783. And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. That this signifies that those who separate faith from life, by reasonings based on fallacies, establish their doctrinals, and confirm them, and thereby powerfully deceive, is evident from the signification of the beast to which the dragon gave his powers, as denoting reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life (concerning which see above, n. 774). The reason why those reasonings are from the fallacies of the senses is, that that beast appeared like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear; and by the feet of a bear are signified fallacies; concerning which also see above (n. 781); and from the signification of giving his power, his seat, and great authority, as denoting to establish doctrinals and thus to confirm them; power signifying validity; the seat, the church as to doctrine, which is from falsities; and great authority signifying strengthening and confirmation thence. That these things coincide with reasonings and their fallacies was shown above.

[2] That those who separate faith from life, that is, from good works, have power, a seat, and great authority is not because the falsities in which they are have any power in themselves; for falsities from evil have no power at all, because all power is in truths from good. But falsities have power against falsities, as like over like. This is quite clear from the power of infernal spirits amongst themselves, which they exercise by means of imaginary things which resemble correspondences from which they desire to appear very powerful and strong; nevertheless they have no power at all against truths, and so completely so, that it is nothing. This might be confirmed from much experience were there space to enlarge so far in these explanations of the Apocalypse. It is evident solely from this fact, that the hells, in which there are myriads of myriads, are kept bound by the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, so that not one of them dare venture to raise a finger of his hand. It is also evident from this fact, that a thousand companies of evil spirits may be led, restrained, bound, and dispersed by one angel, by means of truths from the Lord; and this by merely looking at them from an intention of the will. Such power has been sometimes granted to me also, from the Lord.

That the church when at its end is in falsities and hence in evils, and in evils and hence in falsities, and yet that all power pertains to truths from good, which seem to be able to be given from the Lord by means of truths from the Word, may appear wonderful. The reason, however, is that falsities have power against those who are in falsities from evil; and at the end of the church those falsities govern; and when they do so, truths are not received. For this reason falsities cannot be dispersed by truths, and hence it is that the devil in such case is called powerful, and loosed from bonds.

[3] Hence it is that infernal falsity is called in the Word a lion, a bear, a wolf, and a beast; also a wild beast, strong and rapacious.

It is for this reason, that those who are in falsities are called, in the Word, powerful, mighty, robust, strong, heroes, rulers, terrible, formidable, and devastators; as is evident from various passages where they are treated of, as from the following in Jeremiah:

"Behold I bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, a mighty nation, all men of might" (5:15, 16).

Again:

"Go up ye horses, rage ye chariots, let the mighty men go forth" (46:9).

And again:

"A sword against the mighty that they may be dismayed" (50:36).

In Ezekiel:

"I will give" Pharaoh "into the hand of a mighty one of the nations" (31:11, 12).

In Hosea:

"Thou hast trusted to thy way, to the multitude of the mighty" (10:13).

And in Joel:

"A people great and strong, like heroes they run, they climb over the wall" (2:2, 7).

In Amos:

"The refuge of the swift perisheth, and the mighty shall not confirm his strength, neither shall the powerful deliver his soul, the mighty in his heart among heroes shall flee naked in that day" (2:14, 16).

In David:

"Rebuke the wild beast of the reed; the congregation of the mighty" (Psalm 68:30).

In 1 Samuel:

"The bows of the mighty are broken" (2:4).

In the Apocalypse:

"All the kings, and great men, and rich men, and chief captains, and the powerful, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks" (6:15).

In Matthew:

"The princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion, and the great men exercise power" (20:25).

In Luke:

"This is your hour and the power of darkness" (22:53).

Besides various other passages.

[4] To what has been said above it may be added, that infernal spirits believe themselves to be strong and powerful more than others. But this is because they prevail only against those who are in evils and in falsities therefrom; for thus one infernal spirit prevails over another, or one evil and its falsity against another evil and its falsity; and it is from this appearance that they believe themselves to be powerful. Such power, however, may be compared to that of a mite against a mite, or of a flea against a flea, of dust against dust, and of a straw against a straw; the power of these is only relative to their mutual strength. Add to this that infernal spirits are proud, and wish to be regarded as strong, mighty, and heroes for the most trivial reasons.

