What is condemnation ?
To be condemned is to be adjudged from the presence of God, and to be adjudged ft to eternal torment with the devil and his angels. It were somewhat unseasonable to enlarge this point ; but I beseech 3-0U consider what is wrapped in this word ' condemned, '^j ' condemned with the world ;'
* ' Love' not in B, C — G.
t ' Where our joy and delight is' not in B, C. — G.
X ' But . . . before' not in B, C. After ' we may have' there is ' therefore.' — G. i ' Sways' in B, C. -G.
II The paragraph ' Everything I say' ... to ' useth to speak' not in B, C. — G. ^ ' 1 beseech ynu, let us examine ourselves by what I have said and considered, that,' &c., in B, C.— G.
** ' I beseech yoii' not in B, C . . . nor ' the Scripture saith,' &c. — G. tt ' Cast ' in B, C— G. JJ ' Condemned ' not in B, 0.— G.
judgment's reason. 103
that so if we hate the end, damnation, we may hate the way that leads to it, the ways of the world. But to go on.
Doct. The second general is this, that God's children shall not be condemned with the irorld.
Quest. Why ?
Ans. 1. Became they are the first-fruits dedicated to God out of the world, and Christ was condemned for them. How can they be condemned for whom Christ himself ■<• was condemned ?
Ans. 2, And then af/odhj man in the state of r/race, he is in heaven alreadij ; and who shall pull him from heaven ? How can he be condemned that is in heaven already ? We sit in heavenly places alreadj-. Beloved, to hold that an elect Christian may fall away, is to pull Christ himself out of heaven ; we are in heaven already in Christ. A Christian being a member of Christ cannot be condemned, no more than Christ can be condemned, b.e it spoken ^A^ith reverence to his majesty.
Ans. 3. Again, for whom Christ is a priest, he is a kivff. He is a king to rule them in this world, and to subdue whatsoever might oppose their sal- vation. Whom he hath bought with his blood as a priest, he rules as a king, and orders all things to help their salvation. "Wliere Christ is a king, for those he is a priest, f Can those be condemned then ? | And he vouchsafes them a spirit stronger than the world. God's children have a spirit in them that overcomes the world : ' Stronger is he that is in you,' saith John, ' than he that is in the world,' 1 John iv. 4. For the Spirit of God suggests reasons, and arguments, and motives that are stronger to a believing soul than the temptations of the world ai*e ; the world biasseth them one way, and the Spirit of God another way. The children of God have the Spirit of God, especially a spirit of faith, therefore they overcome the world. It presents better things in religion than the world can afford. Now those that have the Spirit of God, and a spirit of faith, by which they overcome the world, how can they be condemned with the world ? And God takes a safe course with his children.
Note. That they may not be condemned with the world, he makes the world to condemn them ; that they may not love the world, he makes the world to hate them ; that they may be crucified to the world, he makes the world be cracified to them. Therefore they meet with crosses, and abuses, and wrongs in the world. Because he will not have them perish with the world, he sends them afflictions in the world, and by the world. Thus I might enlarge myself in the condition of God's people, of his saints ; § they shall not be condemned with the wicked world.
Use. The use of it is this, that we should be in love with the state of God's people.\\ Who would not be in love with this condition? I may boldly speak it, my beloved. The meanest poor soul that hath the work of grace upon it, that is taken out of the world, is in a better condition than the greatest worldling. Let a man be as happy as a world ^ can make him ; if he be a condemned man, what is his condition ? All the time that other men live, that are not in the state of grace, it is but the time between the sentence passing and the execution. Now, that is but a little time. The life of a carnal man, it is but the life of a man condemned at the bar, and is deferred for the execution awhile. Another man, that is in the
-» ' Himself in B, C— G. t ' Where Christ . . . priest,' not in B, C— G.
X ' Wliom Christ vouchsafes a spirit,' &c., in B, C. — G.
§ ' Of his saints ' not in B, O.—Gt. H ' The world' in B, C— G.
I 'Holy men' in B, C— G.