The Art of Contentment, Section 1
SECT. I.
Of the necessary Connexion between Happiness and Contentment.
1. GOD who is essentially happy in himself, can receive no accession to his felicity by the poor contributions of men. He cannot therefore be suppos'd to have made them upon intuition of increasing, but communicating his happiness. And this his original design is very visible in all the parts of his Economy towards them. When lapsed man had counterplotted against himself, defeated the purpose of the Divine goodness, and plunged his whole nature into the opposite state of endless misery; he yet reinforc'd his first design, and an expedient as full of wonder as mercy, the death of his Son, recovers him to his former capacity of bliss. And that it might not only be a bare capacity, he has added all other methods proper to work upon a rational creature. He has shewed him his danger, set before him in perspective that eternal Tophet, which he is advis'd to shun. On the other side he has no less lively describ'd the heavenly Jerusalem, the Celestial country to which he is to aspire: nay farther has levell'd his road to it, leads him not as he did the Israelites thro the wilderness, thro intricate mazes to puzle his understanding; thro a land of drought wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions, Deut. 8. 15. to discourage and affright him: but has in the Gospel chalkt out a plain, a safe, nay a plesant path; as much superior both in the ease of the way, and in the end to which it leads, as heaven is to Canaan.
2. BY doing this he has not only secured our grand and ultimate happiness, but provided for our intermedial also. Those Christian duties which are to carry us to heaven, are our refreshments, our viaticum in our journy: his yoke is not to gall and fret us, but an engine by which we may with ease (and almost insensibly) draw all the clogs and incumbrances of humane life. For whether we take Christianity in its whole complex, or in its several and distinct branches, tis certainly the most excellent, the most compendious art of happy living: its very tasks are rewards, and its precepts are nothing but a divine sort of Alchymy, to sublime at once our nature and our plesures.
3. THIS may be evidenc'd in every particular of the Evangelical law: but having formerly made some attemt towards it in another*Decay of Christian Piety. tract, I shall not here reassume the whole subject. I shall only single out one particular precept, wherein happiness is not (as in the others) only implied, and must be catcht at the rebound by consequence and event; but is literally exprest, and is the very matter of the duty; I mean the precept of acquiescence and Contentment. Happiness and this true genuine Contentment, being terms so convertible, that to bid us be content, is but another phrase for bidding us be happy.
4. TEMPORAL enjoiments, such as are plesure, wealth, honor, and the rest, tho they make specious pretences to be the mesure of human happiness, are all of them justly discarded by the Philosopher in his Ethics, upon this one consideration, that coming from abroad they may be with-held or taken from us: and our tenure being precarious, we even for that reason are unhappy in our most desirable possessions, because we still are liable to be so. And therefore he concludes, that felicity must be placed in the mind and soul, which stands without the reach of fortune; and in the practice of vertue, which in its own nature, and not in its contingent use is truly good, and therefore certainly renders the possessors such.
5. BUT this practice being diffused thro the whole extent of Moral duty, Epictetus thought he had deserved well of human nature, when he drew it up in two short words, to sustain and abstain: that is to bear with constancy adverse events, and with moderation enjoy those that are prosperous. Which complexure of Philosophy is yet more fully, as well as more compendiously exprest in the single notion of Contentment: which involves the patient bearing of all misadventures, and generous contemt of sensual illectives. This state of mind the Greeks express by calling it foreign or self-sufficiency, which, we know properly speaking, is one of the incommunicable attributes of the divine nature: and the Stoics expresly pretend, that by it mortal men are enabled to rival their Gods; in Seneca's phrase, to make a controversy with Jupiter himself. But abating the insolent blasphemy of an independent felicity, Christianity acknowledges a material truth in the assertion: and St. Paul declares of himself, that having learnt how to want and how to abound, and in whatever state he happens to be in, therewith to be content: he is able to do all things thro Christ that strengthens him, Phil. 4. 11. 12, 13. and having nothing, to possess all things. 2 Cor. 6. 10.
6. WHICH great event comes about, not only because all good things are eminently in the divine nature, and he who by Vertue and Religion possesses Him, thereby by, in a full equivalence has every thing; but also upon human mesures, and the principles of Philosophy: the compendious address to wealth, as Plato rightly observ'd, being not to encrease possessions, but lessen desires. And if so, twill follow that the contented man must be abundantly provided for, being so entirely satisfied with what he has, as to have no desires at all. Indeed tis truly said of covetous men, and is equally verified of all who have any desire to gratify, that they want no less what they have, then what they have not: but the reverse of that Paradox is really made good by Contentment, which bestowes on men the enjoiment of whatever they have, and also whatever they have not; and by teaching to want nothing, abundantly secures not to want happiness.
