5556. That Angels have a human form
Everything of the life that man has from Lord conspires to the human form, the least and greatest parts of it. Everything of what is good and true that belongs to the understanding coming from his will, which is from the Lord, endeavors to take a human form, for the reason that the Lord is a human entity and heaven taken as a whole is a human entity. Consequently a person has the human form; consequently so does a spirit, and so does an angel. When a person lays down his body, he has a human form, and when a spirit is laid to sleep in respect to his outer parts which are in the human form, he is in a still more perfect human form. The soul is the person. If you say the soul is the life itself which flows in from the Divine, this is in the human form. For whatever is from the Divine, thus from the Lord, is human in form: love, or love's goodness, is the very being of form; and the truth from it, when it becomes goodness, is existence itself from this. The reason many of the learned doubt the resurrection and hold to the opinion of a bodily resurrection is because they think from hypotheses of the soul of which they have only a picture of a breath, and some picture it differently, like having air, fire, flame. And so this learning has blinded them and confused and annihilated their inner perception about a person's life after death.
[2] It is otherwise with the simple, unless they think the same way about the soul. For this reason, in the Christian world, when the soul after death is thought of, they cannot have a mental picture of a human figure. Nevertheless this picture remains with all who do not annihilate the inward perception of life after death, such as those who are outside the learned world, such as all the Mohammedans and wise gentiles. That this type of thought in the Christian world among the learned is from this source has been shown by the fact that their mental pictures were examined and it was found that they were of this nature and that not only was doubt present there, but even denial. In that darkness were the kinds of things which suffocate all heavenly light about the life after death. The mental pictures of the simple also were examined and they were found entirely in agreement with the thought of the spirits about themselves; everyone has belief according to his or her mental images. Those of them who base their thinking about life after death on the impossibility that the whole heaven, with its celestial bodies, the sun, and the earth, is going to perish and on the impossibility that man's body, broken into fragments by worms, mice, fishes, and scattered to every quarter of the globe؛is going to be resurrected], have denied the resurrection, and once made, the denial is then supported by various things. Because this is the nature of people in the Christian world, they have been allowed to believe that the body would be resurrected at a certain last judgment; otherwise all those who think from their own intellect would have rejected the resurrection. Since this has been rejected, everything of the church and heaven with mankind has perished.
5556. THAT ANGELS HAVE THE HUMAN FORM.
Everything of the life of man, conspires, from the Lord, to the human form, the least and greatest of it. Everything of truth and of good, belonging to the understanding from its will, which is from the Lord, strives after the human form; for the reason that the Lord is Man, and heaven in its complex is a man. Hence is the human form with man; hence, also, with a spirit; hence, also, with an angel. When man lays down his body he has the human form; and when a spirit is laid to sleep as to the exteriors which are in the human form, he is under the human form still more perfectly. The soul is a man. If you say that the soul is the very life which inflows from the Divine, that is in the human form; for, whatsoever is from the Divine, thus from the Lord, is human in form. Love, or the good of love, is the very esse of that form; and truth thence, when it becomes good, is the very existere from that esse. That many learned men doubt about the resurrection, and have a notion about a resurrection of the body, is because they have thought about the soul from theories, and have had about it only the idea of wind: and some, differently, as of air, of fire, of flame. Hence that learning has blinded them, and confounded and annihilated the interior perception about man's life after death. The simple are different, unless they think similarly about the soul. Wherefore, in Christendom, when they think about the soul after death, they are not able to have an idea of the human form; when, nevertheless, that idea remains with all who have not annihilated the interior perception concerning the life after death by such [notions]: for example, those who are outside the learned world, all Mohammedans, and the wise heathen. That such idea, amongst the learned in the Christian world, is from that source, was shown by their ideas being examined and discovered to be such; and there was not only doubt in them, but also negation from them. In that obscurity [of their minds] were such things as suffocated all heavenly light about the life after death. The ideas of the simple were also examined; and it was found that they entirely agree [with those] of a spirit concerning himself. Everyone's faith is according to his ideas. Those of them, who have thought about the life after death from the impossibility that the universal heaven along with the stars, sun and earth, should perish, and that [then] man's body, [consumed] by worms, mice, fishes, and divided and scattered to every quarter of the globe [should undergo resurrection], have denied the resurrection; which denial being once made, is afterwards buttressed by various arguments. Because man in the Christian world is such, it has been permitted him to believe that the body would undergo resurrection at a certain last judgment: otherwise, all who thought from their intellectual would have rejected the doctrine about the resurrection; which being rejected, everything of the Church and of heaven with man perishes.
5556. Angelis quod sit forma humana
Omne vitae hominis a Domino conspirat ad formam humanam, minimum ejus et maximum, omne boni et veri quod est intellectus ex voluntate ejus quae a Domino conatur in formam humanam, ex causa quia Dominus est homo, et coelum in complexu est homo, inde humana forma homini, et inde spiritui, et inde angelo, cum homo deponit corpus est ei forma humana, et cum spiritus quoad exteriora quae sunt in forma humana sopitur, est sub forma humana adhuc perfectiori: anima est homo, si dicas animam esse ipsam vitam quae influit a Divino, est illa in forma humana, nam quicquid a Divino, ita a Domino est humanum in forma; amor seu bonum amoris est ipsum esse formae, et verum inde cum fit bonum est ipsum existere inde. Quod eruditi plures dubitent de resurrectione et opinionem habeant de resurrectione corporis, est quia cogitarunt ex hypothesibus de anima, de qua modo pneumatis ideam habuerint, et quidam aliter sicut aeris, ignis, flammae; inde eruditio illa occoecavit eos et perceptionem interiorem de vita hominis post mortem confudit et annihilavit; aliter simplices, nisi similiter cogitant de anima: quare in Christianismo cum cogitatur de anima post mortem, non possunt habere ideam humanae formae; cum tamen illa maneat apud omnes qui non interiorem perceptionem de vita post mortem per talia annihilarunt: sicut qui extra eruditum orbem, omnes Mahumedani et gentiles sapientes. Quod inde talis idea in Christiano orbe inter eruditos ostensum est, per quod lustratae sint ideae eorum, et compertum quod tales, et ibi non modo dubitativum inerat, sed etiam inde negativum, in obscuro illo talia erant, quae omnem lucem coelestem suffocarunt de vita post mortem. Exploratae etiam ideae simplicium, et prorsus compertae conformes cum spiritu de se; secundum ideas fides est cuivis. Qui eorum ex impossibili quod universum coelum cum sideribus, sole et tellure periturum, et quod corpus hominis a vermibus, muribus, piscibus, divisum ac dissipatum in omnem plagam [resurrecturum] cogitarunt de vita post mortem, negaverunt resurrectionem, et qod semel negatur per varia dein confirmatur; quia talis est homo in Christiano orbe, permissum est ei credere quod corpus ultimo quodam judicio resurrecturum esset, alioquin omnes, qui ex intellectuali suo cogitarunt, doctrinam de resurrectione rejecissent; qua rejecta perit omne Ecclesiae et coeli apud hominem.