02.01. Chapter 1 - Verse 20

James 1:20. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Here he rendereth a reason of the last clause, why they should take heed of this indignation and rising of their hearts against the word, because the wrath of man would hinder them from attaining that righteousness and accomplishing that duty which God requireth in his word. For the wrath of man.—There is an emphasis in that word: he doth not say wrath in general, for there is always a righteousness in the wrath of God. The apostle saith, Romans 1:18, it is ‘revealed from heaven against the unrighteousness of men,’ or, rather, the wrath of man, to show that, under what disguises soever it appeareth, it is but human and fleshly: there is nothing of God, but much of man in it.

Worketh not, οὐ κατεργάζεται—doth not attain, doth not persuade or bring forth, any righteous action; yea, it hindereth God from perfecting his work in us. The righteousness of God.—That is, say some, justice mixed with mercy, which is the righteousness that the scriptures ascribe to God, and anger will not suffer a man to dispense it; but this seems too much strained and forced. Others say the meaning is, it doth not execute God’s just revenge, but our own malice. But rather the righteousness of God is put for such righteousness as God requireth, God approveth, God effecteth; and in this sense in scripture things are said to be of God or of Christ which are effected by his power or commanded in his word: thus faith is said to be the work of God, John 6:29, because he commandeth we should labour in it, which plainly is the intent of that context; and the apostle useth the word ‘righteousness,’ because anger puts on the form of justice and righteousness more than any other virtues. It seemeth to be but a just displeasure against an offence, and looks upon revenge not as irrational excess, but a just punishment, especially such anger as carrieth the face of zeal, which is the anger spoken of in the text. Rage and distempered heats in controversies of religion, and about the sense of the word, such carnal zeal, how just and pious soever it seem, is not approved and acquitted as righteous before God. It is observable that there is a litotes in the apostle’s expression—more is intended than said; for the apostle means, it is so far from working righteousness, that it worketh all manner of evil; witness the tragical effects of it in the world: the slaughters that Simeon and Levi wrought in Shechem: Sarah in her anger breaks two commandments at once, takes the name of God in vain, and falsely accuseth Abraham, Genesis 16:5.

Obs. 1. From the context. The worst thing that we can bring to a religious controversy is anger. The context speaketh of anger occasioned by differences about the word. Usually no affections are so outrageous as those which are engaged in the quarrel of religion, for then that which should bridle the passion is made the fuel of it, and that which should restrain undue heats and excesses engageth them. However, this should not be. Christianity, of all religions, is the meekest and most humble. It is founded upon the blood of Christ, who is a Lamb slain. It is consigned and sealed by the Spirit of Christ, who descended like a dove. Both are emblems of a meek and modest humility. And should a meek religion be defended by our violences, and the God of peace served with wrathful affections, and the madness of an evil nature bewray itself in the best cause? Christ’s warfare needeth not such carnal weapons; as Achish said, ‘Have I need of mad men?’ 1 Samuel 21:15. So, hath Jesus Christ need of our passions and furies? Doth the God of heaven need ‘a tongue set on fire of hell’? James 3:6. Michael the archangel was engaged in the best cause against the worst adversary, with Satan about the body of Moses; and yet the purity of his nature would not permit him to profane his engagement with any excess and indecency of passion: ‘He durst not bring against him a railing accusation,’ Jude 1:9. And as the wrath of man is unsuitable to the matters of God, so it is also prejudicial. When tongue is sharpened against tongue, and pen against pen, what followeth? Nothing but mutual animosities and hatreds, whereby, if we gain aught of truth, we lose much of love and goodness. Satan would fain be even with God. The devil’s kingdom is mostly ruined by the rage of his own instruments; and you cannot gratify Satan more than when you wrong the truth by an unseemly defence of it;¹ for then he seemeth to be quits with Christ, overturning his kingdom by those which are engaged in the defence of it. Briefly, then, if you would do good, use a fit means. The barking dog loseth the prey. Violence and furious prosecution seldom gaineth. Those engage most successfully that use the hardest arguments and the softest words; whereas railings and revilings, as they are without love, so they are without profit. Be watchful; our religious affections may often overset us.

¹ ‘Affectavit quandoque diabolus veritatem defendendo concutere.’—Tert.

