3856. 'And He opened her womb' means that this affection gave rise to the doctrines taught by the Churches. This is clear from the meaning of 'opening the womb', or conceiving and bearing, as a Church coming into being. And since it comes into being through doctrinal teachings, 'opening the womb' also means the doctrines taught by the Churches. For conceptions and births in the Word mean spiritual conceptions and births, like those that take place when a person is born anew, see 1145, 1255, 1330, 2584. The implications of these matters will be evident from what follows shortly.

1255. That 'according to their generations' means insofar as they were capable of being reformed is clear from the meaning of 'a generation' as reformation. When someone is born again or regenerated by the Lord, every single thing he receives anew is in that case a generation. So also here, since the Ancient Church is the subject, 'generations' means insofar as they were capable of being reformed. As for the reformations of these nations, the latter did not all have the same form of worship, nor did they all have the same doctrine, the reasons being that they were not all of the same disposition, and had not all been brought up in the same ways and from early childhood been taught the same things. The Lord in no way destroys the basic attitudes a person acquires from early childhood, but modifies them. And if these are held sacred by the person and are such as do not stand contrary to Divine and natural order but are in themselves of little importance, the Lord lets them alone and allows them to remain with that person, as He did with many things in the second Ancient Church, which things will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on.