"Let numbers be multiplied even to thousands and tens of thousands, if they are all principled in charity or mutual love, they all have one end, namely, the common good, the kingdom of the Lord, and the Lord himself. In which case the varieties in matters of doctrine and worship, are like the varieties of the senses and viscera in man, which contribute to the perfection of the whole. For then the Lord, by means of charity, enters into and operates upon all, with a difference of manner according to the particular temper of each; and thus arranges all and every one into order, as in heaven so on earth. And thus the will of the Lord is done on earth as it is in heaven, according to what He himself teaches."—A. C. n. 1285.
XIII.
THE HUMAN FORM OF HEAVEN..
SWEDENBORG tells us repeatedly that heaven is in the human form. Not only every angel and every society of angels, but the entire angelic heaven, he says, is in this form; so that the angels, viewed collectively, appear before the Lord as one man. To cite a single passage:
"The entire heaven resembles one man, who is therefore also called the Grand Man (Maximus Homo). And what is wonderful and hitherto unknown, all the parts of the human body correspond to societies in heaven. Wherefore it has been occasionally said that some of those societies belong to the province of the head, some to that of the eye, others to that of the breast, and so on."—A. C. n. 2853. See also n. 684, 1276, 2996, '8, 3021, 3061.
