404. And the third part of the sea became blood signifies that all general truths with them were falsified. By "the third part" is signified all (n. 400); by "blood" is signified the falsification of the truth of the Word (n. 379); by "the sea" is signified the church with those who are in its externals, and in faith alone (n. 398, 402). General truths are falsified with such because they are in them alone, for they do not know the particulars of that faith, as the clergy do; it is from the general truths with them that they appear as in a sea in the spiritual world; the reason is, because waters signify truths (n. 50), and the sea is their general receptacle (n. 238).
