Now, in the Hebrew language, ordinarily, wise government is called judgment (/>). He shall declare judgment, that is, his manner of government, he shall declare it by his Spirit, and cause our spirits to submit to it.
And, indeed, grace is caUed judgment, in the phrase of Scripture, the grace of sanctification, because it is agreeable to judgment, to God's law. it is agreeable to it, and wrought by it in the soul, and it is the best judg- ment. For grace whereby the soul is subject to the judgment and law and
A DESCRIPTION OF CKEIST. 27
rule of God, it must needs be the best judgment, because it is agreeable to God's judgment. Grace judgeth aright of things, and subdues all things, the affections and inward man to itself.
But why is the word of God called judgment ?
It is called so frequently in the Psalms, and in other places of Scripture, because the truth of God shews what God doth judge. Judgment is originally in God, who is the first truth and the first good. The first truth judgeth best of truths ; what is light and what is darkness, what is truth and what is error, what is good and what is ill, what is safe and what is dangerous. All will grant that God is the first light and the first truth ; therefore, he doth originally judge of the difference of things ; for even as in the creation he put an eternal difference between hght and darkness, and severed things that were in the confused chaos, and estabhshed an orderly world, that heaven should be above, and earth below, that one thing should be above another, and all in judgment ; so in the governing of mankind, he shews his judgment by his word, and that word shews how God judgeth of things. Laws shew judgment, what is to be done, and what is not to be done. The gospel shews God's judgment, what he will have us believe and hope for, and how we must carry ourselves in way of thankfulness. If we do this, then the gospel, the word of God, judgeth what shall become of us ; 'we shall be saved,' Mark svi. 16. If we do the contraiy, the word again judgeth what oui* state shall be, ' we shall be damned,' ibid. So it is called judgment, because it judgeth what is good and what is ill, and because it determineth what shall become of us if we obey or disobey.
Hereupon it is that the word of God is a glass wherein we may see our own condition infallibly, what will become of us. The word of God judgeth thus : he that lives in such and such sins shall come to this end, God will inflict these and these judgments upon him. Judgment, in the first place, is, You shall do this and this, because it is good. Judgment, in the second place, is. Because you have not done this, this shall befall you. So the evangelical judgment of the gospel is this, ' He that repents and believes shall not perish, but have everlasting life,' John iii. 15 ; but he that arms and furnisheth his heart to rebellion, he shall perish in his sins, ' He that believeth not is condemned already, the wrath of God hangs over his head,' John iii. 18. So from this, that God's truth is called judgment, we may know how to judge of ourselves, even as God judgeth in his word. We may see our own faces and conditions there. He that is a man of death may see it in the word, and ho that is appointed for happiness may there see his condition.
Again, not only the word of God, the gospel, which is out of us in the book of God, is called judgment, but the work of God in the soul, sanctifi- cation, is called judgment. Hence, we may observe what is the most judicious course in the world, the most judicious frame of soul, when it is framed to the judgment and truth of God, being the first truth. When a man is sanctified and set in a holy frame, it is fi'om a sanctified judgment. The flesh is subject to the Spuit. Here is all in a gracious order. The baser part doth not rule the higher, but the higher part of the soul, a sanctified judgment, rules all, because the whole is in right judgment. Therefore, sanctification is called judgment, and other courses, though they be never so fashionable, are but madness and folty and disorder in the cen- sure in the Scripture. Nothing is judgment and true wisdom, but sanctifi- cation and obedience flowing fi-om sanctification. Therefore, saith Moses, in Deut. iv. 6, ' Then shall you be known to be a wise people when you
28 A DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST.
obey the laws that I have given you.' Only that, shews a wise, judicious man to be obedient to God's truth by the Spirit sanctifying him. Without the truth of God and the Spirit in us, framing our souls answerable to the truth, we are out of all good order ; for then the affections that should be ruled, rule us ; then the body and the lusts of the body rule the soul ; and the devil rules by both. What a shameful disorder is this, when a man shall be ruled by the devil and his own lusts, that he should tread under feet and trample upon ! And this is the state of all that have not this judgment in them, that have not the word of God written in their hearts, bowing and bending them by the Sphit of God to spiritual obedience. To prove this, I wiU name but one place among many, Tit. iii. 3 ; he shews the state of all men that are not brought into subjection by this judgment, by the word and Spirit of truth. We, om'selves, saith he, ' were sometimes foolish and disobedient ;' till this judgment is set up in us, we are foolish in our understandings, and disobedient in our wills and affections, deceived and misled by the devil and om* own lusts : for that foUows upon folly. Those that are foohsh and disobedient are deceived and led away to eternal destruction. ' There is a way that seems good in a man's own eyes, but the issues of it are death,' saith Solomon, Prov. xiv. 12. This is the state of all men that are not led with the judgment of God's truth and Spirit, sanctifying and framing their souls to obedience, they are foohsh and disobedient and deceived, and so it will prove with them in the end, ' serving diverse lusts, and pleasures, Uving in malice and envy, hating one another,' Titus iii. 3. Now when God by his blessed truth and Spirit sets up his rule in the heart, it brings all into captivity ; as St Paul saith, it brings all the inner man into subjection : ' The word of God is the weapon of God ; these judgments are mighty in operation, together with the Spirit, to beat down all strongholds and to set up another judgment there ; it brings all into captivity to the truth and command of God, and to the motions of the Spirit, 2 Cor. x. 4, 6 (c). The word and Spirit beat down all the strongholds that are raised up in the heart by Satan, and our cor- ruptions. So we see here what is meant by this phrase, ' he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles.' It is a mihtant word, therefore I have stood somewhat the longer in unfolding of it.