Richard Challoner

“ Consider, that the almighty hand of God, descending into that deep abyss of nothing, has drawn thee forth from thence, and given thee this being which thou now enjoyest, the most accomplished and perfect of any in this visible world, capable of knowing and loving God in this life, and designed for everlasting happiness with him in the next. Admire and adore the bounty of thy God, who from all eternity has designed this being for thee, preferably to so many millions of others which he has left behind, that had as fair a title to a being as thou hadst. ”

“ Consider, if one short night seems so long and tedious to a poor sick man in a burning fever; if he tosses and turns, and no where finds rest; if he counts every hour, and with so much impatience longs for the morning, which yet will bring him but little relief or comfort: what must this dreadful night of eternity be, accompanied with all the interior and exterior torments of hell! No man in his senses would purchase a kingdom, at the rate of lying for ten years on a soft bed without coming off. ”

“ He has thought of thee from all eternity:
he has loved thee from all eternity: all the blessings and favours which he has bestowed upon thee in time, he designed for thee from all eternity; they are all the consequences of his eternal love for thee. Is it possible that so great a God, the most high and the most holy, who dwells in eternity, should set his affections upon such a poor sinful worm of the earth? Is it possible, my soul, that thou shouldst have had a place from all eternity in the heart of thy God ”

“ Consider, Christian soul, whoever thou art, the particular providence of God towards thee! With how many graces he has presented thee from thy tender years: from how many misfortunes he has preserved thee! Has he not borne with thee for a long time, whilst others have been cut off in their sins? Are there not millions now burning in hell for less sins than thou hast committed? Reflect on the advantages thou hast received above thousands: what conveniencies of life, what friends, what health &c; whilst so many, more worthy than thyself, have been abandoned to poverty and misery. ”

“ See, my soul, how these hell-hounds spit in thy Saviour's face, and disgorge their filthy phlegm on that sacred forehead, where beauty and majesty sit: see, how they buffet, kick and strike him with merciless rage, whilst he with his hands tied behind him, is not able to ward off one blow, nor has any friend there to wipe his face, or afford him any other help. ”

“ Death, judgment, heaven, and hell, make but little impression upon them, because they don't give them time to sink deep into their souls by the means of serious Consideration. They run on, with their eyes shut, to the precipice of a miserable eternity, and only, then begin to think, when they find themselves lodged in that place of woe, where "their worm shall never die, and fire shall never be quenched." ”

“ Was it not thou, who hast given that strength and courage to thy martyrs, not even to shrink under the worst of torments? And wert thou thyself afraid? But, O dear Lord, I plainly understand that it was by thy own choice, that thou didst condescend so far as to let thyself be seized by this mortal anguish. It was for my instruction; and that thou mightest suffer so much the more for me. I adore thee under this weakness, (if I may be allowed to call it so) no less than on thy throne of glory: because it is here, that I better discover thy infinite love for me. ”

“ There was not in the whole universe a creature more beautiful, more perfect, more accomplished with all kinds of gifts, both of nature and grace, than was the bright angel Lucifer and his companions: yet one mortal sin, and that only consented to in thought, changed them in an instant to ugly devils, just objects of horror and abomination to God and man. What effect, think ye, will sin have upon man, who is but dust and ashes, if it blast so foully the stars of heaven? ”

“ Christians, it is under this intolerable burthen that your Saviour faints and falls down. Nor is he any way eased of this merciless load by Symon of Cyrene, who was compelled to take up the cross, but bore no part of the weight of our iniquities; all which the heavenly Father laid upon his beloved Son, to be cancelled with his blood and death. O infinite goodness of the Father! O infinite charity of the Son! to do and suffer so much for wretched man. O my soul, see thou never more be ungrateful to so loving a God. ”

“ The fire of this world cannot subsist without being nourished by some combustible matter, which it quickly despatches and consumes: the fire of hell, kindled by the breath of an angry God, requires no other fuel than sin; and feeds on this without ever decaying or consuming. Oh! dreadful stain of sin, which suffices to maintain an everlasting fire! The fire of this world can only reach the body: the fire of hell reaches the soul itself, and fills it with the most exquisite torments. ”

