John 16:11

"Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." Here again He mooteth the argument concerning righteousness, that He had overthrown His opponent. Now had He been a sinner, He could not have overthrown him; a thing which not even any just man had been strong enough to do. "But that he hath been condemned through Me, they shall know who trample on him hereafter, and who clearly know My Resurrection, which is the mark of Him who condemneth him. For he was not able to hold Me. And whereas they said that I had a devil, and that I was a deceiver, these things also shall hereafter appear to be false; for I could not have prevailed against him, had I been subject to sin; but now he is condemned and cast out."

(de Verb. Dom. s. lxi) It follows, Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged: i. e. the devil, the prince of the wicked, who in heart dwell only in this world which they love. (s. lx). He is judged in that he is cast out; and the world is reproved of this judgment; for it is vain for one who does not believe in Christ to complain of the devil, whom judged, i. e. cast out, and permitted to attack us from without, only for our trial, not men only but women, boys and girls, have by martyrdom overcome.

(Tr. xcv) Or, is judged, i. e. is destined irrevocably for the punishment of eternal fire. And of this judgment is the world reproved, in that it is judged with its prince, the proud and ungodly one whom it imitates. Let men therefore believe in Christ, lest they be reproved of the sin of unbelief, by which all sins are retained; pass over to the number of the believing, lest they be reproved of the righteousness of those whom justified they do not imitate; beware of the judgment to come, lest with the prince of this world whom they imitate, they too be judged.

(de Qu. V. et N. Test. qu. 89) The devils seeing souls go from hell to heaven, knew that the prince of this world was judged, and being brought to trial in the Saviour's cause, had lost all right to what he held. This was seen on our Saviour's ascension, but was declared plainly and openly in the descent of the Holy Ghost on the disciples.

He will also reprove it "of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." Who is this, save he of whom He saith in another place, "Behold, the prince of the world cometh, and shall find nothing in me;" that is, nothing within his jurisdiction, nothing belonging to him; in fact, no sin at all? For thereby is the devil the prince of the world. For it is not of the heavens and of the earth, and of all that is in them, that the devil is prince, in the sense in which the world is to be understood, when it is said, "And the world was made by Him;" but the devil is prince of that world, whereof in the same passage He immediately afterwards subjoins the words, "And the world knew Him not;" that is, unbelieving men, wherewith the world through its utmost extent is filled: among whom the believing world groaneth, which He, who made the world, chose out of the world; and of whom He saith Himself, "The Son of man came not to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." He is the judge by whom the world is condemned, the helper whereby the world is saved: for just as a tree is full of foliage and fruit, or a field of chaff and wheat, so is the world full of believers and unbelievers. Therefore the prince of this world, that is, the prince of the darkness thereof, or of unbelievers, out of whose hands that world is rescued, to which it is said, "Ye were at one time darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord:" the prince of this world, of whom He elsewhere saith, "Now is the prince of this world cast out," is assuredly judged, inasmuch as he is irrevocably destined to the judgment of everlasting fire. And so of this judgment, by which the prince of the world is judged, is the world reproved by the Holy Spirit; for it is judged along with its prince, whom it imitates in its own pride and impiety. "For if God," in the words of the Apostle Peter, "spared not the angels that sinned, but thrust them into prisons of infernal darkness, and gave them up to be reserved for punishment in the judgment," how is the world otherwise than reproved of this judgment by the Holy Spirit, when it is in the Holy Spirit that the apostle so speaketh? Let men, therefore, believe in Christ, that they be not convicted of the sin of their own unbelief, whereby all sins are retained: let them make their way into the number of believers, that they be not convicted of the righteousness of those, whom, as justified, they fail to imitate: let them beware of that future judgment, that they be not judged with the prince of the world, whom, judged as he is, they continue to imitate. For the unbending pride of mortals can have no thought of being spared itself, as it is thus called to think with terror of the punishment that overtook the pride of angels.