7. ON the other side this one grace being absent, it is not in the power of any success or affluence to make life a tolerable thing. Let all the materials of earthly happiness be amast together and flung upon one man, they will without contentment be but like the fatal prize of Tarpeia's treason, who was prest to death with the weight of her booty. He that has the elements of felicity, and yet cannot form them into a satisfaction, is more desperately miserable then he that wants them: for he who wants them has yet something to hope for, and thinks if he had them he might be happy; but he who insignificantly possesses them, has no reserve, has not so much as the Flattery of an expectation: for he has nothing left to desire, and yet can be as little said to enjoy.
8. HE therefore that would have the extract, the quintessence of happiness, must seek it in Content. All outward accessions are but the dross and earthy part: this alone is the spirit, which when tis once separated, depends not upon the fate of the other; but preserves its vigor when that is destroi'd. St. Paul whom I before mention'd, is a ready instance of it, who professes to be content in what ever state. Contentment being not so inseparately link'd to external things, but that they may subsist apart. That those are often without it we are too sure, and that it may be without them is as certainly true; tho by our own default we have not so many examples of it. A heart that rightly computes the difference between temporals and eternals, may resolve with the Prophet, Altho the figtree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herds in the stall; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my Salvation. Hab. 3. 17. 18. He that has God need not much deplore the want of any thing else: nor can he that considers the plenty and glory of his future state, be much dejected with the want or the abjectness of his present.
9. YET so indulgent is God to our infirmities, that knowing how unapt our impatient natures are to walk only by faith, and not at all by sight 2 Cor. 5. 7. he is pleas'd to give us fair antepasts of satisfaction here, dispenses his temporal blessings tho not equally, yet so universally, that he that has least, has enough to oblige not only his acquiescence, but his thankfulness. Tho every man has not all he wishes, yet he has that which is more valuable then that he complains to want; nay which he himself could worse spare were it put to his option.
10. AND now from such a disposure of things who would not expect that mankind should be the cheerfullest part of the creation: that the sun should not more rejoice to run his course Psal. 19. 5. then man should to finish his: that a journy which has so blessed an end, and such good accommodation by the way, should be past with all imaginable alacrity, and that we should live here practicers and learners, of that state of unmix'd interminable joies to which we aspire. But alas if we look upon the universality of men, we shall find it nothing so; but while all other creatures gladsomly follow the order of their creation, take plesure in those things God has assign'd for them, we with a fullen perversness quarrel at what we should enjoy, and in every thing make it our business, not to fit it for our use, but to find out some conceled quality which may render it unfit. We look insidiously upon our blessings, like men that design'd only to pick a quarrel, and start a pretence for mutining. From hence it is that man who was design'd the Lord of the world, to whose satisfaction all inferior beings were to contribute, is now the unhappiest of the creatures: nay as if the whole order of the universe were inverted, he becomes slave to his own vassals, courts all these little sublunary things with such passion, that if they prove coy and fly his embraces, he is mad and desperate: if they fling themselves into his Arms, he is then glutted and satiated; like Amnon he hates more then he loved 2 Sam. 13. 15. and is sicker of his possession, then he was of his desire.
10. AND thus will it ever be till we can keep our desires more at home, and not suffer them to ramble after things without our reach. That honest Roman who from his extraordinary industry upon his little spot of ground received such an increase as brought him under suspicion of witchcraft, is a good example for us. God has placed none of us in so barren a soil, in so forlorn a state, but there is somthing in it which may afford us comfort; let us husband that to the utmost, and tis scarce imaginable what improvements, even he that appears the most miserable may make of his condition. But if in a sullen humor we will not cultivate our own field, because we have perhaps more mind to our neighbors, we may thank our selves if we starve. The despising of what God has already given us, is sure but a cold invitation to farther bounty. Men are indeed forced somtimes to reward the mutinous: but God is not to be so attaqued, nor is it that sort of violence which can ever force heaven. The Heathen could say that Jupiter sent his plagues among the poorer sort of men, because they were alwaies repining: and indeed there is so much of truth in the observation, that our impatience and discontent at our present condition, is the greatest provocation to God to make it worse.
