807. 19:3 And a second time they said, "Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!" This symbolizes a thanksgiving and celebration of the Lord with joy, that the profane Roman Catholic religion has been damned to eternity.

Their speaking a second time originates from a different affection of joy, because they had been freed from the assault of those who were caught up in the Roman Catholic religion, and from the fear of their resurgence and their assailing them again. That alleluia symbolizes a thanksgiving and celebration of the Lord may be seen in no. 803 above. Her smoke symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion in respect to its dreadful falsities, since falsities arising from evil appear in the spiritual world as billows of smoke from a fire (no. 422). Fire there is the love of self (nos. 468 at the end, 494, 766). The smoke produced by burning, in reference to Babylon, symbolizes profanation (nos. 766, 767). Rising up forever and ever symbolizes the damnation of that religion to eternity.