835. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone, signifies that all those, as they were, were cast into the hell where are the loves of falsity, and at the same time the lusts of evil. By "alive" is signified as they were. By "these two," namely, "the beast and the false prophet," are signified all those who professed faith alone, and were interiorly evil, both the laity and the clergy; as just above (n. 834). By "the lake of fire burning with brimstone" is signified the hell where they are who are in the loves of that falsity, and at the same time in the lusts of evil. By "a lake" is signified falsities in abundance, treated of in what follows. By "fire" is signified love, here their love of falsity. That "fire" signifies love both in the good and the evil sense, may be seen (n. 468, 494, 599); here the love of falsity, because it is said "a lake of fire." By "brimstone" is signified the lust of evil and thence of falsity (n. 452). The like is said of "the dragon" and of these two in the following chapter, in these words:
The devil (that is, the dragon), who seduced them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are; and they shall be tormented day and night for ages of ages (Rev. 20:10).
[2] It is to be known that the hell where such are, appears at a distance like a fiery lake with a green flame as of brimstone. But they who are in it do not see this; they are shut up there in their workhouses, where they wrangle among themselves vehemently; and sometimes there appear knives in their hands, with which they threaten, if they do not yield. It is their love of falsity, together with the lusts of evil, that makes the appearance of such a lake. That appearance is from correspondence.
[3] That by "a lake" is signified where there is truth in abundance, and thence in the opposite sense where there is falsity in abundance, may be evident from the Word; where there is truth in abundance, from these passages:
From the wilderness shall waters break forth and rivers in the plain of the wilderness, and the dry place shall become a lake (Isa. 35:6-7).
I will make the wilderness a lake of waters, and the dry land springs of waters (Isa. 41:18; Ps. 107:33, 35).
I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the lakes (Isa. 42:15).
The God of Jacob who turneth the rock into a lake of waters, and the flint into a fountain of waters (Ps. 114:7-8).
All that make hire from the lakes of the soul (Isa. 19:10).
In the opposite sense from these:
I will cut off from Babel the name and the residue, and I will make her an inheritance of the bittern, and lakes of waters (Isa. 14:22-23).
Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14).
Whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15).
Their part in the lake of fire burning with brimstone, which is the second death (Rev. 21:8).