325. I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. This symbolizes people who were hated by the evil, treated with scorn and expelled because of their life in accordance with the Word's truths and their acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine humanity, and who were protected by the Lord to keep them from being led astray.

"Under the altar" symbolizes a lower earth where the inhabitants were protected by the Lord. An altar symbolizes worship of the Lord out of the goodness of love.

The souls of those who had been slain mean here, symbolically, not martyrs, but people who were hated, treated with scorn, and expelled by the evil in the world of spirits, and who could be led astray by followers of the dragon and by heretics.

"For the word of God and for the testimony which they held" means, symbolically, "because of their life in accordance with the Word's truths and their acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine humanity." Testimony in heaven is given only to people who acknowledge the Lord's Divine humanity, for it is the Lord who testifies, and who enables angels to testify (no. 16); "for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10).

[2] Since the souls were under the altar, it is apparent that they were being protected by the Lord. For the Lord protects all people who have lived some life of charity, to keep them from being harmed by the evil; and after the Last Judgment, when the evil have been removed, they are released from their asylums and elevated into heaven. I have often seen them after the Last Judgment being let out of the lower earth and conveyed into heaven.

[3] The fact that those who are slain mean people who are expelled, treated with scorn, and hated by the evil in the world of spirits, and who can been led astray, as also people who wish to know truths, but cannot because of the falsities in the church - this can be seen from the following passages:

Thus said the Lord... God, "Feed the sheep for slaughter, whose owners slaughter them... So I fed the sheep for slaughter because of you, you poor of the flock." (Zechariah 11:4-5, 7)

...we are slain all day long; we are accounted as a flock for the slaughter... Do not forsake us, O Jehovah! (Psalms 44:22-23)

Those who are coming, Jacob will cause to take root... Has He been slain according to the slaughter of his slain? (Isaiah 27:6-7)

...I have heard... the voice of the daughter of Zion..., saying, 'Woe is me..., my soul is weary because of the murderers!" (Jeremiah 4:31)

...they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated... for My name's sake. (Matthew 24:9, cf. John 16:2-3)

The Lord said this last to His disciples, but by disciples He meant all who worship the Lord and live according to His Word's truths.

[4] The evil in the world of spirits continually wish to kill these people. But because they cannot do so physically there, they continually try to do so as regards the soul. And when they cannot do this, they burn with such hatred against these people that they feel nothing more delightful than to do them harm. The reason [they cannot kill them] is that the Lord protects them, and when the evil are cast out into hell, which happens after the Last Judgment, they are brought out of their asylums. But see the explanations to chapter 20, and no. 846 there regarding these people.

That killing or slaying in the Word symbolizes the destruction of souls, which is to kill spiritually, is apparent from many passages there, including also the following: Isaiah 14:19-21; 26:21; Jeremiah 25:33; Lamentations 2:21; Ezekiel 9:1, 6; Revelation 18:24.

766. "And she will be burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her." This symbolically means that those Roman Catholics will be embodiments of animosity toward the Lord and toward His heaven and church, because they see then that the Lord alone governs and reigns over everything in heaven and on earth, and not at all any person of himself.

The fire with which she will be burned symbolizes an animosity toward the Lord and toward His heaven and church, as discussed below. "For strong is the Lord God who judges her" means, symbolically, because they see then - that is, in the spiritual world, into which they come after death - that the Lord alone governs and reigns over everything in heaven and on earth, and not at all any person of himself. "For strong is the Lord God who judges her" has this symbolic meaning because the Lord does not judge anyone to hell. Rather people themselves do, for when they sense the angelic atmosphere flowing down out of heaven from the Lord, they flee away and cast themselves into hell, as can be seen from what we presented in nos. 233, 325, 339, 340, 387, 502 above.

[2] It may be seen in nos. 468, 494 above that fire symbolizes love in two senses - both heavenly love, which is a love for the Lord, and hellish love, which is a love of self. Hellish fire is animosity, because the love of self is filled with hatred. For people caught up in that love all burn with wrath to the degree of their love, and blaze with hatred and vengeance against people who attack them; and people coming from Babylon do so against people who deny that they are to be worshiped and adored as embodiments of holiness. When they are told, therefore, that the Lord alone is worshiped and adored in heaven, and that to worship some man instead of the Lord is profane, any adoration of the Lord in them becomes animosity toward Him, and any adulteration of the Word in order that they may be worshiped becomes profane.

This, then, is what is symbolically meant by Babylon's being burned with fire. That to be burned with fire is the punishment for profaning what is holy may be seen in no. 748 above.

The same meaning is contained in the following verses in Jeremiah:

...I am against you, (Babylon,) O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth... ...I will... roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burning mountain... The... walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. (Jeremiah 51:25, 58)

17. The firstborn from the dead. This symbolically means, and which is Divine good itself.

No one as yet knows what it is to be firstborn from the dead. Moreover, the ancients debated what it symbolized. They knew that the firstborn symbolized the first or primary constituent from which sprung everything having to do with the church. Many also believed that it was truth in doctrine and faith, but a few thought it was truth in act and deed, which constitutes goodness of life. We will see that the latter is the first and primary constituent of the church, and therefore that, properly speaking, it is what is meant by the firstborn.

