303. Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? signifies, is there anyone there such as to know and to perceive the states of life of all? This is evident from the signification of "Who is worthy?" as being, is there anyone who has merit and righteousness, and who has omniscience, thus whether there is any such? That "worthy," in reference to the Lord, signifies merit and righteousness, which belong to Him alone, see above n. 293. And that omniscience is signified is clear from what follows, where it is said, "the Lamb took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne, and opened it;" for "right hand" signifies omniscience and omnipotence (See above, n. 297); it is evident also from the signification of the "book," as being the states of life of all in general and in particular (of which see just above, n. 299); and also from the signification of "to open the book and to loose the seals thereof," as being to know and perceive; for when the "book" signifies the states of life of all, "to open and to loose the seals" signifies to know and perceive those states; for knowing and perceiving are predicated of the state of life, but opening and loosening seals relate to a book; thus the words in the internal sense conform to the things signified by the words in the sense of the letter, for they correspond; therefore, "to open" signifies to know, and "to loose the seals" signifies to perceive what is altogether hidden from others (as above, n. 300).

592. If the Lord were not in control of both the heavens and the hells, there would be no equilibrium; and if there were no equilibrium, there would be no heaven or hell. Absolutely everything in the universe, everything in both the natural world and the spiritual world, is constituted by an equilibrium. Any rational person can grasp this. Let one side outweigh the other, with no resistance offered, and will not both be destroyed? This is what would happen in the spiritual world if the good did not react against the evil and constantly suppress its rebellions. Unless the divine power, and nothing else, did this, heaven and hell would perish, and the whole human race along with them. I refer to the "divine power and nothing else" because the selfhood of every angel, every spirit, and every one of us is nothing but evil (see above, 591). This means that no angel or spirit can ever resist the evil influences that are constantly breathed out of the hells since we all incline toward hell because of our self-concern. We can see from this that if the Lord alone were not in control of both the heavens and the hells, there would be no salvation for anyone.

Not only that, all the hells act in unison because the evil energies of the hells are all interconnected the way the good energies are in the heavens; and nothing but the only divine power can resist all the countless hells acting in concert against heaven and everyone there. That one divine power emanates from the Lord.