The Government of the Thoughts, Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII. Of Anger and Malice.
ANGER is an Appetite of punishing any Injuries Received, or Conceived: The product is Malice, which is inveterate Anger: The Fruit of it is Revenge, or at least a well-wisher to it; but being weak it becomes vain. The Accomplices are Hatred and Envy; which shews an abhorrency to any thing which displeases our querulous Palate; for we think every thing, though good, and never so well performed, to be evil, because we may have an Antipathy to the party that transacts them.
2. ANGER is an Amarulency, embittering the Soul: A turbulent Passion, an usurped Power, deposing the Sovereignty of right Reason: It is a Spiritual infernal Fire, the Souls Tyrant, the seed of Malice, and an Enemy to good Council. Its Rage is a Precursor of Destruction, Ruin, and Desolation; a Companion of Misery, and the Souls Precipice. This Affection is of so high a concernment, that some have writ whole Tracts upon this Subject: But my design in this Treatise is only to consider the Government of the Mind and Thought in relation to the service of God: With some Rules of practice for the better performance of it.
3. THERE is an impious and fooolish Anger; whereof Christ said, Mat. 5.22. Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment: And St. Paul advises us, Col. 3.8. with this friendly Exhortation, But now put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, &c. And the Wise man Philosophically informs you, that a stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fools wrath is heavier than both. And he gives you further notice, that wrath is cruel, and anger outragious, Prov. 27.3, 4. An Example of which, we have in Gen. 4.5. When Cain committed that Fratricide upon Abel: Furthermore, Solomon the chief Anatomizer of Anger, and Dissecter of that Passion, affirms, that an angry man stirreth up strife, and a foolish man aboundeth in transgressions: Prov. 29.22. And Eliphaz the Temanite, when he reproved Job for Cursing the day of his Birth, admonish'd him in this Phrase, that Wrath killeth the foolish man, and Envy slayeth the Silly one.
4. THERE is a good Anger, such as was in Moses, Exod. 16.20. Phinehas, Numb. 25.7. And Nehemiah, Nehem. 5.6. Without which there can be no Zeal: For Stoical Apathie agreeth not with true Religion: Observe what a Bee is without is sting, nothing but a Drone; even such is man which cannot, or will not be angry. Some anger is necessary, which the holy Spirit mentions, Ephes. 4.26. Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the Sun go down upon your wrath. There is such use of this Souls Fire, that the inward man cannot subsist without it. But the skill is how to reduce it to practice: It must be as the Celestial Fire, wherewith the Sacrifice was to be offered, which we may discern by these Three Distinctions: First, It is Incensed only against Sin, and that which any way displeaseth God, and Obstructeth his Service. Secondly, It Launcheth out only upon some particular Causes and Occasions, but not Unadvisedly. Thirdly, It goeth, like that Burning Lamp between the pieces of Abraham's divided Sacrifice, Gen. 15.17. That is, between the Person, and the Offence, proportionably loving the one, and hating the other: This being without Gall and Bitterness, but zealous in opposition to evil: For it is sin not to be angry with Sin.
5. THIS Affection is an Excellent Subservant to the Mind, exciting the Faculties; it is Fortitudes Incentive, and Zeals Natural heat; it is Modesties Centinel, and Temperances Guardian: And doth by an Excellent Allay of Pleasure, Contract the Dilated Heart and Mind, with some unpleasing but profitable Austerities; which otherwise, would be exposed to dangerous and wicked Temptations.