835. Verses 16, 17. And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be given them a mark upon their right hand or upon their foreheads; and that no one be able to buy or to sell if he hath not the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. 16. "And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond," signifies the lower and the higher, the wise and the simple, both those who think from themselves and those who think from others (n. 836); "that there be given them a mark upon their right hand and upon their foreheads," signifies an attestation of the acknowledgment that they are of the church, and are in the so-called truths and goods of that faith (n. 838). 17. "And that no one be able to buy or to sell if he hath not the mark of the beast," signifies forbidding anyone to learn or teach anything but what has been acknowledged and thence accepted in doctrine (n. 840); "or the name of the beast or the number of his name," signifies either what is like it in respect to life, or what is like it in respect to faith (n. 841).