289. 'Wife' is used to mean the Church, in the universal sense the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth. This too has been shown already, while the fact that 'mother' as well has the same meaning follows from this. In the Word the Church is commonly called 'mother', as in Isaiah,

Where is your mother's bill of divorce? Isaiah 50:1.

In Jeremiah,

Your, mother has been utterly shamed, she who bore you is covered with shame. Jeremiah 50:12.

In Ezekiel,

[You are] your mother's daughter who loathes her husband and her sons. Your mother is a Hittite and your father an Amorite. Ezekiel 16:45.

Here 'husband' (vir) stands for the Lord and everything celestial, 'sons for truths of faith, 'Hittite' for falsity, and 'Amorite' for evil. In the same prophet,

Your mother was like a vine in your likeness, planted beside the waters, fruitful, full of branches by reason of many waters. Ezekiel 19:10.

Here 'mother' stands for the Ancient Church. The Most Ancient Church is pre-eminently called a 'mother' because it was the first Church, and the only one to be celestial. For that reason it was the Lord's beloved more than any other.

7575. 'And fire ran down to the earth' means evil desires. This is clear from the meaning of 'fire' as evil desires, dealt with in 1297, 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324; and from the meaning of 'running down to the earth' ¹ as taking possession of the natural mind right down to the lowest levels of it, 'the land of Egypt' being the natural mind, see 5276, 5178, 5280, 5188, 5301. Since 'hail' means falsities and 'fire' the evils from which they spring, when 'hail' is mentioned so too is 'fire' in Isaiah 30:30-31; Psalms 18:12-15; 78:47-49; Revelation 8:7, as well as in the verse immediately after this,

And there was hail, and fire at the same time running down in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy.

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