^ ' IT/joeta juec ^I'X?? ^as Kad' iaiToO 5ta,3oXdj i'iro<pepuv, &c.' — Basil ad Fratrcs m Ercmo.
142 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 20.
and, like broken bones, are apt to roar with the least touch : it argueth much unniortifiedness to be so soon moved. Or, (2.) Immoderate, when it cxcecdeth the merits of the cause, as being too much, or kept too long : too much when the commotion is so immoderate as to dis- compose the spirit, or to disturb reason, or to interrupt prayer, and the free exercise of the spirit in duties of religion. When men have lost that patience in which they should possess and enjoy themselves, Luke xxi. 19. There is a rational dislike that may be allowed, but such violent commotions are not without sin. Too long : anger should be like a spark, soon extinguished ; like fire in straw, rather than like fire in iron. Thoughts of revenge are sweet, but when they stay long in the vessel they are apt to wax eager and sour. New wine is heady, bat if it be kept long, it groweth tart. Anger is furious, but if it be detained, it is digested and concocted into malice. Aristotle reckoneth three degrees of angry men, each of which is worse than the former ; some are hasty, others are bitter, others are implacable.^ Wrath retained desisteth not without revenge. Oh ! consider this spirit is most unchristian. The rule of the word is, ' Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,' Eph. iv. 26. This is a fire that must be covered ere we go to bed : if the sun leave us angry, the next morning he may find us malicious. Plutarch saith of the Pythagoreans that if any offence had fallen out in the day, they would before sunset mutually embrace one another, and depart in love.^ And there is a story of Patricius and John of Alexandria, between whom great anger had passed ; but at evening John sent to him this message, The sun is set ; upon which they were soon reconciled. (3.) Causeless, without a sufficient ground : Mat. V. 22, ' Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, is in danger of judgment.' But now the great inquiry is, What is a sufficient cause for anger ? Are injuries ? I answer — No ; our religion forbiddeth revenge as well as injury, for they differ only in order. The ill-doing of another doth not loosen and take away the bond of our love. When men are provoked by an injury, they think they may do anything ; as if another's injury had exempted them from the obedience of God's law. This is but to repeat and act over their sins : it was bad in them, it is worse in us; for he that sinneth by example sinneth twice,^ because he had an instance of the odiousness of it in another. To ' answer a fool according to his folly ' is to be ' like him,' Prov. xxvi. 4 ; to practise that myself which I judge odious in another ; and certainly it cannot be any property of a good man purposely to be evil because another is so, 4 But are mishaps a cause ? I answer — No ; this were not only anger, but murmuring, and a storming against providence, by which all events, that are to us casual, are determined. But arc the miscarriages of children and servants a cause ? I answer — If it be in spiritual matters, auger j ustly moderated is a duty. If in moral and civil, only a rational and temperate displeasure is lawful. For it
1 ' 'OpyiXol, TTiKpol, x«iXeTOt.' — Arist. Ethic, lib. iv. cap. 18.
- ' UvOayopiKol yivei. firjS^v Trpoaij/cojTes, dXXa koivov \6yov fierix'^^^^y etirore irpoaxOeTev f IS 'XoLOopiav vw opyfjs, irplv rbv ijXiov ovvai rhs Seltds i/j.^dX\ovT€i dXX^Xots Kal d(7Tra<rd/x€V0L ouXvovTo. ' — Plulitrch.
'•' ' Qui exemplo peccat Lis puccat.'
■* 'Qui referrc injuriam nititur, cum ipsum a quo Isesus est gestit imitari; et qui malum^mitatiir bonus esse uullo pacto potest.' — Laclant. de Vcro CuUu, lib. 6. cap. 10.
JaS. I. 20.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 143
is but a natural dislike and motion of the soul against what is unhand- some and troublesome. But we must see that we regard measure, and time, and other circumstances. (4.) Such as is without a good end. The end of all anger must be the correction of offences, not the execution of our own malice. Always that anger is evil which hath somewhat of mischief in it, which aimeth not so much at the convic- tion and reclaiming of an offender as his disgrace and confusion. The stirring of tlie spirit is not sinful till revenge mingle with it. Well, then, as there must be a good cause, there must be a good end. Cain was angry with Abel without a cause, and therefore his anger was wicked and sinful, Gen. iv. 5. But Esau had some cause to be angry with Jacob, and yet his anger was not excusable, because there was mischief and revenge in it, Gen. xxvii. 41.
Secondly, My next work is to show you how sinful it is. I have been larger in the former part than my method permitted ; I shall the more contract myself in this. Consider an argument or two.