death, which is infernal life, and intestine grief in consequence of their fall from power, sorrow, which is eternal grief through being reduced from a state of opulence to want and misery, and famine, which is the deprivation of the understanding of all truth. By "therefore," is meant because she hath said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow, of which above, n. 764; in one day, signifies, the time of the last judgment, which is also called the day of judgment; by plagues are signified the punishments of the evils, which they committed in the world, and which will then return upon them; by death is signified infernal life, and intestine grief, in consequence of their fall from power, as above, n. 764, it is called torment, concerning which death something will be said presently; by sorrow is signified internal grief, through being reduced from a state of opulence to want and misery, as above, n. 764; by famine is signified the deprivation of the understanding of all truth; into these three plagues, or punishments, do they come who are of that religion, who have ruled from self-love, and not from any love of usefulness, except for the sake of themselves; these are also atheists at heart, since they attribute every thing to their own prudence and to nature the rest of that nation, who are like them, but do not think interiorly in themselves, are idolaters. That by the plague or punishment which is called famine, is meant the deprivation of the understanding of all truth, may be seen above, n. 323; every man, indeed, so long as he lives in the world, has rationality, that is, the faculty of understanding truth; this faculty continues with every man after death, but yet they who, from self-love, and the pride of self-derived intelligence, have imbibed false principles of religion in this world, have no desire to understand truth after death; and not to will or desire is as not having the ability: this want of ability through the absence of will or desire prevails among all such persons as are above described, and is increased from the circumstance of the delight of the concupiscence of falsity for the sake of dominion, causing them to imbibe continually new confirming falses, and thus to become in point of un

derstanding mere falsities, and to remain so to eternity. Something of this kind is meant by the following passage concerning Babylon in Jeremiah: "Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed; behold the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert,-Because of the wrath of Jehovah it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate, every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues," 1. 12, 13.

766. “And she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her," signifies, that they will entertain hatred against the Lord and against his heaven and church, because they will then see that the Lord alone governs and reigns over all things in heaven and earth, and not any man in the least degree from himself. The fire by which she will be burned, signifies, hatred against the Lord, and against his heaven and church, of which see below; for strong is the Lord who judgeth her, signifies, because then, that is, in the spiritual world, into which they enter after death, they will see that the Lord alone governs and reigns over all things in the heavens and earths, and not in the least any man from himself; the reason why this is signified by "for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her," is, that the Lord judges no one to hell, but such judgment results from the man himself; for when men feel the angelic sphere flowing down out of heaven from the Lord, they flee away and cast themselves into hell, as may appear from what is shown above, n. 233, 325, 340, 387, 502. That by fire is signified love in both senses, celestial love which is the love of the Lord, and infernal love which is the love of self, see above, n. 468, 494; the reason why infernal fire is hatred, is, because self-love hates, for all who are in that love, burn with anger in proportion to the degree of such love, and are full of hatred and revenge against those who oppose it, and they who are of Babylon, against such as deny that they ought to be worshiped and adored as saints; therefore when they hear, that in heaven the Lord alone is worshiped and adored, and that to worship any man instead of the Lord is profane, adoration of the Lord with

them is turned into hatred against Him, and adulteration of the Word, to the end that they themselves may be worshiped, becomes profanation; this, therefore, is what is signified by Babylon's being burned with fire. That to be burned with fire is the punishment consequent upon the profanation of what is holy, see above, n. 748. The like is meant by these words in Jeremiah : Behold, I am against thee, O Babylon, thou destroying mountain, which destroys all the earth, I will roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burning mountain. The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire," li. 25, 58.

