# What is wrath?



## JM (Nov 24, 2009)

Discourses upon the existence and ... - Google Books

What is wrath, but a defence and strengthening self against the attempts of some real or imaginary evil? 

Whence springs envy, but from a self-love, grieved at its own wants in the midst of another's enjoyment, able to supply it? 

What is impatience, but a regret that self is not provided for at the rate of our wish, and that it hath met with a shock against supposed merit ? 

What is pride, but a sense of self-worth, a desire to have self of a higher elevation than others? 

What is drunkenness, but a seeking a satisfaction for sensual self in the spoils of reason ? 

No sin is committed as sin, but as it pretends a self-satisfaction. Sin, indeed, may well be termed a man's self, because it is, since the loss of original righteousness, the form that overspreads every part of our souls. The understanding assents to nothing false but under the notion of true, and the will embraceth nothing evil but under the notion of good ; but the rule whereby we measure the truth and goodness of proposed objects, is not the unerring Word, but the inclinations of self, the gratifying of which is the aim of our whole lives. 
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