"Seek ye first the kingdom of the heavens and its righteousness, and all these things (which are recounted), shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

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Comparison of the kingdom of God:

1. With the human body from inmosts to outmosts; and therefore concerning that society wherein the Messiah is the Soul, and which shall form one body as one man.

2. With the kindred in the house of Abraham and Nahor.

3. With the land of Canaan and its bordering countries.

4. With the Paradise of Eden.

5. With a marriage and a feast.

[For the above comparisons, see:

(1) n. The Word Explained 596 seq.

(2) n. 567-568.

(3) n. 477 seq.

(4) n. 498 seq.,

(5) n. 586.]

Men are men only so far as they walk in the way of truth. But so far as they turn aside therefrom, they approach to the nature of a beast.

17. And out of the earth made God to grow trees of every kind, both, pleasant to the sight and suitable for eating; and also the tree of life in the midst of the fruit garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (9)

It is very clearly evident that the earthly paradise represented the heavenly paradise, or, that the type of the one stood forth in the other. For there is nothing on earth to which there is not some corresponding thing in heaven, since whatever is created or brought forth in the effect descends from heaven. Therefore there is not a thing on the earth that does not represent some type of its origin. For all uses are heavenly, and effects are so many uses sent forth into the circuit of nature. The ends of uses are Divine; and therefore all things that are produced are nothing but images of heaven, just as man or Adam was made an image of God himself. Representations of things heavenly are therefore effected by means of images of similar effects such as exist on earth; of which matter we shall treat at length in the following pages. Therefore this whole garden planted in Eden represented the heavenly paradise, into which Adam is said to be translated that he might enjoy the delights of nature or of the world together with the delights of heaven. Since, therefore, natural effects are symbols of things heavenly, the tree of life which was set in the midst of the garden, signified the wisdom which flowed into his mind from heaven, or by the superior way; while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signified the intelligence which flowed into the same mind from the world and its nature, by the inferior way, or by way of the senses and animus. For there are two ways opening into the human mind, namely, from heaven through the soul, and from the world through the senses and the animus — of which ways we have treated fully elsewhere. ¹ The tree of wisdom or of life (for in wisdom is true life) is therefore said to be placed in the midst of the garden; as also the tree of intelligence by means of knowledges.

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