children; and thy obedience (the true rendering) shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." The woman is here, as in the former verse, the woman of prophecy; she is the true Church in its affectional aspect; she is the affection for truth and goodness in the minds of the members of the Church. No allusion is here made to natural conceptions or births. That is the letter; and the letter is only the basis, symbol, or correspondent of the spirit. The allusion is to those things which are born of spiritual affection, to all good feelings, desires and promptings, to all new conceptions of truth, of salvation, of heaven, of the Lord. Again the prophecy is not of what the Lord does, although it is said, "I will multiply," etc. It is a statement of the inevitable consequence of human degradation and of the unavoidable condition which the human race takes on, in permitting itself to be degraded.
Those consequences to the serpent or sensuous nature, we have seen. The consequences to the woman or the affectional nature, are here described. These have no relation to the conceptions and births of natural children. They are the new conceptions of spiritual truth, and the new births of good desires, feelings and promptings. It is of these children of the soul that it is said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children."
