468. And his feet like pillars of fire. This symbolizes the Lord's Divinity on the natural plane in respect to His Divine love, which sustains all things.

This, too, is apparent, from the explanation in no. 49 above, where it is said of the Son of Man that "His feet were like fine brass, as though fired in a furnace."

The angel's feet looked like pillars of fire because the Lord's Divinity on the natural plane - which fundamentally is the Divine humanity that He took on in the world - supports His Divinity from eternity, as the body does the soul, and likewise as the Word's natural meaning supports its spiritual and celestial meanings, on which subject see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 27-49. To be shown that feet symbolize something natural, see no. 49, and a pillar something that supports, no. 191.

Fire symbolizes love because spiritual fire is nothing else. Therefore it is customary in worship to pray that heavenly fire, that is to say, heavenly love, may kindle the worshipers' hearts. People know that there is a correspondence between fire and love from the fact that a person grows warm with love, and cold with its loss. Nothing else produces vital warmth but love, in both senses. The origin of these correspondences is owing to the existence of two suns, one in the heavens, which is pure love, and the other in the world, which is nothing but fire. This, too, is the reason for the correspondence between all spiritual and natural things.

[2] Since fire symbolizes Divine love, therefore on Mount Horeb Jehovah appeared to Moses in a bush on fire (Exodus 3:1-3). Moreover He descended upon Mount Sinai in fire (Deuteronomy 4:36). For this reason, too, the seven lamps of the lampstand in the Tabernacle were lit every evening, so as to burn before Jehovah (Leviticus 24:2-4). For the same reason fire burned continually on the altar and was not extinguished (Leviticus 6:13), and the priests took fire from the altar in their censers and burned incense (Leviticus 16:12-13).

Therefore Jehovah went before the children of Israel by night in a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21-22). Fire from heaven consumed the burnt offerings on the altar, as a sign of His being well pleased (Leviticus 9:24, 1 Kings 18:38). The burnt offerings were called offerings by fire to Jehovah, and offerings by fire for a restful aroma to Jehovah (Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9-11; 3:5, 16; 4:35; 5:12; 7:30; 21:6; Numbers 28:2; Deuteronomy 18:1).

Therefore in the book of Revelation the Lord's eyes looked like a flame of fire (Revelation 1:14; 2:18; 19:12, cf. Daniel 10:5-6). And seven lamps of fire burned before the throne (Revelation 4:5).

It is apparent from this what lamps containing oil and lamps without oil symbolize (Matthew 25:1-11). The oil means fire, and thus love.

And so on in many other places.

In an opposite sense fire symbolizes hellish love, and this is plain from so many passages in the Word that it would be impossible to cite them all because of their number. See something on the subject in the book Heaven and Hell, published in London, nos. 566-575.

767. 18:9 "And the kings of the earth who committed whoredom with her and delighted in her will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning." This symbolizes the inner feelings of anguish in those Roman Catholics who had been in a higher degree of dominion and its delights through their falsifications and adulterations of the Word's truths, which they made sacred tenets of the church, when they see them turned into profane ones.

The subject in this and the following verse is the mourning of the kings of the earth, by whom the highest in rank are meant, those called prelates and primates. In verses 11 to 16 the subject is the mourning of the merchants of the earth, by whom those lower in rank are meant, those called monks. And in verses 17 to 19 the subject is the mourning of shipmasters and sailors, by whom those who provide their revenues are meant, those called the laity.

But here now the subject is the kings of the earth, by whom the highest Roman Catholics in rank are symbolically meant. To be shown that kings do not mean kings, but people governed by truths springing from goodness, and in an opposite sense, people governed by falsities springing from evil, see nos. 483, 704, 720, 737, 740 above. Consequently here the kings of the earth who committed whoredom with Babylon and delighted in her symbolize people who enjoyed her dominion and its delights by falsifying and adulterating the Word's truths, especially by falsifying and adulterating the truth which the Lord spoke to Peter, regarding which we will say something below.

That to commit whoredom means, symbolically, to falsify and adulterate the Word's truths may be seen in nos. 134, 632, 635. That to take delight means, symbolically, to enjoy the delights of dominion and at the same time wealth, in no. 759. The king's weeping and lamenting symbolizes their inner feelings of anguish. They are said to weep and lament because weeping is an expression of their anguish over being cast down from their dominion, and lamenting is an expression of their anguish over losing their wealth. Moreover, because their feelings of anguish are deeper than those of the merchants of the earth, therefore the kings of the earth, by whom those higher in rank are meant, are said to weep and lament, while the merchants of the earth, by whom those lower in rank are meant, are said to weep and mourn. When they see the smoke of her burning means, symbolically, when they see the falsities of their religion - their falsifications and adulterations of the Word's truths - turned into profane ones. The smoke symbolizes those falsities (nos. 422, 452), and burning symbolizes profanation (no. 766).

From this and what we explained in no. 766 above, it is apparent that "the kings of the earth who committed whoredom with her and delighted in her will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning" symbolizes the inner feelings of anguish in those Roman Catholics who had been in a higher degree of dominion and its delights through their falsifications and adulterations of the Word's truths, when they see them turned into profane ones.