our concern for peace: we should keep so strict a watch over our angry passions as never to meditate and contrive, much less to attempt any thing by way of private and personal revenge. If we be under the necessity of seeking satisfaction from those who have injured us in a due course of law, we should never do it from a litigious spirit; but from a desire to preserve peace and good order in society, and to obtain justice to ourselves from the affronts and injuries we have received from unreasonable and wicked men.

Vengeance belongs to the supreme Ruler and Judge of the universe; it is his right and prerogative to inflict deserved punishment. Let us never, therefore, presume so far as to attempt to wrest the sceptre out of his hands; but, leaving our cause with him, let us be ready to do every office of kindness and compassion, even to the worst of our enemies. Let us bless them that curse us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us. Let no ill treatment we meet with from others so far inflame our angry passions as to make us desirous of rendering evil for evil, or even to cause us to grow weary of shewing love and kindness to them. Let us evidence the power of divine grace on our hearts, by exercising meekness, kindness, and forbearance under the highest provocations: this is the way not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good. Rom. xii. 2 1.

9. When our anger unfits us for the discharge of duty to one another.-Violent anger ruffles our temper, and disturbs our reason, and as such unfits us for the duties of life. It darkens the mind, burdens the conscience, and puts the whole sou out of frame. Giving and receiving reproof are duties of great utility. If a brother be overtaken with a fault we should restore such a one; but this can only be done in the spirit of meekness. Reproof should never be given with a wrathful heart and angry tongue; for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. In like manner it should be received with humility and gratitude; we should be thankful to our kind reprover for his care, and offer up our prayers to God for him. We are commanded to be pitiful and tender-hearted; to bear one another's burdens; to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice; to love as brethren; to follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby one may edify another; and whatever temper of mind unfits us for these duties, it is wrong, it is offensive to God, it is mischievous and hurtful.

Some men confess themselves negligent on slight occasions, and in the ordinary course of life, of the government of their temper; but they are attentive, as they pretend, to the great duties of charity and beneficence, whenever any remarkable opportunity presents itself of performing important services to society. But let such persons remember,

that virtue must be formed and supported, not by unfrequent acts, but by continual and daily exertions. It should not, like the blaze of a comet, break forth only occasionally, with a transient lustre; it ought to be regular in its course, like the light of day. In the common transactions of life, and the intercourse of domestic society, the government of our temper is absolutely necessary for promoting the happiness of those with whom we daily converse. In the conjugal relation, the care of the husband is to please his wife, and the care of the wife is to please her husband. This mutual endeayour to oblige is of great importance, and highly conducive to domestic happiness. No man who is hurried away by ungovernable passion can perform the duties of his station with regularity.

Our anger is sinful when we are displeased with the providence of God-when we are angry with his laws, or with the doctrines of the Gospelwhen we are angry with the good we see in others -when we are angry with those who differ from us in religious sentiments-when we are angry at reproof-when our anger provokes us to wish or desire any thing unlawful-when we use forbidden means to avenge ourselves-and when our anger unfits us for the discharge of duty to one another..

CHAP. V.

CAUTIONS AGAINST VIOLENT AND SINFUL

ANGER.

1. IT destroys our own peace of mind.-How serene and peaceful a region would every man's soul be to himself, if heavenly meekness did but reign in his breast, to the suppression of anger, wrath, malice, and bitterness! The heathen moralist represents this to us by a comparison drawn from the celestial regions :- -"The upper and better ordered part of the world, next the stars, is driven together into no cloud, hurried into no tempest, never tossed about in any whirlwind, but is ever free from any thing of tumult. Only the inferior regions throw about thunder and lightnings. ¡ So is the sublime mind always quiet, in a state of undisturbed tranquillity, sober, venerable, and composed."

It is true, there may be a quiet behaviour outwardly, either through constraint, or with some base and disguised design, while, in the mean time, the soul is rough and turbulent; the words may be softer than oil, while war is in the heart.

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But if our carriage be stormy and morose, we cannot have peace within.

By the frequent indulgence of this furious passion it gains strength, and becomes habitual; and then a man's internal tranquillity is nearly at an end. He will kindle into a flame at the first touch of provocation; he will not be able to restrain his resentment, even till he have full proof of the offence; neither will he proportion his anger to the cause which excites it, or regulate it by any decency or discretion. A man thus enslaved is to be ranked among the unhappiest of mortals. He grows still more miserable as he sinks in years: disease and infirmity increase the distemper of his mind. His friends desert him, being weary of his peevishness; and he is left, as one of the ancients strikingly expresses himself, to devour his own heart in solitude and contempt. He may disguise his sufferings before the world; but to be inwardly torn with wrathful and revengeful passions is to be truly miserable. Thus the punishment is connected with the crime.-Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee. It is an evil thing and bitter that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord.

When humility and meekness reign within, we are least in hazard of being ruffled by outward occurrences; but if the clouds of disgust and ill humour gather on the mind, every object is black