An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

Thirdly, Judgment in Scripture is put for the reformation of things when they are out of order. In this sense it is used (John 12.31.) Now is the Judgment of this world. Our late Annotators tell us, that by Judgment is meant reformation: As if Christ had said, I am come to set all things in order, that have been out of order and disjointed in the Jewish Church, and every where else; Now is the Judgment of this world. In this sense God is excellent in Judgment, or he excels in this Judgment, that is, he is for reformation, he will set all things right, he will make crooked things strait, he will make the rough places plain. John the Baptist came before Christ in this work, yet in this work Christ is before or exceeds John the Baptist. The Lord (Isa. 4.4.) will purge away the iniquity of the daughter of Zion with a spirit of Judgment, and with a spirit of burning, that is, with a reforming and a refining Spirit: And the Lord will send forth this Judgment unto victory (Matth. 12.20.) that is, he will do it thoroughly, he will ove• come all the difficulties, and put by all the obstacles which hinder the perfect reforma ion of things as well as •f persons. That's the importance also of that great promise (Isa. 1.25, 26.) I (saith the Lord) will turn my hand upon thee (or take thee in hand) a•d purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin, (that is, all those corruptions which have crept in upon thee) & I will restore thy Judges as at the first, and thy Councillors as at the beginning: Things and persons are usually best at first. The new broom (•ay we) swept clean. As time consumes all things here below, so it corrupts most things; and therefore when the Lo•d promiseth to restore them to a primitive purity, he promiseth the purest restoration; all which is summed up in the 27th verse, Zion shall be redeemed with Judgment; which is not only, if at all, intended of a redemption by Judgment on her enemies, but by that reformation which •od would work upon themselves, in taking away their dross and tin, Restoring their Judges as at the first, and their Counsellors as at the beginning. Such a Judgment is spoken of (