life. It must, therefore, be a law of life with the angels, who are simply human beings in a more advanced stage. And since they never desire any good merely for themselves, but are ever willing and anxious to communicate their delights to others, therefore they must be continually receiving fresh increments of love and wisdom from the Lord, and their progress must be unending.
Besides, there is a two fold progress—progress through growth or the maturing of graces already acquired, and progress from the increase or multiplication of goods and truths. Every spiritual truth dropped into an honest heart, is as a seed sown in good ground. It springs up, and, if properly cared for, grows to maturity, and in due time brings forth fruit—the golden fruit of charity. And this fruit contains the seeds of new truths, which, falling into the same good ground, spring up and bear fruit, "some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold." And so, through the multiplication of truths and the fructification of goods, the mind of a regenerate man (and the same is true of an angel) becomes like a beautiful garden adorned with all manner of trees, flowers and fruits, ever increasing in fertility and beauty, and in the number, variety and richness of its products. This is the true paradise of God. This is the real meaning of that garden which it is said the Lord God planted eastward in Eden, and wherein. He "caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden." And now, as in the most ancient times, He places in this garden every Adam whom He recreates in his own image and likeness, when He breathes into him the
