2850. 'And like the sand which is on the seashore' means a whole multitude of correspondent facts. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sea' as facts in general or a gathering together of them, dealt with in 28, 2120, and from the meaning of 'the sand' as facts individually and separately. Facts are compared to 'the sand' because in the internal sense the particles of stone from which the sand is formed mean facts, 643, 1298. Both comparisons are made here - that they will be multiplied 'as the stars of the heavens' and 'as the sand on the seashore 'because 'stars', or cognitions, are related to the rational, whereas 'the sand of the seashore', or facts, are related to the natural. When the things that belong to the rational man, namely the goods and truths present in cognitions, so exist in accordance with the things that belong to the natural man, that is to say, with facts, that they make one or mutually support each other, they in that case correspond. The Lord brings man's rational concepts and his natural images into this state of correspondence when He regenerates him, that is, makes him spiritual. It is for this reason that both the stars of the heavens and the sand on the seashore are mentioned here. Otherwise one phrase would have been sufficient.

560. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Before one can go any further, reference must be made to the Church as it was before the Flood. In general it went the same way as subsequent Churches, as the Jewish Church before the Lord's Coming and the Christian Church after; that is, people corrupted and adulterated the cognitions of true faith. In particular as regards the member of the Church before the Flood, he conceived dreadful persuasions in the process of time and immersed the goods and truths of faith in filthy desires, to such an extent that scarcely any remnants resided with him. And once they had become such those people suffocated themselves so to speak, for nobody can live without remnants. Indeed, as already stated, it is remnants that make man's life superior to that of animals; it is from remnants, or from the Lord through them, that anyone is enabled to be a human being, to know what good and truth are, and to reflect on individual things, and so to think and to reason. For remnants alone are what contain spiritual and celestial life.