Seven, as in Revelation 15:1, signifies everything in an universal sense. The number 'seven' was considered holy, as is well known, because of the six days of creation, and the seventh, which is the celestial self, where peace, rest, and the Sabbath is. The number seven occurs so frequently in the rites of the Jewish church and is held holy everywhere.

So times were divided into seven, longer and shorter intervals, and were called weeks, like the great intervals of times till the coming of the Messiah, in Daniel 9:24-25. The time of seven years is called 'a week' by Laban and Jacob, as in Genesis 29:27-28. So wherever the number seven occurs, it is considered holy and sacred, as in Psalm 119:164, and in Isaiah 30:26.

As the periods of a person's regeneration are distinguished into six, prior to the seventh, or the celestial self, so the times of vastation are also distinguished, until nothing celestial is left. This was represented by the many captivities of the Jews, and by the last Babylonian captivity, which lasted seven decades, or seventy years. This was also represented by Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 4:16, 22, 29. It also refers to the vastation of the end times, in Revelation 15:1, 7-8. They should 'tread the holy city under foot, forty and two months, or six times seven,' as in Revelation 11:2 and Revelation 5:1. So the severity and increments of punishment were expressed by the number seven, as in Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28 and Psalm 79:12.

(Referências: Apocalypse Explained 5, 7-8, 15; Arcana Coelestia 395; Daniel 9, 9:24, 9:25; Psalms 119)

846. "Et animas securi percussorum propter testimonium Jesu, et propter Verbum Dei," significat rejectos ab illis qui in falsis ex propria intelligentia sunt, quia coluerunt Dominum, et vixerunt secundum vera Verbi Ipsius. -Per "animas securi percussorum propter testimonium Jesu et propter verbum Dei" intelliguntur homines post mortem, qui tunc vocantur spiritus, seu homines spirituali corpore induti, qui a Domino in inferiori terra occultati sunt, usque dum per Ultimum Judicium remoti sunt mali: dicuntur "securi percussi," quia rejecti ab illis qui in falsis ex propria intelligentia sunt, qui sunt omnes qui in malis et inde falsis, aut in falsis et per illa in malis, et tamen in externis in cultu Divino: quod per "securim" id falsum significetur, videbitur in sequenti articulo: per "testimonium Jesu et Verbum Dei" significatur agnitio Divini Domini in Humano Ipsius, simile quod per haec supra:

Johannes "testificatus est Verbum Dei et Testimonium Jesu Christi," (Apocalypsis 1:2);

Michael et angeli vicerunt Draconem "per Sanguinem Agni et Verbum Testimonii sui," (Apocalypsis 12:11);

Draco "abivit ut faceret bellum cum reliquis seminis ejus, qui tenebant mandata Dei, et habent Testimonium Jesu Christi," (Apocalypsis 12:17);

"Conservus fratrum tuorum sum habentium Testimonium Jesu Christi: Testimonium Jesu est spiritus prophetiae," (Apocalypsis 19:10); ¹

quod per illa significetur Agnitio Divini Domini in Humano Ipsius, atque Vita secundum vera Verbi Ipsius, in specie secundum praecepta Decalogi, videatur in explicationibus super illis locis. Sunt hae animae eaedem, de quibus supra dicuntur haec:

"Vidi subter altari animas occisorum propter Verbum Dei et propter Testimonium quod habebant: et clamabant voce magna, dicentes, Usque quo Domine, Qui Sanctus et Verus, non judicas et vindicas sanguinem nostrum de habitantibus super terra: et datae singulis stolae albae, et dictum eis, ut requiescerent adhuc tempus parvum, usque dum complentur et conservi eorum et fratres eorum, qui futuri occidi sicut et illi," (Apocalypsis 6:9-11);

quae explicata videantur (325-329).

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