Obs. 2. From that worketh not the righteousness. Anger is not to be trusted; it is not so just and righteous as it seemeth to be. Of all passions this is most apt to be justified. As Jonah said to God, ‘I do well to be angry,’ Jonah 4:9, so men are apt to excuse their heats and passions, as if they did but express a just indignation against an offence and wrong received. Anger, like a cloud, blindeth the mind, and then tyranniseth over it. There is in it somewhat of rage and violence; it vehemently exciteth a man to act, and taketh away his rule according to which he ought to act. All violent concitations of the spirit disturb reason, and hinder clearness of debate; and it is then with the soul as it is with men in a mutiny, the gravest cannot be heard; and there is in it somewhat of mist and darkness, by which reason, being beclouded, is rather made a party than a judge, and doth not only excuse our passion, but feed it, as being employed in representing the injury, rather than bridling our irrational excess. Well, then, do not believe anger. Men credit their passion, and that foments it. In an unjust cause, when Sarah was passionate, you see how confident she is, Genesis 16:5, ‘The Lord judge between me and thee.’ It would have been ill for her if the Lord had umpired between her and Abraham. It was a strange confidence, when she was in the wrong, to appeal to God. You see anger is full of mistakes, and it seemeth just and righteous when it doth nothing less than work the righteousness of God. The heathens suspected themselves when under the power of their anger. ‘I would beat thee,’ saith one, ‘if I were not angry.’² When you are under the power of a passion, you "have just cause to suspect all your apprehensions; you are apt to mistake others, and to mistake your own spirits. Passion is blind, and cannot judge; it is furious, and hath no leisure to debate and consider.

² ‘Cædissem te nisi iratus essem.’—Plato.

Obs. 3. From that anger of man and righteousness of God. Note the opposition, for there is an emphasis in those two words man and God. The point is, that a wrathful spirit is a spirit most unsuitable to God. God being the God of peace, requireth pacatum animum—a quiet and composed spirit. Thunder is in the lower regions, inferiora fulminant; all above is quiet. Wrathful men are most unfit either to act grace or to receive grace; to act grace by drawing nigh to God in worship, for worship must carry proportion with the object of it, as the God that is a spirit, John 4:24, will be served in spirit; so the God of peace with a peaceable mind. So to receive grace from God: angry men give place to Satan, but grieve the Spirit, Ephesians 4:26-27, with Ephesians 4:30, and so are more fit to receive sin than grace. God is described, Psalms 2:4, to ‘sit in the heavens,’ which noteth a quiet and composed posture; and truly, as he sitteth in the heavens, so he dwelleth in a meek and quiet spirit.

Obs. 4. The last note is more general, from the whole verse: that man’s anger is usually evil and unrighteous. Anger and passion is a sin with which the people of God are many times surprised, and too often do they swallow it without grief and remorse, out of a conceit partly that their anger is such as is lawful and allowed; partly that it is but a venial evil, and of sudden surreption, for which there is a pardon of course.

I shall therefore endeavour two things briefly:—

1. Show you what anger is sinful.

2. How sinful, and how great an evil it is.

First, To state the matter, that it is necessary, for all anger is not sinful; one sort of it falleth under a concession, another under a command, another under the just reproofs of the word.

[1.] There are some indeliberable motions, which Jerome calleth propassions,³ sudden and irresistible alterations, which are the infelicities of nature, not the sins;⁴ tolerable in themselves, if rightly stinted. A man is not to be stupid and insensate: anger in itself is but a natural motion to that which is offensive; and (as all passions) is so long lawful as it doth not make us omit a duty, or dispose us to a sin, or exceed the value of its impulsive cause. So the apostle saith, ‘Be angry, and sin not,’ Ephesians 4:26. He alloweth what is natural, forbiddeth what is sinful.

³ ‘Προπάθειαι, non πάθη.’—Hieron. Epist. ad Demet.

⁴ ‘Infirmitates non iniquitates.’—Ambros.

