In the ancient world cities were nearly nations unto themselves – they existed within walls, with their own laws and customs, generally centered on the common purpose of trade. This is not as much the case in the modern world, but we still tend to divide ourselves city by city in terms of sports teams, accents, music and culture, and still tend to generalize the character of people from other cities. It follows, then, that in the Bible cities represent various doctrines – collections of inter-related ideas about spiritual reality. Such doctrines can be based on anything from the Lord’s true teachings – the New Jerusalem seen by John in Revelation – to the falsity and heresy of Sodom and various cities obliterated by the people of Israel at God’s command. On the most personal level, a city can also represent the natural mind of one person – which makes sense since we each to some extent have our own doctrine and our own set of ideas and beliefs.

3739. 'Will be God's house' means the Lord's kingdom as it exists in the ultimate degree of order where higher things are accommodated as in their own house. This too is clear from what has been stated above in 3720, where also the same words occur, and in addition from what has been stated in 3721. The implications of this - that higher things are accommodated in the ultimate degree of order as in their own house - are as follows: The Lord has so ordered things that higher ones flow into lower ones, where they present a general image of themselves. Those higher things are therefore present all together within a certain form that is a general one, and so exist there in an order that begins from what is Highest, that is, from the Lord. Consequently the closest image of the Lord is the inmost heaven, which is the heaven of innocence and peace where those who are celestial dwell. Being closest to the Lord, this heaven is called His likeness. The second heaven, that is to say, the one that comes below, and exists in a lower degree, is the Lord's image, for the things that exist in the higher heaven present themselves all together, in some general form, in that second heaven. And the last heaven, which in turn comes below the second, stands in a similar relationship to it, for the particular and the specific entities of the heaven directly above it flow into that heaven and there present themselves in a general form that corresponds to what is above it.

[2] A similar situation exists with man, in that he has been created and formed in such a way that he resembles the three heavens. That which is inmost in him flows in a similar way into that which is lower, and this in a similar way flows into what is lowest or last. The natural and bodily degree is established by such an influx and coming together of higher things within lower ones, and at length within those that are last ones. In this way the latter are linked to Him who is First, and but for this link with Him that which is last in order could not continue to exist for one single moment. This shows what is meant by the statement that higher things are accommodated in the ultimate degree of order as in their own house. Whether you speak of higher and lower or of interior and exterior things it amounts to the same, since by man interior things are seen as those that are higher; and this is why he places heaven on high when in fact it is something internal.