“Wherein blessedness doth not consist: it doth not lie in the acquisition of worldly things; happiness cannot by any art of chemistry be extracted here: Christ doth not say, Blessed are the rich, or blessed are the noble; yet too many idolize these things…Transitory things are not commensurate to the desires of the soul; therefore they cannot render him blessed; nothing on earth can satisfy. Eccl. 5:10. ‘He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver;’ riches are unsatisfying.
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 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 hath 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.”
Thomas Watson in Discourses on Important and Interesting Topics (Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton, & Co., 1829) 38-39.