731. Every substance that I have made will I destroy from off the faces of the ground. That this signifies man’s Own, which is as if destroyed when vivified, is evident from what has been said before respecting this Own. Man’s Own is all evil and falsity. So long as this continues, the man is dead; but when he comes into temptations it is dispersed, that is, loosened and tempered by truths and goods from the Lord, and thus is vivified and appears as if it were not present. That it does not appear and is no longer hurtful, is signified by “destroyed;” and yet it is not destroyed, but remains. It is almost as with black and white, which when variously modified by the rays of light are turned into beautiful colors—such as blue, yellow, and purple—whereby, according to their arrangement are presented lovely and agreeable tints, as in flowers, yet remaining radically and fundamentally black and white. But as here at the same time the final vastation of those who were of the Most Ancient Church is treated of, by “I will destroy every existing thing that I have made, from off the face of the ground” are signified those who perished (as likewise in the following verse,). The “substance that I have made” is all that, or every man, in which there was heavenly seed, or who was of the church; and therefore, both here and in the following verse, “ground” is mentioned, which signifies the man of the church in whom good and truth have been implanted. This seed, in those called “Noah”—evils and falsities being dispersed, as before said—gradually grew up; but with the antediluvians who perished it was extinguished by tares.