998. (v. 13) And I saw out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast. That this signifies, from the thought, reasoning, religion, and doctrine of those who are in faith alone, and in confirmations thereof from the natural man, is evident from the signification of the mouth, as denoting thought, reasoning, religion, and doctrine (concerning which see n. 580, 782, 794); and from the signification of the dragon, as denoting those who are in faith alone, both as to doctrine and as to life (concerning which see n. 714, 715, 716, 737); and from the signification of the beast, as denoting those who by reasonings from the natural man confirm faith alone (see n. 773). For there were two beasts, one out of the sea, the other ascending out of the earth; and by the beast out of the sea is meant that faith confirmed by reasonings from the natural man; and by the beast out of the earth is meant that faith confirmed from the literal sense of the Word, and thence its falsification. But, in this case, the beast ascending out of the sea is meant; thus, faith confirmed by reasonings, because it is added, from the mouth of the false prophet. And by the false prophet is signified the same as by the beast out of the earth, namely, faith alone confirmed by the Word; thus, the doctrine of falsity from falsified truths.
[2] By these and the following words is described how the doctrine concerning faith alone has rendered obtuse, and almost extinguished, the power of understanding Divine truth, which every man has from the Lord, so far as falsities from evil do not prevent influx and prevent anything from heaven being perceived. For a man is like a garden which receives light, but not heat, equally in winter and summer. According as it receives heat, it flourishes and bears fruit. So, with man, he can equally receive light, that is, understand Divine truth, whether he is evil or good; but still he cannot flourish and become fruitful, that is, be wise and do works that are good, except so far as he receives heat, that is, the good of love.
[3] It is believed by many that, because the learned are well acquainted with the Word and doctrine from the Word, they are more intelligent and wiser than others. But they have no more intelligence and wisdom than agrees with their spiritual heat, that is, their good of love. For it is according to this that the faculty of understanding truths is opened and vivified; but this very faculty is as it were covered over and obliterated by the evils of the love of the proprium. That such persons have, nevertheless, the intellectual faculty, however covered over and obliterated, I have frequently heard testified by experience. For spirits, who were wholly in falsities from evil, and in their heart denied a Divine influx into all the things of the understanding of truth and of the will of good, thus the Divine Providence, and thence confirmed in themselves that all things are the result of nature and their own prudence, although they had, so to speak, no faculty of understanding truths when they thought about them in themselves; yet, when they heard from others that the Divine is everything, and the natural is merely the instrument of an artificer, they then understood these things as clearly as those who taught them, and like others who have confirmed themselves in that Divine truth. But immediately they ceased to pay attention, they fell back into things of a contrary kind, and no longer understood them, because they rendered them obscure by the falsities they had confirmed. It was evident, therefore, that the faculty of understanding truth, or of receiving light from heaven, dwells in all, yet that they only receive so far as by their life they are in the good of love; just as a garden, which admits light from the sun equally in winter as in summer, yet flourishes and bears fruit so far, at the same time, as it receives heat from the sun, as is the case in spring and summer.
Continuation of the Sixth Precept:-
[4] Man has intelligence and wisdom in the measure and quality of the conjugial love with him. The reason is, that conjugial love descends from the love of good and truth, as an effect from its cause, or as the natural from its spiritual; and from the marriage of good and truth the angels of the three heavens also have all their intelligence and wisdom. For intelligence and wisdom is nothing but the reception of light and heat from the Lord as a Sun, that is, the reception of Divine truth conjoined with Divine Good, and of Divine Good conjoined with Divine truth; thus, it is the marriage of good and truth from the Lord. That it is so has been quite evident from the angels in the heavens. When separated from their conjugial partners, they are indeed in intelligence, but not in wisdom, whereas when they are with their conjugial partners, they are also in wisdom. And I wondered at this, that as they turn their faces to each other they are in a state of wisdom, for the conjunction of truth and good is effected in the spiritual world by aspect (aspectus). And the wife there is good, and the man there is truth, therefore, as truth turns itself to good, so truth becomes living. By intelligence and wisdom is not meant cleverness in reasoning about truths and goods, but the faculty of seeing and understanding truths and goods; this faculty a man has from the Lord.