90. 'That is in the midst of the paradise of God' signifies interiorly in the truths of wisdom and faith. 'In the midst' signifies the inmost (n. 44, 383), here interiorly. 'The paradise of God' signifies the truths of wisdom and faith, and therefore 'the tree of life that is in the midst of the paradise of God' signifies the Lord with the good of love and charity interiorly in the truths of wisdom and faith. Good indeed is inwardly in truths, for good is the esse (being) of life, while truth is the existere (existence) of life therefrom, as has been abundantly shown in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. That 'the paradise of God' is the truth of wisdom and faith is plain on account of the signification of 'garden' in the Word. 'Garden' there signifies wisdom and intelligence, because 'trees' signify men of the Church, while their 'fruits' signify the goods of life. Nothing else is signified by 'the garden of Eden', for by it the wisdom of Adam is described. [2] The like is understood by 'the garden of God' in Ezekiel:-
In thy wisdom and intelligence thou hast made wealth for thyself, thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone thy covering Ezek. xxviii 4, 13.
This is concerning Tyre, by which the Church is signified as to the cognitions of good and truth, thus as to intelligence; and therefore it is said 'In thy wisdom and intelligence thou hast made wealth for thyself'. By the precious stones that are a covering the truths of intelligence are signified. [3] In the same:-
Asshur is a cedar in Lebanon, the cedars in the garden of God have not hidden it: nor was every tree in the garden of God equal to it in beauty: all the trees of Eden in the garden of God strove to equal it Ezek. xxxi 3, 8, 9
This is said of Egypt and Asshur, because by 'Egypt' is signified knowledge, and by 'Asshur' the rationality through which there is intelligence. Likewise, by 'a cedar'. But because through his own rationality he came into a state of self-intelligence (in statum propriae intelligentiae), it is therefore said of him (verse 18 of the same chapter)
To whom hast thou thus become alike in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden, since thou shalt he made to go down with the trees of Eden into the lower land, and shalt lie down in the midst of the uncircumcised?
The 'uncircumcised' are those who are without the good of charity. [4] In Isaiah:-
Jehovah shall comfort Zion; and he shall make her wilderness into Eden, and her desert into the garden of Jehovah Isa. li 3.
'Zion' there is the Church; the 'wilderness' and 'desert' are a deficiency and ignorance of truth; 'Eden' and 'the garden of God' are wisdom and intelligence. Wisdom and intelligence are also signified by 'garden' in Isa. lviii 11, lxi 11; Jer. xxxi 12; Amos ix 14; Num. xxiv 6. [5] The man of the Church is also as to intelligence just like a garden when he is in the good of love from the Lord, because the spiritual heat that causes him to live is love, and the spiritual light is the intelligence therefrom It has been known that gardens in the world bloom as a result of these two [activities], heat and light. In heaven they do so in the same manner. In heaven paradisal gardens are visible with trees bearing fruit in accordance with their [the angels'] wisdom out of the good of love from the Lord; while around those who are in intelligence and not in the good of love are visible, not gardens, but grass; but around those who are in a faith separated from charity there is not even grass, but sand.
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