1002. 'Not eating' means not mixing together. This follows from what has been said above. Regarded in itself eating animal flesh is something profane, for in most ancient times people never ate the flesh of any beast or bird, but only different kinds of grain, especially wheaten bread, also the fruit of trees, vegetables, milk, and milk products such as butter. Slaughtering living creatures and eating their flesh was to them abominable, akin to the behaviour of wild animals. Service and use alone was demanded of those creatures, as is clear from Genesis 1:29-30. But in the process of time when mankind began to be as savage as wild animals, indeed more savage, they first began to slaughter living creatures and eat their flesh. And because man had become such, he was permitted to do so and is still permitted today. And insofar as he does so from conscience, it is quite legitimate, for his conscience is given form from all those things he presumes to be true and so legitimate. Consequently nobody nowadays stands in any sense condemned because he eats meat.

268. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders. (5:6) This symbolically means from the inmost elements of heaven, the Word, and the church, and so in all their constituents.

"In the midst" means, symbolically, in inmost elements and so in all (no. 44). The throne symbolizes heaven (no. 14). The four living creatures or cherubim symbolize the Word (no. 239). And the twenty-four elders symbolize the church in respect to all its constituents (no. 233, 251). It follows from this that the statement, "in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders," means, symbolically, from the inmost elements in all the constituents of heaven, the Word, and the church.