127. Men's desire to probe into mysteries of faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge was not only the cause of the downfall of the Most Ancient Church, that is to say, of its descendants - to be dealt with in the next chapter; it is also the cause of the downfall of every Church. For that desire leads not only to falsities but also to evils of life.

3418. Verse 18 And Isaac came back and dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father and which the Philistines had been stopping up after Abraham's death; and he called them names, according to the names which his father had called them.

'Isaac came back and dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father' means that the Lord disclosed the truths that had existed with the Ancients. 'And which the Philistines had been stopping up after Abraham's death' means that people who had no more than a knowledge of cognitions refused to recognize those truths. 'And he called them names' means the essential nature of them. 'Like the names which his father had called them' means meaningful signs of truth.