[5] Because the subject here treated of is the power and great authority which the dragon gave from himself to the beast rising up out of the sea, and hence the power of infernal spirits among each other, some mysteries shall here be disclosed concerning the arts they practise to acquire power in the spiritual world. There are some who procure to themselves power by means of the Word; for they are acquainted with some of its passages, which they repeat, and, by means of this, communication is effected with those who are in simple good, and thence conjunction with them as to externals; and in proportion as they are in that conjunction, they prevail over others. The reason is, that all things in the Word are truths, and all power belongs to truths, and the simple good are in truths; whence power is derived from conjunction with them, but only so long as that conjunction exists. This, however, does not continue long, because they are soon afterwards separated from one another by the Lord.

Some procure to themselves power by pretended affections of good and truth, and by affections pertaining to the love of what is sincere and just; by means of which also they induce the simple good to think favourably of them, and cherish goodwill towards them; and so they attract and adjoin them to themselves. And so long as that benevolent attitude intercedes as it were mutually, so long they are powerful more than others.

Some also procure to themselves power by means of representatives of various kinds, which are abuses of correspondences; and some by means of another kind. And because all power is in truths from good, and resides in the angels, therefore nothing is more earnestly desired by evil spirits than to attract good spirits to their side, because the evil prevail by this means. As soon, however, as they are separated from them, they are in the falsities of their own evil; and when they are in these, they are deprived of all power.

[6] This is the reason, moreover, why all the evil who flock out of the world, are first separated from the goods and truths which they knew only from memory, and thence professed with their lips; and when they are separated from these, their inner states appear, which consist of nothing but quantities of falsities from evils. And because, when they are in these, they have no longer any power, they fall down headlong into hell, as heavy bodies in the air fall to the earth. That goods and truths are taken away from the evil, is known from the Word; for the Lord says,

"Take away the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents; for to every one that hath shall be given, that he may have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath; but cast out the useless servant into outer darkness, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:28, 29, 30. Also Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18; 19:26.)

774. (Verse 1) And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. That this signifies reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life is evident from the signification of a beast coming up out of the sea, as denoting things of the natural man. For by beasts, in the Word, are signified the affections of the natural man in both senses, as may be seen above (n. 650). And by the sea are signified the various things in that man, which have reference to his scientifics, both true and false, and to the thoughts and reasonings therefrom; as may also be seen above (n. 275, 342, 511, 537, 538, 600). From which it is clear that by the beast coming up out of the sea are signified reasonings from the natural man.

That they are reasonings confirming the separation of faith from life is evident from this, that the dragon is further described in this chapter. His reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life are described by the beast coming up out of the sea, and the confirmations thereof from the letter of the Word; and the falsifications of that sense, by the beast coming up out of the earth; as will be seen below from verse 11 to the end of this chapter.

[2] That the dragon is further described in this chapter, and is also meant by the two beasts, is evident from the fact that it is said that the dragon gave to the beast coming up out of the sea his power and his seat, and great authority; and moreover that they worshipped the dragon that gave power to the beast; also, that the other beast that came up out of the earth, spake as a dragon, and that he exercised all the power of the first beast before the dragon. It is therefore clear that those who are signified by the dragon are described - in so far as they separate faith from life, and confirm that separation by reasonings from the natural man - by the beast coming up out of the sea. And also that in so far as they confirm the same by the letter of the Word and thereby falsify it, they are described by the beast coming up out of the earth. That this is the case, can be fully seen from the description of each in what follows.

[3] That reasonings from the natural man enter into the dogmas of those who make faith the only means of salvation, thus the very essential of the church, and so separate it from life, or from charity, which they do not acknowledge as a means of salvation and as an essential of the church, is but little seen, and, consequently, but little known by the advocates and teachers thereof, because their thought is continually fixed on those passages of the Word by means of which they confirm such reasonings. And because they are falsities which they confirm from the ultimate sense of the Word, which is the sense of the letter, they necessarily make use of reasonings from the natural man; for without these it would not be possible to make their falsities appear like truths. This, however, shall be illustrated by an example.

