aristotle speaks) for its own self: It does not stand in need of any borrowed lustre to make us enamoured with it; but it's own proper goodness and intrinsique worth sufficiently bespeaks our Obligations to it, and shows that we cannot be unjust without ceasing in some degree to be men: For Justice is a Duty that ariseth from the Moral frame and constitution of our Souls, and we must offer violence to ourselves, if we be not just to others. He that does to another, what he would not have done to himself, affronts the Principles of his own Nature, and unsettles his own Peace by doing wrong to his Neighbour: for Conscience will recoil, when it finds its indisputable Maxim contradicted by a contrary practice; and a man creates a mighty uneasiness and disorder in his own mind, when he suffers the Flesh to resist the inbred Laws of his Spirit, and the Obligations to Justice to be run down by the Temptations of Revenge or Malice, Partiality or Passion, Covetousness or Cowardice. Nay, by this means a man does not only disturb the peace and tranquillity of his own mind, but he does more or less unhinge the public Quiet: for the security of Government, with the interest of all its members, doth so much depend upon the practice and distribution of Justice, that all contrary Acts do naturally tend to its dissolution. For wherein lies the difference betwixt a state of absolute Liberty, and a state of Government? but that in the one men live according to their boundless Lusts and Passions, but in the other they are directed by Laws, and restrained by Penalties: In the one unbridled Will and Appetite is the Principle by which they Act; in the other equitable Laws and prudent Institutions are the Measures and Rules of their conversations: The one is a state of Violence and Fraud, because all things are exposed to an Arbitrary Force and Power; the other a state of Peace and Settlement, because men's Rights are fixed and Properties determined and secured against all unjust attempts and invasions. So that Injustice, which introduceth a licentiousness and wildness of living, weakens the Pillars and saps the Foundations of Government; and because it contradicts the ends of Civil Society, and hinders all the blessed effects of it, men thereby become enemies to one another, exert all the hostilities of corrupt Nature and enraged Passions, and engage in a state of War either to defend or retrieve their Rights.  
And all this happens most certainly, when Magistrates and Judges, who by their Offices are designed to be Ministers of public Justice, become violaters of it; for though private injustice does but weaken the Sinews of Government, yet public Injustice does wholly unbind them; though private injustice is but as the removing a Pin out of a Building, yet public injustice is as the subversion of the Foundation itself. And as that man's case is desperate, and his recovery (without a miracle) impossible, whose Disease is grown to that height, that it masters all its Remedies, and converts the very Medicine into its own nourishment by assimilating it to its own Nature; so too it is a sad but sure Prognostic of the ruin and death of a State, when Magistrates, who ought to be Remedies of public Evils, become patterns of Corruption; when the Tribunal, which ought to be a Sanctuary for Innocency, is made a retreat for Villainy, and a shelter for Oppression; when the Sword of Justice, which is designed to heal the Wounds of the Commonwealth, has a keener edge set upon it only to make them wider. And therefore God, who well knew the fatal mischiefs of such a corrupt Ministry, when he formed a Republic among the Jews, and gathered them into an holy Commonwealth (over which he himself did immediately preside) he appointed such Rulers under him, as were filled with a Spirit of Wisdom and Courage, and inflamed with a Zeal for Justice; such as Moses and Joshuah, men that were furnished with all the excellent Graces and Qualities that are necessary for executing the best Laws, or for being eminent Examples of them.  
And as this may teach Magistrates how to behave themselves in their public Offices and Employments, so it may instruct all Corporations and lesser Societies, by what measures they ought to be governed in the choice of their Magistrates and Representatives; for though your Votes are your own, yet you ought not to dispose of them merely as you please, not as your private piques and aversations, or particular Friendships and Interests shall suggest unto you; but with a serious regard had to the common Good and public Welfare: for the Obligation that every man owes to the Public, and the Relation that every private person stands in to the whole Community, makes it his Duty to promote, as far as in him lies; its settlement and security; and consequently that he give his Voice for such to be Magistrates and Representatives, as he believes to be endued with Wisdom and Courage, and acted by Principles of Loyalty, Justice, and Religion: For as Religion in general is the best Reason of State, so Justice in particular does in a most effectual manner contribute to its growth and preservation; and the universal practice of it in the private members, and the impartial distribution of it in the public Ministers is the strength and ornament, the support and beauty of Government, nay, so essential is Justice to the Establishment and Interests of Society, that it is but to repeat an old Remark, to tell you, that Thiefs and Robbers think themselves obliged to preserve it among themselves. Those wicked Confederacies and Combinations (that are the Pests of public Weal) could not subsist without some seeming exercise of it among themselves; nor would they be able to carry on their unjust Designs upon the Public, except they were faithful to their unlawful Trusts, and just in the division of their unjust Spoils and Acquisitions. So that all Societies in this respect have the same common means of preservation, and what Cement is to a Building, that is Justice to a State; it binds and knits all the parts together, maintains the entireness of the Body, and keeps all its Members in a fixed condition and an established Peace.  
