Quote 4429
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Indeed there is no little sin because there is no little God to sin against.A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, 5:500
Contentment is not merely one act, just a flash in a good mood. You find many men and women who, if they are in a good mood, will be very quiet. But this will not hold. It is not a constant course. It is not the constant tenor of their spirits to be holy and gracious under affliction. Now I say that contentment is a quiet frame of spirit and by that I mean that you should find men and women in a good mood not only at this or that time, but as the constant tenor and temper of their hearts. A Christian who, in the constant tenor and temper of his heart, can carry himself quietly with constancy has learned this lesson of contentment. Otherwise his Christianity is worth nothing, for no one, however furious in his discontent, will not be quiet when he is in a good mood.The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
To be content as a result of some external thing is like warming a man's clothes by the fire. But to be content through an inward disposition of the soul is like the warmth that a man's clothes have from the natural heat of the body. A man who is healthy in body puts on his clothes, and perhaps at first on a cold morning they feel cold. But after he has had them on a little while they are warm. Now, how did they get warm? They were not near the fire? No, this came from the natural heat of his body. Now when a sickly man, the natural heat of whose body has deteriorated, puts on his clothes, they do not get hot after a long time. He must warm them by the fire, and even then they will soon be cold again. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
Let me explain myself. Someone is disturbed, suppose it to be a child or a man or a woman. If you come and bring some great thing to please them, perhaps it will quiet them and they will be contented. It is the thing you bring that quiets them, not the disposition of their own spirits, not any good temper in their own hearts, but the external thing you bring them. But when a Christian is content in the right way, the quiet comes more from the temper and disposition of his own heart than from any external argument or from the possession of anything in the world. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
If the children of God have their little taken from them, they can make up all their wants in God Himself… If anything is cut off from the stream (a godly man) knows how to go to the fountain, and makes up all there. God is his all in all.The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment Excerpts
A contented man, just as he is the most contented, so he is the most unsatisfied man in the world. You will say, 'How is that?' A man who has learned the art of contentment is the most contented with any low condition that he has in the world, and yet he cannot be satisfied with the enjoyment of all the world… though his heart is so enlarged that the enjoyment of all the world and ten thousand worlds cannot satisfy him for his portion; yet he has a heart quieted under God's disposal.The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment Excerpts
A Christian may lack the comforts that others have—the land, and possessions; but God has instilled into his heart that contentment which is far better: in this sense that saying of our Savior is true, "he shall receive a hundred fold." (Mat. 19:29) Perhaps he who ventured all for Christ, never has his house or land again: yes—but God gives him a contented spirit, and this breeds such joy in the soul, as is infinitely sweeter than all his houses and lands which he left for Christ.https://gracegems.org/Watson/art_of_divine_contentment2.htm
A contented Christian carries heaven with him. For, what is heaven—but that sweet repose and full contentment that the soul shall have in God. In contentment there are the first-fruits of heaven.https://gracegems.org/Watson/art_of_divine_contentment2.htm
Contentment is a flower which does not grow in every garden. You would think it were excellent if I could prescribe a remedy or antidote against poverty. Behold, here is that which is more excellent, for a man to be poor—and yet have enough! Contentment teaches a man how to abound—in the midst of poverty. Contentment is a remedy against all our trouble, an alleviation to all our burdens, the cure of to every worry. Contentment, though it be not properly a grace (it is rather a disposition of mind,) yet in it there is a happy mixture of all the graces: it is a most precious compound, which is made up of faith, patience, meekness, humility, etc. which are the ingredients put into ithttps://gracegems.org/Watson/art_of_divine_contentment2.htm
Reading maketh a full man, prayer a holy man, temptation an experienced man.A Puritan Golden Treasury
As a body without a soul, much wood without fire, a bullet in a gun without powder, so are words in prayer without spirit.Commentary on Old/New Testaments 5 - 334
A man may as truly say, the sea burns, or fire cools, as that certainty of salvation breeds security and looseness.Commentary on the Old and New Treatments, 5
If God be our God, let us learn to be contented, though we have the less of other things. Contentment is a rare jewel, it is the cure of care. If we have God to be our God, well may we be contented.The Ten Commandments, 21
Discontent keeps a man from enjoying what he doth possess. A drop or two of vinegar will sour a whole glass of wine. Comfort depends upon contentment. It is not trouble that troubles, but discontent. It is not the water without the ship but the water that gets within the leak which sinks it. It is not outward afflictions that can make the life of a Christian sad; a contented mind would sail above these waters. But when there is a leak of discontent open and trouble gets into the heart, then it is disquieted and sinks.
