368. Verses 5-6. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third animal saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold, a black horse; and he that sat upon him had a balance in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four animals saying, A measure of wheat for a denarius, and three measures of barley for a denarius; and the oil and the wine hurt thou not.

5. "And when he had opened the third seal," signifies prediction respecting the state that next follows with those who are of the church where the Word is n. 369; "I heard the third animal saying," signifies out of the inmost heaven from the Lord. n. 370); "Come and see," signifies attention and perception (n. 371); "and behold, a black horse," signifies the understanding of the Word destroyed in respect to truth n. 372; "and he that sat upon him had a balance in his hand," signifies the estimation of truth from the Word in that state of the church n. 373.

6. "A measure of wheat for a denarius, and three measures of barley for a denarius," signifies that the genuine good of the church, as well as the genuine truth of the church, is of no account to them (n. 374; "and the oil and the wine hurt thou not" signifies that it is provided that the internal or spiritual sense of the Word should suffer no harm either in respect to good or in respect to truth (n. 375, 376).

369. Verse 5. And when he had opened the third seal, signifies prediction respecting the state that next follows with those who are of the church where the Word is. This is evident from what has been said above (n. 351, 352, 361); for this and the following chapter treat of the state of the Christian Church, or the church where the Word is, from its beginning to its end, or from the time of the Lord down to the Last Judgment. For the new church that is called the Christian Church, and that was begun by the Lord when He was in the world, and afterwards propagated, has successively decreased down to this time, which is its last time, in which is the judgment. Predictions respecting these successive states of the church are here brought forth, as from a book, by various representatives; but it is to be known that such predictions were not seen and read in a book when its seals were opened, but were made manifest through the heavens from the Lord before the angels of the inmost heaven; and were represented in the ultimates of heaven by such things as are related in this chapter, namely, by horses of various colors, and afterwards by earthquakes, by the darkenings of the sun and moon, and by the falling of the stars to the earth.

[2] These, however, were appearances before the angels of the ultimate heaven, signifying such things as were heard and perceived in the inmost heaven where there were not such appearances; for whatever is heard, thought, and perceived in the inmost heaven from the Lord, when it descends through the middle heaven to the ultimate, is turned into such appearances. In this way are the arcana of Divine wisdom made known before the angels of the ultimate heaven. Those there who are intelligent perceive these arcana by the correspondences; but the lowest of them do not perceive, but only know that there are arcana therein, nor do they inquire further; John was with these when "in the spirit" or in vision. This has been said to make known how the Word was written, namely, from such things as were seen and heard in the ultimates of heaven, thus by pure correspondences and representatives, in each one of which lie concealed innumerable and ineffable arcana of Divine wisdom.