579. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which went forth out of their mouths.- This signifies that all understanding of truth, and spiritual life therefrom, were extinguished by them, as is evident from the signification of the third part of men, as denoting all intelligence or understanding of truth, and as spiritual life is thence, therefore this also is meant; and from the signification of being killed, as denoting to be extinguished, for when the understanding of truth is extinguished, man is spiritually killed (see above, n.315). That the "third part," when used in reference to truths denotes all (n. 506); and man denotes the understanding of truth and the perception of good (n. 280, 546); and from the signification of fire, smoke, and brimstone, going forth out of their mouths, which denote the thoughts and thence reasonings springing from the love of evil, from the love of falsity, and from the lust (concupiscentia) of destroying truths and goods by means of the falsities of evil (see above, n. 578). From these things the signification of those words is clear. These things are said concerning the horses in the vision, for out of their mouths went forth fire, smoke, and brimstone. And because the horses seen in the vision signify the falsifications of the Word by reasonings from fallacies, it is evident that fire, smoke, and brimstone signify those things which are the cause, and these are the love of evil and the love of falsity, together with the lust (concupiscentia) of destroying the truths and goods of the church. This is effected by thoughts and reasonings from fallacies concerning the meaning and understanding of the Word; for when man thinks only from fallacies, he thinks solely from those things that appear at first sight in the sense of the letter, and not from any interior literal sense (sensu litterali interiori). He therefore forms the grossest and crudest ideas concerning every doctrinal which he draws from the Word; for example that God is angry and punishes, and casts [men] into hell, that He tempts them, that He repents, and many other things of a similar nature.

Moreover such a man thinks also corporeally and materially of every thing that he reads in the Word, and spiritually of nothing, consequently his thought is merely sensual, and being merely sensual is solely from the love of self and of the world, and when from these it is solely from evils and falsities. When such a man is left to himself, and thinks from his own spirit, he then thinks from the affection of those loves, and conjoins them to those things which are in the Word; and when the Divine things of the Word are conjoined to such loves, then all things therein are adulterated and falsified. For the Divine things of the Word can be conjoined only with celestial love or with spiritual affection, if with some other love or some other affection the higher mind, called the spiritual mind, is closed, and only the lower mind, called the natural mind, is opened. In fact in the case of those who conjoin the truths of the Word with the affection of the love of self the natural mind is also closed, and only the ultimate of this mind called the Sensual is opened, which is closely adherent to the body, and is nearest to the world; for this reason man's spirit becomes corporeal, and can have no part with angels, for they are spiritual.