De paradiso recensio LF

And God planted a garden in Eden toward the east and placed there the man whom he had formed. Let us understand, hearers, a planting worthy of God and a garden befitting the love of beauty of such and so great a creator. For in the preceding passages it is said, "Let the earth put forth grass, fruit-bearing trees, sowing seed, producing fruit; and so it came to pass." But here it says again, "And God planted a garden in Eden." If the garden had been filled with ordinary trees, it would have had its proper constitution from the first generation of plants, and the trees later sprouting in it would not have needed a special planting by God. But now, the various kinds of plants in the garden, later crafted by God himself, are far different in both form and taste from those earlier brought forth spontaneously from the earth, and this is clearly indicated by the scripture itself. For it says, "And God caused to spring up from the earth every tree beautiful to see and good for food." For just as he deemed the man worthy of a special formation beyond the other animals, so also he made the dwelling place of man a work of his own hand, choosing a place surpassing the whole creation, unshadowed because of its height, marvelous in beauty, secure in its position, bright in its preeminence over all things and in being illuminated by all the risings of the stars, surrounded by the clearest air, and having the most pleasant and best tempering from the seasons.

There then God planted the garden, where there is no violence of winds, no intemperance of seasons, no hail, no fiery storms, no hurricanes, no thunderbolts, no wintry freezing, no spring dampness, no summer scorching, no autumnal dryness, but a well-tempered and peaceful harmony of the seasons, each adorned with its own beauty and not plotted against by its neighbor. For neither did summer, running ahead of its proper time, perhaps, spoil the beauties of spring, nor again were the summer and autumn fruits often scorched beforehand and withered and destroyed by the disorder of the air; but all the seasons orderly danced around that place, embracing and joining one another evenly and without pain, and each bearing from itself at its own time choice and unassailed gifts. And the earth there is rich and soft and altogether flowing with milk and honey and suitable for every fruit-bearing, watered by most fertile waters; the waters are very beautiful and pleasant and exceedingly fine and transparent, providing much delight from their appearance and more benefit than delight. First, then, he created the place itself worthy of receiving the plantings of God, and then he planted in it all kinds of beauties of trees, bestowing at once both a most graceful sight and a most pleasant enjoyment to the man.

How can I bring vividly before your eyes the beauties of the fatherland from which you have fallen, so that, grieving worthily over the deprivation of these things, you may at last be able to recall yourself from exile and run back to those stable, delightful, and unmixed goods, free from the base and painful? For there are here also meadows blooming and exceedingly beautiful to behold, but imagine in your mind the most charming of these. How the rose here is hidden with the thorn, having unpleasantness concurrent with its grace and almost testifying to us that all the pleasant things of this life, O men, are mixed with painful things. Indeed, none of human goods is pure, but to every worldly joy pain is immediately attached: to marriage, widowhood; to child-rearing, anxiety; to good children, loss; to distinctions, dishonors; to successes, losses; to luxuries, infirmities; to health, sicknesses. The rose is blooming, but it produces dejection in me; for whenever

When I see the flower, I am reminded of my own sin, through which the earth was condemned to bring forth thorns and thistles. Here, then, the grace of the spring flowers is short-lived, leaving us still longing; for we have no sooner plucked them than they wither in our hands. There, however, the flower does not shine for a brief moment and then fade, but possesses a lasting and eternal delight, a graceful and immortal appearance, an unending enjoyment; its fragrance is insatiable, its color perpetually radiant. No violent winds trouble them, no new moons cause them to wither, no frosts stifle them, no burning of the sun parches them; but a moderate breeze, providing a fine and pleasant air, blowing lightly and gently upon them, preserves their grace, untamed by time and unfading. The beauties of the plants are themselves worthy of the craftsmanship and planting of the Creator: all that are shrubby and all that are bushy, the single-stemmed, the many-branched, the lofty, the flourishing on both sides, the leafy, the evergreen, the bare, the ever-blooming, the fruit-bearing, the fruitless; some serving for use, others contributing to enjoyment; all excelling in size and beauty, shady with their branches, abounding in fruits, each abundantly fulfilling a different need and delight together. For each of these fruits has much that is graceful, and yet more than the pleasant is the useful. What speech will set before you the surpassing nature of that pleasure? For if you compare what is there with what is here, you rather insult by the comparison, since the image falls far short of the truth of the original.

All things are perfect, all things ripe, not having grown little by little; for it does not proceed from flower to maturity over time, but springs forth from the very first with its own maturity, being products of nature, not of human artifice. There also are kinds of all sorts of birds, adding some wonderful delight to what is seen, both by the bloom of their wings and the clearness of their song; so that man feasts through all his senses, seeing some things, hearing others, touching others, smelling others, tasting others. Along with the birds, there are also sights of all sorts of land animals, all tame, all familiar with one another, and both hearing and uttering sounds easily seen. The serpent was not frightful then, but gentle and tame, not raging wildly and crawling upon the face of the earth, but standing upright on its feet. Such are the gentle natures of all the other irrational animals, which are now utterly untamed and implacable. There, then, God placed the man whom he formed. He formed him elsewhere and introduced him there. For just as he first made the luminaries and then placed them in the firmament, so also he formed man from the dust of the earth and placed him in paradise. Note that it is not said "whom he made," but "whom he formed." For what he made is that which is according to the image; and this is incorporeal. But the incorporeal is not circumscribed by place. Nevertheless, the product necessarily follows the formation, that is, the soul follows the body.

