stances, that we have just reason to be so.

How much sinful anger would be prevented by a little deliberation! Were we but, when we suppose an affront is given us, swift to hear and slow to speak, we should be slow to wrath. (Jam. i. 19.) We are often deceived with what at first sight appears to be a provocation. Anger should not be cherished till we are well assured that there is an offence coinmitted. We should take time to deliberate on the merits of the cause, and forbear to be angry till we are well satisfied that it becomes us to resent what is done or said: otherwise we shall disquiet ourselves in vain, sink our own character, and expose our own folly, whilst we are pretending to correct what we often erroneously suppose to be amiss in others.

Human life, unhappy as it is, cannot supply great evils so often as the angry man thinks proper to fall into his fits of madness and fury; and therefore his rage frequently breaks out on trifling occasions. A little reflection afterwards must shew him his own meanness. In vain does he plead, that his passion is soon over, that he cannot help it, that he harbours no malice, and the like. These, says an ingenious writer, are arguments for pardoning a bull or a mastiff; but shall never reconcile me to an intellectual savage. He is ready, perhaps, to do the very next moment, something that he can never repair; and has nothing to plead in his own defence,

but that he is apt to do mischief as fast as he can. Such a man, adds he, may be feared, he may be pitied; but he can never be loved.

These are some of the causes of sinful anger. A choleric habit of body-pride-ignorancecovetousness

unwatchfulness—not considering the evil of sinful anger-not considering the objects which provokes us.

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CHAP. II.

WITH WHAT WE MAY LAWFULLY BE ANGRY.

I APPREHEND it is lawful for us to be angry :

1. With our own sin.-To be displeased with ourselves seems necessary to true penitence. The repenting sinner is grieved at his own folly: he is angry with himself that he has acted so unbecomingly, so unworthily, and in a manner so dishonourable to God. Thus Job declared he abhorred himself: he saw his own vileness, and was filled with indignation against his sin. The sons of Israel were grieved and angry with themselves when they were made sensible of the evil they had done in their cruel and unnatural treatment of their brother. Thus we may be angry and not sin. Let us turn our indignation against that evil thing which stirs up the displeasure of the Almighty, and is the source of all our woe. We have done ourselves more injury by sin than all other persons could ever do us. "Let a man (says Seneca,) consider his own vices, reflect upon his own follies, and he will see that he has the greatest reason to be angry with himself."

2. We may lawfully be angry with the vices and follies of others.-That quietness of siprit which is in the sight of God of great price, is not a passive tameness of mind, where all steadiness of principle is renounced, and where a sinful conformity to the world vitiates the whole character. It is no part of christianity to yield an unlimited compliance with the manners of mankind. As we are surrounded with those who work iniquity, and walk in the ways of death, the worst maxim, perhaps, which we can adopt, is that of always assenting to what we hear or see, and complying with what is proposed or done by others. The purity and dignity of the christian character can never be maintained without resolution to oppose what evidently appears to be wrong. Nehemiah's anger was just and reasonable when the Jews uttered their impatient complaints: I was very angry when I heard their cry. (Neh. v. 6, 7.) He was not guilty of that rashness which betrays men into the mischiefs of ungoverned passion. He consulted within himself before he expressed his displeasure he took time for sober thought, and then rebuked the nobles. "A good man (says Theophrastus,) must be displeased with the vices of the wicked."

The meekness recommended in the word of God, is not a sinful easiness and indifference with respect to the abominations which are practised by those about us. It is not to act the part of Ephraim,

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who willingly walked after the commandments of idolaters. (Hos. vii. 11.) Where is our zeal for God, if we be entirely calm and unmoved when we see his laws trampled on, and hear his name dishonoured? In the case of the obstinacy and perverseness of the Jews in shutting their eyes against the clearest evidence, and hardening their hearts against the tenderest love, to have felt no grief, no resentment, would certainly have been a defect. When a friend is ill-treated, or a brother unjustly reproached, it would be criminal to sit by in silence, and without concern: for, as the north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. When an innocent person is injured, the defenceless widow oppressed, or the helpless orphan trampled upon, generosity and compassion call for some degree of resentment: but in this generous resentment, the mind, if awed by the majesty of God, and duly cautious, may still retain her own tranquillity and peace.

In some circumstances it is necessary to resent the injuries done, or the insults offered to ourselves but the greatest caution is necessary here. If the offence be slight, and the damage we sustain trifling, it is better to pass it by in silence. The christian is forbidden both by the precept and example of his Lord and Master, to render railing for railing, or evil for evil. But when the injury is great, or the offence often repeated, our silence would have the appearance of stupidity, and des