377. Verses 7-8. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a pale horse; and he that sat upon him his name was Death, and hell followed with him. And there was given unto them power over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

7. "And when he had opened the fourth seal," signifies prediction still further manifested (n. 378); "I heard the voice of the fourth animal saying," signifies out of the inmost heaven from the Lord. n. 379); "Come and see," signifies attention and perception (n. 380).

8. "And I saw, and behold a pale horse," signifies the understanding of the Word then become nought in consequence of evils of life and then of falsities therefrom n. 381; "and he that sat upon him," signifies the Word (n. 382); "his name was Death, and hell followed with him," signifies eternal damnation (n. 383); "and there was given unto them power over the fourth part of the earth, to kill," signifies the loss of every good and thence of every truth from the Word, and in consequence, in the doctrine of their church from the Word n. 384; "with sword," signifies by falsity (n. 385); "and with famine," signifies by the loss, lack, and ignorance of the knowledges of truth and good (n. 386); "and with death," signifies the consequent extinction of spiritual life (n. 387); "and by the wild beasts of the earth," signifies the evils of life or lusts and falsities therefrom springing from the love of self and of the world, which devastate all things of the church with man n. 388.

7724. 'Your little children also will go with you' means that [they may worship Him] from truth. This is clear from the meaning here of 'little children' as truth, for 'little children' implies boys, adolescents, and young men, In short, their sons, who mean aspects of intelligence, thus truths, see 7668; and from the meaning of 'going with you' as an assurance that they are to be left alone in order that they may worship the Lord their God. Let me say what worshipping the Lord from good is, and what worshipping the Lord from truth without good is, meant here when Pharaoh says that the flocks and herds are to stay behind and the little children to go. The truest kind of worship consists in an offering made from good through truth, for the Lord is present in good; but worship offered from truth without good is not worship, only outward religious ceremony and action alone with nothing real in them since without good truth is no more than the knowledge of truth. To become the truth of faith that knowledge must be combined with good, and when combined with good it passes into the internal man and becomes faith. (The fact that faith without charity is not faith has been shown often.) From this one may see what worship from good is and what worship from truth without good is. By the good from which worship springs one should understand the good of life, good that has been made spiritual through combination with truth, for spiritual good derives its particular nature from truth, and the essence of truth is good, so that good is the soul of truth. From this one may again see what truth without good is like, namely like a body without its soul, that is, like a corpse.