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inclinations wither away, and many bad ones take deep root, into a continual exercise of benefiting our fellow-creatures, and advancing ourselves in the favour of our Maker. For, to any one thus difpofed, numberless opportunities would occur, at fuch times, of communication, which is good to the use of edifying and miniftering grace unto the bearers*: opportunities of making religion and morals look chearful and amiable; of infinuating seasonable advice; of foftening rugged tempers; of confirming right refolutions, and putting wrong behaviour out of countenance. And in proportion as the natural or acquired abilities of men are greater, or their rank fecures to them more regard, the more extensively serviceable they may be in this way. But where all these advantages meet together in an eminent degree, it is inexpreffible, what bleffings to mankind they, who enjoy them, might be, would they but ufe them well. For then, not only the bufier part of their time would be spent in promoting piety and virtue, prudence and happiness; but their most disengaged and freeft hours become seasons of delightful improvement to all about them: in which, imitating the kindly influences of heaven, their doctrine would drop as the rain, their speech diftil as the dew: as the fmall rain upon the tender berb, and as the fhowers upon the grafs +.

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SERMON

ON ANGER.

XXVIII.

EPHESIANS iv. 25.

Be ye angry, and fin not.

THE nature of Almighty God being abfolutely perfect and

uncompounded, neither paffions nor affections, properly fo called, have any place in it: but his actions all proceed from uniform and unmixed regard to truth and equity. His creatures, incapable of attaining to be in any refpect what he is, fall short of it in different degrees, from thofe fpirits above, that approach nearest to pure intelligence, though infinitely distant from it, to the lowest inhabitants of earth, which have no other guide than appetites and inftincts. Man is of a middle rank; and partakes, almoft equally, of inferior principles to excite and move him, where reafon would be infufficient, and of reafon to direct and reftrain thefe, where else they would take a wrong courfe, or exceed proper bounds. Our proportion therefore of lower faculties, though a proof that we are very imperfect, contributes to our being on the whole lefs fo, than we should have been; and a due regulation of them by the higher, will make us continually more perfect than we are. This is the great employment allotted us by our Maker here on earth: which indeed we often find much pain in attempting, but should fuffer much greater by neglecting, and fhall be rewarded eternally for performing.

Now, according to the feveral kinds of our inward difpofitions, the moral difcipline of them varies. Some, as the benevolent fort, require chiefly to be ftrengthened: fome again, ás the irafcible, to be kept in fubjection. And indeed our anger is fo hard to be governed, and the caufe of fuch dreadful evils, when it is not governed; that no wonder, if great and wife

men

men have seemed to fpeak of it, as totally and effentially vicious; as requiring to be, not only moderated but rooted out. Yet, as thofe parts of the outward frame of nature, which have produced at any time the most frightful effects, appear notwithstanding, on due inquiry, beneficial conftituents of that whole, which the Creator originally pronounced to be good: let us not condemn, without referve, this part of our inward frame; which he hath planted in our breafts, otherwise it had never existed there; and which, in condefcenfion to our understandings, he hath afcribed to himself.

Refentment is, in its primitive nature, a juft and generous movement of the mind, expreffing that displeasure against ill actions, which they deferve: and, in our hearts at least, fuch disapprobation of what is wrong feems infeparably connected with approving what is right. From this principle, applied to ourfelves, we feel a fcorn of bafenefs and vice, that prompts us to reject it with difdain, when we are tempted to it or a consequent self-dislike, if we have fallen under the temptation, which doth not eafily allow us any reft, till we have returned to our duty. The fame principle, pointed towards our fellowcreatures, deters them from enterprifing wickedness, and invigorates us to refift it: or, if it be already committed, stirs us up to fet before them the offenfiveness of their conduct in fo ftrong a light, as may induce them to reform it. And thus anger, though it defigns to give uneafinefs, is fo very different from hatred, as to be often the beft proof of love. But when juft indignation cannot amend the faulty, then it comes in properly to punish them: to counterbalance that exceffive tendernefs, to which, however amiable, it would in fome cafes be a fatal weakness to yield, and fupport us in the painful work of executing wrath on him that doth evil *.

Thus useful and important is this paffion: by which our Saviour himself was occafionally moved, as when he was much difpleafed with his difciples t, and looked round about on the Jews with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts į. He hath declared indeed, that whofoever is angry with his brother without a cause, jhall be in danger of the judgment §: but that very limitation implies, that there are caufes, for which

we

Rom. xiii. 4.
Mark iii. 5.

