keep their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Let God’s peace, he says, be your man of war.  Let His surpassing peace do both the work of war and the work of peace also in your hearts and in your minds.  Let that peace both fortify with walls, and garrison with soldiers, and watch every gate, and hold every street and lane of your hearts and of your minds all around your hearts.  And all through the Prince of Peace, the Captain of all Holy War, Jesus Christ Himself.  No wonder, then, that in a strength—­in a kind and in a degree of strength—­that passeth all understanding, this stately palace of the heart is also here called a well-garrisoned castle.

3.  And then for pleasantness the human heart is a perfect paradise.  For pleasantness the human heart is like those famous royal parks of Nineveh and Babylon that sprang up in after days as if to recover and restore the Garden of Eden that had been lost to those eastern lands.  But even Adam’s own paradise was but a poor outside imitation in earth and water, in flowers and fruits, of the far better paradise God had planted within him.  Take another Mystic at this point upon paradise.  ‘My dear man,’ exclaims Jacob Behmen, ’the Garden of Eden is not paradise, neither does Moses say so.  Paradise is the divine joy, and that was in their own hearts so long as they stood in the love of God.  Paradise is the divine and angelical joy, pure love, pure joy, pure gladness, in which there is no fear, no misery, and no death.  Which paradise neither death nor the devil can touch.  And yet it has no stone wall around it; only a great gulf which no man or angel can cross but by that new birth of which Christ spoke to Nicodemus.  Reason asks, Where is paradise to be found?  Is it far off or near?  Is it in this world or is it above the stars?  Where is that desirable native country where there is no death?  Beloved, there is nothing nearer you at this moment than paradise, if you incline that way.  God beckons you back into paradise at this moment, and calls you by name to come.  Come, He says, and be one of My paradise children.  In paradise,’ the Teutonic Philosopher goes on, ’there is nothing but hearty love, a meek and a gentle love; a most friendly and most courteous discourse:  a gracious, amiable, and blessed society, where the one is always glad to see the other, and to honour the other.  They know of no malice in paradise, no cunning, no subtlety, and no sly deceit.  But the fruits of the Spirit of God are common among them in paradise, and one may make use of all the good things of paradise without causing disfavour, or hatred, or envy, for there is no contrary affection there, but all hearts there are knit together in love.  In paradise they love one another, and rejoice in the beauty, loveliness, and gladness of one another.  No one esteems or accounts himself more excellent than another in paradise; but every one has great joy in another, and rejoices in another’s fair