Since he heard the latter and the former saying, it is evident that they were angels and spirits who spake; for John was in the spirit, as he himself says in the preceding chapter (Apoc. 4:2), in which state no other earth appeared to him than the earth of the spiritual world; for there are earths there as well as in the natural world, as may appear from the description of that world in the work concerning Heaven and Hell; as also in The Continuation concerning the Spiritual World (HH n. 32-38). The higher heavens appear there upon mountains and hills, the lower heavens in the earth beneath, and the ultimate heavens as it were under the earth. For the heavens are expanses one above another, and each expanse is like the earth under the feet of those who are there. The highest expanse is like the top of a mountain, the next expanse is under it, but extending itself more widely on all sides round about, and the lowest expanse more widely still; and since this last is under the other, they who are there are "under the earth." The three heavens also appear thus to the angels who are in the higher heavens, because to them there appear two heavens beneath them; therefore in like manner they appeared to John, because he was with them, for he had ascended to them, as is evident from chapter 4, where it is said:--

He who does not know anything of the spiritual world and the earths there, can by no means know what is meant by "under the earth," nor by "the lower parts of the earth," in the Word, as in Isaiah:--

Who does not see that the earths of the spiritual world are here meant? for no man lives under the earth in the natural world.