§58 each community is a heaven 31
f. The church is within the individual and not outside, and the church in general is made up of
people who have the church within themselves: 3884.
g. The individual who is a church is a heaven in least form, in the image of the greatest, because
the deeper levels of his or her mind are arranged in the form of heaven and are therefore arranged
for the acceptance of all the elements of heaven: 911 , 1900 , 1982 [ 1928 ], 3624 – 3631 , 3634 , 3884 ,
4041 , 4279 , 4523 , 4524 , 4625 , 6013 , 6057 , 9279 , 9632.
h. We have an inner and an outer nature, our inner formed from creation in the image of heaven,
and our outer in the image of the world, which is why the ancients called the human being a
microcosm: 4523 , 4524 , 5368 [ 3628 ], 6013 , 6057 , 9279 , 9706 , 10156 , 10472. Consequently we have
been so created that the world serves the heaven in us, which actually happens in good people:
however, the opposite holds true for evil people, in whom heaven is subservient to the world:
9283 , 9278.
i. The Lord is order because the divine good and truth that emanate from the Lord constitute
order: 1728 , 1919 , 2201 [ 2011 ], 2258 , 5110 , 5703 , 8988 , 10336 , 10619. Divine truths are laws of order:
2247 , 7995. To the extent that we live according to order—that is, to the extent that we are
engaged in what is good as determined by divine truths—to that extent we are human and have
the church and heaven within us: 4839 , 6605 , 8067 [ 8513 ].
within and not outside, and that anyone is a church in whom the Lord is
present in the qualities of love and faith.f
Much the same can be said of the individual who has the church
within as has been said about the angel who has heaven within, that such
an individual is a church in least form as the angel is a heaven in least
form. Even more, we can say that the individual who has the church
within is a heaven just as much as an angel is, for we have been created to
enter heaven and become angels. So anyone who has the quality of good-
ness from the Lord is an angel-person.g
It is worth noting what we have in common with angels and what we
possess that they lack. We have in common with angels the fact that our
deeper levels are formed in the image of heaven and that we also become
images of heaven to the extent that we participate in the qualities of love
and faith. What we have that angels lack is that our more outward levels
are formed in the image of this world; and that to the extent that we are
engaged in what is good, the world within us is subordinated to heaven
and serves it;h and that then the Lord is present with us on both levels as
he is in his heaven. He is actually present on both levels in his divine
order, for God is order.i
It should be noted in closing that people who have heaven within 58
themselves have heaven not only in their larger or shared aspects but also
in their smallest or most specifi c ones, and that the smallest aspects in