[2.] A second reason why the world must be condemned is this, because they serve a damned prince, and it is pity that the state of the subject and the state of the prince should be severed. Satan they serve ; Satan rules in them according to his own lust ; Satan bathes himself in their humour as it were, in their anger, in their pride [in their covetousness"^'*], in their melancholy, in their passion. As Saul, when he was given up to an evil passion, the devil seized upon him ; so the devil leads them according to the stream of their own humom* and of their own lusts ; they are led
* No ' that' in B, C.—G.
t ' The world of unejodly' omitted in B, C. — G.
X ' Therefore . . . world' not in B, C.—G. || ' The worldly men pitch' in B, 0.— G. § ' Why' not in B, C.—G. *i ' Are' added in B, C.—G.
** ' In their covetousness' added, and ' in their melancholy' omitted in B, C. — G.
judgment's eeason. 99
according to the bent of the prince of the world.* Now, being led by the temptations of Satan, who knows where to have them upon any temptation, and leads them as we lead sheep with a green bough, when he presents anything to them, he knows where to have them ; and he being a damnedf prince and governor, all that are under him are in the same condition.
[3.] The tJiird reason why the world shall be damned is this, because the world condemns God. It is but quittance. Carnal people in the world condemn God's ways and God's children, and the ways of religion to be nice:|: and foolish. The world hath its conceits of itself, and scorns the sweetness of religion, and accounts the word and obedience to be a weak and poor spirit. §Considering that the w'orld passeth such censures upon God's ways, and condemns the generation of the righteous, if God condemn the world, do you wonder, when the base and slavish world, led by the devil and by their own lusts, will condemn God and his ways '? And certainly, if you would see into the poisonful disposition of persons among whom we live, that are yet in the world, how malicious they are to God's courses, you will not wonder that God hath ordained such to be set on the left hand, to pass the sentence of eternal condemnation upon them ; because though the light discover to them which way they should walk, yet they abhor all God's ways, and take ways of their own : as if they would teach God wisdom, and prescribe what he should do ; as if they were wiser than God. All your politicians they |i are such : the}^ lead their lives as if they would teach God wisdom : what he should prescribe ; as if they were wiser than he a great deal. Do you wonder that he condemns them [then] ?^
Ohj. But you will say, ' the world?'** What do you talk ? We are baptized. We hear now and then a sermon ! Are we the world ? The world are Pagans, and Turks, and Jews, and such ; perhaps papists. Such as they are the world.
Ans. Oh no, beloved, ' Babylon is in Jerusalem,' as the father saith,tt the world is in the city of God, the world is among you. Nay, and that part of the world that shall be deepest damned is here amongst us. For our damnation shall be deeper than the Turks' or Jews'. 'You have I known of all the nations of the world, saith God ; and therefore I will be sm-e to visit you,' Amos iii. 2. The three bad grounds, +| beloved, were the world, Mat. xiii. 1, seq. Howsoever, all heai'd the word, yet there was but one good. You may be of the world, and yet live in the midst of the church, as Paul, Phil. iii. 18, seq., complains of many, ' of whom, saith he, I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, they are enemies to the cross of Christ,' [they were teachers in the church ; they were so far from being aliens], 'whose end is damnation, whose belly is their god, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things.' When the guides and teachers of the church, that should give aim ats§ salvation to other people ; when they shall make ' then- belly their god, and damnation their end ;' shall we secure ourselves that we are in a good estate, because we are bap- tized, and because we hear the word ; when the ' three bad gi'ounds' did so ? It is another manner of matter to be out of the world, and to be in Christ, than the world takes it for. Beloved, in holy duties there are two
* ' Tkey are led . . . of the world' omitted in B, C— G. t That is, ' condemned-' — G. ** ' The world' omitted in B, C. — G
X Cf. Note c, Vol. II. p. 194— G. ft Angnstine do Civitate Dei.— G.
§ ' Now considering' in B, C. — G. %% ' Beloved' not in B, C— G.