Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 57

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57. What has been said of heaven can be said of the Church, for the Church is the Lord's heaven on earth. There are also many Churches, and yet any one of them is called the Church and indeed is a Church, so far as the good of love and of faith rules there. There again, the Lord out of diversity makes a unity, thus, one Church out of many Churches.# The same, too, can be said of the man of the Church in particular as is said of the Church in general, namely, that the Church is within a man and not outside him, and that every man in whom the Lord is present in the good of love and of faith is a Church.## Again, the same can be said of a man in whom is the Church as of an angel in whom is heaven, namely, that he is a Church in least form as an angel is heaven in least form, and furthermore, that a man in whom is the Church, equally with an angel, is a heaven. For man has been created that he may come into heaven and become an angel. Consequently, he who has good from the Lord is an angel-man.### It may he mentioned what a man has in common with an angel and what he has in addition to what angels have. A man has this in common with an angel, that his interiors are equally conformed to the image of heaven and that he, too, in so far as he is in the good of love and faith, may become an image of heaven. In addition to what angels have, a man has these things, that his exteriors have been formed according to the image of the world, that so far as he is in good, the world with him is subordinated to heaven and serves heaven,#### and that then the Lord is present with him in both worlds, just as if he were in his heaven. For the Lord is in His Divine order in both worlds, since God is order.##### # If good were the characteristic and essential of the Church, and not truth apart from good, the Church would be one (n. 1285, 1316, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451, 3452). Indeed from good all Churches make one Church before the Lord (n. 7396, 9276). ## The Church is in man, and not outside him, and the Church in general is made up of men who have the Church in them (n. 3884 [6637]). ### A man who is a Church is a heaven in the least form after the image of the greatest, because his interiors, which belong to his mind, are arranged after the form of heaven, and consequently for reception of all things of heaven (n. 911, 1900, 1928, 3624-3631, 3634, 3884 [6637], 4041, 4279, 4523, 4524, 4625, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632). #### Man has an internal and an external; his internal has been formed by creation after the image of heaven, and his external after the image of the world; and for this reason man was called by the ancients a microcosm (n. 4523, 4524, 5608, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9706, 10156, 10472). Therefore man was created to have the world in him serve heaven, and this takes place with the good; but it is the reverse with the evil, in whom heaven serves the world (n. 9278, 9283). ##### The Lord is order, since the Divine good and truth that go forth from the Lord make order (n. 1728, 1919, 2011, 2258, 5110, 5703, 8988, 10336, 10619). Divine truths are laws of order (n. 2447, 7995). So far as a man lives according to order, that is, so far as he lives in good in accordance with Divine truths, he is a man, and the Church and heaven are in him (n. 4839, 6605, 8067 [8513, 8547]).


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