of our corruption we are prone to fall into it the aposttle in the words following limiteth and restrayneth it to a short time least it should turne into malice Let not the Sunne go downe c. as though he should say though through infirmitie yee fall into rashe and vnaduised Anger yet continue not in your sinne Let not the Sunne go downe On your wrath The most of our new interpreters think That iust Anger is here commaunded that the first words are rather a permission thē a precept therfore to be vnderstood thus If you be angry sin not or thus Are you āgri sin not that is though through infirmity ye fall into āger yet ad not sin vnto sin by continuing in it but I see no reasō why the words shuld be thus wrested seeing there followeth no absurditie or incōuenience if they be playnely vnderstood without any alteration which cannot be avoided if we admit of their expositiō for I wold ask of thē whether is here ment a lawfull iust āger or that which is vnlawful vniust if lawful iust why may it not be cōmanded seing it is as necessary profitable to the furthering of Gods glory and our good as any other sanctified affection if vniust and vnlawfull as they vnderstand it I would know how we cā be angery sin not But say they if a holy āger were here ment what needeth the restraynt Let not the Sun c. seeing the longer it lasted the rather it were to be cōmended if it were iust holy I answer these words are to be referred not to the precept Be angry but to the prohibition But sinne not where vniust Anger is forbidden as before iust Anger was commanded this is manifest in the text for he doth not say Let not the Sunne goe downe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vpon your Anger but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vpon your Wrath or vniust and inueterate anger as this word is commonly vsed So that the sence of these words is The meaning of the words breefely thus much be angrie and spare not so that your anger be iust and holy but seeing by reason of your infyrmity and corruption your iust Anger may easily degenerate and become vniust if due time place person and other circumstances be not obserued therefore take heede you sin not by being vniustly angry yet if through infyrmitie yee fall in to this sinne do not harbour it no not one day Let not the Sunne go downe on your wrath Sect. 4. And somuch for the meaning of the Of iust Anger words now I will intreate of their seuerall parts And fyrst concerning iust anger what it is what is required in our Anger that it may be iust and holy this The definition of iust Anger Anger is an holy and reasonable desire of reuenge stirred vp in vs vppon iust waightie and necessarie causes wherby we being after a lawfull maner angry with our owne and others vices and sins rather then with the persons do desire iustly to punish and reuenge the vices sins to the end God may be glorified the parties amended and that the anger of God being pacyfied may be auerted not onely from the party offending but also the church and common wealth First then it is required to holy and lawfull Anger that the cause therof be iust now the iust causes of Anger are diuers First when we are moued thervnto with The first cause of iust Anger the glory of God a zeale of Gods glorie for when we see God dishonoured and his glory defaced it is not onely lawfull to be angry with the offendors but also necessarie for we professe our selues to be Gods subiects now we know that no good subiect can with patience endure to heare or see the glory of his soueraigne impeached we professe our selues Gods seruants and what good seruant can abide to see his maister disgraced we professe our selues Gods children and good children are more grieued and offended when they perceiue that their parents are any wayes abused or iniured then if the iniuries were offered to themselues if therefore we be loyall subiects faythfull seruants and louing children wee cannot choose but be incited to a holy anger if we see our glorious soueraigne our good maister and gratious father by any meanes dishonoured When Moyses sawe that the children Example of Israell had contrarie to Gods expresse commaundement reserued Manna till the next morning he could not contayne himselfe from shewing this holy Anger when he saw his Lord and maisters will not obserued Exo. 16. 20. So that thogh Moses were the meekest man Ex. 16. 20. Num. 12. 3 that was on earth yet could he not with patience endure to see gods ordinance contemned In like maner when he saw that honor and glorie which was due onely to God almightie deriued to a base and brutish Idoll he was prouoked to an holy anger and so wholy possessed with a deuine and heauenly rage that he not onely breaketh the two tables written Exo 32. by Gods owne hand but sharply reuengeth this idolatry with the death of three thousand of the offendors So that though the people were dearer to him thē his owne life nay then the saluation of his owne soule yet was the glory of God Verse 3◠more deare and pretious vnto him then eyther of both Phinees also when he saw God dishonoured with that shamelesse sinne of zimry and Cozby beeing prouoked Num. 2◠7. 