Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/33

 III. Apply these  reflections  to  yourself. Reflect, 1. What gifts  and  benefits  you  have  received  from  God. 2. How  you  have  abused  them,  even  against  God  Himself. 3. The  sin  of  the  angels  was  but  one,  and  the  sin of a  moment;  your  sins  deliberate  and  innumerable  in thought,  word,  and  deed. Wonder, lament,  and  implore mercy.

I. Consider  the  happy  state  in  which  Almighty  God created Adam  and  Eve. 1. They  were  created  "to  the likeness  of  God,"  and  endowed  with  free-will. 2. They were then  immortal  and  not  subject  to  any  misery. 3. They were  supplied  with  abundant  graces. 4. Their  inferior appetites  were  perfectly  subject  to  reason,  in  consequence of  the  original  justice  which  they  possessed. 5. Nothing  was  wanting,  nothing  more  could  be  desired, in Paradise  in  which  they  dwelt. 6. From  Paradise  they were destined  to  ascend  to  heaven,  without  dying  or experiencing  the  pains  which  mortals  now  suffer  when they leave  this  world. How happy  should  we  be,  had they never  sinned!

II. They were  commanded  to  abstain  from  the  fruit of a  certain  tree. How easy  the  command! But Satan induced the  curious  Eve,  and  she  her  husband,  to  transgress the  divine  injunction;  they  were  immediately  deprived of  the  ornaments  of  grace,  and  they  fell  under  the dreadful sentence,  "Dust  thou  art  and  unto  dust  thou shalt  return." (Gen. iii.  19.)  What  misfortunes  has  this sin entailed  on  mankind,  and  yet  the  transgression  seems trivial! — How terrible  must  sin  be!

III. How much  severer  punishments,  and  how  much more terrible  judgments,  you  have  deserved,  who  have