Bishop Challoner's Meditations - January 29th

ON THE DISMAL HAVOC SIN HAS MADE IN THE WORLD

Consider first, the havoc this monstrous evil of wilful sin, made in its first conception, in heaven itself, when one sin, consented to but in thought, changed in an instant millions of most beautiful Angels into ugly devils, cast them out of heaven, and condemned them eternally to hell. O dreadful poison, that can thus blast in a moment so many legions of heavenly spirits! O dreadful guilt, that can draw such dismal and irrevocable judgment from a God, (whose very nature is goodness, and who loves all his works,) upon his favourite creatures! and thou, my soul, that knowest this, how didst thou ever dare to sin, and how hath thy God been able to endure thee, under the guilt of so many treasons?

Consider 2ndly, the havoc sin has made upon earth, when this monster, banished from heaven, was entertained by our first parents, in the earthly paradise. Alas! in one moment it strips them and all their race of that original justice, innocence, and sanctity in which they were created, and of all the gifts of divine grace; it wounded them in all the powers of the soul; it gave them up to the tyranny of Satan; it cast them out of paradise, and condemned them both to a temporal and eternal death. In the meantime it let loose upon them a whole army of all manner of evils, both of soul and body, which are all of them the dismal consequences of sin, and has entailed upon all mankind an inexpressible weakness with regard to the doing of good, and a violent inclination to evil; which has filled the world with innumerable sins, and with innumerable most dreadful judgments, both upon individuals and upon whole nations, in punishment of sins.

Consider 3rdly, that sin, by infecting and corrupting so many of the principal creatures of God, has in some measure blasted the whole creation, and subjected the whole to many evils, which the apostle (Rom. viii. 20, 21,) calls 'the servitude of corruption;' as also vanity, inasmuch as by occasion of sin, they are also liable to a perpetual instability, and a variety of defects. Hence the whole creation, by a figure of speech, is said by the apostle to groan and be in labour, longing as it were for its deliverance, from its unhappy subjection to sin - 'into the liberty of the glory of the children of God;' which shall then be accomplished, when the reign of sin shall be utterly abolished; and the world being purged by the last fire, God shall make for his children 'new heavens, and a new earth, in which justice shall dwell,' 2 Pet. iii. 13. O when shall that happy hour come? When shall this hellish monster, sin, be for ever excluded from all other parts of the creation, and shut up in its proper place, never to come out to blast the world any more?

Conclude to abhor the evil that has made such dreadful havoc both in heaven and earth, and to spare no pains for the abolishing of it, both in thyself and in all others.