8. with an holy anger he reuenged this dishonour vvith the death of both the offendors Thus also vvas Elias zealous for Gods glory because the Children of 1. Kings 19. 14. Israell had forsaken his couenant cast downe his alters slaine his Prophets And thus vvas our sauiour Christ possessed vvith a feruent zeale of his fathers Iohn 2. 17 glory Iohn 2. 17. If therefore vvee vvould approue our selues to be Gods children vve must follow their example and for as much as nothing more dishonoureth God then sinne nothing should Offend displease vs more then sin whether it be in our selues or in our neighbour When therefore vve fall into sinne vve are to be offended vvith our selues that so vvee may diuert the Lords Anger from vs for as they vvhich 1. Cor 11. 31. iudge themselues shal not be iudged of the Lord so they vvho are angry vvith themselues for sin shal escape the Lords anger And this our anger must proceed to a holy reuenge Those who haue offended by surfeting and drunkennesse are to punish themselues with fasting abstinence Those that haue wallowed them selues in voluptuous pleasures are to subdue and mortifie them though they be as deare and precious vnto them as their right hand and eye Those who haue defrauded their neighbour by purloyning away his goods are with Zacheus to make restitution foure fold Luke 19. 8. And as we are bound by the lawe of charitie to loue our
for the reforming of them esteeming the chiefe top and perfection of wisdom to consist in the well gouerning and ordering of these disordered and tumultuous passions If then the heatheÌ„ Philosophers walking in the darke night of ignorance error and illightened only with a small glimmering sparke of naturall reason could thereby both discerne their corruption and also did study to reforme and bring them vnder the rule of reason how much more earnestly should we endeuor not so much to marshall them vnder the coÌ„duict of naturall reason which is it self but a blind leader as to reforme and purge them by the worde of God which like a glorious shyning sunne hath dispelled the foggy mists of ignorance and error and so discouered all the spottes and deformities of them farre more clearely then our blinde reason And as we are earnestly to labor for the reforming of all the affections so most earnestly of al this of anger which of all other is most turbulent and violent if it be not bridled and restrayned And for our better furtherance in so good an endeuor I haue made choice of this text to the end I might shew how far forth anger is to be aprooued imbraced and in what respect it is to be auoided and shunned In handling wherof I wil first shew the meaning of the words and afterwards intreate of their seuerall parts In shewing the meaning of the words I will first define what anger is and then What anger is in generall set downe the diuers sorts therof Anger therfore generallie considered is thus defined it is an affectioÌ„ wherby the bloud about the hart being heated by the apprehension of some iniury offered to a mans selfe or his friends that in truth or in his opinion onely the appetite is stirred vp to take reuenge The names of anger with the notation First wee will speake of the thing defined and after of the definition Anger in the latin tongue is called ira wich name hath his notation from the effect for when by the apprehension of an iniury the hart is inflamed with the heate of anger it doth make a man quasi ex se ire as it were to goe out of himselfe and in this respect he who was angry was said by an vsuall Latin phrase non esse apud se not to be with himselfe and ad se rediisse to haue returned to himselfe when his anger was passed ouer The Grecians did especially vse two names to expresse this affection which did contayne in them the very nature of anger The first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the preturbation it self or the heating of the bloud by the apprehension of the iniury offered tother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the appetite or desire of reuenge which followeth the the perturbatioÌ„ So that these two names contayne in them both the materiall formall cause of anger for the materiall cause is the heating of the bloud about the hart which is signified by the first name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the formall cause is the appetite or desire of reuenging the iniury offered which is vnderstod by the other name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most vsuall name vsed by the Hebrues to signifie anger is Aph. which signifieth also the Nose and by a synecdoche the whole face which name is giuen vnto it either because in a mans anger the breath doth more vehementlie and often issue out of the nose which is as it were the smoke issuing from the flame