“ Consider, that God, being everywhere requires of us that we should everywhere take notice of his presence. Can there be an object more worthy of our attention? And shall we then be so unfortunately blind, as to amuse ourselves about every trifle that comes in our way, and let our God, the sovereign beauty and sovereign good, pass unregarded? Ah! let us never regret our being alone, since we have always in our company that infinite Being, the sight and enjoyment of whom is the eternal felicity of angels. What if we see him not with the eyes of the body, is he the less present? ”

“ Consider, that as the obstinate will of the sinner has been the most guilty, so this power of the soul shall suffer in proportion the greatest torments; always seeking what she shall never find, and ever flying from what she must for ever endure. Ah! what fruitless longings, what vain wishes shall be her constant entertainment, whilst she is doomed for eternity, never to attain to any one the least thing which she desires! ”

“ Consider, more in particular, what damnation is, and how many and how great the miseries it involves. A dying life, or rather a living death; a darksome prison; a loathsome dungeon; a binding hand and foot in eternal chains, and a land of horror and misery; a lake of fire and brimstone; a bottomless pit; devouring flames; a serpent ever gnawing; a worm that never dies; a body always burning and never consumed; a feeling always fresh for suffering; a thirst never extinguished ”

“ Where is then the judgment of the far greater part of Christians, who pretend to believe a hell, yet live on with so little apprehension and concern, for years together, in the guilt of mortal sin; in danger every moment of falling into this dreadful and everlasting fire, having no more than a hair's breadth, that is, the thin thread of an uncertain life, between their souls and a miserable eternity! ”

“ Ah! let this judgment be always before our eyes: let us daily meditate on this account that we are one day to give. Let us never forget that there is an eye above that sees all things; that there is an ear that hears all things; that there is a hand that writes down all our thoughts, words and deeds, in the great accounting book; and that all our actions pass from our hands to the hands of God; and what is done in time, passeth not away with time, but shall subsist after all time is past. Oh! that men would be wise, and would understand these truths, and provide in earnest for their last end! ”

“ Beneath his feet he sees hell open ready to swallow him up: above his head, an angry Judge prepared to thunder out against him the irrevocable sentence of eternal damnation: on his right hand, he sees his guardian angel now abandoning him; on his left, the devils, his merciless enemies, just ready to seize upon him, and only waiting for the beck of the Judge: if he looks behind him, he discovers a cheating world which now retires from him; if he looks before him, he meets with nothing but a dismal eternity. ”

“ As long as sinners are in this mortal life, they many ways partake of the goodness of God, who makes the sun to rise upon the good and bad, and rains upon the just and unjust. All that is agreeable in this world, all that is delightful in creatures, and all that is comfortable in life, is all in some measure a participation of the divine goodness. No wonder then, that the sinner, whilst he so many ways partakes of the goodness of God, should not in this life be sensible of what it is to be totally and eternally deprived of him. But in hell, alas! ”

“ O! let us tremble at the thoughts of so great a misfortune; let us be convinced that there can be no misery so great as that which we incur by mortal sin; and that we are more our own enemies, and do ourselves more mischief, by consenting to any one mortal sin, than all the men upon earth, and all the devils in hell could do us, though they were all to conspire together to do their worst: because all that they can do, so long as we do not consent to sin, cannot hurt the soul: whereas we ourselves by consenting to any one mortal sin, bring upon our own souls a dreadful and eternal death. ”

“ No other company but devils and damned wretches, all hating and cursing one another; all hating and cursing God; spirits always in an agony, and sick to death, yet never meeting with this death, which they so much desire; cast forth from the face of God into the land of oblivion; none to comfort, none to pity them; wounded to the heart with the sense of lost happiness; and oppressed with the feeling of present misery. ”

“ Their love and charity for one another is more than can be conceived: they have all but one heart, one will and one soul: so that the joy and satisfaction of every one is multiplied to as many fold, as there are blessed souls and angels in heaven, by the inexpressible delight that each one takes, in the happiness of all and every one of the rest. ”

