800. Because by thy sorcery all the nations have been seduced, signifies their wicked arts and devices, by which they have led away the minds of all from the holy worship of the Lord to the profane worship of living and dead men and idols. By "the sorcery by which all the nations have been seduced," are signified the wicked arts and devices by which they have been deluded and persuaded, so that they might be worshiped and adored instead of the Lord, and thus like the Lord; and because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, as He Himself teaches (Matt. 28:18), thus like gods. It may be seen above (n. 798), that they transferred the Lord's Divine authority to themselves. And because this is signified by those words, they also signify that by wicked arts and devices they have led away the minds of all from the holy worship of the Lord to the profane worship of men living and dead, and of idols. That nevertheless these things will come to an end, and are already at an end in the spiritual world, has been said and shown before. This is thus described in Isaiah:
Persist in thy enchantments, O Babel, and in the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast labored from thy youth; if so be they could profit, if so be thou mayest become terrible; thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels; let now the observers of the heavens, the stargazers,* the diviners by the months, stand up, and save thee. Behold, they are become as stubble, the fire hath burned them up; they shall not deliver their soul from the hand of the flame. Such have thy merchants become from thy youth; everyone hath wandered to his own quarter, there is none to save thee (Isa. 47:12-15). * The original Latin has "terram," "earth," the Hebrew has "stars."
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