The Fount Of Paradise

Est ergo paradisus terra quaedam fertilis, hoc est, anima fecunda, in Eden plantata, hoc est in voluptate quadam vel exercitata terra, in qua animae sit delectatio. Est etiam νοῦς tamquam Adam: est et sensus, tamquam Eva. Ac ne haberes quod ad infirmum retorqueres naturae, vel ad obnoxiam in tolerandis periculis conditionem, considera quae habeat anima ista subsidia. Erat fons qui irrigaret paradisum. Qui fons, nisi Dominus Jesus-Christus? Fons vitae aeternae est, sicut et Pater; quia scriptum est: Quoniam apud te fons vitae . Denique, flumina de ventre ejus fluent aquae vivae. Et fons legitur, et fluvius legitur qui irrigat paradisi lignum fructuosum, quod ferat fructum in vitam aeternam. Hic ergo fons, sicut legisti, fons enim inquit, procedit ex Eden, id est, in anima tua fons est. Unde Salomon ait: Bibe aquam de tuis vasis, et de puteorum tuorum fontibus. Hic est fons qui procedit ex illa exercitata ut plena voluptatis anima: hic fons qui irrigat paradisum, hoc est, virtutes animae eminentissimo merito pullulantis. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Paradiso, Caput III Source: Migne PL 14.279c-280a

Therefore Paradise is a certain fertile earth, that is, the fruitful soul, planted in Eden, that is, in a certain pleasant or cultivated land, in which is the delight of the soul. For the mind is as Adam and the sense as Eve. But one should not have there a weakness twisting back to nature, or a state of vulnerability in bearing dangers, considering on what the soul has to subsist. There was a fount that watered paradise. What is the fount, unless the Lord Jesus Christ? The fount of eternal life, like even the Father, since it is written: 'Because with you is the fount of life.' 1 And then the water flowing from His side are the waters of life. 2 And the fount and the water here, it is said, water the fruitful tree of paradise which bears the fruit of eternal life. Here then is the fount, as you read, for the fount, it says, flowed from Eden, that is, the fount is in your soul. Whence Solomon says, 'Drink the waters of your cisterns and from the founts of your wells.' 3 Here is the fount which proceeds forth from that which is well cultivated, like the soul full of delight, here the fount which waters paradise, that is, the springing forth of the virtues of the soul because of their most eminent merit . Saint Ambrose, from On Paradise, Chap 3 1 Ps 35.10 2 Jn 7.38 3 Prov 5.15