34. V. THE FIFTH STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS THE SEPARATION OF THE GOOD FROM THE EVIL, WHICH WAS THE LAST JUDGMENT ON ALL WHO WERE OF THAT CHURCH. This state is described by the "flood," in which all the wicked who remained perished; and by "Noah and his sons," by whom are meant all the good who were saved. The end of the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam, is described in the sixth chapter of Genesis by these words:
When Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was multiplied in the world, and moreover every imagination of his heart only evil every day, it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth: therefore Jehovah said, I will blot out man whom I have created from off the faces of the earth: only Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah (Gen. 6:5-8).
But the Last Judgment upon them is described by the flood. It is described by a "flood" for the reason that "waters" in the Word signify truths, and in an opposite sense falsities. Truths are signified by the waters of a fountain, the waters of a river, the waters of rain, and by the waters of the washings in time past, and the waters of baptism at this day: such correspondence arises from the circumstance that truths purify man's soul from uncleanness, as waters do his body; hence they are called "living waters." But in the opposite sense falsities are signified by "waters"; but by impure waters, such as those of marshes, evil-smelling cisterns, urine, and deadly waters; in general, by all hurtful and death-producing waters, therefore, also, by waters from an inundation of which man dies, consequently the Noachian flood.
[2] That falsities in the mass are described by inundations, may be evident from the following passages:
Jehovah is causing to come up upon them the waters of the river (Euphrates), strong and many; it shall pass through Judah, it shall inundate, it shall pass over, it shall reach even to the neck (Isa. 8:7-8).
By the "waters of the river" Euphrates, are signified reasonings from falsities, because by Assyria, whose river it was, reasoning is signified.
The spirit of Jehovah, like an inundating stream, shall divide in two even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity (Isa. 30:28):
by an inundating river, here, in like manner, is signified reasoning from falsities.
Behold waters are rising up out of the north, which are like an inundating stream, and it shall inundate the land and the fulness thereof (Jer. 47:2):
here the Philistines are treated of, by whom are meant those who are not in charity, and hence not in truths; the falsities of these are signified by "waters coming up from the north," and the devastation of the Church in consequence thereof, by "an inundating stream that shall inundate the land and its fulness"; "the land" is the Church, and its "fulness" all things pertaining to it.
Say unto those who daub what is unfit, There shall be an inundating rain, in which hail-stones shall fall upon you (Ezek. 13:11, 13):
the "daubing of what is unfit" is the confirmation of falsity, and hail-stones are falsities.
In an overflowing inundation He shall make the place thereof a consummation, and thick darkness shall pursue His enemies (Nahum 1:8):
by "the inundation" which shall consummate, is signified the falsification of truth, and by "thick darkness," truths themselves in the night.
Ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell have we made a vision; when the scourge of inundation shall pass over, it shall not come unto us; we have made a lie our trust, and in falsity we will hide ourselves (Isa. 28:15).
Here "inundation" manifestly denotes destruction by falsities; for it is said that they placed confidence in "a lie," and would hide themselves in "falsity."
[3] After the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; then the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, so that the end thereof shall be with an inundation even to desolations (Dan. 9:26);
speaking of the Christian Church that was to come, in which the worship of the Lord would perish; which is meant by "Messiah being cut off, but not for Himself"; that it would perish by falsifications, is meant by "the end thereof being with an inundation even to desolations"; "desolation" denoting the falsification. Hence it is, that, after the Lord spoke of the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel the prophet, and of the "consummation of the age" thereby, He said
That His coming would be as in the days when the flood came, and took them all away (Matt. 24:15, 39).
That by the drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea (Exod. 14), is meant, in the spiritual sense, destruction by falsities, has been shown in the ARCANA CAELESTIA, in the explanation of that chapter.
