AE 714 - the dragon

AE 714 [1, 2, 3]

And behold a great red dragon,
(Revelation 12:3)

signifies all who are merely natural and sensual
from the love of self,
and yet have more or less knowledge from the Word,
from doctrine therefrom or from preaching,
and think to be saved by knowledge alone apart from life.

. . . truths from the Word
with a life according to them
are what make man spiritual,
for life is willing truths
and doing them from a love of them;
this is not possible to the natural man alone,
but must come from the spiritual,
and from its influx into the natural;
for to love truths
and from love to will them
and from that will to do them
is from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord,
and is in its nature celestial and Divine . . ..

This has been said that it may be known
that to know the things that are of the Word
and of the doctrine of the church
does not make man spiritual,
but a life according to those things
that the Lord has commanded in the Word;
therefore although such know many things from the Word
they yet remain natural and sensual.
Such are signified in the Word by "the dragon."