ANGER, Wrath. The Scripture often attributes Anger to God; not that he is capable of those irregular motions which this passion produces, but because he punishes the wicked with the severity of a provok’d Father or Master.
Anger is often used for punishment, chastisement. The Magistrate is a revenger to execute wrath, says S. Paul; that is to say, vengeance. Is God unjust, who makes people sensible of the effects of his Anger?
Rom. iii. 5. Numb. xvi. 46.Qui infert iram, that is to say, pœnam. Anger is come out from the Lord, and begins to be felt: Jam enim egressa est ira a Domino, & plaga desævit.
Anger is often joined with fury, ira furoris, even when God is spoken of; but this is in order to aggravate the effects of his Anger, or the just occasions of his indignation: Quæ est hæc ira furoris ejus immensa. Turn from us the fury of thine Deut. xxix. 24.Anger: Averte a nobis furorem iræ tuæ.
The Hebrews place Anger in the Nose. Let not thy Nose be disturbed, be inflamed. A cholerick Man is called one with a short Nose, and the patient, People with long Noses. See NOSE.
The day of wrath, is the day of God’s judgment, the day of his vengeance. St. John Baptist calls it the wrath to come. Quis vos docuit fugere a ventura ira? And S. Paul to the Thessalonians, Eripuit nos ab ira ventura. And, Thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath, or vengeance. We were all children of wrath. And elsewhere, We were vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction.
Give way to wrath, Dare locum iræ. Provoke not the wicked, who are already sufficiently animated against you, let their Anger of itself decline. Do not expose yourselves unseasonably to their passion.
When we meet with a furious and unruly beast, we go out of the way, and avoid him; do just so with your persecutors. Otherwise, Give way to the wrath of God; wait the time, be not too hasty to revenge yourselves, God will do you justice.
The vessels of God’s wrath, are all the instruments made use of by him in punishing us; such as war, scarcity, barrenness, diseases, &c. but particularly war, which is the conjunction of all misfortunes, and the fulness of the cup of God’s wrath. To consummate, finish, fill, his Anger; that is to say, to cause the effects of it to be felt with the utmost rigour.
The whole land is ruined and made desolate by the anger of the Dove, A facie iræ columbæ. And elsewhere, ch. xlvi. 16. Let us fly into our own country, from the sword of the Dove; that is to say, from the Chaldæans, who bore a Dove, as it is said, in their standards, with regard to Semiramis, who was metamorphosed into this bird. But the best Interpreters translate the word Jonah, which sometimes signifies a dove, they translate it, I say, an oppressor, destroyer, enemy, such as Nebuchadnezzar was, with respect to the Jews.