11. IT must therefore be resolv'd to be very contrary to our interest, and surely tis no less too our duty. It is so if we do but own our selves men, for in that is impli'd a subordination and submission to that power which made us so; and to dispute his managery of the world, to make other distributions of it then he has don, is to renounce our subjection, and set up for dominion. But this is yet more intolerable as we are Christians, it being a special part of the Evangelical discipline, cherefully to conform to any condition: to know how to be abased, and how to abound, to be full and to be hungry, Phil. 4. 12. to be careful for nothing ver. 6. Nay so little do's Christ give countenance to our peevish discontents, our wanton out-cries when we are not hurt, that he requires more then a contentment, an exultancy and transport of joy even under the heaviest pressures, under reproches and persecutions. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy Lu. 6. 23. And sure nothing can be more contrary to this, then to be alwaies whining and complaining, crying in the Prophets phrase, my leanness my leanness, wo is me. Isa. 24. 16. When perhaps Moses's simile do's better fit our state, Iesurun waxed fat and kicked. Deut. 32. 15.
12. AND as this querulous humor is against our interest and duty, so is it visibly against our ease. Tis a sickness of the mind, a perpetual gnawing and craving of the appetite without any possibility of satisfaction: and indeed is the same in the heart which the Caninus appetitus is in the stomach, to which we may aptly enough apply that description we find in the Prophet, he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry, and he shall eat on the left and not be satisfied, Esay. 9. 20. Where this sharp, this fretting humor abounds, nothing converts into nurishment: every new accession do's but excite some new desire; and as tis observ'd of a trencher-fed dog, that he tasts not one bit for the greedy expectation of the next; so a discontented mind is so intent upon his pursuits, that he has no relish of his acquests. So that what the Prophet speaks of the Covetous, is equally appliable to all other sorts of Male-contents: he enlarges his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, Hab. 2. 5. And sure if the desire accomplished be as Solomon saies sweet to the soul, Prov. 13. 19. it must be exceedingly bitter, to be thus condemned to endless unaccomplishable desires; and yet this is the torture which every repining uncontented spirit provides for it self.
13. WHAT a madness is it then for men to be so desperatly bent against their interest and duty, as to renounce even their ease too for company? One would think this age were sensual enough to be at defiance with the least shadow of uneasiness. It is so I am sure where it ought not, every thing is laborious when tis in compliance with their duty, a few minutes spent in praier Oh what a weariness is it! Mal. 213. If they chance but to miss a meal, they are ready to cry out, their knees are weak thro fasting. Psa. 109. 23. yet they can without regret, or any self-compassion, macerate and cruciate themselves with anxious cares and vexations, and as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6. 10. pierce themselves thro with many sorrows. That proposal therefore which was very rashly made by St. Peter to our Saviour, Master pity thy self, Mat. 16. 22. which we render be it far from thee, would here be an advised motion to the generality of mankind, who are commonly made unhappy not by any thing without them, but by those restless impatiencies that are within them.
14. IT may therefore be a seasonable office to endevor the appeasing those storms, by recalling them to those sober rational considerations, which may shew as well the folly, as uneasiness of this repining unsatisfiable humor. Tis certain that in true reasoning, we can find nothing whereon to found it, but a great deal to enforce the contrary. Indeed tis so much against the dictate of reasonable nature to affect damage, sin, and torment, that were there nothing else to be said but what I have already mention'd, it might competently discover the great unreasonableness of this sin.
15. BUT we need not confine our appeal to reason, as it is only a judg of utility and advantage; but enlarge it to another notion, as it is judg of equity and right: in which respect also it gives as cleer and peremtory a sentence against all murmuring and impatience. To evince this I shall insist upon these particulars. 1. that God is debtor to no man, and therefore what ever he affords to any, it is upon bounty not of right, a benevolence not a due. 2ly. that this bounty is not streight or narrow, confin'd to some few particular persons, and wholly overskipping the rest, but more or less universally diffused to all. So that he who has the least, cannot justly say but he has bin liberally dealt with. 3ly that if we compare our blessings with our allaies, our good things with our evil, we shall find our good far surmounting. 4ly that we shall find them yet more so, if we compare them with the good we have don, as on the contrary we shall find our afflictions scarce discernible if balanced with our sins. 5ly that as God is Rector of the universe, so it appertains to him to make such allotments, such distributions, as may best preserve the state of the whole. 6ly that God notwithstanding that universal care, has also a peculiar aspect on every particular Person, and disposes to him what he discerns best for him in special. 7ly if we compare our adversities, with those of other men, we shall alwaies find somthing that equals if not exceeds our own. All these are certain irrefragable truths, and there is none of them single but may, if well prest upon the mind, charm it into a calmness and resignation; but when there is such a conspiration of arguments, it must be a very obstinate perversness that can resist them: or should they fail to enforce a full conviction; will yet introduce those subsidiary proofs which I have to alledg, so advantagiously, as will being put altogether, amount unto perfect and uncontroulable Evidence.