767. "And the kings of the earth who have committed whoredom and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning," signifies, the interior grief of those who were in superior dominion and its delights, by the falsified and adulterated truths of the Word, which constitute the holy things of the church, when they see those holy things converted into such as are profane. This and the following verse treat of the lamentation of the kings of the earth, by whom are meant such as are of the supreme order, who are called great men and primates; from verses 11-16 the lamentation of the merchants of the earth is treated of, by whom are meant those of the inferior order, who are called monks; from verses 17-19, the lamentation of the pilots and mariners is treated of, by whom are meant those who are the vehicles, as it were, of importing, who are called the laity. The kings of the earth are in this place treated of, by whom are signified those who are of the supreme order; that by kings are not meant kings, but those who are in truths derived from good, and, in an opposite sense, those who are in falses derived from evil, see above, n. 483, 704, 737, 740, 720; here, therefore, by the kings of the earth who committed whoredom and lived deliciously with the harlot, are signified those who are in power and in the delights pertaining to it, by falsifying and adulterating the truths of the Word, especially in consequence of falsifying and adulterating that truth of the Word, which the Lord spake unto Peter,

concerning which we shall say something presently. That to commit whoredom, signifies to falsify and adulterate the truths of the Word, may be seen, n. 134, 632, 635; and that to live deliciously, signifies to enjoy the delights of dominion, and likewise of opulence, n. 759; by their be wailing and lamenting over her, are signified their interior griefs; they are said to bewail and lament, because bewailing relates to grief in consequence of their fall from dominion, and lamentation relates to grief in consequence of the privation of wealth; and inasmuch as the grief of these is more interior than that of the merchants of the earth, therefore it is said of the kings of the earth, by whom are meant those of the superior order, that they bewailed and lamented, and of the merchants of the earth, by whom are meant those of the inferior order, that they wept and wailed; by seeing the smoke of her burning, is signified when they see the falses of their religion, which are falsified and adulterated truths of the Word, turned into profaneness; by smoke are signified those falses, n. 422, 452; and by burning is signified what is profane, n. 766. From these considerations and from the explanation above, n. 766, it is evident, that by the kings of the earth who have committed whoredom and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her and mourn over her, when they see the smoke of her burning, are signified the interior griefs of those who were in superior dominion and its delights, by means of the falsification and adulteration of the truths of the Word, when they see them changed into such things as are profane.

768. Something shall now be said concerning that truth, which the Lord spake to Peter respecting the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the power of binding and loosing, Matt. xvi. 15-20. The Roman Catholics say that this power was given to Peter, and that it was transferred to the popes as his successors, and that thus the Lord left to Peter, and to the popes after him, all his power, and that they were to act as his vicars upon earth; but yet from the very words of the Lord, it manifestly appears, that he did not give the least degree of power to Peter, for the Lord said, "Upon this rock I will build my church." By

a rock is signified the Lord as to his Divine Truth, and the Divine Truth signified by a rock, is that which Peter confessed before the Lord spake to him, in these words: Jesus said to his disciples, "But whom say ye that I am ? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God," verses 15, 18; this truth it is upon which the Lord builds his church, and Peter, in this case, represented this truth; from which consideration it is plain, that the confession of the Lord, as being the "Son of the living God," and having power over heaven and earth, Matt. xxviii. 18, is what the Lord builds his church upon, thus upon himself, and not upon Peter. That by a rock is meant the Lord, is a known thing in the church. "I once had a conversation in the "spiritual world with the Babylonian nation, respecting "the keys that were given to Peter, whether or not they "believed that power was transferred from the Lord to "him over heaven and hell; this being the fundamental "tenet of their religion, they vehemently insisted upon it, saying that there was no doubt of it, because it is ex"pressly declared. Upon being asked whether they knew "that in every particular of the Word there is a spiritual

sense which is the sense of the Word in heaven? they at "first replied that they did not know it, but afterwards "they said that they would inquire, and when they in

quired they were instructed, that there is a spiritual "sense in every particular of the Word, which differs from "the literal sense as that which is spiritual differs from that "which is natural; and they were further instructed, that "not any person named in the Word is named in heaven, "but instead thereof something spiritual is there under"stood; lastly, they were informed, that instead of Peter, "in the Word, the truth of the church derived from good "is understood; so also by a rock, which is mentioned at "the same time with Peter; and that from this circum"stance it might be known, that no power whatever was "given to Peter, but only to truth derived from good, for "all power in heaven is in truth from good, or is from "good by truth; and since all good and all truth are from "the Lord, and none from man, that all power belongs "to the Lord. On hearing this, they said, with indigna