82. Because such a perception of the Divine exists in the heavens, to
think of God as in a human form is implanted in every man who
receives any influx from heaven. Thus did the ancients think of Him;
and thus do the moderns think of Him both outside of the church and
within it. The simple see Him in thought as the Ancient One in
shining light. But this insight has been extinguished in all those
that by self-intelligence and by a life of evil have rejected influx
from heaven. Those that have extinguished it by self-intelligence
prefer an invisible God; while those that have extinguished it by a
life of evil prefer no God. Neither of these are aware that such an
insight exists, because they do not have it; and yet it is the Divine
heavenly itself that primarily flows into man out of heaven, because
man is born for heaven, and no one without a conception of a Divine
can enter heaven.


83. For this reason he that has no conception of heaven, that is, no
conception of the Divine from which heaven is, cannot be raised up to
the first threshold of heaven. As soon as such a one draws near to
heaven a resistance and a strong repulsion are perceived; and for the
reason that his interiors, which should be receptive of heaven, are
closed up from their not being in the form of heaven, and the nearer
he comes to heaven the more tightly are they closed up. Such is the
lot of those within the church who deny the Lord, and of those who,
like the Socinians, deny His Divinity. But the lot of those who are
born out of the church, and who are ignorant of the Lord because they
do not have the Word, will be described hereafter.