872. 'The face ¹ of the ground' means those things that reside with the member of the Church, and the expression 'the ground' is used because it is the first stage at which man comes to be the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ground', dealt with already, as the member of the Church who is at that point called 'the ground' when the goods and truths of faith can be sown within him. Previously he is called 'the land', as in Genesis 1 where 'the land' refers to man prior to his becoming celestial, while Chapter 2, when he has become celestial, refers to him as 'the ground' and 'the field'. It is similar in the present chapter. The expression 'the land' and the expression 'the ground' are sufficient by themselves to enable someone to recognize what is meant in the internal sense, not only here but also anywhere else in the Word. 'The ground' in the universal sense means the Church, and as the Church is meant so too is the member of the Church for, as stated already, every member of the Church is the Church.

Bilješke:

5725. Experience has enabled me to learn what is implied in the spiritual sense by a deluge or flood. Understood in this spiritual sense a deluge is two-sided, being on the one hand a deluge of evil desires, on the other a deluge of falsities. The deluge of evil desires affects the will part of the mind and the right side of the brain, whereas that of falsities affects the understanding part, with which the left side of the brain is connected. When a person who has led a good life is taken back into his own selfhood, and so into the sphere that emanates from the life properly his own, it seems like a deluge. Caught in this deluge he is annoyed and angry, has unpeaceful thoughts and wildly evil desires. It is one thing when the left side of the brain, where falsities exist, is under deluge, another when the right, where evils reside, is under it.

[2] But when a person is kept within the sphere emanating from the life he has received through regeneration from the Lord he is completely outside such a deluge. He is so to speak in a calm and sunny, cheerful and happy place, and so is far removed from annoyance, anger, unpeacefulness, evil desires, and the like. The latter state is for spirits morning or spring, the former state their evening or autumn. I was led to perceive myself outside such a deluge; this lasted quite a long time, during which I saw other spirits caught in it. But after that I too become submerged in it, when I experienced what felt like a deluge. This is the kind in which people undergoing temptations are caught. From this I learned what is meant in the Word by the Flood, namely that the final descendants of the most ancient people who belonged to the Lord's celestial Church were completely submerged in evils and falsities, so that they perished.