127. Men's desire to probe into mysteries of faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge was not only the cause of the downfall of the Most Ancient Church, that is to say, of its descendants - to be dealt with in the next chapter; it is also the cause of the downfall of every Church. For that desire leads not only to falsities but also to evils of life.

7945. 'So they did' means an act initiated by the will. This is clear from the fact that 'did' is repeated here, and that when used first it meant an act initiated by the understanding, whereas here it means an act initiated by the will. In the Word it is common for what seem like repetitions to occur in which one matter is mentioned twice. But the first mention has reference to truth that belongs to the understanding, and the second to good that belongs to the will. The reason for this is that every detail of the Word contains the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of goodness and truth, 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 4138 (end), 5138, 5502, 6343, and contains in the highest sense the Divine marriage, which is that of Divine Good within the Lord and Divine Truth going forth from Him, 3004, 5502, 6179. These considerations show also that the Word is most holy.