747. "And make her desolate and naked." This symbolically means that Protestants will rid themselves of the falsities and evils of the Roman Catholic religion.

To make her desolate means, symbolically, to rid themselves of the Roman Catholic religion's falsities, and to make her naked means, symbolically, to rid themselves of its evils, for they make it desolate and naked in themselves. Desolation in the Word is predicated of truths and falsities, while nakedness is predicated of goods and evils, as can be seen from what we have presented regarding nakedness in nos. 213, 706 above.

It can be seen from this that their making her desolate and naked means symbolically that they will rid themselves of all that religion's falsities and evils. People know that this is what Protestants or the Reformed have done.

Flesh has several meanings just in its most obvious form. It can mean all living creatures as when the Lord talks about the flood "destroying all flesh"(Genesis 7:21), or it can mean all of mankind (Genesis 6:3), or it can mean something soft and yielding such as the heart of flesh to replace the stony heart (Ezekiel 11:19) But spiritually it means the loves that dwell in the will of a person, and seem to belong to that person, to be that person. This person may be one who has not started to regenerate (or never will), or one who is in the middle of the process, or one who is near the end. In the highest sense flesh means the loves that are in the Lord's will, which are divine. This meaning is clear in the Lord's words in the gospel of John (John 6:53-56).