[4] In order to separate life or charity from faith, they say that

"1. By the fall of Adam man destroyed all freedom of doing good from himself; and 2. that consequently a man can in no wise fulfil the law; and 3. yet without the fulfilling of the law there is no salvation; and 4. that the Lord came into the world in order to fulfil the law, and that His righteousness and merit might be imputed to man; and that by that imputation man might be loosed from the yoke of the law, so far that nothing condemns him; and 5. that man receives the imputation of the Lord's merit by faith alone, and nothing by works."

That these things, for the most part, are reasonings from the natural man confirming the preconceived principle of faith alone and its connecting particulars, is evident from a survey of the details in their order.

1. . "By the fall of Adam, man destroyed his free-will, which is the freedom of doing good from himself." This reasoning is from falsities; for the freedom of doing good from oneself belongs to no man, and can belong to no one, because a man is only a recipient. Wherefore the good which a man receives is not his but the Lord's in him; nor indeed have the angels any good except from the Lord. And the more they acknowledge and perceive this, the more are they angels, that is, higher and wiser than the rest. Much less was it possible for Adam, who had not yet become an angel, to be in a state of good from himself. His integrity consisted in a fuller reception of good and truth, and thence of intelligence and wisdom from the Lord than that of his posterity. This was also meant by his being an image of God; for he who receives the Lord becomes an image; and he becomes this according to his reception. In a word, freedom consists in doing good from the Lord; and slavery in doing good from oneself. It is therefore clear, that the reasoning above mentioned arises from falsities flowing forth from fallacies, all of which are from the natural man. Moreover it is not true that hereditary evil was ingenerated in the whole human race by the fall of Adam. Its origin is from another source.

[5] 2. . "That consequently a man can in no wise fulfil the law." This is also reasoning from the natural man. The spiritual man knows that to do the law and to fulfil it in the external form does not save; but that so far as he observes the law in the external form, from the internal, it does save. The internal form, or the internal of the law, is to love what is good, sincere, and just; and its external is to do these things. This the Lord thus teaches in Matthew:

"Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside may be clean also" (23:26).

So far as man observes the law from an internal, so far he fulfils it; but not so far as he does this from an external, apart from an internal. The internal of man is his love and will. But to love what is good, sincere, and just, and, from love, to will these things, is from the Lord alone. Wherefore to be led by the Lord is to fulfil the law. But these things must be more fully illustrated in what follows.

[6] 3. . "Without the fulfilling of the law there is no salvation." This involves that if a man were able of himself to fulfil the law, he would be saved; this nevertheless is in itself false. And since it is false, and yet appears as if it were true because it is a received dogma, it must be confirmed by reasonings from the natural man. That it is false is clear from the fact that a man cannot do any good from himself, but that all good is from the Lord; and that a state of integrity such as that above stated concerning Adam, in which there is any good which is in itself good from man, is not possible. And because such a state of integrity is not possible and never can be, it follows that the law must be fulfilled by the Lord, according to what was just said above. Nevertheless, he who believes otherwise than that man is to do all things as of himself, although he does them from the Lord, is much deceived.

[7] 4. . "The Lord came into the world in order to fulfil the law, and that His righteousness and merit might be imputed to man; and that by such imputation man may be loosed from the yoke of the law to such an extent that, after justification by faith alone, nothing condemns him." This, is also reasoning from the natural man. The Lord came into the world in order to effect a judgment, and thereby bring into a state of order all things in the heavens and in the hells, and at the same time to glorify His Human. By means of that glorified Human all who have done, and who do, good from Him, and not from themselves have been and are saved; and thus not by any imputation of His merit and righteousness. For the Lord teaches:

"I came not to destroy the law and the prophets: I came not to destroy but to fulfil. Whosoever shall break the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens" (Matthew 5:17, 19).

[8] 5. . "Man receives the imputation of the Lord's merit by faith alone, and nothing by works." This is a conclusion deduced from the previous reasonings. And because those reasonings are from the natural man and not from the rational enlightened by the spiritual man, and consequently are from falsities and not from truths, it follows that the conclusion drawn from them falls to the ground. It is evident from these things, that in order to confirm any principle false in itself, reasonings derived from the natural man, and confirmations from the literal sense of the Word, are necessary. For reasonings will give the appearance of coherence to those passages which are chosen from the sense of the letter of the Word. Wherefore reasonings from the natural man are signified by the beast coming up out of the sea; and confirmations from the sense of the letter of the Word, by the beast coming up out of the earth.