N01597:52
Febrifugium. An essay for the cure of ungoverned anger: in a sermon preached, at…
Febrifugium. An essay for the cure of ungoverned anger: in a sermon preached, at the proposal and on the occasion, of a man under a sentence of death, for a murder committed by him in his anger. At Boston, 23. d. III. m. 1717. : [Two lines of quotation in Latin]
Boston: printed by J. Allen for Benjamin Gray, 1717
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
If you take a View of Excessive Anger, will it not appear an Odious, an Unhandsome, a Deformed sort of a Thing? Some of the Ancients advised an Angry Man, to take a View of his own Face in a Glass. Look in a Glass, my Friend, and see, and say, How it looks to have so much of Cain in the Countenance! Methinks, The View may turn the Anger into Blushing, and make thee more Angry at thy self, than at any One else. Turpis Aspectus; Quid Animus? If Anger in the Face be so ugly, what is it in the Soul? 'Tis a very Good Rule in Conversation; For a Man to Mind how his own Indecencies look, when ⟨p. 39⟩he sees them in other Men. Why, That Outrageous Anger, in which thou dost indulge thy self, how dost thou like it in other Men, when thou seest them storming with such Outrages?
But more than so; O UNGOVERNED ANGER, From thee we suffer great Disquietments, and very Hurtful Things are done unto us, by thy Precipitancies!
But more than so; O UNGOVERNED ANGER, From thee we suffer great Disquietments, and very Hurtful Things are done unto us, by thy Praecipitancies!
This Anger; Alas, it unfits a Man for every Thing in the World. It mingles a strange Fire with our Sacrifices. Our Devotions are all Spoilt, if they be not without Wrath. If we cannot Bear much, we shall never be Pillars in the House of GOD, nor be very useful in any Society 'Tis a Blemish unto a Man; it lays him low, in the esteem of the Neighbourhood. An Angry Man may keep the Neighbours in some Awe; But little doth the think, their Secret Aversion for him; and how much ⟨p. 40⟩they bear in mind, his Abusive usage of them. Such Anger, it makes a Man unfit for any Relation. Art thou a Froward and a Furious Man? The Bible forbids us to enter into a Close Friendship with such a Man. If thou art not so much as fit for a Friend, what else canst thou be good for? Such a Man is a mere Nabal, to all that are about him.