732. After consultation the first company, which was from the north, said, "Heavenly joy and eternal happiness are one with the very life of heaven; therefore one who enters heaven enters as to his life into its festivities, precisely as anyone going to a wedding enters into its festivities. Do we not see that heaven is above us, thus in place? Are there not enjoyments upon enjoyments and pleasures upon pleasures there, and there only? When man is admitted into heaven he is admitted into these pleasures as to every perception of his mind and every sensation of his body, out of the plenitude of the joys of that place. Therefore heavenly happiness, which is also eternal happiness, is simply admission into heaven, which admission is of Divine grace." [2] When this had been said, the company from the north from its wisdom expressed the following opinion: "Heavenly joy and eternal happiness are no other than most cheerful companionship with angels and the sweetest conversations with them, whereby the countenance is continually expanded with gladness and the faces of all the company are kept sweetly smiling with compliments and pleasantries. What are heavenly joys but variations of such things to eternity?" [3] The third company, which was the first company of the wise men from the western quarter, from the thoughts of their affections delivered the following opinion: "What are heavenly joy and eternal happiness but feastings with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, on whose tables there will be delicate and costly food, with generous and noble wines; and after the feasts sports and dances of virgins and young men to the music of symphonies and flutes, interspersed with singing of the sweetest songs? And in the evenings there will be dramatic exhibitions, and after these feasting again, and so on daily forever." [4] After that the fourth company, which was the second from the western quarter, declared their opinion, saying, "We have entertained several ideas about heavenly joy and eternal happiness; and we have examined various kinds of joy, comparing them with one another, and we have reached the conclusion that heavenly joys are paradisal joys. What is heaven but a paradise, extending from the east to the west and from the south to the north, and containing fruit trees and delightful flowers, in the midst of which is the magnificent tree of life, and around these the blessed will sit eating delicious fruit and adorned with wreaths of flowers of the sweetest odors, which, breathed upon by perpetual spring, are created and recreated daily with infinite variety? And the minds of these, being continually renewed by this perpetual growth and bloom, and also by the ever-vernal temperature, cannot but inhale and exhale new joys each day, and be restored thereby to the flower of their youth, and through this to the primitive state into which Adam and his wife were created, and so be readmitted into their paradise, transferred from earth to heaven." [5] The fifth company, which was the first of the gifted ones from the southern quarter, spoke as follows: "Heavenly joys and eternal happiness are nothing but supreme dominion, boundless wealth, and thereby more than royal magnificence and transcendent splendor. That such are the joys of heaven and their unceasing fruition, which is eternal happiness; we saw clearly from the state of those in the former world who possessed them, and also from the teaching that the blessed in heaven are to reign with the Lord, and are to be kings and princes, because they are the sons of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and that they are to sit on thrones, and angels are to minister unto them. The magnificence of heaven we clearly saw from this, that the New Jerusalem, whereby the glory of heaven is depicted, is to have gates, each of which will be one pearl, and streets of pure gold, and a wall with foundations of precious stones; consequently that everyone who is received into heaven has a palace of his own glittering with gold and precious stones, and a dominion that will be transmitted in order from one to another. And as we knew that joys and happiness are inherent in such things, and that God's promises cannot fail, we have been unable to attribute the most happy state of heavenly life to any other source." [6] Then the sixth company, which was the second from the southern quarter, raised their voice and said, "The joy of heaven and its eternal happiness is no other than the perpetual glorification of God, a never-ceasing festival and most blissful worship with songs and jubilees, thus a constant uplifting of the heart to God, with full trust that He accepts those prayers and praises because of His Divine munificence in bestowing such blessedness." Some of the company added that this glorification would take place with splendid illuminations, most fragrant incense, and processions of great pomp, the chief priest going before with a great trumpet, the primates and other orders greater and less following him, and after these, men with palms and women with golden images in their hands.