543. [verse 5] 'And she brought forth a male child' (filius masculus) signifies the doctrine of the New Church. By 'a son' in the Word is signified the truth of doctrine, also the understanding and consequent thought of truths and good, but by 'a daughter' is signified the good of doctrine, also the will and consequent affection of truth and good; whereas by 'a male child' is signified the truth conceived in the spiritual man and born in the natural man. This is because by the generations and births in the Word are signified spiritual generations and births, which all in general relate to good and truth (n. 535); for nothing else is begotten and born from the Lord as Husband and the Church as wife. Now because by 'the woman' who had brought forth is signified the New Church (n. 533), it is plain that by 'a male child' the doctrine of that Church is signified. The doctrine that is here meant is THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM published at London in 1758; then also THE DOCTRINES concerning THE LORD, concerning SACRED SCRIPTURE, and concerning LIFE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRECEPTS OF THE DECALOGUE, [published at] Amsterdam; for by 'the doctrine' all the truths of the doctrine are understood because 'the doctrine' includes all of them. When those doctrines were being written the dragonists stood round me and worked together with all fury to devour, that is, to extinguish them. It is permitted to relate this news because it really so happened. The dragonists who stood around were from every part of the Reformed Christian world. [2] Since there is no other offspring born of spiritual marriage, and a male offspring is truth and good in the understanding and consequent thought and a female offspring is truth and good in the will and consequent affection, therefore by 'a son' in the Word truth is signified. For confirmation some passages shall be quoted, from which this can in some measure be seen:-
Behold sons are an heritage of Jehovah, and the fruit of the belly is a reward, as arrows in the hand of a mighty one, so are the sons of youth Ps. cxxvii 3-5.
Make thee bald, and poll thee for the sons of thy delights, for they have gone from thee Micah i 16.
I saw two olive trees near the lampstand, and he said, These are the two sons of the olive tree standing before the Lord of the whole land Zech. iv 11, 14.
My tent has been devastated, My sons have gone forth from Me, and they are not Jer. x 20.
Thy sons have become devastated, because an enemy has prevailed Lam. i 16.
Thy sons, O Jerusalem, have deserted, they have lain at the head of all the streets Isa. li 17, 18, 20.
The fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers, I will scatter thy remaining things to every wind Ezek. v 10.
Son shall be divided against father, and father against son Matt. x 21; Mark xiii 12; Luke xii 53.
Thou hast taken the vessels of thine adornment out of my gold, and hast made to thyself images of a male, with which thou didst commit whoredom Ezek. xvi 17.
Jesus said, The seed are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one Matt. xiii 38.
[3] That the SON OF MAN is the Divine Truth of the Word, thus the Lord, may be seen in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD (n. 19-28). In the passages quoted [above] by 'sons' are understood those who are in truths of doctrine out of the Word, and abstractly the truths themselves. In like manner elsewhere, as Isa. xiii 17, 18; xiv 21-23; xliii 6; xlix 17, 22; li 17, 18; lx 9; Jer. iii 24, 25; v 17; Ezek. xiv 16-18, 20; xvi 20, 36, 45; xx 26, 31; xxiii 37; Hosea xi 9-11; Zech. ix 13; Ps. cxliv 11, 12; Deut. xxxii 8. That by 'a daughter' is signified the affection of the truth of the Church, thus the Church as to that affection, is established from so many passages in the Word that they would fill many pages if quoted. Nothing else is understood by the daughter of Zion, the daughter of Jerusalem, the daughter of Judah, the daughter of Israel. Some passages concerning' the daughter of Zion' may be seen quoted (n. 612). Who cannot see that not any daughter of Zion, Jerusalem, Judah, or Israel, so often named in the Word, can be understood?
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