76. This affliction, or infestation of truth by falsities, is treated of in seven chapters of the Revelation. It is what is meant by the black and the pale horses going forth out of the book, the seals of which the Lamb had opened (chap. vi 5-8) also by the beast ascending out of the abyss, which made war against the two witnesses and slew them (xi 7, etc.); again, by the dragon which stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered in order to devour her child, and pursued her into the wilderness, and there cast out of his mouth water as a flood that it might swallow her up (chap. xii); likewise, by the beast out of the sea, whose body was like that of a leopard, his feet like those of a bear, and his mouth like that of a lion (xiii 2); further, by the three spirits like frogs which came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet (xvi 13). The same is meant by these particulars; that after the seven angels had poured out the vials of the wrath of God, in which were the seven last plagues, upon the earth, upon the sea, upon the rivers and fountains, upon the sun, upon the throne of the beast, upon Euphrates, and last of all upon the air, there was a great earthquake such as had never been seen since men were made upon the earth (chap. xvi). An earthquake signifies an inversion of the Church, which is brought about by falsities and falsifications of truth. Similar things are meant by these words:
The angel put forth his sickle . . . and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God; and the winepress was trodden. . . and blood came out . . . even to the horses' bridles, for the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. Rev. xiv 19, 20.
Blood signifies truth falsified. Many other things besides are meant in those seven chapters. But consult, if you will, the expositions, and the memorabilia at the end, of those chapters.
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