For the composite must exist simultaneously, but the place is primarily for the body, while the soul is enclosed in place only secondarily, through its relation to or mixture with the body, and not from its own nature, that is, from the intellectual substance. Have I delighted you with the narration of the pleasant things of paradise, or rather grieved you by the juxtaposition of perishable things? For surely your mind, thinking lofty and supramundane thoughts—since it has its citizenship in the heavens and looks to the dignity above—was conceiving and surveying the things of the promise, expecting to hear something of the goods promised to us, which neither eye has seen nor ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man. Who then is the narrator, if the eye has not seen? If the ear has not heard, how will your ear receive it? If it has not entered into the heart of man, how will our mind contain it? Therefore we neither reject the corporeal nor seek only the spiritual. For just as in the case of the Law there was also the sensible, but it served as a type of the intelligible, so also we conceive of paradise both corporeally and allegorize it spiritually.

God planted a garden in Eden toward the east. The names of the plants have been passed over in silence, but the place in which he planted has been indicated, that is, in luxury; for Eden is interpreted as luxury. Does he then name as luxury that which is through the mouth, delivered to the belly, and whose end is the latrine, and is this the grace from God concerning man—filling of the stomach, well-being of the flesh, and diffusion producing pleasure? Or is it not even pious to say this? For over-fattening the body and drowning the soul dwelling within by the multitude of foods, making it prone to every sin, is a provision for licentiousness, insolence, and all forbidden things together. Therefore, one must conceive of another luxury worthy of God, so that the planting may be considered fitting for the husbandry of God. What then can be a luxury suitable for saints? Hear the one who says: Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the requests of your heart. Since, then, the variety of virtue is infinite and its beauty beyond contrivance, having taken its beginning from the manifold wisdom of God, for this reason it is written that God planted a garden not toward the east, but toward the easts. For each of the plants planted by the Lord, adorned in its own light of virtue, flashed forth. There are the streams of the river that gladdens the city of God. Elsewhere it is called a torrent of luxury, nourishing and increasing the beauties of those intelligible plants, which in what follows of the present text is also called a river flowing from Eden to water the garden.

In the earlier passages it was written that, having first filled the creation, he then introduced man as a kind of beginning and lordship over it; but now, on the contrary, he first formed man and then planted the paradise. The reason is that there, in order to fill the house, he immediately introduced the master of the house, so that, having created him poor, he might later bestow wealth upon him; but here, having granted perfection through progress, he built elsewhere and later settles him in the paradise, so that, having learned the difference between life outside and life in the paradise, from the comparison of both and from experience itself, he might recognize the superiority of its beauty and fear the loss from expulsion. And that you may understand a planting worthy of a divine hand and labor, remember the words spoken in the Gospel by the Lord to the disciples: "You are the vines, and my father is the farmer"—clearly as having been planted by him. Of this planting are also those planted in the house of the Lord, as it is written, and those blossoming in the courts of our God. And the same in the prophet: "I planted a fruit-bearing vine, every true one." And the imitator of Christ, Paul, dares to say: "We are co-workers of God; you are God's farm: I planted, Apollos watered, and God caused to grow." And the righteous man, in David, is likened to a tree planted by the outflows of waters, which will give its fruit in its season and whose leaf will not fall off; and again: "The righteous will blossom like a palm tree.

And you brought the vine from Egypt, you cast out nations and planted it. Try, then, through such teachings, to come into a conception of that paradise and to reach also the rays of divine light, where the light of knowledge rises, where the paradise of delight is planted. And if you conceive of some corporeal place, receptive of the saints, in which all who have shone on earth in good works dwell, enjoying the grace of God according to worthy recompense and true and blessed pleasantness, you would not perhaps fall short even thus of a fitting conjecture about it. For there the good powers, ministers of the saints, to whom man was entrusted when he was newly born and in need of much training for perfection, are rooted and firmly fixed. Where the assembly of the saints is, where the risings of light are, where the delight of the soul is, there God placed man. If, then, you are fleshly and consider the enjoyment of sensible things great, you have the description of that corporeal paradise and the sweetest satiety, and hasten toward these things as one who will find there an unceasing supply of delight. But if you are spiritual and think of things higher than fleshly enjoyments, ascend in thought to the beauties of the angels, learn the fruits of righteousness among them, gaze upon the river of God filled with waters, whose currents gladden the city of God, whose artisan and creator is God. That city is traversed by this river, which begins from Eden, which waters the paradise.

Having learned all these things in your mind, glorify their creator, who has made such great and manifold goods for your sake and your enjoyment, and has deemed you worthy of such glory, if you always turn to him and understand from whom and for what purpose you were brought into being: that glory is due to him for ever and ever. Amen.