God's anger

Let him be our instance, that spake what he felt, and felt what he spake; sorrows enough to break any heart, but that which God had framed according to his own. His son Amnon ravisheth his own sister, and is murdered by his own ⟨p. 51⟩brother: that murder is seconded with Treason, that Treason with an incestuous constupration: the insurrection of his own son hath driven him from his house, from his throne, from the Ark of God all this went near him: that son is slain by his servant, and that went nearer him. In what a miserable perplexity may we think the heart of this good King all the while? Here was thought upon thought, thought against thought; how at once to spare the son of David, and to save the Father of Absalom: fear against hope, north against south, wind against tide, Arma armis contraria, fluctibus undae; a multitude of thoughts, able to rend the heart in pieces, but for that recollection of mercy, Thy comforts delight my soul.

Let him be our instance, that spake what he felt, and felt what he spake; sorrowes enough to break any heart, but that which God had framed according to his own. His sonne Amnon ravisheth his own sister, and is murdered by his own ⟨p. 51⟩brother: that murder is seconded with Treason, that Treason with an incestuous constupration: the insurrection of his own son hath driven him from his house, from his throne, from the Arke of God all this went near him: that son is slain by his servant, and that went nearer him. In what a miserable perplexity may wee thinke the heart of this good King all the while? Here was thought upon thought, thought against thought; how at once to spare the sonne of David, and to save the Father of Absolom: fear against hope, north against south, wind against tide, Arma armis contraria, fluctibus undae; a multitude of thoughts, able to rend the heart in pieces, but for that recollection of mercy, Thy comforts delight my soul.

Not seldom fares it thus with us; Thought calls to thought, jealousy to fear, fear to sorrow, sorrow to despair; and these furies leap upon the heart as a stage, beginning to act their tragical parts. Man hath more wheels moving in him then a clock: only the difference is, that the wheels of a clock move all one way; whereas his faculties, like the epicycles, have a rapt motion: his sensitive appetite gives him one motion, his fantasy another, his reason a third, and his imperious, impetuous will crosseth them all, driving the chariot of his affections with the fury of Jehu: he desires, and thinks, and chooseth, argues, consents, and dislikes, and makes more business then time it self. There