The Government of the Thoughts, Chapter 9 – Chapter 10
CHAP. IX. Rules of Practice, concerning Anger, and Malice.
IN every Apprehension of injury, look up to God, and say with David when Shimei cursed him, Let him Curse for the Lord hath bidden him, 2 Sam. 16.11. Consider if thou hast not offended thy Maker, and provoked him to Excite Enemies against thee; if upon thy Inquest thou findest out the Sin thou standest guilty of; hasten and make thy Peace betimes with him. Think not thy self Competent for greater Matters, and all others Inferiour to thee: That Pride is like Tinder in the Heart, where every Spark is apt to foment Indignation, and kindle Anger's Fire. Be ever Composed rather to bear an Injury, than to Retaliate it: Indeed it is grievous to suffer; but it is dangerous to requite it: Seeing God saith, Vengeance is mine, Deut. 32.35.
2. MAKE a right use of all injuries: Let them be as so many Exercises to thy Wisdom, Meekness and Patience; And then thine Enemy shall study to be thy Friend: So that thou mayst express that with Verity, which Demosthenes affirmed but Ironically, at his sentence of Banishment: Thy Enemies are so Courteous, that it is a very hard task to find anywhere so good Friends. Be angry with Evil, and imitate the Example of Moses the meekest man, who was so provoked with the Idolaters, that he expos'd many of them to the Sword, Exod. 32.19. Basil fitly compared this anger to a Dog which Barks at Strangers, chases away Wolves, and other Instruments of Evil, but forgets not to fawn on his Master.
3. SUFFER not Anger to be of a long Duration, lest it Engender into Malice; but take St. Paul's advise, Eph. 4.26. Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the Devil. As he must do, who sleeps with his Anger, which indeed is the Devils Anvil on which he Forgeth his Mischiefs. When we compose our Bodies to rest, we commonly secure our Fire from doing any harm; and why should we be so Negligent of that Precious Part, the Soul, as to sleep with this fire of Hell in our Bosoms? We are ignorant, when we close our Eyes, whether we shall ever open 'em in this World, or have any time to agree with our Adversary, before we appear at the great Tribunal.
4. ACT nothing in furious Anger; but endeavour to allay it. A Prudent Man, will not put to Sea in a Storm, but will wait in Expectation of fair Weather: So in Anger we must expect Calm Affections before we can act any thing prudently: We have a frequent Proverb, and not unfit here to be used, that, a hasty man can never want Wo: And Solomon furnishes us with many, pertinent to our Purpose, Eccles. 7.9. Be not hasty in thy Spirit to be angry: And Prov. 12. 16. A Fools wrath is presently known, and he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife, Prov. 15.18. And St. James gives this candid advice, in his Epistle, Chap. 1.19. That we should be slow to speak, slow to wrath.
5. THAT Advice was good which the Philosopher Prescribed to Caesar, When you are angry, answer not, untill you have first Repeated the Letters of the Alphabet: By that time the Choler being a little digested, his Judgment might be Recollected, whose suddain Excursion out of its Seat of Passion leaveth a Man an Incompetent Judge; for it is natural to frail Mortality to think them evil, whom they have any Antipathy against. Architas Considered well, when he said to his offending Servant, 'Tis well for you that I am angry: And Socrates, who in like case said, I would beat thee, but that I am angry. Other Passions, in Extreams, discompose the Mind, but anger Precipitateth it: To be a Master of other Affections, demonstrateth him very Moderate; but to gain a Conquest over Anger declares him to be Prudent.
6. IN no Passion do we more lose our Friends, our Advantages, our Judgment, our Selves; nor give an Enemy more Advantage, than in Anger. He is a Fool that can be angry at nothing; and he Wise who will not at every thing: It is as great a Vertue to Conquer thy Self, as it is to encounter with the fiercest Lyon: He made a good choice who chose rather the Meekness of Moses, than the strength of Sampson: He that hath vanquished his Anger, hath gain'd the Victory over a dangerous Enemy. Allay and overcome thine Anger with Reason, that chasing it with due Revenge, it may prove Justice's Hand-maid, not its Mistress.
7. DID we Consider the dangerous Effects it brings, we would hasten and wean our selves from it. I shall Endeavour to give you a Catalogue of some of the accomplices of Anger, and then tell me whether it be not a Passion of a Pernicious Consequence: To begin, it is a short madness, differing from it only in point of time; it distorts the Countenance, precipitates the Mind, and so disturbeth the Reason, that, for the time, it converts Man to a Beast: From hence prceed, the Unguarded Mouths, Unbridled Tongues; Reproaches, Calumnies, Contumelies, Conflicts, and Fruits of Fury spring from that Fountain: This whets the Sword, and breaks the Sacred Bands of Nature and Religion, provoking men at that height by their Assasinations to be Butchers of Men.
7. OBSERVE how a sudden Deluge, sweeps along the Verdant Fields, and destroys the Husband-mans most flourishing Hopes; even so rusheth the most impious deluge of Anger into the Mind, covering dangerously for the time, if not drowning the fairest Plants of Vertue, Wisdom and Temperance, under that bitterness of Mind, and breathing of Revenge, leaving neither Venerable Age, Tender Youth, nor any thing Sacred or Unspar'd. It depriveth thee of Councel, rendreth thee Obnoxious to thy Friends, exposeth thee to thine Enemies, and maketh thee altogether Fruitless; when Patience and Mildness would leave better Impression and Root, then the best Precepts sowed in Storms: In short, it makes thee assume the shape of an Unjust Judge, who Correctest thy Child, or Servants Fault with a greater fault of thine own Intemperance.
