606. [verse 17] 'And that no one can buy or sell if he does not have the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name' signifies that no one is allowed to teach out of the Word, accordingly to be inaugurated into the priesthood, honoured with a master's laurel, awarded a doctor's cap and called orthodox, unless he acknowledges that doctrine and swears to a faith and love of it, or to something that agrees with it or that does not disagree. By 'to buy and sell' is signified to furnish oneself with cognitions, here those that are of doctrine, and to teach them, concerning which [something] follows. By 'the mark' is signified acknowledgment as a Reformed Christian and confession that he is one (n. 605). By 'the name of the beast' is signified the quality of the doctrine, by 'the name' the quality (n. 81, 122, 165, 584), and by 'the beast' is signified the doctrine received by the laity, thus by the general assembly (n. 567); and because it is said 'or the name of the beast' there is signified the quality or such as agrees with it. By 'the number' is signified the quality of a thing (n. 448), and because it is said 'or the number of his name' there is signified the quality or such as does not disagree. It is so said, because the doctrine that is signified by 'the dragon' and his 'beast' is diversified (non similis est) in the kingdoms where the Reformed are, but it is alike as to this principle or head of doctrine, THAT FAITH JUSTIFIES AND SAVES WITHOUT THE WORKS OF THE LAW. [2] That 'to buy and sell' signifies to furnish oneself with cognitions and to teach them, in like manner 'to be a merchant', 'to trade', 'to make a profit', is established from these passages:-
Everyone thirsting, go to the waters, and he that has no silver, go, buy, and eat; go, I say, buy wine and milk without silver Isa. lv 1.
You have been sold for nothing, therefore you shall not be redeemed by silver Isa. lii 3.
In thy wisdom and thine intelligence thou hadst made for thyself wealth; and by the multitude of wisdom in thy trading thou hadst multiplied for thyself wealth Ezek. xxviii 4, 5.
Since by 'Tyre' is signified the Church as to the cognitions of good and truth, therefore these things are said of Tyre:-
All the ships of the sea were for carrying on thy trade; Tarshish was thy trader in silver; Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, these were thy merchants, with the souls of men they carried on thy trade; Syria was thy trader with chrysoprase: thy wealth, thy tradings, thy market, those carrying on thy trade, shall fail into the heart of the seas in the day of thy fall Ezek. xxvii in to the end.
Howl, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre has been laid waste, whose merchants are princes, and traders are the honoured of the land Isa. xxiii 1-3.
A similar thing is understood by 'trading' in the Lord's parable:-
Of the man gone abroad, who gave his servants talents, that they might trade and make a profit Matt. xxv 14-30.
And of the other who gave his servants ten pounds (mina), that they might trade with them Luke xix 12-26.
And of the treasure hidden in a field, which when a man found, he hid, and sold all and bought the field Matt. xiii 44.
And of one seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one precious one, sold all and bought it Matt. xiii 45, 46.
Such thy traders became from youth, they wandered every one out of his district, not saving thee Isa. xlxii 15;
besides more elsewhere.
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