Thomas Watson
The extended quote that I was unable to share on June 22:
THOMAS WATSON (c.1620-1686)
“Those things which are not comparable to the desires of the soul can never make a man blessed; but temporary things are not commensurate to the desires of the soul; therefore they cannot render him blessed. Nothing on earth can satisfy. ‘He that loves silver will not be satisfied with silver’ (Ecclesiastes 5: 10). Riches are unsatisfying:
Because they are not real. The world is called a ‘fashion’ (1 Corinthians 7:31). The word in the Greek signifies a mathematical figure, sometimes a show or apparition. Riches are but tinned over. They are like alchemy, which glisters a little in our eyes, but at death all this alchemy will be worn off. Riches are but sugared lies, pleasant impostures, like a gilded cover which has not one leaf of true comfort bound up in it.
Because they are not suitable. The soul is a spiritual thing; riches are of an earthly extract, and how can these fill a spiritual substance? A man may as well fill his treasure chest with grace, as his heart with gold. If a man were crowned with all the delights of the world, nay, if God should build him an house among the stars, yet the restless eye of his unsatisfied mind would be looking still higher. He would be prying beyond the heavens for some hidden rarities which he thinks he has not yet attained to; so unquenchable is the thirst of the soul till it come to bathe in the river of life and to centre upon true blessedness.”
