Chapter 10.

CHAPTER 10.

That Christ is the universal judge.

1. FROM works of grace and mercy proceed we to those of justice and judgment. “Who is this that cometh from Edom? with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like unto him that treadeth in the wine fat? I have trodden the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with me; and I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in my fury, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment: for the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my zeal it upheld me. And I trod down the people in mine anger, and made them drunk in my fury, and brought down their strength to the ground.”

2. Do we wish to see another description of this godlike personage, this captain of the Lord’s host? This generalissimo (shall I call him?) of the armies of heaven? or rather, this Jehovah Sabaoth, this Lord of armies? Then let us open the 19th chapter of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, by his servant John, and if the eyes of our understanding be not enlightened to see the glorious sight; if “he that commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath not shined in our hearts to show us the light of the glory of God, in the face (en eroswpw, in the person) of Christ Jesus;” let us at least attend to the highly-favoured disciple, who learned to know his Master by leaning on his bosom, and hearing the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. “I saw heaven opened, (says he,) and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and, [N. B.] HE HAD A NAME WRITTEN THAT NO MAN KNEW BUT HIMSELF: and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called THE WORD OF GOD. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God: and he hath on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

3. Such is the person who says, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” And who that considers these descriptions of his glory given by Isaiah and St. John, the most evangelical prophet, and the most enlightened apostle, can forbear to comply with the heavenly injunction, and honour him “even as they honour the Father,” by submitting to him, falling at his footstool, supplicating his mercy unto eternal life, and fleeing for refuge to him, the only hope set before lost and perishing sinners? And O! how necessary it is to do this without delay! How necessary to “kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and we perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled, yea, but a little!” how much more, when it burns with unabating fury! and the “great day of his wrath is come!” For then who shall be able to stand?

4. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so, Amen?” Revelation 1:7. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God,” 1 Thessalonians 4:16. “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory: and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another,” Matthew 24:29-31. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats,” Matthew 25:31, 32. “I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them: and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works,” Revelation 20:11, 12.

5. Now can we behold this glorious person, and doubt of his divinity? Can we see

On an empyreal, flying throne,

Awfully raised, heaven’s everlasting Son!

Virtue, dominion, praise, omnipotence,

Support the train of their triumphant prince!

Night shades the solemn arches of his brows,

And in his cheek the purple morning glows?

Can we (I say) fix our eyes upon him, and still pronounce that he is a mere man? Can we observe him as the “resurrection and the life,” manifesting infinite wisdom and almighty power, in raising from the dust of death the bodies of all mankind, and by a secret and invisible energy, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, forming those of his saints after a conformity to his own glorious body? Can we see them suddenly caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air? Can we view all nations gathered before him—all the posterity of Adam—all that have ever inhabited this spacious globe? Can we mark with what infinite discernment of the characters of men, founded on his perfect knowledge of the human heart, in all its unfathomable depths of deceit, and endless labyrinths of iniquity, in all its counsels and designs, motives and ends, thoughts and desires, he “separates them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats?” Can we observe the righteous justice wherewith he condemns the wicked to fiery torments, and that in exact proportion to their demerit, and the boundless mercy whereby he raises his followers to heavenly bliss, rewarding them, unworthy as they are, according to their works? Can we (I say) fix our eyes upon the Judge himself, and behold the most awful process of this most awful day, and remember that our eternal fate depends upon it, and yet believe that the Person upon the throne, before whose bar all nations of men, and legions of angels, tremble, and to whom, according to the prophecy, “every knee bows;” that he (I say) is but a mere man, and that a mere man determines the states, the final and everlasting states of all the immense multitudes of men, and the various ranks of fallen angels? Surely this would be a stretch of faith indeed, not to be found in the most orthodox believer in the Christian mysteries!