kindled about the hart or els because in the face anger is soonest discerned by the often entercourse change of collours Our English word anger is deriued froÌ„ the latin word Angor which either signifieth throtling choking or vexatioÌ„ grief because anger worketh both these effects if it be immoderat for it stops the throate leauing no passage for words and it vexeth and tormenteth both the body and the minde And so much for the name now we wil The definition explained speake of the definition First I say it is an affection for the whole essence of a mâ—n consisteth of these 3. things body soule and affections which doe participate of both the other now anger cannot be said to be a qualitie or propertie of the soule alone for the materiall cause thereof is the boyling of the bloud about the hart nor of the body alone for the formall cause namely the appetite and desire of reuenge stirred vp by the apprehension of the iniurie offered doth more properly belong to the soule and therefore I call it a mixt affection proceeding from them both I adde the materiall cause namely the heaâ—ing of the bloud about the harte which heate or inflamatioÌ„ is caused by the apprehension of the iniurie offered or the dislike which the heart coÌ„ceiueth of the iniury apreheÌ„ded which is either in truth an iniurie or but in opinion appearance onely for anger hath not alwaies a true cause but somtime fained and imaginary and this materiall cause namely the heating of the bloud by apprehension of the iniury the formall cause followeth that is to say an appetite or desire of reuenge for before we desire to reuenge the iniury we first apprehend and feele it which desire is either iust or vniust iust if we be angry for a iust cause with those with whome wee ought to be angry after a iust maner obseruing a fit time and to a good end vniust if these circuÌ„stances be not obserued Furthermore in this definition the cause of anger is expressed namely iniurie offered for anger alwayes presupposeth iniury and the subiect therof which is the hart as also the obiect to wit reuenge of the iniury Sect. 2. And so much for the generall definition The kindes of anger of anger now we are to shew the diuers sorts thereof or rather the diuers acceptation of the same affection First it is taken for the naturall affection Naturall anger of anger as it was created of God and had his being in man before the fall Secondly as it is corrupted since the Corrupt anger fall by originall sinne Thirdly as it is renewed and sanctified by Gods Sanctified anger spirite Wee are not therefore with the Stoikes to confound these three together and without difference to The Stoicks confuted condemne them all for how soeuer this affection as it is corrupted is most turbulent and of all others most pernicious yet we are to hould that the naturall affection considered either as it was created by God or so farre forth as it is renewed and sanctified by Gods spirit is iust holie and lawfull And this may easilie be prooued by diuers reasons First because it was created That the affection of anger is in it owne nature lawfull by God and was in man before the fall and before any euill entered into the world being therefore the Lords owne workmanship which by his owne testimonie was approoued to
contentious discorde Sect. 10. Secondly it prouoketh to offer all 2. It prouoketh men to offer iniury indignities and wrongs to a mans neighbour as also to reuenge the smallest iniuries without all proportion For men incensed with anger will wittingly and willingly reuenge those iniuries which haue vnwittingly and vnwillingly bene offered for angry wordes they will giue blowes for blowes vvounds and for vvounds death And therefore the vviseman sayth That anger is cruell and wrath is raging Pro. 27. 4. Yea it prouoketh Pro. 27. 4 men not onely to reuenge small iniuries but also no iniuries for anger rageth euen against the innocents that oftentimes because they are innocent and but too vertuous as the furious man imagineth And this is euident in the example of Cains anger agaynst Abell Saules agaynst Ionathan and Dauid Nebuchadnezers agaynst the three children Herods against the innocents the Scribes and Phariseis agaynst Christ as before I proued But as anger causeth men to be hurtfull to all others so especially to those Anger most hurtful to a maÌ„s owne family vvhom they should most loue cherish and defend that is they who are of a mans owne familie Who because they are necessarily conuersant with them are continually subiect and euen exposed to their fury and outrage the wife to their bitter speaches if they do not worse that is like madde men beate their owne flesh the children to furious and vnreasonable correction the seruants not onely to reuiling speaches but also to cruell stripes and blowes so that as one sayth vvell we may know an angry Plutarch decohib irac man if we but looke in the faces of his seruantes namely by their scarres and bruises Sect. 11. And