749. 17:17 "For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose, and to be of one mind and give their kingdom to the beast." This symbolizes a judgment among Protestants from the Lord that they should utterly repudiate and renounce the Roman Catholic religion and expunge and eradicate it in themselves, and a unanimous judgment that they should acknowledge the Word and found the church on it.

Since the harlot symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion, and the ten horns that will hate the harlot symbolize Protestants, as in nos. 746-748 above, it is apparent that carrying out God's purpose means symbolically that they judged and concluded that they should utterly repudiated and renounce the Roman Catholic religion and expunge and eradicate it in themselves, as in no. 748 above. And it is apparent as well that to be of one mind and give their kingdom to the beast means, symbolically, to unanimously judge and conclude that they should acknowledge the Word and found the church on it. The beast symbolizes the Word, as it has everywhere before (see no. 723), and their kingdom symbolizes the church and government over it, about which we will say more here below. That God put it into their hearts means symbolically that their judgments came from the Lord.

[2] That a kingdom symbolizes the church can be seen from the following passages:

The children of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. (Matthew 8:12)

...the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom... (Matthew 13:38)

Someone who hears the Word of the kingdom, and does not heed it... (Matthew 13:19)

...the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. (Matthew 21:43)

No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

Jesus, John the Baptist, and the disciples preached that the kingdom of God was at hand (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; 10:7, Luke 10:11; 16:16), and they preached also the gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 24:14, Luke 8:1).

If I cast out demons by the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come to you. (Luke 11:20)

And so on in many other passages where the kingdom of God is mentioned.

So, too, in the following:

...if you will... obey My voice and keep My covenant... you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests... (Exodus 19:5-6)

You, O tower of the flock, the ascent of the daughter of Zion, to you shall return... the former kingdom..., the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. (Micah 4:8)

The saints... shall (afterward) receive the kingdom, and establish the kingdom..., even forever... (Daniel 7:18, cf. 7:22)

The kingdom and dominion, and the majesty of the kingdoms under all the heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints...(whose) kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall worship and obey Him. (Daniel 7:27)

To (the Son of Man) was given... a kingdom (which shall not be destroyed), and all peoples, nations, and languages shall worship Him. (Daniel 7:14)

And so on elsewhere.

A kingdom symbolizes the church because the Lord's kingdom exists in heaven and on earth, and His kingdom on earth is the church. That, too, is why the Lord is called King of kings.

543. She bore a male Child. (12:5) This symbolizes the doctrine of the New Church.

A son in the Word symbolizes doctrinal truth, and also an understanding of and consequent thought about truth and goodness. A daughter, on the other hand, symbolizes the goodness taught by doctrine, and also a willing of and consequent affection for truth and goodness. A male child, moreover, symbolizes truth conceived in the spiritual self and born in the natural one.

The reason for this is that generations and births in the Word symbolize spiritual generations and births, all of which relate in general to goodness and truth (no. 535). For nothing else is begotten and born of the Lord as husband and of the church as wife.

Now because the woman who bore the child symbolizes the New Church (no. 533), it is apparent that the male child symbolizes that church's doctrine.

The doctrine meant here is The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758), and also The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, and The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem in Accordance With the Ten Commandments (Amsterdam, 1763). For doctrine means all the truths of doctrine, since doctrine embraces them all. When I was writing these doctrines, followers of the dragon stood about me and with all their fury endeavored to devour them, that is, to extinguish them.

I am permitted to report this new information, because of a truth it happened as I have said. The followers of the dragon who stood about me came from all over the Protestant Reformed Christian world.

[2] Since these and no other are the offspring born of the spiritual marriage, and male offspring are truth and good in the intellect and consequent thought, while female offspring are truth and good in the will and consequent affection, therefore a son in the Word symbolizes truth. To confirm this we will cite some passages from which it can in some measure be seen:

Behold, sons are a heritage from Jehovah, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of one's youth. (Psalms 127:3-5)

Make yourself bald and shave yourself, because of your delightful sons..., for they are gone from you. (Micah 1:16)

(I saw two olive trees beside the lampstand,) and he said, "These are the two sons of the olive tree, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:11, 14)

My tent is destroyed...; my sons have gone from me, and they are no more. (Jeremiah 10:20)

My sons are made desolate because the enemy prevailed. (Lamentations 1:16)

Your sons, (O Jerusalem,) have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets... (Isaiah 51:17-18, 20)

...fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers..., and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds. (Ezekiel 5:10)

Son will be divided against father, and father against son... (Luke 12:53, cf. Matthew 10:21, Mark 13:12)

You have also taken your beautiful vessels of My gold... and made for yourself male images with which you played the harlot. (Ezekiel 16:17)

(Jesus said,) ...the... seeds are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of evil. (Matthew 13:38)

[3] That the Son of Man is the Divine truth in the Word, thus the Lord, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 19-28.

In the passages cited, sons mean people who possess doctrinal truths drawn from the Word, and abstractly, those truths themselves. So, too, elsewhere, as in Isaiah 13:17-18; 14:21-23; 43:6; 49:17, 22; 51:17-18; 60:9; Deuteronomy 32:8.

That daughters symbolize an affection for the church's truth, thus the church in relation to that affection, follows from so many passages in the Word that if I were to quote them, they would fill many pages. Nothing else is meant by daughter of Zion, daughter of Jerusalem, daughter of Judah, and daughter of Israel. See some passages cited in no. 612[1-4] regarding the daughter of Zion. Who cannot see that no actual daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem, of Judah or of Israel, so often mentioned in the Word, can be meant?