76. This affliction, or infestation of truth by falsities, is treated of in seven chapters of Revelation, and is what is meant by:
The black horse and the pale horse going forth from the book, the seals whereof the Lamb had opened (6:5-8).
Then:
By the beast ascending out of the abyss, which made war against the two witnesses, and slew them (11:7 seq.).
As also by:
The dragon which stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, in order to devour her offspring, and pursued her into the desert, and there cast out of his mouth water as a flood, that he might swallow her up (12).
And likewise by:
The beast out of the sea, the body of which was like that of a leopard, his feet like those of a bear, and his mouth like that of a lion (13:2).
Also by:
The three unclean spirits like frogs, which came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet (16:13).
And moreover by these particulars, that:
After the seven angels had poured out the vials of the wrath of God, wherein were the seven last plagues, upon the earth, upon the sea, upon the rivers and fountains, upon the sun, upon the throne of the beast, upon Euphrates, and at length upon the air, there was a great earthquake, such as had not been since men were created upon the earth (16).
"The earthquake" here signifies an inversion of the church, which is effected by falsities and falsifications of truth. The like things are meant by these:
The angel sent in his sickle, and gathered the vineyard of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God; and the winepress was trodden, and blood came out even unto the horses' bridles, for a thousand and six hundred stadia (14:19, 20).
There "blood" signifies truth falsified: besides many other things in those seven chapters. But see, if you will, the explanations, and the Relations at the end of the chapters.