And the smoke of their torment shall ascend unto ages of ages and they shall not rest day and night, who worship the beast and his image, and who shall receive the mark of his name.

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

"And the third angel followed them," signifies manifestation from the Lord still further: "saying with a great voice," signifies earnest exhortation and denunciation: "if any one worship the beast and his image," signifies, lest they acknowledge the religious persuasion concerning faith separated from life, and the doctrine thereof: "and receive the mark upon his forehead, or upon his hand," signifies reception and acknowledgment as goods of the church, or as truths of the church.

" And he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, mixed pure in the cup of his indignation," signifies appropriation of falsity and of evil therefrom, conjoined with falsified truths from the sense of the letter of the Word; "and shall be tormented with fire and sulphur before the holy angels, and before the Lamb," signifies that their hell, from the love of the evil and falsity, is direful according to the falsification and consequent rejection of Divine truth and Divine good; thus, of the Word.

"And the smoke of their torment shall ascend unto ages of ages," signifies the dense falsity encompassing them, and flowing forth from their loves continually: "and they shall not rest day and night," signifies continual infestation by evils and falsities therefrom: "who worship the beast and his image," signifies who acknowledge the religious persuasion concerning faith separated from life, and the doctrine thereof: "and whoso shall receive the mark of his name," signifies reception and acknowledgment of its quality according to the description given above.

"Here is the patience of the saints," signifies the persecutions and temptations of those who are not in that faith, but in charity: "here are they who keep the commandments of God," signifies that these are those who live according to the precepts of the Lord in the Word: "and the faith of Jesus," signifies the implantation of truth by the Lord.