677. 16:2 So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth. This symbolizes influx into those taken up with the interior tenets of the church of the Protestant Reformed, who study the doctrine of justification by faith alone and are called the clergy.

To pour out the bowl symbolizes influx, as in no. 676 above. The earth symbolizes the church (no. 285), here the church in people there who are taken up with its interior tenets, namely people who study the doctrine of justification by faith alone. They also claim to know its interior tenets. But these interior tenets are only arguments in support of a single position, that faith alone justifies apart from works of the law. These are the only interior tenets they know. And because those taken up with them are especially priests, professors of theology and college lecturers - in short, teachers and pastors - therefore this first influx took place into those who are called the clergy. That these are the people meant is because we are told that the first angel poured out his bowl onto the earth, and the second angel onto the sea; and in that case the earth means the church in people concerned with its internal elements, and the sea means people concerned with its external ones, as in nos. 398, 403, 404, 420, 470 above. That these are the people meant is apparent also from the fact that we are told a sore was formed in them.