Centuries of Meditations

45

This principle of nature, when you remove the rust it hath contracted by corruption, is pure gold; and the most orient jewel that shines in man. Few consider it either in itself, or in the design of the implanter. No man doubts but it is blessed to receive: to be made a glorious creature, and to have worlds given to one is excellent. But to be a glorious creature and to give, is a blessedness unknown. It is a kind of paradox in our Saviour, and not (as we read of) revealed upon earth, but to St. Paul from Heaven, It is more blessed to give than to receive. It is a blessedness too high to be understood. To give is the happiness of God; to receive, of man. But O the mystery of His loving kindness, even that also hath He imparted to us. Will you that I ascend higher? In giving us Himself, in giving us the world, in giving us our souls and bodies, he hath done much, but all this had been nothing, unless He had given us a power to have given Him, ourselves, in which is contained the greatest pleasure and honour. We love ourselves earnestly, and therefore rejoice to have palaces and kingdoms. But when we have these, yea Heaven and Earth, unless we can be delightful and joyous to others they will be of no value. One soul to whom we may be pleasing is of greater worth than all dead things. Some unsearchable good lieth in this without which the other is but a vile and desolate estate; So that to have all worlds, with a certain sense that they are infinitely beautiful and rich and glorious is miserable vanity, and leaves us forlorn, if all things are dead, or if ourselves are not Divine and illustrious creatures.