473. Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them." (10:4) This symbolically means that these things must indeed be disclosed, but they are not accepted until after those people meant by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet have been cast out of the world of spirits, because it would be dangerous before then.

The voices uttered by the seven thunders are declarations expressing what we have just said in no. 472 above. And because these constitute the essential doctrine of the New Church, they are mentioned three times.

In the natural sense, to write means to commit to paper and thus to record for posterity; but in the spiritual sense, to write means, symbolically, to commit to the heart for its acceptance. Sealing something up, therefore, and not writing it. This means, symbolically, not to commit it to the heart or accept it until after the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet have been cast out of the world of spirits, because it would be dangerous before then. That is because the dragon, beast and false prophet symbolize people caught up in a faith divorced from charity, and these cling steadfastly and tenaciously to their belief that one must go to God the Father and not to the Lord directly, and that the Lord is not God of heaven and earth as regards His humanity. Consequently, as regards the doctrine presented just above in no. 472, which was disclosed and continues to be disclosed, symbolized by the little book's being open - if, before the dragon was cast out, that doctrine were to be received by others than people possessing charity and its accompanying faith, who also are symbolized by John (nos. 5, 17), it would be rejected not only by them, but through them by everyone else as well. And if not rejected, still it would be falsified, even profaned.

[2] The reality of this is clearly apparent from the following chapters in Revelation when viewed in their sequence, in which we are told that they killed the Lord's two witnesses (chapter 11); that the dragon stood before the woman ready to give birth, to devour her child, and that after it fought with Michael, it pursued the woman (chapter 12); that the two beasts, one rising up from the sea and one from the earth, made common cause with him (chapter 13); that they gathered their followers together to do battle at a place called Armageddon (chapter 16); and finally that they gathered the nations Gog and Magog to do battle (chapter 20, verses 8-9); but that the dragon, beast and false prophet were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (chapter, verse 10); and that after this took place, the New Church, which was to be the Lamb's bride, came down out of heaven (chapters 21, 22).

These are the things meant by the charge, "Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them." Also by the subsequent statement in this chapter, that "in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel..., the mystery of God would be concluded, as He declared to His servants the prophets" (verse 7). So, too, by this statement in the next chapter, "Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,'" (chapter 11:, verse 15). And further, by a number of similar statements in the following chapters.

On this subject, something may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord 61.

470. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. This symbolically means that the Lord has the entire church under His auspices and governance, both those people in it who concern themselves with its external elements, and those in it who concern themselves with its internal ones.

The sea and land symbolize the entire church - the sea the external church, or those people who concern themselves with its external elements, and the land the internal church, or those people who concern themselves with its internal ones (no. 398). To set His feet on them means, symbolically, to have all these subject to Him, thus to have them under His Divine auspices and governance.

Since the Lord's church on earth is beneath the heavens, therefore it is called His footstool, as in the following passages:

He cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel...; He does not remember His footstool... (Lamentations 2:1)

...the earth is My footstool. (Isaiah 66:1)

Let us go into His tabernacle; let us worship at His footstool. (Psalms 132:7)

...do not swear... by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool. (Matthew 5:34-35)

I will make the place of My feet honorable. (Isaiah 60:13)

You have made Him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet... (Psalms 8:6)

These things are said of the Lord.

He placed His right foot on the sea and His left on the land because those people who concerned themselves with the external elements of the church did not confirm falsities in themselves to the same extent as those who concerned themselves with its internal elements.