There is in all the heavens no other idea of God than the idea of a Man. The reason is that heaven as a whole and in part is in form like a Man, and the Divine which is with the angels makes heaven. For this reason it is impossible for the angels to think about God in any other way. And so it is that all those in the world who are conjoined with heaven think about God in the same way when they think interiorly in themselves or in their spirit. From the fact that God is a Man, all angels and all spirits are men in complete form. This is brought about by the form of heaven which is like itself in the greatest and least things. That heaven as a whole and in part is in form like a Man may be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 59-87); and that thoughts go forth in accordance with the form of heaven (n. 203, 204). It is known from Gen. I 26, 27 that men were created after the image and likeness of God; also that God was seen as a Man by Abraham and others. The ancients, from the wise even to the simple, thought about God in no other way than as a Man. And when at length they began to worship many gods, as at Athens and Rome, they worshipped them all as men. These statements can be illustrated by the [things] following, which were treated of in a certain small work* already published:

The Gentiles, especially the Africans, who acknowledge and worship One God, the Creator of the universe, have concerning God the idea of a Man. They say that no-one can have any other idea of God. When they hear that many foster the idea of God as something cloud-like in the midst, they ask wherever are they? And when it is said that they are among the Christians, they declare it is not possible. But it is answered that they have such an idea from the fact that, in the Word, God is called a Spirit, and they think of a spirit in no other way than as of particles of clouds, not knowing that every spirit and every angel is a man. But still examination has been made as to whether their spiritual idea is like their natural one, and it has been found that it is not the same with those who inwardly acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth. I heard a certain clergyman from the Christians saying that no-one can have an idea of a Divine Human, and I saw him led about to various Gentiles successively more and more interior, and from them to their heavens, and at length to the Christian heaven, and everywhere communication of their more interior perception concerning God was given him. He then noticed that they had no other idea of God than the idea of a Man, which is the same as the idea of a Divine Human. * Quotation from the CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT (published in 1763), n. 74.