AR 449-452 (portions) - The Sixth Angel Sounded (part 4) - The Horses

AR 449 [1,3]

And thus I saw the horses in the vision
and those who sat on them.
(Revelation 9:17)

This symbolizes the discovery then
that the reasonings of the interiors of their minds
concerning faith alone were fanciful and illusory,
and that they themselves were insane
because of them.

To see means, symbolically,
to perceive their character.
The horses symbolize the reasonings
of the interiors of their minds
concerning faith alone . . ..
People sitting on horses
symbolize people who are intelligent
owing to their understanding of the Word -
here people who are insane
because of their fanciful and illusory reasonings
contrary to the Word.

All of this that they told me collapses, however,
if one turns to the Lord directly as Savior,
believing in Him and doing good,
both of these for the sake of salvation,
and this by the person as if of himself,
yet believing that it is the Lord's doing.
Unless a person does this as if of himself,
no faith is possible,
and no charity,
and thus no religion and so no salvation.

AR 450

Having breastplates that were fiery,
hyacinthine and sulfurous.
(Revelation 9:17)

Breastplates symbolize the arguments
people use to do battle for faith alone.
Fire symbolizes heavenly love,
and in an opposite sense, hellish love.
Hyacinthine symbolizes intelligence
springing from a spiritual love,
and in an opposite sense,
intelligence springing from a hellish love,
which is one's own inherent intelligence . . ..
And sulfur symbolizes lust
arising from that hellish love
and expressed through
their own inherent intelligence.

In actual fact, however,
people who live a moral life
solely for the sake of themselves and the world
do not know this.
The reason is
that although they inwardly are such as described,
in outward appearances
they are like people who live a Christian life.
But they should know
that when anyone of them dies,
he comes into his interior life,
because it is the life of his spirit,
and he is his internal self.
Moreover, his inner character
then accommodates his outward one to itself,
and they become alike.

The case is altogether different with people
who regard the precepts of a moral life as Divine,
and who make them at the same time
civil precepts because they are expressive
of a love for the neighbor.

AR 451 [1-2,3]

And the heads of the horses
were like the heads of lions.
(Revelation 9:17)

Heads symbolize the fanciful and illusory ideas
that these people have regarding faith alone,
which are the subject here,
and for which we use the single term delusions.
Horses symbolize the reasonings
in the interiors of their minds . . ..
Lions symbolize power.
It is a power based on fallacies,
because these people are sense-oriented,
and sense-oriented people
base their reasoning on fallacies,
which they use to persuade and captivate.

. . . faith divorced from charity is a mirage,
and a figment of the imagination,
like a bubble floating in the air.

AR 452

And out of their mouths came
fire, 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.

This is not, however, apparent
from these people's discourses in public in the world.
But it is clearly apparent to angels in heaven.
Consequently we say
that their thoughts and discourses,
interiorly regarded, are of this character.