402. Then the second angel sounded. (8:8) This symbolizes an examination and disclosure of the state of the church and its character in people caught up externally in that faith.

To be shown that to sound a trumpet means, symbolically, to examine and disclose the state of the church and so of the life in people for whom religion is faith alone, see no. 397 above.

What is said here concerns people caught up externally in that faith because the subject now is people who are at sea, whereas previously it was people upon the earth; and those on the earth mean people concerned with the internal elements of the church, namely the clergy, while those at sea mean people concerned with the external elements of the church, namely the laity (see no. 398 above).

These people in the spiritual world are seemingly at sea (nos. 238, 290).

The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor, while a hard or stony heart means the love of self or the world -- riches and things. When the psalmist asks the Lord to search his heart, he wants the Lord to see what it is that he loves. And we are what we love. What we eat may form our earthly body, but it's only temporary, what we love forms our spiritual body, beautiful or ugly as we have chosen. It's interesting to note that the first multi-cellular motion of our embryo is the pulsating that starts in a twist of blood vessel that is to become our heart, and the last motion of our natural body is our heartbeat. It is there for all of our natural life. And of course there is a beating heart in our spiritual bodies when we come to put them on.