Page:MeditationsOnTheMysteriesOfOurHolyV1.djvu/273

 i. Anger destroys our likeness to Almighty God, whose works are full of great tranquillity. It disquiets the conscience, it stops the fountain of God's mercy, it strangles the spirit of devotion and the consolations of the Holy Ghost, who dwells and reposes in the humble and meek-hearted, and flies from the wrathful, whom the evil spirit inhabits. For furious wrath is a frenzy of the soul, a short madness, and a voluntary devil, which possesses the spirit with such agitations as the devil makes when he possesses the body.

ii. Besides this, as our Lord is the God of vengeance, He exercises it with rigorous justice against those that angrily revenge themselves by killing or oppressing their neighbours. For which sentence was given against the first two malicious homicides that were in the world, Cain and Lamech; that of Cain vengeance should be taken "sevenfold," and of Lamech, that was not warned by Cain, "seventy times seven," that is, a vengeance so complete that it comprehends all the kinds of torments that are in this life.

iii. But, above all, I will consider what Christ our Lord said in His gospel against this vice, " Whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council, and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire." Thus anger no sooner begins to govern the heart but the tribunal and " council" of the most sacred Trinity begins to treat of vengeance, the rigour of the punishment increasing as the sin grows greater. If anger remains but in the heart the punishment shall be the lesser; if it issue out, giving open signs, with scorn or exterior gestures, upon further deliberation, the punishment shall be