4257. 'Lest he comes and smites me, the mother with the children' means that it is about to perish. This becomes clear without explanation. Among the ancients who lived in an age of representatives and meaningful signs 'smiting the mother with the children ¹ was a proverbial expression meaning the destruction of the Church and of everything that belonged to the Church either in general, or in particular with anyone who in himself is a Church. For 'mother' was used by them to mean the Church, 289, 2691, 2717, and 'children' or 'sons' truths which belonged to the Church, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3373. Consequently 'smiting the mother with the children' means to perish completely, as a person too perishes completely when the Church and that which belongs to the Church perishes in him; that is, when the affection for truth, which strictly is the meaning of 'mother' and which constitutes the Church in a person, is destroyed.

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