741. But they receive authority as kings one hour with the beast, signifies that the Word has power with them, and they by the Word, as if they were in its Divine truths. By "receiving authority with the beast" is signified to have power together with the Word, and thus that the Word has power with them, and they by means of the Word. By "receiving authority" is signified to be strong, and by "the beast," the Word is signified (n. 723); by "as kings" is signified as if they were in Divine truths from the Word. That by "kings" are signified those who are in Divine truths from the Word, and abstractly the Divine truths therein (n. 20, 664, 704, 740); by "one hour" is signified for some time, and also in some degree. From these things it is manifest that by "their receiving power as kings one hour with the beast," is signified that the Word has power with them, and they through the Word, as if they were in its Divine truths. These things are said, because they acknowledge that the Word is divinely inspired, and hence that the church is a church from the Word. But still they do not as yet draw Divine truths from it, except these general ones: that God alone is to be worshiped, and not any man like God; and that the authority given to Peter is not in itself Divine, and yet that it is Divine to open and shut heaven, which is not in any man's own power. These things they confirm in themselves from the Word; but before others, who do not hear the Word, they do it from rationality, which is given by continual influx out of heaven to everyone who wishes to be in truths. That they do not progress further, and draw the doctrinals of faith and life from the Word, is of the Lord's Divine Providence, because they still adhere in externals, or in formalities, to the Roman Catholic religious persuasion; lest truth and falsity should be mixed together, and thence an interior strife should arise, which is like fermentation that produces disturbance.