“ Consider what the soul loses by sin; and what she gains to recompense this loss. She loses the grace of God, the greatest of all treasures; and in losing this, she loses God himself. She loses the fatherly protection and favour of God; she loses the dignity of a child of God, and spouse of Christ; she loses her right and title to an eternal kingdom; she is stript of all the gifts of the holy Ghost, robbed of all the merits of her whole life; becomes a child of hell, and a slave of the devil ”

“ Stand astonished, Christian soul, at the bounty of thy Creator, in making thee for so noble an end; and since thou wast made for God, be ashamed to content thyself with any thing less than God: learn then to contemn all that is earthly and temporal, as things beneath thee, and unworthy of thy affection. Lament thy past folly, and that of the far greater part of mankind, who spend their days in vain amusements, in restless cares about painted toys and mere trifles ”

“ Alas! we are all mortal: we neither know the day nor the hour that will be our last; if we be surprised by death in the state of mortal sin, as millions have been, we are irrecoverably lost. If then it is madness at any time to risk eternity, by consenting to a mortal sin, how much more, to provoke the Almighty by frequent relapses, and by a practice of abusing his graces and mercy at every turn? ”

“ As for his own apostles, one of them has betrayed him; another has denied Him; all have abandoned him; his friends, and those whom he had most favoured and miraculously cured, now either join with his persecutors, or at least are ashamed of him: his enemies triumph and insult over him; his own body by its weight is a torment to him. But what most of all afflicts him, is to see the ingratitude of Christians, the little benefit they will make of his death and passion, and the eternal loss of so many souls redeemed by his precious blood. ”

“ Consider, that of all bodily torments, which we can suffer in this world, there is none more terrible than to burn alive: but, alas! there is no comparison between burning here, and burning in hell. All our fires upon earth are but painted flames, if compared to the fire of hell. The fire of this world was made to serve us, and to be our comfort: that of hell was created to be an instrument of God's vengeance upon sinners. ”

“ CONSIDER how precious a thing time is, which we are apt to squander away, as if it were of no value. Time is the measure of our lives, and as much as we lose of our time so much of our life is absolutely lost. All our time is given us in order to gain eternity; and there is not one moment of our time in which we may not work for eternity; and in which we may not store up immense treasures for a happy eternity: as many therefore as we lose of these precious moments, so many are there lost eternities. This present time is the only time of working: it is the only time we can call our own ”

“ Christians, if the contracting or piercing of any one nerve or sinew, if the disjointing or displacing of any one bone, ever so small, is so cruel a torture, what must we think of the torments which our Saviour endured in his disjointed body? What must we think of what he suffered, when his hands and feet, where so many sinews, muscles, veins and bones all meet, were violently bored through with gross nails! Oh! let us never cease to admire, adore, and love his mercy. ”

“ The life of faith is much hindered by the tumult of business, by the trouble of scruples, by the prejudices of the mind, by the desires of seeing, of acquiring, of possessing, of pleasing, or of being esteemed; all these things destroy that life of faith, which is the life of the soul. ; The man of faith is mild, he is kind, he is courteous, he is true, he is plain and sincere, he is generous, of good counsel, of good company; he is always even in his temper, easy in his conversation, and sets no bounds to the help he is ready to afford every one under the variety of human events. ”

“ Consider that dreadful and universal curse which this just but dismal sentence involves. Go from me, ye cursed, says the Sovereign Judge: as if he was to say: go, depart from me, but let my curse go with you. I would have given you my blessing, but you would not have it; a curse you chose, and a curse shall be your everlasting inheritance. It shall stick close to you like a garment for all eternity; it shall enter into your very bowels, and search into the very marrow of your bones. ”

“ Consider the ingratitude, the perfidiousness, the contempt of God, which the relapsing sinner is guilty of, as often as, after his reconciliation, he returns like a dog to the vomit. He is guilty of the highest ingratitude, in treading under foot the grace of reconciliation, by which he had been a little before raised from the dunghill of sin, and even drawn out of the jaws of hell ”