400. And they were cast down to the earth, and a third of the trees were burned up. This symbolically means that in people concerned with the internal elements of the church and caught up in faith alone, all affection for truth and perception of truth, which make a person a person of the church, had perished.

To be shown that the earth to which the hail and fire mingled with blood were cast down symbolizes the church among people concerned with its internal elements and caught up in faith alone, and that these are the clergy, see no. 398 above. A third part symbolizes everything in relation to truth, as a fourth part symbolizes everything in relation to goodness (no. 322). That the number three symbolizes all, completeness, and totally, will be seen in no. 505 below. A third part or a third consequently has the same symbolism.

To be burned up means, symbolically, to perish - in this case to perish by falsity springing from a hellish love, which is what is meant by hail and fire mingled with blood, as just explained in no. 399 above.

A tree symbolizes a person. And because a person is human by virtue of the affection of his will and the perception of his intellect, these also are therefore symbolized by a tree.

There is as well a correspondence between a person and a tree. Consequently in heaven one sees paradisal parks formed of trees that correspond to the affections and resulting perceptions of angels. And elsewhere, in hell, there are forests formed of trees that bear harmful fruit, in accordance with their correspondence to the lusts and resulting thoughts of the inhabitants there.

That trees in general symbolize people in respect to their affections and consequently perceptions can be seen from the following passages:

All the trees of the field shall know that I, Jehovah, bring low the tall tree and raise up the low tree, and dry up the green tree and make the dry tree burgeon. (Ezekiel 17:24)

Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah... He shall be like a tree planted by the waters... Nor will He cease from bearing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Blessed is the man...(whose) delight is in the law... He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season... (Psalms 1:1-3)

Praise Jehovah... you fruitful trees... (Psalms 148:7-9)

Satiated are the trees of Jehovah... (Psalms 104:16)

...the ax is laid to the root of the tree... ...every tree which does not bear good fruit will be cut down... (Matthew 3:10; cf. 7:16-20)

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for a tree is known by its fruit. (Matthew 12:33, cf. Luke 6:43-44)

...I will kindle a fire..., (which) shall devour every green tree and every dry tree... (Ezekiel 20:47)

Since a tree symbolizes a person, therefore it was a statute that the fruit of a tree serving for food in the land of Canaan be uncircumcised (Leviticus 19:23-25). Furthermore, that when the people besieged a city, they not take an axe to any tree bearing good fruit (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). And still other regulations, which we do not cite here owing to their number.

398. The first angel sounded. (8:7) This symbolizes an examination and exposure of the state of life and its character in people caught up interiorly in that faith.

To sound a trumpet means, symbolically, to examine and expose (no. 397). The sounding of the first angel means an examination and exposure of the state of the church among people caught up interiorly in that faith, because it produced its effect on the earth, as said next, and the sounding of the second angel produced its effect on the sea; and throughout the book of Revelation, when both earth and sea are mentioned, the whole church is meant - the earth meaning the church composed of people concerned with its internal elements, and the sea meaning the church composed of people concerned with its external ones. For the church is internal and external - internal in the case of the clergy, external in the laity, or internal in the case of people who study its doctrines interiorly and defend them by the Word, and external in the case of people who do not do that.

[2] Both kinds of people are meant by the earth and the sea in the following places in the book of Revelation:

...that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea... (Revelation 7:1)

Do not harm the earth or the sea... (Revelation 7:3)

(The angel coming down from heaven) set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth. (Revelation 10:2, cf. 10:5-6)

I saw a beast rising up out of the sea... and another beast coming up out of the earth... (Revelation 13:1, 11)

Worship (God) who made heaven, the earth, and the sea... (Revelation 14:7)

(The first angel) poured out his bowl upon the earth... Then the second angel poured out his... on the sea... (Revelation 16:2-3)

Earth and sea symbolize the internal and external church, thus the whole church, because people in the spiritual world who are concerned with the internal elements of the church appear to live on dry land, while people who are concerned with its external elements are seemingly at sea, although the seas are appearances caused by the general truths which they possess.

To be shown that the earth symbolizes the church, see no. 285. And that the world does, too, no. 551.