486. And when he opened the seventh seal.- That this signifies prediction concerning the last state of the church, is evident from the signification of opening the seal, which denotes prediction and manifestation concerning the successive states of the church, as explained above (n. 352, 361, 369, 378, 390, 399); and from the signification of seventh, which denotes what is full and consummated, concerning which see above (n. 257, 299), and therefore it also denotes what is last, for what is full and consummated is also last. It is the last state of the church when there is no truth because there is no good, or what is the same, when there is no faith, because there is no charity; that the last state of the church then comes, may be seen in the small work concerning the Last Judgment (n. 33- 39); what was done in this state, is predicted in what follows.
[2] What was done, and is here predicted, took place in the spiritual world before the judgment; for the state of the church in the spiritual world at that time was similar to that [of the Church] in the natural world, but under another form. In the spiritual world there are societies, distinct according to the affections of good and truth and their varieties, into one of which every one according to his affection comes after death. But this is not the case in the natural world. And because they are thus distinguished in the spiritual world, therefore the church appears there such as it is on the earth; also the church in both worlds makes one by correspondences. When the last state of the church in the spiritual world arrived, then everything predicted in the following verses was accomplished, and because some of these were seen, they shall be recorded in the following pages.
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