Mark x. 14. $ Matth. v. 22.

we may do well to be angry *. Or even were his threatening originally unlimited, as in fome copies it is; yet the reafon of the cafe, his own example, and other texts of scripture, oblige us to understand him only of the unjuft kinds of anger: which are fo much commoner than the allowable, that they have almost appropriated the name, and turned it to an ill meaning. Whence perhaps it is, that the ftoic philofophers condemn this paffion in the most general terms †, while yet they not only allow it to be useful to those, in whom reason fingly hath not fufficient force t, but exprefsly tolerate, in their ideal perfectly wife man, fuch gentler commotions of mind, and refemblances of anger, as are in reality moderate degrees of it §. And, (which deferves much greater attention), St. Paul, who within a few verses of the text hath commanded all wrath and anger to be put away from ¶ Chriftians, gives, notwithstanding, the permiffive direction in it, Be ye angry and fin not.

The refult then must be, that this paffion is indeed a lawful one; but very neceffary, and very hard, to be kept within due bounds; which confiderations recommend the following method in difcourfing upon it.

I. To defcribe the due bounds, with the common ex

ceffes of anger.

II. To diffuade from fuch exceffes.

III. To direct how they may be avoided.

I. To defcribe the due bounds, with the common exceffes of

anger.

And we

Now the proper bound for all paffion, is reason. are then only moved by our affections as we ought, when they excite us to what our understandings on reflection approve.

• Jonah iv. 9.

But

+ Thus Cicero, who profeffes in his offices, 1. 1. c. 2 chiefly to fol low the Stoics, blames the Peripatetics, c. 25. for praifing anger, as given us by nature for our good, and faith it is to be avoided in all cafes. But he is fpeaking only concerning cafes of punishment. However, he forbids it alfo in reproofs, c. 38.

Utile eft eum uti motu animi, qui uti ratione non poteft, Cic. Tufc. difp. 1. 4. $ 25. Ed. Davies.

$ Sentiet (fapiens) levem quendam tenuemque motum-umbras affec Sen. de Ia. l. 1. c. xvi. p. 13. Ed. Lipf. Vid, et. I. 2.

tuum.

¶ V. 31.

But because a rule fo general is not fufficiently inftructive, I fhall enlarge on the feveral particulars comprehended under it, which are specified by the philofopher, in his ethics, thus, that He, who is angry, only on fuch occafions as he ought, and with fuch perfons as he ought, and in fuch manner, and at fuch time, and for fuch continuance, as he ought, deferves praife in the exercise of this paffion

*

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1. On fuch occafions as he ought. What these are, hath already in fome measure appeared. Were they, with whom we have to do, conftantly virtuous and wife, there would be no occafion. But now their tranfgreffions against God, our fellowcreatures, and ourselves, furnish, alas, but too many. When our Maker, whom, we ought to reverence and love with our whole fouls, is difhonoured; when his laws and the fanctions of them (the ground-work of all fecurity and all comfort) are infulted; furely it is cause not only of grief, but indignation. When the helpless are oppreffed, the well-meaning circumvented, innocence afperfed or feduced, faith broken, kindness requitted with ill usage, or public good facrificed to private views, we both may, and muft (if we have any fympathy with our kind) feel our spirit rise in their behalf. And though we can neither interpofe to affift all that fuffer, nor permit our tempers to be ruffled as often as injuftice is committed upon earth; yet in all proper ways we ought to fhew, that we ftrongly dislike all fuch things: and it is an ill fign, when perfons are indifferent in the cafes of others, and will stand пр for no one's interefts, but their own.

Wrongs done to ourselves we are all so apt to refent, at least enough, that it may feem needlefs, and even dangerous, to fay any thing of thefe, as one lawful occafion for anger. But the truth must be acknowledged, that this paffion being given us, in great measure, for our own defence, we may innocently exert a competent degree of it for that purpose. Nor can we help, generally fpeaking, being a little more moved at our own injuries and fufferings, than thofe of others; because we cannot but have a livelier fense of them; and the emotion of mind, which proceeds from that fenfe, muft bear fome proportion to

it.

One thing more to be observed is, that though faults are the only

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Ariftot. Eth. Nicom. 1. iv. c. 5.

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