But now let us proceed further, and compare all the goods of this world and the goods of the earthly paradise, taken together, with the goods of the heavenly Paradise alone, and let us see whether perhaps those goods, joined together, outweigh it. This we shall do if we imagine that riches, empires, pleasures, and all the glory of Solomon and of other similarly most fortunate men could be acquired without labor and retained without fear; and that such most fortunate men could also never sin and never die—yet in such a way that they could still sin and die. This being granted, I confidently affirm that the goods of the heavenly Paradise alone far outweigh all the goods of the world and of the earthly paradise taken together. And I gather this from the fact that those goods, joined together, can never fill the human heart nor satisfy its desire, because the human heart is capable of infinite good, whereas all those things are finite. And so what St. Augustine says at the beginning of his Confessions will always be true: "Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rest in Thee" (Conf. 1.1). And what the holy Prophet sings is also true: "I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear" (Ps. 16). But as long as the heart is restless, it will be miserable; and if it is miserable, it will not be happy. The heavenly paradise, however, has this as its chief property: that it satisfies the soul and takes away all restlessness. For what will he be able to desire, who will be like God because he shall see Him as He is (1 John 3)? What will he be able to desire, whom God will set over all His goods (Matt. 24; 25)? What will he be able to desire, who will reign with God and will be co-heir with Christ, whom the Father appointed heir of all things (Heb. 1)—unless someone should dare to say that God Himself has a restless heart and is miserable? Moreover, those goods of the world, and even of the earthly paradise, however many and of whatever kind they were, by the very fact that they could be lost were not perfect goods, nor could they satisfy or set the soul at rest, and for this reason they did not make man truly happy and blessed: but the goods of the heavenly paradise are in every respect perfect and secure, and can neither be lost nor diminished in any way. For the blessed, established in those most happy dwellings, can neither die nor sin, and are most certain of their everlasting happiness.
Let mortals, therefore, open the eyes of their mind, and seriously reflect how much it matters not to lose the heavenly paradise. For what is at stake here is truly the sum of the whole matter, not small or fleeting things. For the Wisdom of God has said, by a judgment altogether divine: "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. 16; Mark 8; Luke 9)