748. "And eat her flesh and burn her with fire." This symbolically means that Protestants will with hatred condemn and destroy in themselves the evils and falsities inherent in the Roman Catholic religion, and will renounce the religion itself and expunge it in themselves.

This is said of Protestants, who will deal thus with the harlot, that is, with the Roman Catholic religion. To eat her flesh means, symbolically, with hatred to condemn and destroy in themselves the inherent characteristics of that religion, which are evils and falsities, about which we will say more below. And to burn her with fire means, symbolically, to renounce that religion as profane and expunge it in themselves.

This is what burning with fire means because the penalty for profaning something holy was burning. Therefore, according to Divine law, people who profaned the name of Jehovah by worshiping other gods were burned with fire - they and all their belongings (Deuteronomy 13:12-18). Therefore Moses burned with fire the golden calf that the children of Israel were profanely worshiping (Exodus 32:20, Deuteronomy 9:21). Moreover, because two of Aaron's sons profaned holy things, they were consumed by fire from heaven (Leviticus 10:1-6). Nor is anything else symbolized by the fire and pyre in Tophet but the fire of hell, which awaits those who profane holy things (Isaiah 30:33, Jeremiah 7:11, 31-32; 19:5-6, 2 Kings 23:10), for there the people worshiped Molech with a heinous sacrifice. ¹

[2] Since the fourth beast in Daniel 7 symbolizes a religion that profanes the Word and consequently the sanctities of the church (no. 717), therefore we are told that it was burned with fire (Daniel 7:11).

Now, because it is profane worship to worship a person instead of the Lord, we are accordingly told here that they burnt the harlot with fire, which symbolically means that they renounced the religion itself and expunged it in themselves.

To eat her flesh means, symbolically, with hatred to condemn and destroy in themselves the inherent characteristics of that religion, which are evils and falsities, because that is the symbolic meaning of eating her flesh. For flesh symbolizes the inherent characteristics of a thing which relate to goods and truths, and in an opposite sense, to evils and falsities, and to eat means, symbolically, to consume, thus to destroy.

That flesh symbolizes a person's inherent character, which in itself is evil, is clear from the following passages:

It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. (John 6:63)

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)

As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to be children of God...: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh... (John 1:12-13)

(God) remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again. (Psalms 78:39)

The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. (Isaiah 31:3)

(Jerusalem) committed harlotry with the Egyptians..., great of flesh. (Ezekiel 16:26)

Jesus... said to (Peter), ."..flesh and blood has not revealed this to you...." (Matthew 16:17)

Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm... (Jeremiah 17:5)

[3] Because flesh symbolizes a person's inherent character, and people who hate others attack their personal character with the intention of destroying it, therefore to eat the flesh has also this symbolic meaning, as in the following passages:

Let the dying die, and the cut off be cut off. Those that are left eat each other's flesh. (Zechariah 11:9)

They shall devour Israel with the whole mouth... Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm - Manasseh, Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh. (Isaiah 9:12, 20-21)

I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh... (Isaiah 49:26)

...everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend... (Jeremiah 19:9)

To eat the flesh of sons and daughters (Jeremiah 19:9, Leviticus 26:29, Deuteronomy 28:53) means, symbolically, to destroy truths and goods in oneself, for sons symbolize truths, and daughters goods, as may be seen in nos. 139, 543, 545, 612[1-4] above.

Moreover, in the Word we find reference to "all flesh," and this symbolically means all mankind (Genesis 6:12-13, 17, 19).

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535. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. (12:2) This symbolizes the emerging doctrine of the New Church and the difficulty of its being accepted owing to the opposition to it by people meant by the dragon.

Being with child symbolizes the emerging doctrine because the child that she had in her womb, whose birth is described in verse 5, symbolizes the doctrine of the New Church. For to be with child, to be in labor, and to give birth means, symbolically in the spiritual sense, to conceive and give birth to such things as are matters of spiritual life, as we will show. To cry out in labor and be in pain to give birth symbolizes the difficulty of that doctrine's being accepted owing to the opposition to it by people meant by the dragon. This is apparent from the following particulars in this chapter, as that the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child, and that afterward it pursued the woman into the wilderness.

[2] That to be with child, to be in labor, and to give birth has this symbolic meaning is apparent from the following passages:

Jesus... said..., ."..unless one is born again..., he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, while that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:3-6)

Sing, O barren woman, who have not given birth! ...cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate woman than the children of the married one. (Isaiah 54:1)

...(they) ceased... until the barren woman bore seven, and she with many children became feeble. (1 Samuel 2:5)

The barren woman symbolizes gentiles, who are without genuine truths because they do not have the Word. The married woman and the woman with many children symbolize Jews, who have the Word.

She who has borne seven will become feeble; she will take her last breath. (Jeremiah 15:9)

This likewise refers to Jews.

We have conceived, we have labored, we have, as it were, given birth to wind; we have not produced the means of the land's salvation. (Isaiah 26:18)

Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child... Shall the earth labor in one day? Shall a nation be born all at once? Shall I bring to the time of birth and not cause delivery? ...Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb? (Isaiah 66:7-9)

Labor to give birth, O earth, in the presence of the Lord, in the presence of the God of Israel. (Psalms 114:7)

Oh this day! ...for children have come to the mouth of the womb, and there is no strength to give them birth. (Isaiah 37:3)

Sin shall labor to give birth and shall not ¹ be able to break through. (Ezekiel 30:15-16)

...I heard the voice... of an ailing woman, ...as of one laboring to give birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion. She sighs, she stretches out her hands. "Woe is me, for my soul is weary of murderers!" (Jeremiah 4:31)

Pangs and sorrows take hold of them; like a woman in childbirth they labor to give birth. (Isaiah 13:6-8)

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up... The sorrows of a woman laboring to give birth shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he does not spend time where children are born. (Hosea 13:12-13)

As for Ephraim, like a bird your glory shall fly away - from birth, from pregnancy, and from conception... Give them, Jehovah... a miscarrying womb and dry breasts... Also, when they bear offspring, I will kill the longed-for fruit of their womb. (Hosea 9:11-12, 14, 16)

In these places also, the difficulty in accepting doctrinal truths from the Word is described by various references to the pain experienced in laboring to give birth. So, too, in many other places elsewhere.

Moreover, Jehovah, or the Lord, is called a former from the womb (Isaiah 44:2, 24; 49:1, 5), and a former from the womb means the Reformer.

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