119. That the Church is called Mother is evident from the following passages:
Jehovah said, plead with YOUR MOTHER; she is not my WIFE, and I am not her HUSBAND. Hos. 2:2, 5.
Thou art thy mother's daughter, that loatheth her HUSBAND. Ezek. 16:45.
Where is the bill of your MOTHER's divorcement, whom I have put away. Isa. 1:1.
The above passages are said of the Jewish church.
Thy MOTHER is like a vine, planted by the waters, bearing fruit. Ezek. 19:10.
Jesus stretched forth His hand towards His disciples and said, MY MOTHER and My brethren are they which hear the word of God and do it. Luke 8:21; Matt. 12:48, 49; Mark 3:33-5.
by the disciples of the Lord is meant the Church.
There stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother; and Jesus, seeing His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, said unto His mother, Woman, behold thy Son! And He said to the disciple, Behold thy mother! Wherefore from that hour the disciple took her unto his own. John 19:25-7.
By this is meant that the Lord did not acknowledge Mary as mother, but the Church; for which reason He called her woman and the mother of the disciple. He called her the mother of this disciple, that is, of John, because John represented the Church as to the goods of charity, these being the Church in very fact; therefore it is said that he took her unto his own. That Peter represented truth and faith, James charity, and John the works of charity, may be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, nos. 5, 6, 790, 798, 879; and that the twelve disciples together represented the Church as to all things thereof, in nos. 233, 790, 903, 915.