823. Verses 13, 14. And he doeth great signs, so that he even maketh fire to come down from heaven unto the earth before men; and he seduceth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs that were given him to do before the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which hath the stroke of the sword and did live. 13. "And he doeth great signs," signifies testifications and persuasions (n. 824); "so that he even maketh fire to come down from heaven unto the earth before men," signifies the love of falsity from evil arising from the pride of self-intelligence as if it were the love of truth from good which is in the church from the heavens (n. 825). 14. "And he seduceth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs that were given him to do before the beast," signifies to persuade those who are in the church by testifications from the Word joined to reasonings from the natural man (n. 826); "saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast," signifies an established decree that all in the church should teach and believe nothing whatever except these things (n. 827); "which hath the stroke of the sword and did live," signifies the nature of those natural things by which the things taken from the natural sense of the Word for confirmation were conjoined (n. 829).