774. Verse 1. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea, signifies reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life. This is evident from the signification of "a beast coming up out of the sea," as being the things that belong to the natural man; for "beasts" signify in the Word the affections of the natural man, in both senses (see above, n. 650); and the "sea" signifies the various things of the natural man that have reference to its knowledges [scientifica] both true and false, and to thoughts and reasonings therefrom (see also above, n. 275, 342, 511, 537, 538, 600). Thence it is clear that "a beast coming up out of the sea" signifies reasonings from the natural man. It is evident that these are reasonings that confirm the separation of faith from life, because in this chapter the dragon is further described, "the beast coming up out of the sea," signifies the reasonings of the dragon from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life, and "the beast coming up out of the earth" signifies the confirmations of the dragon from the sense of the letter of the Word, and the falsification of it (see below, from verse 11 to the end of this chapter). [2] That the dragon is further described in this chapter, and is also meant by the two beasts, is evident from its being said that "the dragon gave to the beast coming up out of the sea his power and his throne and great authority," and furthermore, that "they worshipped the dragon which gave authority unto the beast;" also that "the other beast that came up out of the earth spake as a dragon, and exercised all the authority of the first beast before the dragon." Thence it is clear that so far as those who separate faith from life (who are signified by "the dragon,") confirm that separation by reasonings from the natural man, they are represented by "the beast coming up out of the sea;" while so far as they confirm that separation by the sense of the letter of the Word, and thereby falsify that sense, they are described by "the beast coming up out of the earth." That this is so can be fully seen from the description of each that follows. [3] That reasonings from the natural man enter into the dogmas of those who make faith the only means of salvation, thus the very essential of the church, and so separate it from life or from charity, which they do not acknowledge as a means of salvation and as an essential of the church; this is but little seen, and consequently but little known, by the followers and those learned in that doctrine, because their thought is continually fixed on those passages of the Word by which they confirm that doctrine. And as the dogmas they confirm by the ultimate sense of the Word, which is the sense of the letter of the Word, are falsities, they must needs take their reasonings from the natural man, for without these it would not be possible to make falsities appear as truths. But this shall be illustrated by an example. That life or charity may be separated from faith, they contend (1) That by Adam's fall man lost all freedom to do good from himself; and (2) for this reason man is in no wise able to fulfill the law; and (3) without the fulfilling of the law there is no salvation; and (4) that the Lord came into the world that He might fulfill the law, and thus His righteousness and merit might be imputed to man, and by that imputation man might be loosed from the yoke of the law even to the extent that nothing condemns him; and (5) that man accepts the imputation of the Lord's merit by faith alone, and not at all by works. That these are mostly reasonings from the natural man confirming the assumed principle of faith alone and its connecting derivatives can be seen from a survey of these particulars in their order. [4] (1) "By Adam's fall man lost his free will, which is a freedom to do good from himself." This reasoning is from falsities; for no man has or can have a freedom to do good from himself, since man is merely a recipient; consequently the good that man receives is not man's but is the Lord's with him. Nor do angels even have any good except from the Lord; and the more they acknowledge and perceive this the more they are angels, that is, higher and wiser than the others. Still less, therefore, could Adam, who was not yet an angel, be in a state of good from himself. His integrity consisted in a fuller reception of good and truth, and thus of intelligence and wisdom from the Lord, than his posterity enjoyed. This also was the image of God; for a man becomes an image by receiving the Lord, and he becomes an image in the measure of this reception. In a word, to do good from the Lord is freedom; and to do good from self is slavery. Thence it is clear that this reasoning originates in falsities that flow forth from fallacies, which are all from the natural man. Moreover, it is not in accordance with truth that hereditary evil was ingenerated in the whole human race by Adam's fall; its origin was from another source. [5] (2) "From this it is that man is in no wise able to fulfill the law." This reasoning, too, is from the natural man. The spiritual man knows that doing the law and fulfilling it in external form does not save; but that so far as man does the law in the external form from the internal, it does save. The internal form, or the internal of the law, is to love what is good, sincere, and just; and its external is to do this. This the Lord teaches in Matthew: