263. So I wept much, that no one was found worthy to open and read the book, or to look in it. (5:4) This symbolizes grief of heart, that if no one could do this, all would perish.
It is apparent that to weep much means to grieve at heart. The reason John grieved at heart was because all would otherwise perish. Indeed, if everything in heaven and on earth had not been put back into order by the Last Judgment, the case could not have been otherwise. For the book of Revelation has as its subject the last state of the church when it reaches its end, and what this will be like the Lord describes in these words:
...there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. (Matthew 24:21-22)
This refers to the last period of the church, when a judgment takes place.
[2] That this is the state of the church today can be known simply from the fact that the largest part of the Christian world is occupied by people who have transferred the Lord's Divine power to themselves, wishing to be worshiped as gods, and who call on people who have died, and scarcely anyone there on the Lord. As for the rest of the church, they make God three, and the Lord two, and place salvation not in amendment of life, but in certain phrases that they utter in a devout tone. Thus they place it not in repentance, but in having confidence that they have been justified and sanctified, provided they fold their hands and look upward and pray the customary ritual phrases.
