Apocalypse Revealed (Coulsons): AR 861

Apocalypse Revealed (Coulsons) n. 861

861. [verse 9] 'And they went up upon the breadth of the land and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city' signifies that being roused up by the dragonists they would despise every truth of the Church and endeavour to destroy all the things of the New Church, and the doctrine itself concerning the Lord and concerning Life. By 'to go up upon the breadth of the land' is signified to despise every truth of the Church, for by 'to go up upon' is signified to climb over and pass by, thus to despise; and by 'the breadth of the land' is signified the truth of the Church, concerning which [something] follows. By 'to surround the camp of the saints' is signified to besiege and wish to destroy all the things of the New Church, treated of in the following paragraph; and by 'the beloved city' is signified the doctrine of the New Church. That by the 'city' is signified the doctrine of the Church may be seen above (n. 194, 501, 502, 712), and this is called 'beloved' because it treats of the Lord and of Life, for it is the doctrine of the New Jerusalem that is understood here. That these things are signified by those words no one can see except by means of the spiritual sense of the Word, for it cannot come into anyone's thought that by 'the breadth of the land' is signified the truth of the Church and that by 'the camp of the saints' are signified all the things of the New Church, both its truths and goods, and that by 'the city' is signified its doctrine. Therefore lest the mind should get stuck in a state of uncertainty it is necessary to demonstrate what 'the breadth [of the land]' and 'the camp of the saints' signify in the spiritual sense, from which it can afterwards be seen that such is the sense of these words. [2] The reason why 'the breadth of the land' signifies the truth of the Church is because in the spiritual world there are four quarters, east, west, south and north, and the east and west make its length while the south and north make its breadth. And it is because in the east and the west dwell those who are in the good of love, and therefore good is signified by 'east' and west', consequently likewise by 'length'. Also because those who are in the truths of wisdom dwell in the south and the north, and therefore by 'south' and 'north' is signified truth, consequently likewise by 'breadth'. But concerning these things more [details] may be seen in the work concerning HEAVEN AND HELL published at London in 1758 (n. 141-153). That by 'breadth' is signified truth can be established from these passages in the Word:-

O Jehovah, Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the foe, Thou hast made my feet to stand in the breadth Ps. xxxi 8 [H.B. 9].

Out of the narrowness I have called upon Jah, He has answered me in the breadth Ps. cxviii 5.

Jehovah has brought me forth into the breadth, He has delivered me Ps. xviii 19 [H.B. 20].

I, raising up the Chaldeans, a nation bitter and swift, walking in the breadth of the land Hab. i 6.

Asshur shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over, and the stretchings out of his wings shalt be the fullness of the breadth Isa. viii 8.

Jehovah shall lead them no pasture as a sheep in the breadth Hosea iv 16;

besides elsewhere as Ps. iv [H.B. 2]; lxvi 12; Deut. xxxiii 20. [3] Nothing else is understood by:-

The breadth of the city New Jerusalem Rev. xxi 16;

for when by 'the New Jerusalem' is understood the New Church, by 'the breadth and the lengths of it' there cannot be signified the breadth and the length but its truth and good; for these are the things of the Church. So also in Zechariah:-

I said to the angel, Where art thou going? He said, To measure Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof Zech. ii 2 [H.B. 6].

Likewise by 'the breadth and the length' of the new temple and the new land in Ezekiel (chaps. xl-xlvii). Also by 'the length and the breadth' of the altar of burnt-offering, of the tabernacle, of the table on which [were the cakes of] bread, of the altar of incense, and of the ark therein; and also by 'the length and the breadth' of the Jerusalem temple, and by those of the many other things that have been described by measurement.

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