The truth is, God is angry with nothing else but with sin, which is the only object of his anger. That which foolish persons make a trifle and sport of, swearing, filthy speaking, and lying, is the object of God's anger, Ps. xiv. 1. For this offence of sin he did not spare the angels of heaven, 2 Pet. ii. 4, but tumbled them thence, never to return again. Sin also thrust Adam out of paradise. Gen. iii. 23, and made God angry with him and the whole world, so as to destroy it with a flood of water. Gen. vi. 13, and will at last make him bum and consume all with a deluge of fire, 2 Pet. iii. 12. Yea, it made him in a sort angry with his own dear Son, when he under- went the punishment of sin as our surety, so that he cried out, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' Mat. xxvii. 46. If God thus shewed his anger against sin, ,in punishing it in Christ our surety, who was made sin for us, and yet had no sin in himself, how will he punish it much more in those who are not in Christ ? Those who stand in their own sin and guilt, what wUl become of them ? So that God is angry with sin, and with nothing else.
The second thing we gather from this, where he saith, ' My anger is turned away from him,' God's anger being taken especially for judgments, is.
That God's anger is the special thing in afflictions.
They come from his anger, as hath been shewed. Therefore he saith, * I will take mine anger fi-om you,' whereby he means judgments, the effect of his anger. For in the Scriptures anger is ordinarily taken for the finaits and effects of God's anger, which are terrible judgments, as we may see, Deut. xxix. 20, and so in many other places.
Quest. [Why are] judgments, then, called God's anger ?
Ans, 1. Because they issue from his anger and displeasure ; for it is not the judgments, but the anger in them, which Ues heavy upon the soul.
HOSEA XIY. 4, 5. J THE RETUKNING BACKSLIDEB. 82S
When they come from God's anger, they are intolerable to the conscience : else, when we suffer ill, knov/ing that it is not from God's anger, but for trial of our graces, or for exercise, we bear it patiently. Therefore God saith, ' Mine anger is tm-ned away from him :' for this, unremoved, embit- tereth every cross, though it be never so small. Let God's anger be upon a man, and he will make a conceit, a very light thing, to be as a heavy cross upon him, and vex him both in body and state more than mightier crosses at some other time shall. Will you see this in one instance, where God threatened his own dear people thus : ' And the Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emrods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed,' Deut. xxviii. 27. What ! is a scab, and an itch, and the like, such a terrible judgment, which in these days is set so light by? 0 yes ! When it comes with God's displea- sure ; when the least scratch is set on fire by God's auger, it shall consume us, it proves uncurable, as there it is thi*eatened : * whereof thou canst not be healed.' When the vermin came in God's anger upon that hard- hearted king, all Pharaoh's skill, and his magicians' skill, could not beat them out, because, as they confessed, ' this was the finger of God,' Exod. viii. 19. Let any thing come as a messenger of God's anger, it comes with vengeance, and sticks to the soul, like a ' fretting leprosy,' Lev. xiv. 45, 46, which, when it entered into a house, many times could not be gotten out again with pulling out stones, or scraping them, till the house were demolished. So, when God's anger is raised and kindled against a person, you may remove this and that, change place and com- pany, and use of helps ; yet it will never leave fretting till it have con- sumed him, unless it be removed by repentance. If it be never so small a scratch or itch, all the physic in the world shall not cure it. For as the love of God makes all other things in God comfortable unto us, so it is his anger which makes all his attributes terrible. As, for his power, the more he loves me, the more he is able to do me good. But othei^wise, the more he is angry and displeased, the more his other attributes are terrible. If he be wise, the more he will find out my sins : if he be powerful and angry, the more he can revenge himself on me. Is he angry and just ? the more woe to me. So there is nothing in God when he is angiy, but it is so much the more terrible. For this puts a sting in everything : which, when it is removed out of malignant creatures armed with a sting, then they are no more hm-tful. The sting of every evil and cross, is God's anger and wrath. This being removed, nothing hurts. All crosses then are gentle, mild, tractable, and medicinal, when God hath once said, ' For mine anger is turned away fi'om him.' After that's gone, whatsoever re- maineth is good for us, when we feel no anger in it. What is that which blows the coals of hell, and makes hell hell, but the anger of God, seizing upon the conscience ? This kindles Tophet, and sets it a-fire like a river of brimstone, Isa. xxx. 33. Therefore this is a wondrous sweet comfort and encouragement when he saith, ' For mine anger is turned away fr-om him.' Whence, in the next place, we may observe.