9. If any one hath an ear let him hear. 10. If any one shall lead into captivity he shall go into captivity; if any one shall kill with the sword he must be killed with the sword. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints. 11. And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12. And all the authority of the first beast he exerciseth before him; and he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose stroke of his death was healed. 13. And he doeth great signs, so that he even maketh fire to come down from heaven unto the earth before men; 14. And he seduceth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs that were given him to do before the beast; saying to them that dwell on earth that they should make an image to the beast which hath the stroke of the sword and did live. 15. And it was given unto him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast may speak, and may cause that as many as do not worship the image of the beast be killed. 16. And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be given them a mark upon their right hand or upon their foreheads; 17. And that no one be able to buy or to sell save he that hath the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18. Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding let him count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred sixty-six. EXPOSITION. VERSE I. 773. "And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads a name of blasphemy." I. "And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea" signifies reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life [n. 774]; "having seven heads" signifies knowledge (scientia) of holy things, which are falsified and adulterated [n. 775]; "and ten horns" signifies much power [n. 776]; “and upon his horns ten diadems" signifies power from appearances of truth in abundance [n. 777]; "and upon his heads a name of blasphemy" signifies falsifications of the Word [n. 778]. 774. [Verse 1] "And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea" signifies reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life.-This is evident from the signification of "a beast coming up out of the sea," as meaning things that belong to the natural man; for "beasts" signify in the Word the affections of the natural man, in both senses (see above, n. 650); and the "sea" signifies the various things of the natural man that have reference to its knowledges (scientifica) both true and false, and to thoughts and reasonings therefrom (see also above, n. 275, 342, 511, 537, 538, 600[a]). This makes clear that a beast coming up out of the sea" signifies reasonings from the natural man. It is evident that these are reasonings that confirm the separation of faith from life, because in this chapter the dragon is further described, "the beast coming up out of the sea" meaning the reasonings of the dragon from the natural man confirming separation of faith from life, and "the beast coming up out of the earth" meaning the confirmations of the dragon from the sense of the letter of the Word, and the falsification of it (see below, from verse 11 to the end of this chapter). [2.] That the dragon is further described in this chapter, and is meant by the two beasts, is evident from its being said that "the dragon gave to the beast coming up out of the sea his power and his throne and great authority," and furthermore, that "they worshipped the dragon which gave authority unto the beast;" also that "the other beast that came up out of the earth spake as a dragon, and exercised all the authority of the first beast before the dragon." This makes clear that so far as those who separate faith from life (who are signified by "the dragon") confirm that separation by reasonings from the natural man, they are represented by "a beast coming up out of the sea;" while so far as they confirm that separation by the sense of the letter of the Word, and thereby falsify that sense, they are represented by "a beast coming up out of the earth." That this is so can be fully seen in the description of each that follows. [3.] That reasonings from the natural man enter into the dogmas of those who make faith the only means of salvation, thus the very essential of the church, and so separate it from life or from charity, which they do not acknowledge as a means of salvation and as an essential of the church,-this is but little seen, and consequently but little recognized, by the followers and teachers of that doctrine, because their thought is continually fixed on those passages of the Word by which that doctrine is confirmed. And as the dogmas they so confirm by the outmost sense of the Word, which is the sense of the letter of the Word, are falsities, they must needs employ reasonings from the natural man, for without these it would not be possible to make falsities appear as truths. But this shall be illustrated by an example. That life or charity may be separated from faith, they contend (i.) That by Adam's fall man lost all freedom to do good from himself, and (ii.) for this reason man is in no wise able to fulfil the law; and (iii.) without the fulfilling of the law there is no salvation; and (iv.) that the Lord came into the world that He might fulfil the law, and thus His righteousness and merit might be imputed to man, and by that imputation man might be loosed from the yoke of the law even to the extent that nothing condemns him; and (v.) that man accepts the imputation of the Lord's merit by faith alone, and not at all by works. That these are mainly reasonings from the natural man confirming the assumed principle of faith alone and its connecting derivatives can be seen from a survey of these particulars in their order. (i.) [4.] By Adam's fall man lost his free will, which is a freedom to do good from himself.