Those Who Excuse Anger Because God Is Said to Be Angry

We have heard some people trying to excuse this most deadly disease of the soul, and to make it seem less serious by a rather shocking way of interpreting Scripture. They say that it does no harm if we are angry with brothers who do wrong, since, they say, God himself is said to rage and to be angry with those who either refuse to know him or, knowing him, spurn him. So it is here: “And the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people”; or where the prophet prays and says, “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your displeasure.” They do not understand that, while they want to open to men an excuse for a most pestilent sin, they are ascribing a taint of human passion to the infinite God, the fountain of all purity. [a]