6747. 'And the woman took the child and nursed him' means that good from the Church was instilled into him. This is clear from the meaning of 'the woman' as the Church, dealt with in 252, 257; and from the meaning of 'nursing' as the instillation of good, dealt with just above in 6745. A second state is what is being described here. The first state is a state in which people are let into their evils and falsities, 6724; this second state is a state in which the Church's good is instilled into them.

252. The woman' is used to mean the Church. This becomes clear from the heavenly marriage, dealt with above in 155. The heavenly marriage is one in which heaven, and so the Church, is united to the Lord by means of the proprium, even to the extent of it existing within the proprium itself; for if there is no proprium the union does not exist. And when the Lord from His mercy instills into this proprium innocence, peace, and good, it still looks like the proprium, but it is now something heavenly and richly blessed; see what has been said already in 164. But the nature of the heavenly and angelic proprium obtained from the Lord on the one hand, and the nature of the hellish and devilish proprium deriving from self on the other, defies description. The difference is like that between heaven and hell.