of three and speaking of one, when nevertheless one ought to think as one speaks, and speak as one thinks.  The spirit who in the world had been a prelate and a preacher, and who was also with me, was then examined as to the character of the idea he entertained respecting one God and three persons:  [and it was found that] he represented to himself three gods, which, however, made one by continuity.  He, however, exhibited this Three in One as invisible because it was Divine; and while he was exhibiting this, it was perceived that he was then thinking only of the Father, and not of the Lord, and that his idea concerning the invisible God was no other but as of nature in its first principles, from which idea it resulted that the inmost of nature was his Divine, so that he might easily be led from this to acknowledge nature as God.  It is to be borne in mind, that the idea which any person entertains on any subject is, in the other life, exhibited to the life, and through it every one is examined as to the character of his thought and perception on matters of faith; and that the idea of the thought concerning God is the chief of all, for through it, if genuine, conjunction is effected with the Divine, and consequently with heaven.  They were afterwards questioned concerning the nature of their idea respecting God.  They replied that they did not conceive of an invisible God, but of a God visible under the Human Form; and that they knew this not only from an interior perception, but also from the fact, that He has appeared to them as a Man.  They added that if, according to the idea of some strangers, they were to conceive of God as invisible, consequently without form and quality, they would not be able to think about God at all, inasmuch as such an invisible [being] does not fall into any idea of thought.  On hearing this, it was given me to tell them that they do well to think of God under the Human Form, and that many on our Earth think in like manner, especially when they think of the Lord; and that the ancients thought in no other way.  I then told them about Abraham, Lot, Gideon, Manoah and his wife, and what is related of them in our Word, namely, that they saw God under the Human Form, and acknowledged Him, thus seen, to be the Creator of the universe, and called Him Jehovah, and this also from an interior perception; but that at the present day that interior perception is lost in the Christian world, and only remains with the simple who are in faith.

159.  Previous to this conversation, they had believed that our company also consisted of those who want to confuse them by the idea of three in relation to God; wherefore, on hearing what was said, they were affected with joy, and said that God, whom they then called the Lord, had also sent some to teach them concerning Him; and that they are unwilling to admit strangers who disturb them, especially with the idea of three persons in the Divinity, knowing as they do that God is One, consequently that the Divine is One,