"And when the dragon saw that he was cast out to the earth," signifies when the religion of faith alone separated from the life of charity was not acknowledged but accounted as vile; "he persecuted the woman who brought forth the male child," signifies that those who are meant by the dragon would from hatred and enmity reject and slander the church, which is the New Jerusalem, because it holds the doctrine of life. "And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle," signifies spiritual intelligence and circumspection, given by the Lord to those who are of that church; "that she might fly into the wilderness (desertum) unto her place," signifies as yet among a few, because among those who are not in the life of charity, and thus not in truths; "where she is nourished a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent," signifies until the church grows and comes to its fulness.