More from the Sixth Angel: AR 452 - Fire, Smoke, and Brimstone; AR 455 - Sensual People; AR 457 - Works of a Person's Hands and His Hands

AR 452

And out of their mouths came
fire, and smoke, and brimstone.
(Revelation 9:17)

Out of their mouths means
from their thoughts and discourses.
Fire symbolizes a love of self and the world,
which is a characteristic trait of the will.
Smoke symbolizes a conceit in one's own intelligence,
which is a characteristic trait of the intellect,
emanating from the love of self and the world
like smoke from a fire.
And brimstone symbolizes
the lusts attendant on evil and falsity,
which are a characteristic trait flowing from them both.

AR 455 [1, 4]

For a sensual person speaks and reasons
on the basis of appearances and fallacies,
and if he possesses a talent for arguing,
he knows how to skillfully defend every falsity,
including as well the heresy of faith alone;
and yet he is so dim-sighted at seeing truth
that almost no one could be more so.

AR 457 [1, 3, 4]

Still did not repent of the works of their hands.
(Revelation 9:20)

The works of a person's hands
symbolize a person's native proclivities,
which are evils and their attendant falsities,
because the hands symbolize in summary
the things that emanate from a person;
for the forces of the mind and consequently of the body
are directed into the hands and terminate there.
Consequently the hands in the Word symbolize power.
For the same reason the works of a person's hands
symbolize his native proclivities,
which are evils and falsities of every kind.
Evils are the native proclivities of his will,
and the attendant falsities
the native proclivities of his intellect.

The work of a person's hands is his own doing,
thus evil and falsity,
and this can be clearly seen from the fact
that it was for this reason
that the Israelites were forbidden to built
an altar or temple out of hewn stones,
or to use an iron tool on those stones;
for they symbolized the work of a person's hands . . ..

Everything that the Lord does
is likewise called the work of His hands,
and these are His inherent attributes,
which in themselves are goods and truths.