Religio jurisprudentis, or, The lawyer's advice to his son in counsels, essays, and other miscellanies, calculated chiefly to prevent the miscarriages of youth, and for the Orthodox establishment of their morals in years of maturity / per Philanthropum.

XII. De Ira, & Odio, & Aciâ. Of Anger and Hatred.

IRa Furor brevis est, That all Wrath is a degree of Madness, is an observation of very ancient Date and Veracity, but must be understood with a distinction of Excess or Immoderation: for I question not but it's a duty to be angry, (but not upon tri∣vial Occasions) but not with a continuando, or long duration, nor with an exertion of furious Words or Actions. Once we read of our Saviour's looking about him on the Mobile, or Multitude, with Indignation, when he wonder'd at their prodigious Infi∣delity, because the Honour of Omnipo∣tence lay at stake, by the mighty Miracles that he wrought to convince them. In this case chiefly (if not only) is there room

for Indignation; for it's an eternal Truth, That man's wrath works not God's Righ∣teousness. A very worthy and learned Divine of this Age, not long since decea∣sed, hath often asserted, That upon any other Accounts, it's generally unaccounta∣ble to give or to receive a Provocation, and by Anger to rectifie what he holds amiss, commonly proves a Remedy worse than the Disease we'd cure.

It's better to endure the greatest Affront•• and Indignities from abroad, than by Dis∣pleasure and Anger to put our selves into their power, to dispossess us of our Tran∣quility, whereby we so much injure our selves. This Passion more exposes and be∣trays a man than any other; and therefore a wise and generous Soul much easier pardons an Aggressor than himself, for his Resentment and Discom∣posure. If you'd imitate our grand Exem∣plar, you must be slow to wrath, full o•• compassion. Envy and Jealousie are 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the same Extract with Anger and Hatred, and one Greek word serves for them both.

To hate the Sin, and love and pity the Sinner for God's sake, is God-like; he en∣joyns it. It's a general and a true Observa∣tion, That he that can't be angry, can't be pleas'd; but the most passionate, are not the worst Tempers, provided they dwell

not in wrath, or give way to the Devil, by which means many men hurry themselves headlong into inextricable Dangers and Di∣sasters.

To conceal, counterfeit, and restrain a Passion, is a high piece of Prudence, and ••n Conversation gives any man a vast ad∣vantage over others. It's mighty remarka∣ble, that Words do more usually prove greater provocatives than Actions, because the surprizal by them, and time taken of deliberation on them, is more sudden. Wherefore a Jurisprudent binds his Tongue as much as his Hands to its good Behavi∣our; tho' (we say) Actions speak louder ••han Words, and we say true; as to many purposes they notoriously intimate the Dis∣••licence of the Aggressor. But yet if you ••bserve it, Words make a greater noise and hurliburly, and are the Prodromi or Harbingers of a succeeding Boutefeau or Quarrel, and are more provocative in sensu ••iviso, that is, where nor accompany'd with a Battery, than Blows without Words, ••specially of Indignation; for that is An∣ger with a vengeance, which is utterly Ju∣••isimprudential, and unwarrantable, out of the course of Justice, either Military or Civil.

Hatred is the utmost degree of Anger and Malice, and belongs to none but in∣••ernal Fiends and Devils, as to a personal Object.

A Jurisprudent hates nothing but Sin and Obliquity, Vice and Enormity, and not the Persons either of the Plaintiffs or De∣fendants.

A Tort or Wrong is only odious in it self, and not the Malefactor. Our eternal Soveraign hates none of his Creatures, nor is displeased with any thing in the World, but a violation of his own indisputable Sanctions. When man doth voluntarily consent to Obliquity or Vice, which he knows he has full power to choose or re∣fuse, all the Reason imaginable there is for his Protector and Coadjutor, as well as Creator and Conservator, to take it very ill, and be highly disgusted, and to hol•• him to be an Hetroclite, till he has sincere∣ly revoked and renounced it. Wherefor•• much less Reason hath any mortal man t•• be wrath with, or hate any of his fellow infallible Creatures, especially if they d•• not affront the Original of their Being, and that directly, and not by Implication because himself by Surprizal, or Inadver••tency, often (and perhaps sometimes o•• of Malice prepense) does disoblige, pro¦voke, and affront others, and is sensible •• parte post, (afterwards) of his Fallibility an•• Miscarriage. Solomon declares, Anger re•• in Fools bosoms: there's no room for so un∣clean Fowl to roost in the Breast of a ge••nuine Jurisprudent, that understands him••self.

Besides, it's common Policy, and a man's own Interest, to inhibit Anger, and to pass by a provocation to Wrath; for he commonly, if not constantly, suffers the greatest Injury by it, in the discomposure of his Mind, and confusion of his Facul∣ties, and pain and perplexity of his Intel∣lectuals; and there's nothing in Nature big enough or worthy to put a wise man out of order for an hour.

To dissemble a violent Passion of this sort, may be expedient, and often advise∣able on some Occasions; but actually to exert it, very imprudent, unprofitable, and at best injurious, (if not on both sides) on one. So we read, as I said before, that once our Lord and Saviour looked about him on the unbelieving Jews with Indignation; but if ever we found him to exert this Passion, it was upon their desecration of the Temple, when he whipt them out, and over-turn'd the Money-mongers Tables, where the Honour of our heavenly Father was more directly at stake. Not but that we hold it possible (but not so probable) for a man to be angry, and not be a Delinquent, or peccant in so being; because the great Gentile Apostle cautioneth us, that we sin not when we become angry: but we con∣ceive with submission to better Judgments, that that Passion having more appearance of evil Consequences and Effects in it, than

perhaps any one of all the other have, that we are in prudence obliged to inhibit and restrain as often as is possible, the Influences of it, as having so notorious an appearance of Evil in it; whether we consult our own Particular, or the publick Peace and Qui∣et. Pleasant is the Notion to this purpose of that Plagiary, or Schoolmaster, who of∣ten in his Corrections would say to the chastised Person, Castigo te, non quod odiam, sed quod amem te.

Therefore must thou punisht be, Because I love (and not hate) thee.

The municipal Laws of our Realm have provided and allow'd to every Subject, that happens to be imprison'd by a false Conspi∣racy, and no Indictment against him exhibited, a Writ call'd, De Odio & Aciâ, supposing his Commit∣ment is out of Anger or Malice, and by a Jury of twelve men he is to be discharged. Such is the Antipathy or Aversion which our English Laws do bear unto all Hatred and Anger, or its Consequences; which the old Philosophers call'd, Furor brevis, A Fit of Frenzy, or Madness.

When any one is highly incensed, and allows the sudden Influences of that indo∣mitable Passion to prevail, he is transported beyond the Compass of his Reason and se∣rene Understanding, and is in jeopardy of making shipwrack of his Posse Corporis &

animi, too, ss. all the principal Essentials of his Nature, inward Faculties, and outward; Life, Limbs and Fortunes. For Acts of Outrage and Indignation, we may ob∣serve, are generally, if not always, perpe∣trated ex improviso, on a Push; that is, a rash and sudden Attempt, which a short Deliberation of Thoughts frequently pre∣vents and Stifles, quod nota bene!

Notes

• Coke 2. Inst. p. 42.