-This reasoning rests on falsities; for no man has or can have a freedom to do good from himself, since man is merely a recipient, consequently the good that man receives is not man's but is the Lord's in him. Nor do angels even have any good except from the Lord; and the more they acknowledge and perceive this the more they are angels, that is, higher and wiser than others. Still less, therefore, could Adam, who had not yet become an angel, be in a state of good from himself. A fuller reception of good and truth, and thus of intelligence and wisdom from the Lord, than his posterity enjoyed was what constituted his integrity. Thus was he an image of God; for a man becomes an image by receiving the Lord, and he becomes an image in the measure of this reception. In a word, to do good from the Lord is freedom; and to do good from self is slavery. This makes clear that this reasoning originates in falsities that flow forth from fallacies, which are all from the natural man. Moreover, it is not in accordance with truth that hereditary evil was ingenerated in the whole human race by Adam's fall; it originated elsewhere. (ii.) [5.] For this reason man is in no wise able to fulfil the law. This reasoning, too, is from the natural man. The spiritual man knows that doing the law and fulfilling it in external form does not save; but that so far as man observes the law in the external form from the internal, it does save. The internal form, that is, the internal of the law, is to love what is good, sincere, and just; and its external is to do this. This the Lord teaches in Matthew: 'Cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside of them may become clean also" (xxiii. 26). Man fulfills the law so far as he does it from an internal, but not so far as he does it from an external apart from an internal. The internal of man is his love and will. But to love what is good, sincere, and just, and from love to will it, is from the Lord. alone. Therefore to fulfil the law is to be led by the Lord. But this must be more fully illustrated in what follows. (iii.) [6.] Without the fulfilling of the law there is no salvation. This involves that if man were able to fulfil the law of himself he would be saved, which in itself is false; and since it is false, and yet appears to be true because it is a received dogma, it must be confirmed by reasonings from the natural man. That it is false is clear from this, that man is unable to do anything good from self, but everything good is from the Lord; also from this, that no such state of integrity is possible that any good that is in itself good can be from man or be done by man, as has been said above respecting Adam. And as such a state of integrity never did and never can exist, it follows that. the law must be fulfilled by the Lord, according to what has just been said above. Nevertheless, he who does not believe that man must do every thing as of himself, although he does it from the Lord, is much deceived. (iv) [7. The Lord came into the world that He might fulfil the law, and thus His righteousness and merit might be imputed to man; and by that imputation man is loosed from the yoke of the law, even to the extent that after justification by faith alone nothing condemns him.-This, too, is reasoning from the natural man. It was not for this that the Lord came into the world, but that He might effect a judgment, and thereby reduce to order all things in the heavens and in the hells, and at the same time glorify His Human. By this have been saved, and are still saved all who have done good and do good from the Lord and not from self, thus not by any imputation of His merit and righteousness. For the Lord teaches, "I came not to destroy the law and the prophets; I came not to destroy but to fulfil. Whosoever shall break... the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whosoever doeth and teacheth them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens" (Matt. v. 17, 19, seq.). (v.) [8.] Man accepts the imputation of the Lord's merit by faith alone, and not at all by works.-This is a conclusion deduced from the reasonings that precede; and as those reasonings are from the natural man, and not from the rational enlightened by the spiritual, and consequently are from falsities and not from truths, it follows that the conclusion drawn from them falls to the ground. From all this it can be seen that to establish any principle that is in itself false there must be reasonings from the natural man, and confirmations from the sense of the letter of the Word, for reasonings will give an appearance of consistency to passages selected from the sense of the letter of the Word. This is why reasonings from the natural man are signified by "a beast out of the sea," and confirmations from the sense of the letter of the Word by "a beast coming up out of the earth." 775. "Having seven heads" signifies knowledge (scientia) of the holy things of the Word which are falsified and adulterated. -This is evident from the signification of "head," as meaning intelligence and wisdom, and in the contrary sense, insanity and folly (see above, n. 573, 577). And as intelligence and wisdom cannot be predicated of those who by reasonings from the natural man confirm the separation of faith and life, who are meant by "a beast coming up out of the sea," so "its head" signifies knowledge. It means knowledge of the holy things of the Word, because there were “seven heads,” and seven is predicated of things holy (see above, n. 257). Knowledge of the holy things of the Word is meant, because those meant by "the dragon" are not hostile to the Word; for they call the Word holy and Divine because they collect from it confirmations of their dogmas. But that they falsify and adulterate by these the holy things of the Word, of which they |