ground and not in the ground, thus like any thing without a root; in a word, like a cause without an effect in which it may exist. From what has been said, it may be seen how absolutely necessary it is that there should be a church somewhere in the world, where the Word is, and where the Lord is known thereby.

534. "And upon her head a crown of twelve stars," signifies, its wisdom and intelligence from knowledges of divine good and divine truth derived from the Word. By the crown on her head, is signified wisdom and intelligence, n. 189, 235, 252; by stars, are signified the knowledges of divine good and divine truth derived from the Word, n. 51, 420; and by twelve, are signified all things of the church, which have relation to its good and truth, n. 348; consequently, by a crown of twelve stars on the woman's head, is signified the wisdom and intelligence of the New Church from the knowledges of divine good and divine truth derived from the Word.

535. "And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered," signifies, the doctrine. of the New Church about to come forth, and its difficult reception in consequence of the resistance it meets with from those who are understood by the dragon. To be with child, signifies the birth of doctrine, because by the child which was in the womb, whose birth is treated of in verse 5, is signified the doctrine of the New Church; for nothing else is signified by being with child, or in travail, and bringing forth, in the spiritual sense of the Word, but to conceive and bring forth those things which relate to spiritual life, concerning which, presently. By "she cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered," is signified the difficult reception of that doctrine, because of resistance from those who are understood by the dragon; this is plain from what follows in this chapter, as the dragon standing before the woman who was ready to be delivered, to devour her child, and afterwards pursuing her into the wilderness. That by being with child, travailing in birth, and bringing forth, nothing else is signified in the Word, appears from the following passages: Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter

into the kingdom of God; that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit," John iii. 3-6. "Sing, O barren, that didst not bear, cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife," Isaiah liv. 1. "They have ceased until the barren hath borne seven, and she that had many children is waxed feeble," 1 Sam. ii. 5. By the barren are signified the Gentiles, who had no genuine truths, because they had not the Word; by the married wife and the mother of many children, are signified the Jews, who were in possession of the Word. "She that hath borne seven languisheth, she hath given up the ghost," Jerem. xv. 9; speaking also of the Jews. "We have conceived, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind, we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth," Isaiah xxvi. 16. "Before she travailed she brought forth, before her pain came she was delivered of a manchild. Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day, shall a nation be born at once? shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, and shut the womb," Isaiah lxvi. 7-10. "Thou, O earth, bringest forth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob," Psalm cxiv. 7. "This is the day of trouble, for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth," Isaiah xxxvii. 3. "Sin shall be in travail, and No shall be rent asunder," Ezek. xxx. 15, 16. "I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, as of her that bringeth forth ber first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, she bewaileth herself, she spreadeth her hands, Woe is me, my soul is wearied because of murderers," Jerem. iv. 31. 66 Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth," Isaiah xiii. 6, 7, 8. "The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, the sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the breaking forth of children," Hosea xiii. 12, 13. "Ephraim, thy glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from conception: Give them, O Jehovah, a miscarrying womb, and dry

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breasts: even when they have conceived, I will slay the beloved of their womb," Hosea ix. 11, 12, 14, 16. In these passages also, is described the difficulty of receiving the truths of doctrine from the Word, by many circumstances relating to pain in bringing forth, and in like manner in many other places. Moreover Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is called the Former from the womb, Isaiah xliv. 2, 24, xlix. 1, 5; and by former from the womb, is meant the reformer.

536. "And there appeared another sign in heaven," signifies, revelation from the Lord concerning those who are against the New Church and its doctrine. By a sign, is signified revelation from the Lord, as above, n. 532. It is called another sign, because it is a revelation concerning those who will be against the New Church.

