1035. Neither shall there anymore be a flood to destroy the earth. That this signifies that such a deadly and suffocating persuasion should no longer come forth, is evident from the signification of “a flood” relatively to the antediluvians who perished, as described above; as well as from their direful persuasions (n. 311, 563, 570, 581, 586); as also from what has been shown of the succeeding church, called “Noah;” and further from what follows concerning the rainbow.

563. When such a persuasion takes possession of a man, it is like a glue which catches in its sticky embrace the goods and truths that otherwise would be remains, the result of which is that remains can no longer be stored up, and those which have been stored up can be of no use; and therefore when these people arrived at the summit of such persuasion they became extinct of their own accord, and were suffocated by an inundation not unlike a flood; and therefore their extinction is compared to a “flood” and also, according to the custom of the most ancient people, is described as one.