January 29 — 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 canst thus blast in a moment so many legions of heavenly spirits I O dreadful guilt, that canst draw such a 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 knewest this, how didst thou ever dare to sin? And bow hath thy God been able to endure thee under the guilt of so many treasons 1

Consider, secondly, 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 strip ped them and all their race of that original justice, innocence and sanctity in which they were created, and of all the gifts oi 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 mean time, 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 man kind an unexpressible weakness with regard to the doing oi good, and a violent inclination to evil, which has filled the world with innumerable sins, and with innumerable most dreadful judgments, both upon particulars, and upon whole Rations punishment of sin.

Consider, thirdly, 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 inasmuch as God’s creatures are abused by men and devils, and made subservient to sin and 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 to 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 ixod; which shall then be accomplished, when the reign of sin shall be utterly abolished; and, the world being purg by the last fire, God shall make for his children new heavens and a new earth, in which justice shall dwell. 2 Peter 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.