In the preceding year, principally for my own spiritual benefit, I wrote for myself a little book on the ascent of the mind to God by the ladder of created things. Now, since it has pleased God to prolong my old age yet a little longer, it came into my mind to meditate somewhat on the heavenly fatherland — for which all we sons of Adam sigh, we who dwell groaning and weeping in this valley of mortality — and to commit these meditations to writing, lest they perish. In the Holy Scriptures, therefore, which are like letters of consolation sent by the Father from the heavenly fatherland to us in our exile, I find four names by which the good things of that place can in some measure become known to us. The names are: paradise, house, city, kingdom. Of paradise, St. Paul says: I know a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago, caught up to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12); and a little further on: caught up into paradise; where, lest we should think he was speaking of the earthly paradise, he first said: caught up to the third heaven. Of the House, the Son of God Himself speaks thus: In My Father's house there are many mansions (John 14). Of the City, the Apostle says to the Hebrews: You are come, he says, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12). Of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord Himself says in the Gospel of Matthew: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5); and no name in all Holy Scripture is more frequent than this one. The place of the saints in heaven is called paradise, because it is a most delightful place, abounding in delights. But since men might have supposed paradise to be a little garden, set in a corner of a house, which could hold very few people, the Spirit added in the Scriptures the name of House: for a royal house is wont to be a vast palace, where besides the garden there are also halls, dining rooms, chambers, and many other rooms of the same kind. But since a house, however great, cannot hold many people — lest we should think that exceedingly few will attain to eternal life — Scripture adds the name of city, which can hold many gardens and many palaces. But since St. John wrote in the Apocalypse concerning the number of the saints: I saw a great multitude, which no man could number (Rev. 7); and since there is no city that can enfold an innumerable multitude within her bosom, Holy Scripture added the word kingdom, and kingdom of God — a place than which none in the whole universe of created things is more capacious.
But again, since in a most spacious kingdom there are many men who never see the greater part of its inhabitants, nor know their names, nor even know whether they ever existed; and since it is certain that all the saints are seen and known by all, and live together familiarly as friends and neighbors — therefore Scripture, not content with the name of kingdom, adds the name of city, so that we might understand that the inhabitants of that kingdom, though it is most spacious and great, are truly citizens of the saints, and are as united and familiar with one another as are the citizens of one small city. And so that we might know besides that those happy men are not only citizens of the saints, but also members of God's household — indeed, even sons of God — the Holy Spirit, who had called it a city, called it also a house. Finally, because all the saints enjoy the same delights in heaven, He named that place paradise.
Thus these four words — kingdom, city, house, paradise — signify one and the same thing; and that paradise is so spacious that it can truly be called a house, a city, and a kingdom. Therefore, concerning this most happy place, I have resolved, with the gracious help of God Himself, to meditate in the secret chamber of my heart, first under the name of kingdom, then under the name of house, and finally under the name of paradise, and to commit to writing whatever God Himself shall deign to suggest.
Toward the end of the work I shall add six other names — not of places, but of things — taken from the parables of the Lord, namely: the treasure hidden in a field, the precious pearl, the day's wage, the joy of the Lord, the great supper, and the royal wedding feast; and two others from the Apostle: the prize and the crown. Thus there will be in all twelve considerations on the twelve names by which the eternal happiness of the saints is described in the Holy Scriptures.
THE ETERNAL HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS
UNDER THE NAME OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD