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ON

ANG E R.

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203

SERMON XXVII.

ECCLESIASTES VII. 9.

Be not hafty in thy fpirit to be angry, for anger refteth in the bofom of fools.

A

XXVII.

MONGST all thofe violent and SERM, unruly paffions, which disturb the peace and undermine the happiness of mankind, there is not perhaps one which is attended with more fatal and deftruc-· tive confequences, than that which the wife man in the words of my text fo juftly so branded with the name of folly; a folly of so malignant and dangerous a nature, as to root up and destroy all the pleasures of Society; abfolutely oppofite and contradictory to the rules of reason, and ut

terly

XXVII.

SERM. terly inconfiftent with the dictates of religion; a folly, which, whilft it brings terror and destruction on others, reflects the highest shame and ignominy on ourfelves; which urges us on to violate the laws both of God and man, and not only makes us truly unhappy in this world, but at the fame time muft likewife inevitably subject us to the divine displeasure in that which is to come. The paffion of anger, as implanted in the breast of man, by our all wife and good Creator, hath doubtless nothing in it of guilt or mifery, though by our own unhappy management of it, it may become productive of both.

Anger is indeed no more than a fudden emotion of the foul alarmed at the approach of evil, and preparing for its own defence. The mind no fooner receives a wound from without, than, like the body,

it

it grows warm and inflamed; the facul- SERM. ties of the one, like the limbs of the XXVII. other, feem immediately to place themselves in a posture of refiftance, and to refent the injury received: without this natural armour of the mind, we should be in perpetual danger of repeated infults, and fall a helpless facrifice to the violence of every enemy that attacked us.

Thus far the paffion, we see, is neither unlawful or unneceffary; we may doubtlefs, as fcripture hath itself affured, and reafon doth fufficiently confirm to us, be angry and fin not: we fhould fin indeed in fome circumstances, that is, we should be deficient in the duty we owe to our felves if we were not fo.

But in this, as in almost every human affection, it is the abuse, and not the thing,

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