...grown, and God increased it. And the just man also, who is with David, is likened to the tree planted by the streams of water, which will give its fruit in its season, and whose leaf will not wither; and again: "The just shall flourish as the palm tree;" and, "Thou hast transplanted a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the nations, and planted it." Endeavor, therefore, through teachings of this kind to reach that paradise in your mind, and yourself to attain to the rays of divine light; where the light of knowledge rises, where the paradise of delights is planted. And even if you conceive of a certain bodily place, receptive of the saints, in which all who have shone forth on earth in good works dwell, partaking of the grace of God as a reward fitting their merit, and of true and blessed delight, perhaps you do not stray far, even so, from the proper surmise concerning it. B
12. There, then, the good powers are rooted and firmly established, the ministers of the saints to whose care man was entrusted when he was newly born and in great need of much exercise for his perfection in the arena of virtue. Where the assembly of the saints is, where the rising of the light is, where the delight of the soul is: there God placed man. If, therefore, you are carnal, and you think the enjoyment of sensible things to be great, you have that sketch of the bodily paradise and its most delicate fulfillment. Hasten to these, as one who will find there a never-failing source of pleasure to be dispensed. But if you are spiritual, and you set your mind on things more sublime than the gratification of objects that fall under the senses, ascend in your mind to the beauties of the angels, learn well the fruits of righteousness that are in them. Behold the river of God, filled with water, "whose streams make glad the city of God, whose artificer and creator is God." That river flows through that city, the one beginning from Edem, which waters the paradise. Having considered all these things in your mind, praise their Creator, who has made so many such great goods for your sake, and so that you might enjoy them, and who has deemed you worthy of such glory, if only you turn always in your mind to Him, and understand from whom and for what C end we were brought into the nature of things. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.