2602. There is one nation - which, I have been told, comes from the Indies^a - whose religion consists in their worshipping the Greatest God with the following ritual: When they adore Him they first of all magnify themselves, and then they prostrate themselves as maggots. It also consists in an idea that above the universe which they believe to be spinning round, there is that Greatest God looking down on what they are doing. Such having been their religious ideas and practices they are brought back to them in the next life. I have spoken to these people when such imaginings were in their minds. They are for the most part unassuming, obedient, and simple at heart. They are freed in stages by the angels from these false notions, for they are taught, in keeping with their religion, that the Greatest God is the Lord and that their ability to magnify themselves results from their being able to adore Him, and that indeed for all that they are as maggots, and that the Lord from on high sees every single thing. In this way, by means of their own form of religion, they are led as is fitting for them into cognitions of good and truth.

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