801. Verse 24. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth, signifies that from the religious persuasion, which is meant by "the city Babylon," is the adulteration and profanation of every truth of the Word and thence of the church, and that falsity has emanated therefrom into the whole Christian world. By "blood" is signified the falsification, adulteration and profanation of the Word (n. 327, 379, 684). By "prophets" are signified all those who are in Divine truths from the Word, and abstractly truths of doctrine from the Word (n. 8, 133). That by "saints" are signified those who are of the Lord's church and abstractly the holy truths of the church (n. 173, 586, 666). That by "the slain" are signified those who are spiritually slain, and they are called spiritually slain who perish by falsities (n. 325, and in many other places). And because by "earth" is signified the church, by "all that are slain on the earth" are signified all in the Christian church who have perished by falsities; because the falsity with them emanated from that religious persuasion. It is also said of Babel in Jeremiah, that:
There are the slain of all the earth (Jer. 51:49, 52). And in Isaiah, that:
Lucifer (which there is Babel) hath destroyed her land, and hath slain her people (Isa. 14:20). That many falsities have emanated from the Babylonish religious persuasion into the churches of the Reformed, may be seen above (n. 751); where this passage was explained, that:
The woman whom thou sawest is the great city which hath a kingdom over the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:18).
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