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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2022
That Contentment is a Vertue. Its Causes and its Ends: Its Impediments, Effects and Advantages. The way to attain and secure Contentment.
THOUGH we have not named it, in our first distribution of Vertue into its several kinds, yet the commendation which Contentment hath in Scripture, imports it to be a Vertue: so does the difficulty of attaining it, and the great and mighty force it is of in our Lives and Conversations. Having Food and Rayment, saith the Apostle, let us therewith be content: For Godliness with Contentment is great Gain. Where he fitly noteth, that Godliness is the original of true Contentment, and that the Gain of so great a Vertue is inestimable. The truth is, it is impossible to be happy, or grateful without it. A discontented Mind is exceeding prone to be peevish and fretful, and throws a man into all the indecencies of Avarice, Ambition, Envy, Treason, Murther, Contention, Turbulency, Murmuring, Repining, Melancholy and Sowrness, Anger, Baseness and Folly, into all the Malevolence and Misery which can disorder the Soul, or disturb the World. Suspicion, Unbelief, Enmity against GOD, Fear and Cowardice, Barrenness in good and praise-worthy Employments, Weariness and Complaint, hatred of Retirement, Spiritual Idleness and Ignorance are its Companions, followed by Debaucheries, and all the sorts of vile and wicked Diversions. For Man is an unwelcome Creature to himself till he can delight in his Condition, and while he hates to be alone, exposeth himself to all kind of Mischiefs and Temptations, because he is an active Creature, and must be doing something, either Good, or Evil.
TRUE Contentment is the full satisfaction of a Knowing Mind. It is not a vain and empty Contentment, which is falsely so called, springing from some one particular little satisfaction, that however Momentany it be, does for the present delight our Humour: but a long habit of solid Repose, after much study and serious Consideration. It is not the slavish and forced Contentment, which the Philosophers among the Heathen did force upon themselves; but a free and easie Mind attended with pleasure, and naturally rising from ones present Condition.
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