801.
[verse 24] 'And in her has been found the blood of the prophets and saints, and of all those slain upon the land' signifies that as the result of the form of religion that is understood by 'the city
Babylon' there is the adulteration and profanation of every truth of the Word, and consequently of the Church, and that untruth has emanated therefrom into the whole of Christendom. By 'blood' is signified
the falsification, adulteration and profanation of the Word (n. 327, 379, 684). By 'the prophets' are signified all who are in Divine Truths out of the Word, and abstractly the truths of doctrine
Out of the Word (n. 8, 133). That by 'saints' are signified those belonging to the Lord's Church, and abstractly, the holy truths of the Church (n. 173, 586, 666). That by the 'slain' are signified
those who have been spiritually slain, and that they are said to be spiritually slain who perish by means of untruths (n. 325 and frequently elsewhere). And because by' the land' the Church is signified,
by 'all those slain upon the land' are signified all in the Christian Church who have perished by means of untruths, because the untruth with them has emanated from that form of religion. It is also
said of Babel in Jeremiah, that:-
There are the slain of every land Jer. li 49, 52;
and in Isaiah that:-
Lucifer (who there is Babel) has destroyed his hand, and slain his people Isa.
xiv 20.
That out of the Babylonish form of religion many untruths have emanated into the Churches of the Reformed may be seen above (n. 751), where was expounded the statement that:-
The woman
thou hast seen is the great city having the kingdom over the kings of the land Rev. xvii 18.
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