105. But in what way the presence and conjunction of the Lord and heaven exist in all lands by means of the Word shall now be told. Before the Lord the universal heaven is like one man, and so is the church. And that they actually appear as a man may be seen in Heaven and Hell (n. 59-86). In this man, the church where the Word is read and the Lord thereby known, is as the heart and lungs; the celestial kingdom as the heart, and the spiritual kingdom as the lungs.
[2] As all the other members and viscera subsist and live from these two fountains of life of the human body, so also do all those in the whole earth who have some sort of religion, worship one God, and live aright, and who are thereby in that man and correspond to its members and viscera outside the chest which contains the heart and lungs - subsist and live from the conjunction of the Lord and heaven with the church by means of the Word. For the Word in the church, although existing with comparatively few, is life to all the rest, from the Lord through heaven, just as there is life for the members and viscera of the whole body from the heart and lungs, and there is a similar communication.
[3] This is why those Christians among whom the Word is read constitute the breast of that man. They are the midmost of all; round about them are the Papists; around these again are those Mohammedans who acknowledge the Lord as the greatest Prophet and as the Son of God; beyond these are the Africans; while the nations and people of Asia and the Indies constitute the furthest compass. Concerning this ranking of them something may be seen in Last Judgment (n. 48). Moreover all who are in that man look toward the middle region where the Christians are.