First, however, we must say something about the opinion of those who believed that truth in doctrine and faith is the first and primary constituent of the church, thus the firstborn. They believed this because truth is learned first, and because the church is a church in consequence of its truth, though not before the truth is lived. Prior to that it exists only in the thought and memory of the intellect, and not in any action of the will; and truth that is not truth in act or deed has no life in it. It is merely like a tree abounding in branches and leaves without any fruit, or like knowledge without any useful application. Or it is like a foundation upon which a house is being built for people to live in. These things are first in time, but they are not first in end, and those which are first in end are primary. For first in end is the living in the house, while the first in time is the foundation. The first in end, too, is useful application, while the first in time is knowledge. Likewise, when a tree is planted, the first in end is its fruit, while first in time are its branches and leaves.

[2] The same is the case with the intellect, which is formed first in a person, but to the end that the person may put into practice what he sees with the intellect. Otherwise the intellect is like a preacher who teaches rightly but lives an evil life.

Every truth, furthermore, is sown in the inner self and takes root in the outer one. Consequently, unless the truth that is sown takes root in the outer self, which it does by being put into practice, it becomes like a tree placed not in the ground but on top of it, which in the radiating heat of the sun immediately wilts.

This root is something a person takes with him after death if he has put truths into practice, but not the person who has known and acknowledged them in faith only.

Now, because many of the ancients made what is first in time first in end or primary, therefore they said that something firstborn symbolized truth in the church in doctrine and faith, unaware that it is the firstborn apparently, but not actually.

[3] Those, however, who made truth in doctrine and faith primary, were all condemned, because not a bit of practice or deed, or of life, was found in that truth. Cain, who was the firstborn of Adam and Eve, was condemned for that reason. That he symbolizes truth in doctrine and faith may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence 242.

For the same reason too, Reuben, who was the firstborn of Jacob, was condemned by his father (Genesis 49:3-4), and the birthright was taken from him (1 Chronicles 5:1). In the spiritual sense Reuben means truth in doctrine and faith, as we will see hereafter.

The firstborn of Egypt were all struck down, having been condemned, and in the spiritual sense they mean nothing else than truth in doctrine and faith apart from goodness of life - truth which in itself is lifeless.

The goats mentioned in Daniel and Matthew ¹ mean no others than people who possess a faith apart from life, as discussed in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding Faith, nos. 61-68.

Around the time of the Last Judgment, people who possessed a faith apart from life were rejected and condemned, as may be seen in A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment 16[1]ff.

[4] It can be seen from these few considerations that the firstborn of the church is not truth in doctrine and faith, but truth in practice or deed, which constitutes goodness of life. For the church does not exist in a person until truth becomes a matter of life, and when truth becomes a matter of life, it is then goodness. That is because the thought of the intellect and memory do not flow into the will and through the will into practice. Rather the will flows into the thought and memory of the intellect and acts. Moreover, whatever issues from the will through the intellect does so from affection, which is a matter of love, through thought, which is a matter of the intellect. And it is all called good and enters into the life. Therefore the Lord says that he who does the truth does it in God (John 3:21).

[5] Since John represented goodness of life, and Peter the truth of faith (see no. 5 above), therefore John is said to have reclined at the Lord's breast and followed Jesus, and not Peter (John 21:18-23). The Lord also said of John that John would remain till He came (John 21:22-23), thus to the present day, which is the day of the Lord's coming. Consequently the Lord is now teaching goodness of life for people who will be constituents of His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.

In sum, the firstborn is that which truth first produces from good, thus what the intellect produces from the will, because truth has to do with the intellect, and good with the will. This first element is primary, because it is like a seed from which everything else springs.

[6] As for the Lord, He is the "firstborn from the dead" because in respect to His humanity He is truth itself united to Divine good, from whom all people live, who in themselves are dead.

The like is meant in Psalms,

I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. (Psalms 89:27)

This is said of the Lord's humanity.

So it is that Israel is called the firstborn (Exodus 4:22-23). "Israel" means truth in practice, "Jacob" truth in doctrine; and because no church is formed in consequence of the latter alone, therefore Jacob was named Israel. (In the highest sense, however, Israel means the Lord.)

[7] Because of this representation of the firstborn, all the firstborn of people and animals were consecrated to Jehovah (Exodus 13:2, 12; 22:28-29).

Because of this representation of the firstborn, in the Israelite church the Levites were taken in place of all the firstborn, and it is said that they therefore belonged to Jehovah (Numbers 3:12-13, 40-46; 18:15-18). For Levi symbolizes truth in practice, which constitutes goodness of life, and therefore his descendants were given the priesthood, on which subject more later.

For the same reason, too, the firstborn was given a double portion of the inheritance, and he is called the beginning of strength (Deuteronomy 21:15-17).

[8] The firstborn symbolizes the primary constituent of the church because natural births in the Word symbolize spiritual births, and what first produces them in a person is then meant by his firstborn. For the church does not exist in him until the doctrinal truth conceived in the inner self is given birth in the outer self.

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