8265. The horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea. That this signifies that by His mere presence the falsities from evil were damned and cast into hell, is evident from the signification of a "horse," as being falsities from a perverted understanding (that a "horse" denotes the understanding, see n. 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321; and in the opposite sense a perverted understanding, and as this is no understanding, in this sense by a "horse" is signified falsity, and by "the horse of Pharaoh," false memory-knowledge, n. 6125, 8146, 8148); from the signification of a "rider" or "horseman," as being the consequent reasonings (n. 8146, 8148); and from the signification of "casting into the sea," as being to damn and cast into hell. That "the sea," here the sea Suph, denotes the hell where are the falsities from evil of those who being of the church have been in faith separate and in a life of evil, see n. 8099, 8137, 8148; hence it is that they are called falsities "from evil." That these falsities were damned and cast into hell by the mere presence of the Lord, was shown in the preceding chapter. For the evil can by no means endure and support the Divine presence, because by the Divine presence they are tortured, tormented, and as it were deprived of life, and comport themselves like those who are in the death agony. The reason is that in the Divine there is omnipotence, which destroys and extinguishes that which is opposed, thus what is false and evil; consequently the life of those who are in falsity and evil is distressed by the Divine presence, and hence feels hell in itself according to the degree of the presence. But lest they who are in falsities and evils should be tortured until they are utterly destroyed, they are veiled over by their falsities and evils as by thick mists, which are of such a nature as to mitigate the influx of the Divine, or to repel or to stifle it, as earthly mists or clouds do the rays of the sun. [2] These things are meant by the words in John:
They shall say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb; because the great day of His anger is come; who therefore shall be able to stand? (6:16, 17); by "the mountains and rocks to which they shall say, Fall upon us and hide us" are signified evils and falsities; by "the anger of the Lamb" is signified torment, for it appears as if the Divine tormented from anger, when yet it is the falsities and evils themselves. In like manner in Isa. 2:10; and in Hosea 10:8; and in Luke 23:30. That damnation is from the mere presence of the Lord, is also signified by what follows in this Song:
Thou sendest forth Thy wrath, it devoureth them as stubble; and with the wind of Thy nostrils the waters were heaped up, the floods stood together like a heap; Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them; they sought the deep; Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them (verses 7, 8, 10, 12). In like manner in many other passages in the Word.
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