AC 7233 - The Enlightened Intellectual; AC 7264-7265 - Vastation as Revealed in Exodus 7

AC 7233 [3]

For the enlightened intellectual discriminates
between apparent truths and real truths,
especially between falsities and truths,
although it does not judge
about real truths in themselves.
But the intellectual cannot be enlightened
unless it is believed
that love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor
are the principal and essential things of the church.
He who proceeds from the acknowledgment of these,
provided he himself is in them,
sees innumerable truths;
indeed, he sees very many secrets disclosed to him,
and this from interior acknowledgment,
according to the degree
of the enlightenment from the Lord.

AC 7264 - 7265

The subject treated of in the internal sense
in what follows is
the vastation, and at last the damnation,
of those who are in falsities and evils.
The process of their devastation
is described by the eleven plagues
brought on the Egyptians and their land.

In this chapter
the subject treated of in the internal sense
is the first three degrees of vastation.
The first,
which is that mere fallacies began to reign with them,
whence came falsities,
is described by the serpent
into which the rod of Aaron was turned.
The second,
which is that truths themselves
became falsities with them,
and that falsities became truths,
is described by the blood
into which the waters were turned.
The third degree,
which is that from falsities
they reasoned against
the truths and goods of the church,
is described by the frogs out of the river.