[2.] There is a necessary holy anger, which is the whetstone of fortitude and zeal. So it is said, ‘Lot’s righteous soul was vexed,’ 2 Peter 2:7. So Christ himself, Mark 3:5. ‘He looked about him with anger.’ So Moses’ wrath waxed hot, Exodus 11:8. This is but an advised motion of the will, guided by the rules of reason. Certainly they are angry and sin not who are angry at nothing but sin: it is well when every passion serveth the interests of religion. However, let me tell you, this being a fierce and strong motion of the spirit, it must be used with great advice and caution. (1.) The principle must be right. God’s interests and ours are often twisted, and many times self interposeth the more plausibly because it is varnished with a show of religion; and we are more apt to storm at indignities and affronts offered to ourselves rather than to God. The Samaritans rejected Christ, and in the name of Christ the apostles, they presently called for fire from heaven; but our Lord saith, Luke 9:55, ‘Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.’ It is good to look to the impulses upon which our spirits are acted; pride and self-love is apt to rage at our own contempt and disgrace; and the more securely when the main interest is God’s. A river many times loseth its savour when it is mingled with other streams; and zeal that boileth up upon an injury done to God may prove carnal, when it is fed with the accessions of our own contempt and interest.⁵ It is observed of Moses, that he was most meek in his own cause. When Miriam and Aaron spoke against him, it is said, Numbers 12:3, ‘The man Moses was meek above all men in the earth;’ but when the law was made void, he broke the tables, and his meek spirit was heightened into some excess of zeal. By that action you would have judged his temper hot and furious. Lot’s spirit was vexed, but it was with Sodom’s filthiness, not with Sodom’s injuries. Zeal is too good an affection to be sacrificed to the idol of our own esteem and interests. (2.) It must have a right object: the heat of indignation must be against the crime, rather than against the person: good anger is always accompanied with grief; it prompteth us to pity and pray for the party offending. Mark 3:5, Christ ‘looked about him with anger, and was grieved for the hardness of their hearts.’ False zeal hath mischief and malice in it; it would have the offender rooted out, and purposeth revenge rather than correction. (3.) The manner must be right. See that you be not tempted to any indecency and unhandsomeness of expression; violent and troubled expressions argue some carnal commotion in the spirit. Moses was angry upon a good cause, but he ‘spake unadvisedly with his lips,’ Psalms 106:33. In religious contests men are more secure, as if the occasion would warrant their excesses; and so often anger is vented the more freely, and lieth unmortified under a pretence of zeal.

⁵ ‘Πραείᾳ μὲν ψύχῃ τὰς καθʼ ἑαυτοῦ διαβολὰς ὑποφέρων, &c.’—Basil ad Fratres in Eremo.

[3.] There is a sinful anger when it is either—(1.) Hasty and indeliberate. Rash and sudden motions are never without sin. Some pettish spirits are, as I said, like fine glasses, broken as soon as touched, and all of fire upon every slight and trifling occasion; when meek and grave spirits are like flints, that do not send out a spark but after violent and great collision. Feeble minds have a habit of wrath, and, like broken bones, are apt to roar with the least touch: it argueth much unmortifiedness to be so soon moved. Or, (2.) Immoderate, when it exceedeth the merits of the cause, as being too much, or kept too long: too much when the commotion is so immoderate as to discompose the spirit, or to disturb reason, or to interrupt prayer, and the free exercise of the spirit in duties of religion. When men have lost that patience in which they should possess and enjoy themselves, Luke 21:19. There is a rational dislike that may be allowed, but such violent commotions are not without sin. Too long: anger should be like a spark, soon extinguished; like fire in straw, rather than like fire in iron. Thoughts of revenge are sweet, but when they stay long in the vessel they are apt to wax eager and sour. New wine is heady, but if it be kept long, it groweth tart. Anger is furious, but if it be detained, it is digested and concocted into malice. Aristotle reckoneth three degrees of angry men, each of which is worse than the former; some are hasty, others are bitter, others are implacable.⁶ Wrath retained desisteth not without revenge. Oh! consider this spirit is most unChristian. The rule of the word is, ‘Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,’ Ephesians 4:26. This is a fire that must be covered ere we go to bed: if the sun leave us angry, the next morning he may find us malicious. Plutarch saith of the Pythagoreans that if any offence had fallen out in the day, they would before sunset mutually embrace one another, and depart in love.⁷ And there is a story of Patricius and John of Alexandria, between whom great anger had passed; but at evening John sent to him this message, The sun is set; upon which they were soon reconciled. (3.) Causeless, without a sufficient ground: Matthew 5:22, ‘Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, is in danger of judgment.’ But now the great inquiry is, What is a sufficient cause for anger? Are injuries? I answer—No; our religion forbiddeth revenge as well as injury, for they differ only in order. The ill-doing of another doth not loosen and take away the bond of our love. When men are provoked by an injury, they think they may do anything; as if another’s injury had exempted them from the obedience of God’s law. This is but to repeat and act over their sins: it was bad in them, it is worse in us; for he that sinneth by example sinneth twice,⁸ because he had an instance of the odiousness of it in another. To ‘answer a fool according to his folly’ is to be ‘like him,’ Proverbs 26:4; to practise that myself which I judge odious in another; and certainly it cannot be any property of a good man purposely to be evil because another is so.⁹ But are mishaps a cause? I answer—No; this were not only anger, but murmuring, and a storming against providence, by which all events, that are to us casual, are determined. But are the miscarriages of children and servants a cause? I answer—If it be in spiritual matters, anger justly moderated is a duty. If in moral and civil, only a rational and temperate displeasure is lawful. For it is but a natural dislike and motion of the soul against what is unhandsome and troublesome. But we must see that we regard measure, and time, and other circumstances. (4.) Such as is without a good end. The end of all anger must be the correction of offences, not the execution of our own malice. Always that anger is evil which hath somewhat of mischief in it, which aimeth not so much at the conviction and reclaiming of an offender as his disgrace and confusion. The stirring of the spirit is not sinful till revenge mingle with it. Well, then, as there must be a good cause, there must be a good end. Cain was angry with Abel without a cause, and therefore his anger was wicked and sinful, Genesis 4:5. But Esau had some cause to be angry with Jacob, and yet his anger was not excusable, because there was mischief and revenge in it, Genesis 27:41.