But let us hear the Scriptures upon this subject. They are so plain that it is hardly possible to mistake their meaning. “The mighty God, even Jehovah, (says the psalmist, Psalm 50:1,) hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above,” (viz. the inhabitants of heaven, the heavenly hosts, who will attend and minister unto him,) “and to the earth that he may judge his people. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is Judge himself.” Mark that word, “God is Judge himself,” even the same God, who, conversing with Abraham ages before, concerning the destruction of Sodom, is styled by him “Judge of all the earth,” and who, as a pledge of his future manifestation in the flesh, often appeared (as we have seen) in a visible human shape, to the patriarchs and prophets of old. Of him St. Paul speaks, when he says, that, “being in the form of God,” (viz. before his incarnation when he appeared to his ancient servants, in all ages from the beginning,) “he thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” being his very “word and wisdom, his face, effulgence,” and “express image,” assuming, as we have seen, all the Divine names, titles, and attributes, as belonging to him, in union with the Father; yet “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; being made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself” still more, “becoming obedient unto death, the death of the cross: therefore God also hath highly exalted him,” not only his Word that had glory with him before the world was, but the humanity assumed for our sakes, “and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and those in earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

7. It is not denied but that the Judge is man, yea, very man, and, as man, is distinct from pure and proper Deity: and to this, his manhood, the apostles often refer in the New Testament. As for instance, Acts 10:38-42, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him: whom they slew and hanged on a tree; him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly, and he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he that is ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and dead,” viz. he that was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, he whom they slew and hanged on a tree, he whom God raised up, and showed openly, even the “man Christ Jesus.” He is the appointed and visible Judge. But to prevent our mistaking, (were it possible to mistake in so plain a case,) to prevent our supposing that a mere man, however dignified and exalted, could, of himself, be able to judge all the ten thousand millions of men and angels, to know perfectly, and remember distinctly, every action of every individual of that immense multitude—every word, every temper, every desire, every thought; to discern and unfold all the secret workings of every heart—of every son and daughter of fallen Adam, and of every fallen angel; to bring to light all the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest all the counsels of the heart; to discover all the motives and ends, as well as words and works, schemes and pursuits arising therefrom, and to know and make known, the true state and character of every one, so as to pronounce a right sentence, and assign every saint and every sinner, every man and every angel, his proper share of praise or blame, happiness or misery: to prevent our mistaking (I say) in this case, we are repeatedly assured that the Divine nature is joined to the human, and that God (in and by his eternal Word and Wisdom) is with and in the man.

8. Thus St. Paul, preaching at Athens, declares, “God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof (says he) he hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead,” Acts 17:31. Again, Romans 2:16, “God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel.” So that God, in and by man, the Divine nature in and by the human, brings (as Solomon says) “every work into judgment, and every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Thus, though the dead, small and great, stand before a visible man, yet, as St. John assures us, they also “stand before God,” Revelation 20:12; and though “every knee of those in heaven, and those in earth, and those under the earth, bow, and every tongue confess” to that man whom God hath highly exalted; yet, in bowing and confessing to him, they bow and confess to God.

9. The man, therefore, the visible Judge, is not alone when he judges the world, any more than he was alone when he walked upon the water, rebuked the wind and the sea, said, “Lazarus, come forth; destroy this temple, [my body,] and in three days I will raise it up;” pronounced to the sick of the palsy, “Thy sins be forgiven thee;” proclaimed “I am the resurrection and the life. I quicken whom I will. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness. Where two or three are met in my name, I am there in the midst of them. I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Upon this rock I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” But as when he did these wonders, and pronounced these words, (too great, surely, for any creature to perform and pronounce,) the “Word that was in the beginning with God,” and in union with him, “was God,” dwelt in the human nature, and spoke and acted by that nature; and as the Father was in the Son, and the Son in the Father: so when he comes to judge the world in righteousness, the man does not come alone, but the “fulness of Deity” that dwelt, and does dwell, and ever will dwell in him bodily, comes along with him, and perceives, and knows, and speaks, and acts, in and by him, as much as the soul perceives, and knows, and speaks, and acts, in and by the body. So that, as David says, “God is, indeed, Judge himself;” and yet the man Jesus of Nazareth is appointed “Judge of quick and dead.”