so much for the priuate euils which The euils which anger bringeth to common wealther accompanie vniust anger now we are to speake of the publick Vniust aÌ„ger is the cause of all tumâ—â—â—s and vproares sediâ—ions and conspiracies massakers and bloudy warres yea the ouerthrow and confusion of all cities and common wealthes It is the cause which inciteth the magistrate agaynst the subiect and the subiect agaynst the magistrate the prince against the people and the people against the prince kingdome against kingdome and nation agaynst nation and that not onely vppon waightie causes but also vppon trifling occasions For as to make a farious and vnquenchable flame it is not materiall how small the fire is that kindleth it so the matter be apt to receaue it wherein it is kindled for one coale is mough to burne a whole city if it fall among flax one sparke if it light in tinder or guÌ„powder so it mattereth not how small the cause is which inflameth anger for if the minde which receaueth it be subiect to be inflamed it is sufficient to set on fire and consume vvhole kingdomes common wealths especially if power be correspondent to the violence of the affection Infinite examples might be brought Examples to make this manifest as of Simeon and Leuie vvho in their anger put a vvhole Gen. 34. city to the sword though their quarell were but to one man Of Abimilech who Iudg. 9. in his fury destroyed all the city of Sichem of Saul destroying Nob of Hamon 1. Sam. 2â— Hest 3 vvho being incensed onely agaynst Mordecay layd a plot for the destruction of the whole nation of the Iewes But I shall not neede to stand vppon it seenot onely the booke of God but also auncient histories yea euen our owne cronicles and dayly experience do make this but too euident You see then the manifold euils which waite vppon this raging disease of the minde vniust anger for it is not onely a deadly impostume breaking out in our selues but also an infectious contagious plague which destroieth whole peoples and commoÌ„wealthes with how greate care therefore should we vse all good meanes and wholesome remedies to preuent or cure such a daungerous disease The remedies of vniust anger Cap. 7. Sect. 1. The remedies against Anger are of two sorts first those which cure anger in our selues secondly those which cure it in others and they both are of two kindes first such as preuent anger and preserue vs from falling into it secondly such as free vs from it after it hath taken place For anger is a disease of the minde as therefore vvise Physitions thinke it the We must first seeke to preuent anger better saufer course to preserue health and preuent sicknesse then to remoue the disease after it hath taken possession of the body so the best course in ministring spirituall Physick is to preserue the soule from vice rather then to purge it away after it hath infected it for Vitia facilius repelluntur quam expelluntur vices Sen. epist 119. are more easily kept from entrance then thrust out after they are entred for as the common prouerbe is there are but twelue points in the lawe and possession is as good as eleauen of them If therefore anger haue gotten possession vve shall hardlye dispossesse it It is our soules mortall enemie as therefore vve first seeke to keepe the enemie from entring the frontires of our countrey but if he be entred as soone as we can to expell him so wee must first endeauour to repell anger by stopping the passages of our harts that it may haue no entrance but if it haue taken place quickly to expell and remooue it For if we suffer it to fortifie it selfe it will growe so strong and violent that wee shall be vnable to dislodge it And as in a siedge of a City the Citizens prouide all things necessary for their defence before the assault that the enemie when hee approacheth the walles may not take them vnprouided so if we will repell anger when it commeth we are to fortifie and arme our selues against it before it comes for if it take vs vnprouided it will easely make entrance and more easely ouercome vs. Let vs therefore first of allendeauour to vse all good meanes by which we may preuent anger for if it haue once gotten hould of vs it will easelie plunge vs headlong into vyolence and furie whereas wee may with greater facillity preuent the daunger before we fall into it For as experience teacheth vs a man may easelye contayne himselfe from running downe the hill while hee is on the toppe but after he is entred into a full race hee cannot stave himselfe before he commeth to the bottome so it is more easie for any to abstaine from running into anger then to containe vvhen he is in the race from falling into the bottome of furie Sect. 2. Let vs then see the meanes how to The meanes to preuent anger The causes therof are to be remoued preuent anger the first remedy is by taking away the causes thereof for sublat â caus â tollitur effectum The cause being taken away the effect ceaseth The first cause of anger is selfe loue If