268. But it shall be told how there is a presence and a conjunction of the Lord and heaven in all the earth by means of the Word. In the Lord's sight the whole angelic heaven is as a single man; so also is the church on earth. That these actually appear as a man may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 59-86). In that man the church where the Word is read, and by means of it the Lord is known, is like the heart and lungs, the Lord's celestial kingdom like the heart, and His spiritual kingdom like the lungs. As from these two fountains of life in the human body all the remaining members, viscera, and organs, subsist and live, so from the conjunction of the Lord and heaven with the church by means of the Word, do all those subsist and live in all the earth who have a religion, and who worship one God and live well, and are thereby in that man, such having relation to the members and viscera outside of the thorax which contains the heart and lungs. For the Word in the Christian church is life from the Lord through heaven to the rest of the world, just as the life of the members and viscera of the whole body is from the heart and lungs; and there is a like communication; and this is why Christians, among whom the Word is read, constitute the breast of that man. Such are in the center of all, and round about them are the Papists, and around these the Mohammedans who acknowledge the Lord as the greatest prophet and the son of God. After these are the Africans, while the peoples and nations of Asia and the Indies form the outmost boundary.