500. 'The beast coming up out of the deep shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them' signifies that those who are in the internal things of the doctrine concerning faith alone are going to be opposed to and attack these two Essentials of the New Church, and in their own case, and with others as far as they carry weight, they are going to reject them. By 'the beast coming up out of the deep' is understood those who came up out of the deep and were seen as locusts (chap. ix 1-12). That these are they who are in the internal things of the doctrine concerning faith alone may be seen in the Exposition there. By 'to make war' is signified to be opposed to, and to attack these two Essentials of the Church, concerning which [something] follows. By 'to overcome them, and kill' is signified to reject and eradicate them in their own case, and with others as far as they carry weight. [2] The reason why those who are in the internal things of the doctrine of faith alone are going to attack and reject these two Essentials is because they have confirmed with themselves TWO THINGS IN OPPOSITION TO THEM; the FIRST, that not the Lord but God the Father is to be approached; and the OTHER, that a life in accordance with the precepts of the Decalogue is not a spiritual life but only a moral and civil life, and this they confirm so that no one may believe that he is being saved by means of works but by means of their faith alone. All who have had these dogmas deeply impressed on their minds in the colleges and universities do not afterwards recede from them. For this there are three reasons, unknown until now; First, that they have introduced themselves as to the spirit into association with their like in the spiritual world, where the majority are satans who are delighted solely with untruths, from whom they cannot possibly be detached unless they reject those untruths; and this cannot be done unless they approach God the Saviour directly, and begin a Christian life in accordance with the precepts of the Decalogue. [3] The second reason is that they believe that the remission of sins, and thus salvation, is given in a moment in the act of faith, and afterwards in the state or in the progression by means of the same act continued, preserved and kept in existence by the Holy Spirit, quite apart from the exercises of charity; and they who have once become tainted with those [ideas] thereafter make sins of no account in the presence of God, and so live in their own unclean things. And because they know how to confirm such things cunningly by means of falsifications of the Word with the unlearned, and by sophistical reasonings with the learned, it is said here that 'the beast out of the deep shall overcome and kill the two witnesses'. This, however, only happens with those who love to live by their inclination and are borne along by the delights of their lusts. Those, while thinking of salvation, are cherishing these lusts at heart and embracing their faith with both hands, inasmuch as they can be saved in this manner by utterances of certain words with a tone of confidence, and have no need to attend to anything of their life for the sake of God but only for the sake of the world. [4] The third reason is that they who in early manhood had imbibed the internal things of that faith, which are called the mysteries of justification, on being afterwards promoted to an honoured position of ministry do not in themselves think of God and heaven but of self and the world, only retaining the mysteries of their faith for the sake of reputation, so that they may be honoured as wise men, and on account of wisdom be esteemed as worthy of remuneration with wealth. It is because there is nothing of religion in it that this is the effect of that faith. That this is so may be seen [in] the THIRD MEMORABLE OCCURRENCE above (n. 484). [5] That by the wars in the Word are signified the spiritual wars that are attacks upon truth and are waged by reasonings derived from untruths is established from these statements:-