And this is sufficient to prove, that whereas Sacrifices were commanded with a respect to other Duties, Justice always was, and is, and ever will be enjoined for its own sake. And must not Justice then, which has its end in itself, be far more grateful and acceptable to God, than Sacrifice, whose goodness was merely relative, and depended upon its subserviency to other Duties? And though it be true, that among the Jews Sacrifice was a Duty as well as Justice, and though all Duties, that have the Authority of God's will for their practice, are pleasing to him; yet we must necessarily conclude, that those Duties are most acceptable to God, that are founded upon the strongest Reasons, and that carry their Obligations not in their accidental respects and mutable Relations, but in their own natural goodness, and unalterable Equity; and such is Justice and not Sacrifice.  
iv That Justice is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice is evident from the different effects of these two Duties. Now the effect of Sacrifices was the expiation of legal Gild; for God who by his Positive Will had made Natural Pollutions, accidental Diseases, the touching of a dead Body, etc. criminal and penal; ordained that the Gild contracted by those ways should be abolished by a Sacrifice, and the Offerer thereby restored to his legal Innocency and Privileges: And though the Sacrifice both argued and expiated Gild, yet had it no efficacy to Atone God's anger for sins of a deeper Gild and a profounder Malice; such as were Idolatry, Murder, Adultery, etc. for, for these no Sacrifices were appointed. But we find it otherwise in the distribution of Justice. An impartial Execution of that in Magistrates and Judges does not only put a stop to the growth and increase of sin, which provokes God's anger against a Nation, but it also appeaseth the Wrath, and disarms the Severity of God; and prevents the coming down of his dreadful Judgements upon a people for the most famous sins already committed. A famous instance of this Truth we have among the Israelites, whom God had smitten with a most grievous Plague, because they were guilty of two most grievous Sins, viz. Whoredom and Idolatry; and the Plague continued to devour till Justice was executed; but as soon as Phinehes acted by an extraordinary Spirit, and an extraordinary Zeal, nailed the Adulterous Couple to the Ground, and made them public Examples of Justice, because they had been so of sin, God 
Psal. 106. 30.  withdrew his hand, and the Plague was stayed.  
And as this shows that Justice is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifices; so it may teach all Princes and Magistrates (if they have any regard to the Public Weal and Prosperity of the Nation) to put on Justice as a Robe, and Righteousness as a Diadem, and to let all Offenders (of what Rank or Quality soever they are, either in respect of their Crimes or Persons) feel the deserved smart of their Rods, and the just severity of their Laws. For as this is the End of their Commission, and the Reason of their Institution, so they shall not only do good to their own Souls by such a faithful discharge of their Duty, but they shall also prove excellent Instruments of Happiness to the whole Kingdom, by delivering it from those Judgements that either are already come, or that are approaching. St. Austin tells us, that the mighty Success, and long Prosperity of the Romans was a Reward given them by God for their eminent Justice, Temperance, and other Virtues: and if we examine the Sacred Scriptures, we shall find no such sure Foundations of public Peace and Prosperity, as the due administration of Justice and Judgement. Solomon the wisest of Kings tells us, That if the wicked be taken from before the 
Prov. 25. 5.  King, his Throne shall be established in Righteousness; 
Prov. 29. 4.  That the King by Judgement establisheth 
29. 2.  the Land; That all the people rejoice, when the Righteous are in Authority; 
28. 2.  And by a man of Understanding the State of a Land is prolonged. And all this is true, not only upon the account of the natural tendency of the thing, but also of the Divine Favour and Benediction: it being the ordinary and usual method of God's Providence, to bless and prosper those Nations, that have pious and upright Governors, and to curse and punish those, that have vicious and corrupt Rulers.  
What Reason have we then to bless God, that live under so Excellent a Government, and so Just a Prince, that rather than Justice should not be administered, sends his Judges to our own homes, that so Justice (like the Sun, the great Minister in Nature) may visit all places, and influence all parts of the Nation with Light, Heat and Vigour? It was Darius' complaint, that his Empire was like a raw Bullhide, Tread it down in one place, and it would rise up in another; But God be praised, this Kingdom is subject to no such inconvenience, because Justice is sent into all parts of the Land at the same time, and Judgement is alike administered in every County, and by the Equality of the Distribution all is kept in an even frame, order and composure.  
And now what remains? but as we ought to be thankful for so great a Mercy, so we ought to pray to God to continue it to us, and to beseech him, who is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and the only Ruler of Princes, that all those, who bear any part in the Rule and Government of these Nations, may have their Hearts warmed with Zeal for Justice, and be ready upon all Occasions, in despite of all Temptations to the contrary, to use their Power and Authority for the punishment of Evil Doers, and for the praise of them that Do Well. Which God grant for Christ Jesus sake To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Might, Majesty, Dominion, Praise and Thanksgiving now and for ever.  
Amen.  
FINIS.   

Lately Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Amen-Corner.  

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