736. As for Noah, or the member of this new Church, he was such that he believed with simplicity those things which he had come to possess from the Most Ancient Church. These were items of doctrine that had been gathered together and converted into a kind of doctrinal form by those called Enoch. The disposition of the people meant by Noah however was entirely different from those before the Flood who perished, called the Nephilim. For they immersed doctrinal matters concerning faith in their own filthy desires and in this way strove after dreadful persuasions from which they were unwilling to draw back even though they were taught by others and were shown that these were falsities. This dual genius or disposition also exists among people today. The former can be regenerated easily, but the latter with difficulty.

Water generally represents “natural truth,” or true concepts about day-to-day matters and physical things. Since all water ultimately flows into the seas, then, it follows that a sea represents a huge agglomeration of such natural truths -- usually all of the natural truth a person has, or all the natural truth a church has. Water in the sea mixes freely, and is easily stirred up by winds and currents. This is also true of the concepts we hold about natural things -- they are not all related to each other, and when relationships do exist they usually can change without damaging the concepts themselves. Many of the concepts are easily disputed, and arguments can arise like waves on the ocean -- generally with little effect other than a mixing of waters. But the sea also offers great bounty. We draw fish from it (spiritual food), float ships (doctrinal systems) on it, bathe in it (using true concepts to purify ourselves), and the water that evaporates from it and falls as rain (purer forms of truth that can attach to desires for good) makes life possible.