8. DESIRE and Anger are the worst Counsellers; they not only disturb the Soul, but deform the whole Frame of the outward Man: Could the angry man but take a Prospect of himself, and stedfastly behold, what change that Passion worketh in his Countenance, its impossible he could be Enamoured with that Distemper: He would find it as much altered from its Native Beauty, as the Face of the Thundring Skie, differs from the lovely Serene, or the Enraging Boysterous Sea does from a Pleasant Calm: Plato advised his Scholars, when they were Angry, to look into a Glass: And if ever the Odious Spirit of Satan looked out of the Windows of Man's Face, 'tis in his Exhorbitant Anger: What a Deformity does it Operate in the Divine Soul, Obvious to the Eye of God? It brings along with it the same disadvantage, as those Dogs of the Prophane Donatists, whom they fed with the Bread of the Holy Eucharist; for which they escaped not, without an evident Sign of Gods Justice; for the Dogs were so Inflamed with Raging Madness that they fastened upon their own Masters, as Strangers and Enemies, Tearing them with Revenging Teeth: Even so it often comes to pass that impious Anger, destroyeth the Angry.
9. HE that can by a Regular Reason, Bridle his Anger, reaps great Advantage: First, In Point of Pacification, according to Solomons Counsel, Prov. 15.1. A soft Answer turneth away Wrath. Secondly, In respect of Victory; for as the Patient Man enclineth the Prudent as Witnesses to his Party; So that shall more Foil the Outragious and Violent with Meekness, than by Retaliation of Injuries and Contumelies: In which Sense, what Solomon says, confirms it for a Truth, A soft Tongue breaketh the Bone, Prov. 25.15. Next, thy Councel better recovereth its Seat by thy forbearance, and thou losest nothing of thy Interest, by delaying that which thou once must express, or act. To conclude, in the most just Occasions of Anger, remember God's indulgence with thee: Be not like that Evil Servant, who having found much Mercy would shew none, lest thy Judgment be equivolent, Matth. 18.34.
10. MALICE is the Venom of the Old Dragon; Satan's bitter Influence on the Wicked, and his lively Image in them. It is the Fire of Hell breaking out on the Men of this World: It is the Mother of Revenge, and Symptome of an Unregenerate Heart, the Affection of a Reprobate Mind, the Devils Leaven, which must be purged out of those, who will Communicate with Christ our Passover. Malice, is the Fuel of God's Anger, and an Obstruction to his Mercy, who cannot justifie the Malicious, for what he has said is just and true, Mat. 6.15. If ye forgive not Men their Trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you. And seeing it is wholly disagreeable with the Love of God; therefore it is impossible, as St. John says, To Love God, and hate thy Brother, 1 John 4.20. Concerning which, I need prescribe no other Rule, than this; If Malice possess thy Heart, then desert all Pretences and immediately cast it out, if ever thou hopest to enter into that Kingdom, where inhabits all Love, Peace and Tranquility, with Joy unspeakable, and full of Glory.
CHAP. X. Of Envy.
ENVY is an inveterate Grief at others Welfare and Prosperity; and an Evil Perturbation of the Mind, so odious, that to expose it to View, is a Motive sufficient to make us loath and detest it: It is a Tare of the Wicked's sowing, and worthy of Divine Revenge and Punishment; it is an impediment to Piety, a path to Hell, and a secluder from the Kingdom of Heaven: It is a Pernicious Attendant to Posterity, A Vanity and Vexation of Spirit, Eccles. 4.4. A Fruit of Unregeneration, Rom. 1.29. It is the Daughter of Self-Love and Pride, the Result of Carnal Minds, 1 Cor. 3.3. A Work of the Flesh, Gal. 5.21. It is an Obstruction of Edification, and Growth by the sincere Milk of Gods Word, 1 Pet. 2.1, 2.
2. IT is a Blasphemous Censure of the Most High, whose Judgment it dissalloweth, secretly Murmuring and Repining at his Providence, who Wisely Disposeth of all things in Heaven and Earth, Setting up and pulling down, and distributing to every one, according to his good Pleasure, Dan. 4.25. To display it farther, it is a Diabolical Wisdom, a Companion of Confusion and every evil Work, James 3.14, 15, 16. It is the mischievous Canker, which nippeth the choicest Buds of Vertue, attempting either to cloud them with Incredulity, by reason the Envious cannot attain thereto, or labouring to blast them with impious Calumnies.
3. I need not here cite the Example of Antigones, and Teutamus, Conspiring against the truly Noble Eumenes; or of Philip's Sycophants against Aratus: Nor of Domitians envying Agricola his worth: Nor Saul's envying David, Cain Abel, Rachel her Sister, the Patriarchs Joseph: Seeing it is manifest that Christ Jesus, in whom were all Perfections, was envyed. There's nothing so little, but stimulateth it: Nothing so Sacred or High, but this Hellish Fury will flie at. Joseph's Party-Coloured Coat awaken'd it, and it was vigilant to strike at the Saviour of the World: The Natals hereof were in Lucifer, envying God's Monarchy, and ambitious to share in his Sovereignty.
4. NATURAL Historians acquaint us of some Countries free from Serpents; but who can inform me of any barren of Envy? I doubt it is the common Plague that visits all places: Like those Croaking Plagues of Egypt, which did not spare Pharoahs Bed-Chamber; it deludeth the Country with False Opticks, thinking our Neighbours Fields more Fruitful than our own: 'Tis a Monster; not of Gods making, but born of depraved Affections, as Anger, Fear, Jealousie, Self-Love, which creates Indignation, if another attain to a Happy and Prosperous Condition: Envy thinks all the World too little for its own Orifice: All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the Kings Gate; said ambitious Haman in his Envy, Esth. 5.13. And again, To whom would the King delight to do Honour more than to my self, Chap. 6.6.