shreds. With most men such a dulness of wit is predominant, instead of the understanding through which we ought to be equal to the angels, that they know no more about those things which are worthy of our attention than do the beasts. Instead of the circumspection with which those who are destined for eternity ought to prepare themselves for it, there reigns such forgetfulness, not only of eternity but also of mortality, that most men give themselves up to what is earthly and transient, yea, even to the death that stands before them. Instead of the godly wisdom through which it has been given to us to know, to honour, and to enjoy the One who is the height of all goodness, there has arisen a horrible shrinking from that God in whom we live, move, and have our being, and a foolish conjuration of His holy name. Instead of mutual love and purity, reign hatred, enmity, war, and murder. Instead of justice, we find unfairness, roguery, oppression, theft, and rapine; instead of purity, uncleanliness and audacity of thought, word, and deed; instead of simplicity and truth, lying, deception, and knavery; instead of modesty, pride and haughtiness between man and man.
But in spite of all this, there remains for us a twofold comfort. First, that God keeps the eternal Paradise in readiness for His chosen ones, and that there we shall find a perfection, more complete and more durable than that first one which we lost. Into this Paradise went Christ (Luke xxiii. 43), thither was Paul caught up (2 Corinthians xii. 4), and John saw its splendour with his own eyes (Rev. i. 12; xxi. 10).
Another consolation consists in this, that here below also God continually renews the Paradise of the Church, and turns its deserts into a garden of delights. We have on several occasions seen with what grandeur this has already taken place: after the Fall, after the Flood, after the entrance of the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, under David and Solomon, after the return from Babylon and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, after Christ’s ascension into heaven and the preaching of the Gospel to all nations, under
