930. Verses 2-4. And I saw as it were a glassy sea mingled with fire, and them that have victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name standing by the glassy sea, having the harps of God. And they were singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and wonderful are Thy works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: wherefore all the nations shall come and worship before Thee, for Thy judgments have been made manifest.

2. "And I saw as it were a glassy sea mingled with fire," signifies the generals of truth from the Word, transparent from spiritual truths, which are from the good of love n. 931; "and them that have victory over the beast," signifies that have lived a life of charity, and thus have not falsified the Word n. 932; "and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name," signifies and that have not acknowledged the doctrine of faith separated from charity, or any quality of it n. 933; "standing by the glassy sea," signifies because they have been in truths from the Word n. 934; "having the harps of God," signifies glorification of the Lord from spiritual affection n. 935.

3. "And they were singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb," signifies acknowledgment and confession of the commandments in the Word of both Testaments, also acknowledgment and confession of the Lord's Divine in His Human (n. 936, 937); "saying, Great and wonderful are Thy works," signifies that all the goods of heaven and the church are from Him n. 938; "O Lord God Almighty," signifies because He is the Divine good n. 939; "just and true are Thy ways," signifies that all the truths of heaven and the church are from Him n. 940; "Thou King of saints," signifies because He is the Divine truth n. 941.

4. "Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord," signifies worship of the Lord from the good of love n. 942; "and glorify Thy name," signifies worship of Him from truths from that good (n. 943); "for Thou only art Holy," signifies because He is good itself and truth itself, and consequently all good and all truth are from Him n. 944; "wherefore all the nations shall come and worship before Thee," signifies that all who are in the good of love and in truths therefrom will acknowledge His Divine (n. 945); "for Thy judgments have been made manifest," signifies that Divine truths have been revealed to them n. 946.

940. Just and true are Thy ways, signifies that all the truths of heaven and the church are from Him. This is evident from the signification of "ways," as being truths (See n. 97 [1-2]); so in reference to the Lord they signify all the truths of heaven and the church. It is said that the ways are "just and true," because truths that are the Lord's and are from the Lord are from good, and thus are good; for "just," in the Word, is predicated of good. "Ways" signify truths because truths like ways lead man; therefore "ways" signify truths leading. This signification of "ways" is derived from the spiritual world, where all walk in ways according to their truths. Ways in that world are not prepared and directed from one place to another, as the ways in our world are; but they are opened to each one according to his truths, and these ways are such that he alone, and no one who is in other truths can see them. These ways lead them to the places whither they are to go, as towards the societies with which they are to be conjoined, or from which they are to be separated, and finally to the society where they are to remain.

(Continuation)

[2] When man's interior is purified from evils by his refraining from them and shunning them because they are sins, the internal which is above it, and which is called the spiritual internal, is opened. This communicates with heaven; consequently man is then admitted into heaven and is conjoined to the Lord. There are two internals with man, one beneath and the other above. While man lives in the world he is in the internal which is beneath and from which he thinks, for it is natural. This may be called for the sake of distinction the interior. But the internal that is above is that into which man comes after death when he enters heaven. All angels of heaven are in this internal, for it is spiritual. This internal is opened to the man who shuns evils as sins; but it is kept closed to the man who does not shun evils as sins.

[3] This internal is kept closed to the man who does not shun evils as sins, because the interior, that is, the natural internal, until man has been purified from sins, is a hell; and so long as there is a hell there heaven cannot be opened; but as soon as hell has been removed it is opened. But let it be known that in the measure in which the spiritual internal and heaven are opened to man, the natural internal is purified from the hell that is there. This is not done at once, but successively by degrees. All this makes clear that man from himself is hell, and that man is made a heaven by the Lord, consequently that he is snatched out of hell by the Lord, and raised up into heaven to the Lord, not immediately, but mediately. The means are the commandments just mentioned, by which the Lord leads him who wishes to be led.