537. "And behold, a great red dragon," signifies, those in the Reformed Church who make God three, and the Lord two, and separate charity from faith, and insist on the latter being competent to salvation without the former. Such are here meant, and in what follows, by the dragon; for they are against the two essentials of the New Church, which are, that God is one in essence and in person, in whom there is a trinity, and that the Lord is that God; also that charity and faith are a one as an essence and its form; and that none have charity and faith, but they who live according to the commandments of the decalogue, which say that evils are not to be done; and in proportion as any one does not commit evils, by shunning them as sins against God, in the same proportion he does the goods which relate to charity, and believes the truths which relate to faith. That they who make God three, and the Lord two, and who separate charity from faith, and consider the latter competent to salvation without the former, are opposed to those two essentials of the New Church, may be seen by any one who considers the matter. It is said, who make God three, and the Lord two, by whom are understood those who think of three persons as three gods, and separate the Lord's Humanity from his Divinity: and who thinks otherwise, or can think otherwise, whilst, according to a 13

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formula of faith, he prays, "That God the Father for the sake of the Son would send the Holy Spirit?" Does he not pray to God the Father as to one God, and for the sake of the Son as another, and concerning the Holy Spirit as a third? From which it is evident, that although in thought he makes three persons one God, still he divides them, that is, divides his idea into three gods, when he so prays the same formula of faith also makes the Lord two, since the Lord's Humanity is then alone thought of, and not, at the same time, his Divinity, seeing that for the sake of the Son means for the sake of his Humanity which suffered on the cross. From what has been said, it may now appear, who they are that are meant by the dragon, who fain would have devoured the woman's child, and afterwards pursued the woman into the wilderness on account of her child. The reason why he is called a great dragon, is, because all the Reformed Churches distinguish God into three persons, and make faith alone saving, except some here and there, who do not think alike concerning the trinity, and concerning faith: they who divide God into three persons, and adhere to these words of the Athanasian doctrine: "There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost:" and also to these: "The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God: " these, I say, cannot make one God of three; they may indeed say that they are one God, but they cannot think so. like manner, they who think concerning the Lord's divinity from eternity as concerning the second person of the Divinity, and concerning his Humanity in time as concerning the humanity of another man, cannot do otherwise than make two of the Lord, although it is said in the Athanasian doctrine that his Divinity and Humanity are one person, united as the soul and body. The reason why the dragon is called red, is, because red signifies what is false from the evils of the concupiscences, which is the infernal false principle. Now because these two essentials of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches are falses, and as falses devastate the church, since they take away its truths and goods, therefore they were represented by a dra

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gon; the reason is, because by a dragon, in the Word, is signified the devastation of the church; as may appear from the following passages: "I will make Jerusalem heaps, a habitation of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate," Jerem. ix. 11. "Behold, a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, a habitation of dragons," Jerem. x. 22. "Hazor shall be a habitation of dragons, a desolation for ever," Jerem. xlix. 33. "That it may be a habitation of dragons, a court for owls," Isaiah xxxiv. 13. "In the hab

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itation of dragons where each lay," Isaiah xxxv. 7. "I will go stripped and naked, I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning like the owls," Micah i. 8. "I cried, I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls," Job xxx. 28, 29. "The wild beasts shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces," Isaiah xiii. 22. "And Babylon shall become heaps, a habitation of dragons, an astonishment and a hissing,' Jerem. li. 37. "Thou hast broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death," Psalm xliv. 19, 20. "I have laid the mountains of Esau and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness," Malachi i. 3; besides other places; as in Isaiah xliii. 20, Jerem. xiv. 6; Psalm xci. 13, 14, Deut. xxxii. 33. That by the dragon are here meant those who are in faith alone, and reject the works of the law as not conducive to salvation, has sometimes been proved to me in the world of spirits by lively experience; I have seen several thousands of them assembled together, when they have appeared at a distance like a dragon with a long tail, that seemed full of prickles like thorns, which signified falses. Once, also, there appeared a dragon still larger, who, raising his back and lifting up his tail towards heaven, endeavored to draw down the stars from thence. Thus I have had ocular demonstration that no others are meant by the dragon.

538. "Having seven heads," signifies, insanity from the falsification and profanation of the truths of the Word. By the head, is signified wisdom and intelligence, and, in an opposite sense, insanity; but by seven heads here,