"Clothed

signifies, hearing the Lord and doing his precepts: with white robes, and palms in their hands,” signifies, communication and conjunction with the superior heavens, and confession from divine truths: "And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb," signifies, an acknowledgment from the heart that the Lord is their Saviour: "And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four animals," signifies, all in the universal heaven: "And fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God," signifies, the humiliation of their heart, and, from humiliation, adoration of the Lord: “Saying, Amen,” signifies, divine verity and confirmation therefrom: "Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving," signifies, the divine spiritual things of the Lord: "And honor, and power, and might,” signifies, the divine celestial things of the Lord: "Be unto our God for ever and ever," signifies, these things in the Lord, and from the Lord to eternity: "Amen," signifies, the consent of all: "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these that are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest," signifies, a desire of knowing and the will of interrogating, and the answer and information: "And he said unto me, These are they that come out of great tribulation,” signifies, that they are those who have been in temptations, and have fought against evils and falses: "And have washed their robes," signifies, who have cleansed their religious principles from the evils of falsity: "And made them white in the blood of the Lamb," signifies, and purified them from the falses of evil by truths, and thus have been reformed by the Lord: "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them,” signifies, that they are in the presence of the Lord, and constantly and faithfully live according to the truths which they receive from him in his church: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more," signifies, that hereafter there shall be no deficiency of goods and truths with them: "Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat," signifies, that hereafter they shall have no lusts to evil nor to the false of evil: "For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them," signifies, that the Lord alone will teach them: "And shall lead them unto living fountains of waters," signifies, and lead them by the truths of the Word to conjunction with himself: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,” signifies, that they shall no longer be in combats against evils and their falses, and thereby in sorrow, but in goods and truths, and thence in joys celestial from the Lord.

THE EXPLANATION.

342. "AND after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth," signifies, the universal heaven now in the effort to execute the last judgment on those who were in the world of spirits. Many things now follow concerning the state of the spiritual world previous to the last judginent, which no one could know but by revelation from the Lord, And since it has been granted me to see in what manner the last judgment was performed, and also the changes which preceded it, and the arrangements which ensued; I am thereby enabled to explain the signification of all the particulars contained in this and the following chapters. By the four angels is here signified the universal heaven; by the four corners of the earth is signified the universal world of spirits, which is in the midst between heaven and hell; for the last judgment was executed on those who were in the world of spirits, but not on any one in heaven, nor on any one in hell. The reason why the angels signify heaven, is, because an angel, in the supreme sense, means the Lord as to the Divine Humanity, n. 344; and as heaven is heaven from the Lord, by the angels is also signified heaven. The four angels here signify the universal heaven, because they were seen standing on the four corners of the earth, and by the four corners are signified the four quarters. The reason why the above words signify the effort of the universal heaven to execute a last judgment, is, because the Lord, when the judgment was at hand, caused the heavens to draw near over the world of spirits, and by this approach of the heavens, such a change of state in the interiors of the minds of those who were below, was effected, that they saw nothing but terrors before their eyes. That corners signify quarters, and thence four corners all quarters, may appear from the following passages: "Ye shall measure from without the city, the corner towards the east, the corner towards the south, the corner towards the west, and the corner towards the north," Numb. xxxv. 5. "Thou shalt make the

boards for the tabernacle for the south side [corner,] and for the north side [corner]," Exod. xxvi. 18, 20, 23. "And a court for the south side [corner,] for the north side [corner,] for the west side [corner,] and for the east side [corner]," Exod. xxii. 9, 11, 12, 13. The four quarters are also called the four corners frequently in Ezekiel, as in chap. xlvii. 18, 19, 20, and xlviii. Because corners signify quarters, therefore they signify all things, as all things relating to heaven or hell, or to good and truth, as is plain from these passages: Satan shall go out to "deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth," Apoc. xx. 8. "I have cut off the nations : their corners are desolate," Zeph. iii. 6.

