659. 15:2 And I saw as though a sea of glass mingled with fire. This symbolizes the farthest boundary of the spiritual world, where those people were gathered who had religion and consequently worshiped, but lacked any goodness of life.

The sea of glass in chapter 4:6 symbolized a new heaven formed of Christians who possessed general truths taken from the literal sense of the Word (no. 238). Those who possess general truths are also at the boundaries of heaven, and from a distance they appear, therefore, as though in the sea (nos. 398, 403, 404, 470). Here, however, the sea of glass symbolizes the farthest boundary of the spiritual world, where those people were gathered who had religion and consequently worshiped, but lacked any goodness of life. Because the gathering of these is symbolically meant, therefore the verse says as though a sea of glass, and the sea also appeared to be mingled with fire - the fire there symbolizing a love of evil and the accompanying evilness of life (nos. 452, 468, 494, 766, 767, 787), thus no goodness of life. For where good is absent, there evil is present.

That the gathering of these people is meant by the description, as though a sea mingled with fire, is apparent also from the depiction that follows next, that standing beside the sea of glass were those who had the victory over the beast and over his image. These symbolize people who, because of their rejection of a faith divorced from charity, had led a good life and were therefore in heaven (no. 660).

This sea is also the one meant in chapter 21:1, the sea which was no more (no. 878).

What this sea was like, and the character of the people there, is something I was also given to see. They were people who had religion, went regularly to church, listened to sermons, and partook of the Holy Supper, but beyond this gave no thought to God, salvation or eternal life, not knowing what sin is. Consequently they were human in visage, and most of them human also as regards their civic and moral life, but not at all as regards any spiritual life, which is the life that nevertheless makes a person human.

The relationship between men and women is deep and nuanced, and one entire book of the Writings -- Conjugial Love -- is devoted to the subject. So we can hardly offer a full explanation here. In a very general sense, though, the Writings say that men are creatures of intellect, driven by the love of growing wise; women, meanwhile are creations of affection, driven by the love of wisdom and the good that wisdom can do. They are formed this way to reflect the Lord's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, and so that they can form marriages that reflect the unity of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Marking differences between men and women can be a touchy thing, but realistically it's easy to see that men tend to love acquiring knowledge whether it has any practical application or not. Many of them can spout out sports statistics or hold court on the workings of the internal combustion engine, even though it is knowledge they are not likely to ever use. They find such knowledge interesting for its own sake. It follows, then, that when the Bible speaks of men, the men represent facts, ideas, knowledge, truth, intellect and wisdom -- or in the negative sense falsity, twisted logic, and reasoning that is devoid of concern for others.