There is a great deal of folly in discontentedness, for it makes our affliction a great deal worse than otherwise it would be. It no way removes our affliction—nay, while they do continue they are a great deal the worse and heavier, for a discontented heart is a proud heart, and a proud heart will not pull down his sails when there come a tempest and storm. If a mariner when a tempest and storm come should be froward and would not pull down his sails but is discontented with the storm, is his condition the better because he is discontented and will not pull down his sails? Will this help him? Just so, it is for all the world with a discontented heart. A discontented heart is a proud heart, and he out of his pride is troubled with his affliction and is not contented with God's dispose, and so he will not pull down his spirit at all and make it bow to God in this condition in which God hath brought him.
A carnal heart—because there is nothing but filthiness, a filthy stink in himself, nothing but vileness and baseness within him—upon this it is that he seeks his contentment elsewhere. And as it is with a vessel that is full of liquor, if you strike upon it, it will make no great noise, but if it be empty, then it makes a great noise. So it is with the heart—a heart that is full of grace and goodness within, such a one will bear a great many strokes and never make any noise; but an empty heart, if that be struck, that will make a noise. Those men and women that are so much complaining and always whining, it is a sign that there is an emptiness in their hearts; but if their hearts were filled with grace, they would not make such a noise as now they do.
Discontent is a spider that sucks the poison of unthankfulness out of the sweetest flower of God's blessings, and, by a devilish chemistry, extracts dross out of the most refined gold. The discontented person thinks everything he does for God too much, and everything God does for him too little. Oh, what a sin is unthankfulness! Primitive Divinity
Discontent is nothing else but the echo of unbelief, and remember, distrust is worse than distress. Primitive Divinity
Discontent, arising from disrespect, savors too much of pride; a humble Christian hath a lower opinion of himself than others can have of him. He that is taken up about the thoughts of his sins and how he hath provoked God, he cries out as Agur: "I am more brutish than any man" (Prov. 30:2) and therefore is contented, though he be set "among the dogs of my flock" (Job 30:1). Though he be low in the thoughts of others, yet he is thankful that he is not laid in "the lowest hell" (Ps. 86:13). A proud man sets a high value upon himself and is angry with others because they will not come up to his price. Take heed of pride. Primitive Divinity
Remember, in every loss there is only a suffering, but in every discontent there is a sin; and one sin is worse than a thousand sufferings. What! Because some of my revenues are gone, shall I part with some of my righteousness? Shall my faith and patience go too? Because I do not possess an estate, shall I not therefore possess my own spirit? O, learn to be content! Primitive Divinity
Every man is complaining that his estate is no better, though he seldom complains that his heart is no better. One man commends this kind of life, another commends that; one man thinks a country life best, another a city life. The soldier thinks it best to be a merchant, and the merchant to be a soldier. Men can be content to be anything but what God will have them. Primitive Divinity
A contented man cannot be a poor man, especially if a godly man. For why? The Father, that Ancient of Days, fills his memory; the Son, the wisdom of the Father, fills his understanding; the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, fills his will. And so he must needs have all that thus has the Haver of All.
Get a humble spirit if you would have a contented one. Pride causes men to be unthankful for their mercies and impatient under their crosses, but afflictions are easily borne and benefits are ever gratefully acknowledged by the mind that is truly humble under a sense of its defects.
We conceive it is so excellent a grace, this grace of contentment, that it is indeed a compound of these five graces: faith, humility, patience, hope, and mortification. In a manner, contentment is the result of all these exercising themselves in one; and except these be in a most vigorous exercise, absolute contentment is not easily to be attained.
We may say, if a Christian made the world but his servant, a little would content him; but if once he make the world his master and lord of his affections, then his desires will be infinite and cannot at all be satisfied.
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