486. Verse 1. And when he opened the seventh seal, signifies the prediction respecting the last state of the church. This is evident from the signification of "opening a seal," as being to foretell and manifest the successive states of the church (as above, n. 352, 361, 369, 378, 390, 399); also from the signification of "seventh," as being what is full and consummated (of which above, n. 257, 299), thence also the last, for what is full and consummated is also the last. It is the last state of the church when there is no truth because there is no good, or what is the same, when there is no faith because there is no charity (that then is the last state of the church see in the small work on The Last Judgment, n. 33-39); what took place in this state is predicted in what now follows. [2] That which took place and is here predicted, occurred in the spiritual world before the judgment; for the state of the church in the spiritual world was then similar to that in the natural world, but under another appearance. In the spiritual world there are societies, distinguished according to the affections of good and truth and their varieties, and each one after death comes into one of these according to his affection. It is not so in the natural world. Because of these distinctions in the spiritual world, the church appears there such as it is on the earth, and the church in the two worlds also makes a one by correspondences. When it was the last state of the church in the spiritual world, all the things that are foretold in what now follows were accomplished; some of these shall be related in the following pages, because they were seen.