454. Their power was in their mouth. (9:19) This symbolically means that they prevailed only by their discourse affirming faith.

Power in the mouth symbolizes a power in discourse affirming doctrine. For a harmony, elegance, feigned zeal and clever defense of falsity in speaking, especially in citing appearances of truth in the Word, with an air of authority, a closing of the intellect, and many other such expedients, accomplish everything, and neither the truth nor the Word anything. For truth shines only in the eyes of people who are directed by charity and its accompanying faith, and it is only these that the Word teaches.