⁶ ‘Ὀργιλοὶ, πικροὶ, χάλεποὶ.’—Arist. Ethic., lib. 4. cap. 18.

⁷ ‘Πυθαγορικοὶ γένι μηδὲν προσήκοντες, ἀλλὰ κοινοῦ λόγου μετέχοντες, εἴποτε προαχθεῖεν εἰς λοιδορίαν ὑπʼ ὀργῆς, πρὶν τὸν ἡλιον δῦναι τὰς δεξιὰς ἐμβάλλοντες ἀλλήλοις καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι διελύοντο.’— Plutarch.

⁸ ‘Qui exemplo peccat bis peccat.’

⁹ ‘Qui referre injuriam nititur, eum ipsum a quo læsus est gestit imitari; et qui malum imitatur bonus esse nullo pacto potest.’—Lactant. de Vero Cultu, lib. 6. cap. 10.

Secondly, My next work is to show you how sinful it is. I have larger in the former part than my method permitted; I shall the more contract myself in this. Consider an argument or two.

1. Nothing maketh room for Satan more than wrath: Ephesians 4:26-27, ‘Be angry and sin not;’ and it followeth, ‘Give not place to the devil;’ as if the apostle had said, If you give place to wrath, you will give place to Satan, who will further and further close with you. When passions are neglected they are ripened into habits, and then the devil hath a kind of right in us. The world is full of the tragical effects of anger, and therefore, when it is harboured and entertained, you do not know what may be the issue of it.

2. It much woundeth your own peace. When the apostle had spoken of the sad effects of anger, he added, Ephesians 4:30, ‘And grieve not the Holy Spirit, by which you are sealed to the day of redemption.’ The Spirit cannot endure an unquiet mansion and habitation: wrathful and froward spirits usually want their seal, that peace and establish ment which others enjoy; for the violences of anger do not only discompose reason, but disturb conscience. The Holy Ghost loveth a sedate and meek spirit; the clamour and tumult of passion frighteth him from us, and it is but just with God to let them want peace of conscience that make so little conscience of peace.

3. It disparageth Christianity: the glory of our religion lieth in the power that it hath to sanctify and meeken the spirit. Now when men that profess Christ break out into such rude and indiscreet excesses, they stain their profession, and debase faith beneath the rate of reason, as if morality could better cure the irregularities of nature than religion. Heathens are famous for their patience under injuries, discovered not only in their sayings and rules for the bridling of passion, but in their practice. Many of their sayings were very strict and exact; for, by the progressive inferences of reason, they fancied rules of perfection, but indeed looked upon them as calculated for talk, rather than practice. But when I find them in their lives passing by offences with a meek spirit, without any disturbance and purposes of revengeful returns, I cannot but wonder, and be ashamed that I have less command and rule of my own spirit than they had, having so much advantage of rule and motive above them. As when I read that Lycurgus¹⁰ had one of his eyes struck out by an insolent young man, and yet used much lenity and love to the party that did it, how can I choose but blush at those eager prosecutions that are in my own spirit upon every light distaste, that I must have limb for limb, tooth for tooth, and cannot be quiet till I have returned reviling for reviling? &c. Certainly I cannot dishonour the law of Christ more than to do less than they did by the law of nature.

¹⁰ Plutarch, in Vita Lycurgi.