"Israel was

gathered together as one man,—and the corners of all the people stood up," Judges xx. 1, 2., "A sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab,” Numb. xxiv. 17. "A day of the trumpet and alarm— and against the high corners," Zeph. i. 16. "I would scatter them into corners," Deut. xxxii. 26. That a corner signifies the ultimate which sustains things superior, as a foundation does a house, and thus also all things, appears from these passages: "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone,” Isaiah xxviii. 16. "And they shall not take of the stone for a corner," Jerem. li. 26. "And Judah shall be a corner stone," Zech. x. 4. "The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner," Psalm cxviii. 22, Matt. xxi. 42, Mark xii. 10, Luke xx. 17, 18.

343. "Holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree," signifies, a withholding and restraining by the Lord of a nearer and thence more powerful influx into inferior things, where the good were in conjunction with the wicked. It is to be noted that the last judgment takes place when the wicked are multiplied, below the heavens in the world of spirits, to such a degree, that the angels in the heavens cannot subsist in their state of love and wisdom; for in this case they have no support and foundation to rest upon; and as this is occasioned by the increase of the wicked below, therefore the Lord, in order

to preserve their state, flows in with his divinity more and more strongly, and this continues till they can no longer be preserved by any influx, without a separation of the wicked, that are below, from the good, which is effected by the letting down and drawing near of the heavens, and thence by a stronger influx, until it at length becomes insupportable to the wicked, upon which they flee away, and cast themselves into hell. This is also what is signified in the foregoing chapter by these words: "And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Apoc. vi. 16. But to proceed to the explanation. By the four winds is signified the influx of the heavens; by the earth, the sea, and every tree, are signified all inferior principles and the things that are therein; by the earth and sea, all inferior principles: and by every tree, all things therein That wind signifies influx, properly the influx of truth into the understanding, may appear from the following passages: "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live," Ezek. xxxvii. 9, 10. There were seen four chariots, at which there were four horses, are the four winds of the heavens," Zech. vi. 1, 5. must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth," John iii. 7, 8. The Maker of the earth "hath established the world by his wisdom,-and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures," Jerem. x. 12, 13, li. 15, 16, Psalm cxxxv. 7. Jehovah "causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow. He showeth his Word unto Jacob, his statutes and judgments unto Israel,” Psalm cxlvii. 17, 18, 19. "Stormy wind fulfilling his Word," Psalm cxlviii. 8. Jehovah "maketh his angels winds," Psalm civ. 3, 4. Jehovah "did fly upon the wings of the wind," Psalm xviii. 10, 11, Psalm civ. 3. wings of the wind are divine truths which flow in therefore the Lord is called "The breath of our nostrils," Lament. iv. 20; and it is written, that he breathed into

"these

"Ye

The

the nostrils of Adam the soul of lives, Gen. ii. 7; also, that" He breathed on his disciples, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost," John xx. 21, 22. The Holy Ghost (or Spirit) is the divine truth proceeding from the Lord, whose influx into the disciples was represented, and thus signified, by his breathing upon them. That wind and respiration signify the influx of divine truth into the understanding, is from the correspondence of the lungs with the understanding, on which subject see The Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, n. 371-429. As, therefore, a nearer and stronger divine influx through the heavens disperses truths among the wicked, therefore wind signifies the dispersion of truth among them, and thence their conjunction with hell, and destruction; as may be seen from these passages: "And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them," Jerem. xlix. 36. "Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them," Isaiah xli. 16. "The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it," Isaiah xxx. 33. The contrivers of iniquity perish "by the blast of God, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed," Job iv. 8. "The foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Jehovah, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils," Psalm xviii. 15. "I saw in my vision,—and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up,' Dan. vii. 2, 3, and following verses. "Behold, a whirlwind of Jehovah is gone forth in fury,-it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked," Jerem. xxiii. 19, xxx. 23. “So persecute them with thy storm, and make them afraid with thy tempest," Psalm lxxxiii. 15. "The way of Jehovah is in the whirlwind and the storm," Nahum i. 3, besides other places, as Jerem. xxv. 32, Ezek. xiii. 13, Hosea viii. 7, Amos i. 14, Zech. ix. 14, Psalm xi. 6, Psalm 1. 3, Psalm lv. 8, Psalm cvii., where it is thus written: "For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind. He maketh the storm to a calm, so that the waves thereof are still," verse 25, 29:

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