1071. (Verse 13) These have one mind, and shall deliver up their power and authority to the beast. That this signifies agreement that the Word is the Divine truth, on which the church as to its doctrine must depend, is evident from the signification of having one mind, as denoting agreement; and from the signification of delivering up their power and authority to the beast, as denoting acknowledgment that the Word is the Divine truth, on which the church as to its doctrine must depend. For by the beast is signified the Word, as may be seen above (n. 1038); and, by delivering up to it power and authority, is signified to acknowledge it as Divine truth, from which is the doctrine of the church.
It was said above that the Gallican church acknowledges the Word as Divine truth, and attributes Divine inspiration to the particulars of the Word, and to the edicts of the Pope not an equal [Divine inspiration] as to those things that are the means of salvation. And also others in Europe; and this has come to pass of the Lord's Divine Providence, lest the Christian Church should be entirely destroyed. The reason is, that by means of the Word man has communication and also conjunction with heaven, and by means of heaven with the Lord; and because no communication and conjunction with heaven and with the Lord can possibly exist by means of the utterances and edicts of the Pope, since they have not for their end the salvation of souls, but domination. And all edicts and statutes which have domination for their end, especially over the things of heaven and the church, have communication, and cause conjunction, with hell. From these things it is evident what is signified by the ten kings who delivered up their power and authority to the beast.
Continuation concerning the Word:-
[2] But because it cannot but transcend the apprehension that the Lord as to the Human in the world was the Word, that is, Divine truth, according to these words in John:
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (1:14);
therefore, as far as possible, it shall be again explained to the apprehension. It may be said of every regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, because the thought of his understanding is from truths, and the affection of his will from goods. Therefore, whether it is said that a man is his own understanding and his own will, or that a man is his own truth and his own good, it amounts to the same.
[3] The body merely obeys; for it speaks what man thinks from the understanding, and does what he wills from affection. Thus the body and these [things] mutually correspond to each other, and make one, like the effect and its efficient cause; and, taken together, they constitute the Human. As it may be said of the regenerate man, that he is his own truth and his own good, so it may be said of the Lord as Man, that He is Truth itself or Divine truth, and good itself or Divine Good.
From these things, then, the truth becomes clear that the Lord as to His Human in the world was Divine truth, that is, the Word; and that, consequently, everything He said was Divine truth, which is the Word; and that, afterwards, when He went to the Father, that is, when He was made one with the Father, the Divine truth proceeding from Him is the Spirit of Truth, which goes forth and proceeds from Him, and at the same time from the Father in Him.