10. And how exceeding reasonable and proper does all this appear to be, even to us, little as we know in Divine things! Hereby, first, the Judge is visible—he is a man like ourselves, and we may have access to him. We need not say, with Job 23:3, &c, “O! that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments: I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me, For he may reply, If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. Behold I am, according to thy wish, in God’s stead. I also was formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid; neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.”

“In this (says Bishop Pearson) appeareth the wisdom and goodness of God, that, making a general judgment, he will make a visible Judge, whom all may see who shall be judged. ‘Without holiness no man shall ever see God;’ and therefore if God, as God only, should pronounce sentence upon all men, the ungodly would never see their Judge. But that both the righteous and unrighteous might see and know who it is that judgeth them, Christ, who is both God and man, is appointed Judge: so, as he is man, all shall see him; and, as he is God, they only shall see him who by that vision shall enjoy him.

11. “And, secondly, whom can we desire to appear before, rather than Him, who is of the same nature with us? If the children of Israel could not bear the presence of God as a lawgiver, but desired to receive the law by the hand of Moses,—how should we appear before the presence of that God, judging us for the breach of that law, were it not for a better Mediator, of the same nature that Moses was, and we are of, who is our Judge?” Having dwelt in flesh, and in the days of his flesh, “having suffered, being tempted,” he perfectly knows our frame—knows what sore temptations mean, and is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” Beside, he is our near kinsman, our own brother, a descendant of our father Adam, of our flesh and of our bone; and, therefore, “for his affinity with our nature, for his sense of our infirmities, as well as for his appearance to our eyes, he is most fit to represent the greatest mildness and sweetness of equity, in the severity of that just and irrespective judgment.

12. “Nor is this a reason only in respect of us who are to be judged, but, thirdly, in regard of Him also who is to judge; for we must not look only upon his being the Son of man, but also what he did and suffered as Son of man. He humbled himself so far as to take upon him our nature; in that nature, so taken, he humbled himself to all the infirmities which that was capable of—to all the miseries which this life could bring—to all the pains and sorrows which the sins of all the world could cause; and, therefore, in regard of his humiliation, did God exalt him; and part of the exaltation due unto him was this power of judging. The Father, therefore, who is only God, and never took upon him either the nature of men or angels, “judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son;” and the reason why he hath committed it to him is, “because he is” not only the Son of God, and truly God, but also the Son of man, and so truly man; because he is the Son of man, who suffered so much for the sons of men.”

13. And “certainly it is a demonstration of the justice of God, so highly to reward that Son of man as to make him Judge of all the world, who came into the world, and was judged here; to give him absolute power of absolution and condemnation, who was by us condemned to die, and died that he might absolve us; to cause all the sons of men to bow before his throne, who did not disdain, for their sakes, to stand before the tribunal, and receive that sentence, ‘Let him be crucified.’“ He, therefore, who “for the suffering of death was made a little lower than the angels,” nay, lower than the generality of men,—who was arraigned as a criminal at the bar of Pilate, and expired as a malefactor on a cross on Calvary, is now rewarded and crowned with glory and honour, comes in the clouds of heaven, sits on a throne of judgment, summons all nations to his bar, and passes an irreversible sentence on men and angels!

14. In the meantime, fourthly, his enemies are humbled and degraded, by being placed at the bar of a man, once poor, mean, and afflicted; whom, in former days, they despised and insulted, hated and persecuted, arrested, tried, condemned, and crucified. “They who pierced him, now wail because of him; and they who would not have him to reign over them, are now brought forth and slain before him.”

Well might Daniel say, “They shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt!” For, surely, they shall be ashamed and confounded, to bow to him whom they deemed a lunatic—to stand at the bar of him whom they arraigned at theirs—and to receive their sentence, their final, irreversible sentence, from the lips of one whom they formerly condemned to the most ignominious and disgraceful of all deaths.

