110. Which is in the midst of the paradise of God. That this signifies that all knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth in heaven and in the church, look thither and proceed thence, is evident from the signification of the midst, as being the centre to which all things in the circumference look, and from which they proceed (concerning which see above, n. 97): and from the signification of paradise, as being the knowledges of good and truth, and intelligence therefrom (concerning which see Arcana Coelestia 100, 108, 1588, 2702, 3220). And because these things are signified by paradise, therefore by the paradise of God is signified heaven, and because heaven is signified, the church also is signified; for the church is the Lord's heaven on earth; these are called the paradise of God, because the Lord is in the midst thereof, and from Him are all intelligence and wisdom. Because hitherto it has not been known that all things in the Word are written by correspondences, and consequently that spiritual things are involved in the most minute things there related, it is believed that, by the paradise treated of in the second chapter of Genesis, is meant a paradisiacal garden, whereas no terrestrial paradise is there meant, but a heavenly paradise, which those possess who have intelligence and wisdom from the knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth (see above, n.109, and in the work, Heaven and Hell 176, 185).
[2] It is therefore evident, not only what is signified by paradise, or the garden of Eden, but also by the paradises, or gardens of God, mentioned in other parts of the Word; as in Isaiah:
"Jehovah will comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, so that he will make her wilderness into Eden, and her desert into the garden of Jehovah: joy and gladness shall be found therein" (51:3).
In Ezekiel:
"Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone thy covering" (28:13).
These things are said concerning Tyre, because by Tyre in the Word is signified the church which is in the knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth, and thence in intelligence (see Arcana Coelestia 1201). Its intelligence derived therefrom is signified by Eden, the garden of God, also by every precious stone of which was his covering (see Arcana Coelestia 114, 9863, 9865, 9868, 9873). In the same:
"Behold, Asshur a cedar in Lebanon. The cedars did not hide it in the garden of God; nor any tree in the garden of God was equal to it in beauty. I have made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches; and all the trees of Eden in the garden of God, envied it" (31:3, 8, 9).
By Asshur in the Word are meant those who have become rational by the knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth, thus whose minds are enlightened from heaven. (That Asshur denotes man's Rational may be seen,Arcana Coelestia 119, 1186.)
[3] Something shalt here be said to explain, how it is to be understood that all knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth have regard to the good of love to the Lord, and also that they thence proceed; which things are signified by the words: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." The good of love to the Lord is the Lord Himself because the Lord is in the good of His own love with men, spirits, and angels.
That all knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth look to this, or to the Lord, is known in the Christian Church; for the doctrine of the church teaches that without the Lord there is no salvation; and also, that all salvation is in the Lord; the knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth, or doctrinals from the Word, teach how man may come to God, and be conjoined to Him. (That no one can be conjoined to God except from the Lord, and in the Lord, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, 283, 296.) It is therefore evident that all things which the church teaches from the Word, have regard to the Lord and to love to Him, as the end to which they are all directed. That all knowledges of good and truth, or doctrinals from the Word, proceed from the Lord, is also known in the church; for it is taught in the church that everything of love and of faith is from heaven, and nothing from man, and also that no one can love God and believe in Him from himself. To love God and to believe in Him, involve all those things that the church teaches, which are called doctrinals and knowledges (cognitiones), because it is from these that He is loved and believed in. Love and faith are not granted to man without previous knowledges (cognitiones); for without the latter man would be empty.
[4] From these considerations it follows, that as everything of love and of faith proceeds from the Lord, so also all the knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth, which constitute and form love and faith, proceed from Him, because all these knowledges look to the Lord, and proceed from Him; and this is what is signified by the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God; therefore, all the trees in the paradise are called trees of life, and trees of Jehovah. Thus, in the Apocalypse they are called trees of life:
"In the midst of the street of it, and of the river going out from the throne of God and the Lamb, on this side and on that side, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve fruits" (22:1, 2);
and "trees of Jehovah" in David:
"The trees of Jehovah are full of sap, and the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted" (Psalms 104:16).
It is therefore clear that by the tree of life in the midst of paradise, is meant every tree there, that is, every man, in the midst of whom, that is, in whom, is the Lord. From these considerations, and those adduced in the preceding article, it may be known what is signified by the statement, that to him that overcometh the Lord will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
