a resentful emotion of the mind, arising upon the receipt, or
supposed receipt, of an affront or injury; and also simple feeling of
strong displacency at that which is in itself evil, or base, or
injurious to others. In the latter sense it is not only innocent but
commendable. Strong displeasure against evil doers, provided it be free
from hatred and malice, and interferes not with a just placableness, is
also blameless, Eph. iv, 26. When it is vindictive against the person of
our neighbour, or against the innocent creatures of God, it is wicked,
Matt. v, 22. When anger, hatred, wrath, and fury, are ascribed to God,
they denote no tumultuous passion, but merely his holy and just
displeasure with sin and sinners; and the evidence of it in his terrible
threatenings, or righteous judgments, Psalm vi, 1, and vii, 11. We must,
however, take care that we refine not too much. These are Scriptural
terms, and are often used of God; and though they express not a
tumultuous, much less an unjust, passion, there is something in God
which answers to them. In him they are _principles_ arising out of his
holy and just nature; and for this reason they are more steady and
uniform, and more terrible, than if they were emotions, or as we say
passions. Nor can we rightly regard the severity of the judgments which
God has so often executed upon sin without standing in awe of him, “as a
consuming fire” to the ungodly.
supposed receipt, of an affront or injury; and also simple feeling of
strong displacency at that which is in itself evil, or base, or
injurious to others. In the latter sense it is not only innocent but
commendable. Strong displeasure against evil doers, provided it be free
from hatred and malice, and interferes not with a just placableness, is
also blameless, Eph. iv, 26. When it is vindictive against the person of
our neighbour, or against the innocent creatures of God, it is wicked,
Matt. v, 22. When anger, hatred, wrath, and fury, are ascribed to God,
they denote no tumultuous passion, but merely his holy and just
displeasure with sin and sinners; and the evidence of it in his terrible
threatenings, or righteous judgments, Psalm vi, 1, and vii, 11. We must,
however, take care that we refine not too much. These are Scriptural
terms, and are often used of God; and though they express not a
tumultuous, much less an unjust, passion, there is something in God
which answers to them. In him they are _principles_ arising out of his
holy and just nature; and for this reason they are more steady and
uniform, and more terrible, than if they were emotions, or as we say
passions. Nor can we rightly regard the severity of the judgments which
God has so often executed upon sin without standing in awe of him, “as a
consuming fire” to the ungodly.