Nor man alone; the foe of God and man,

From his dark den, blaspheming, drags his chain,

And rears his brazen front, with thunder scared,

Receives his sentence, and begins his hell.

All vengeance past, now seems abundant grace!

Like meteors in a stormy sky, how roll

His baleful eyes! he curses, whom he dreads,

And deems it the first moment of his fall.

Milton supposes that he fell through refusing allegiance to God’s Messiah, to the Word and only begotten of the Father, concerning whom he says, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” If so, if he refused to acknowledge him as Lord, by whom himself and all the heavenly hierarchies had been created, though appearing in a nature superior to angels in his “form of God,”—how must it mortify that proud spirit, and all the associates of his revolt, to bow at the footstool of the same person, when united to flesh, and inhabiting a nature formed out of the clay!

15. As to Christ’s loyal subjects, fifthly, whether men that have been restored, or angels that never fell,—how must they applaud the wisdom, revere the justice, and rejoice in the mercy and grace of this dispensation! The holy angels must rejoice to see one so exalted and honoured, toward whom they had maintained their allegiance, when millions of their companions revolted and rebelled;—one, whose amazing condescension and love to mankind, when immersed in sin and ruin, they had admired and glorified; of whose wonderful birth they had brought tidings to our world; whom they had constantly attended, and to whom they had ministered in the days of his humiliation, when he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and of whose agony in the garden, and tragical death upon Mount Calvary, they had been witnesses,—and whom, therefore, they now rejoice to see upon a throne of glory, judging his judges, and passing sentence upon all the enemies of his government.

For lo! now, twice ten thousand gates thrown wide,

Pour forth their myriads, potentates, and powers,

Of light, of darkness; in a middle field,

Wide as creation! populous as wide!

A neutral region! there to mark th’ event

Of that grand drama, whose preceding scenes

Detain’d them close spectators, through a length

Of ages, ripening to this grand result;

Ages as yet unnumber’d but by God;

Who now, pronouncing sentence, vindicates

The rights of virtue, and his own renown.

As for his own brethren of mankind, as he condescended to call them, they acknowledge the reasonableness, and praise the wisdom of the appointment, whereby he who bore their sins, acquits their persons, who preserved them from falling, presents them faultless before the presence of his glory, and who purchased heaven for them with its various mansions, determines their happiness, and assigns each individual his proper and proportionate reward. They were under his government on earth, and he was always present with them, searching their hearts, observing their works, affording them aid, and exactly marking all their advantages and disadvantages, their helps and hinderances: they own, therefore, that he is perfectly qualified to be their judge, and applaud the righteous and equitable appointment, acknowledging that God is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works! Indeed, assembled worlds will see and confess the equity of his proceedings, and men and angels unite in one great burst of universal praise!

O! how sublime the chorus of the skies!

O! how sublime these shouts of joy that shake

The whole ethereal! how the concave rings!

To see creation’s god-like aim and end

So well accomplish’d! so Divinely closed!

To see the mighty dramatist’s last act

(As meet) in glory rising o’er the rest.

No fancied God, a God, indeed, descends,

To solve all knots—to strike the moral home—

To throw full day on darkest scenes of time—

To clear, commend, exalt, and crown the whole.

Hence, in one peal of loud, eternal praise,

The charm’d spectators thunder their applause;

And the vast void beyond applause resounds!

16. “And I heard a voice of much people in heaven, saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory, and honour and power unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the earth, and avenged the blood of his servants; and again they said, Hallelujah! and the four and twenty elders, and the four living creatures, fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen! Hallelujah! And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her it was granted, that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: now the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto me, write, Blessed are they that are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true savings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship; and he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God,” Revelation 19:1-10.

17. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And 1 John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people: and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new: and he said unto me, Write. for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst, of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh, shall inherit all things: I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”

18. “And he showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God, and of the Lamb, shall be in it, [the city,] and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads: and there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever. And 1 John saw these things, and heard them, and when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel that showed me these things. Then he saith unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant; worship God. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the Churches. I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. He that testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen! even so. Come Lord Jesus!”