Coronis,
or Appendix,
to
True Christian Religion
Emanuel Swedenborg
PROPOSITION THE FIRST (5)
5. (2)
There
have been four successive states, or periods, of each church, which
in the Word are meant by "morning," "day," "evening," and "night."
That there have been four successive states, or periods, of every
one of these churches above mentioned, will be illustrated in the
following pages, wherein each will be dealt with in its order. They
are described by those alternations of time, because every man who
is born in the church, or in whom the church has commenced, first
comes into its light, such as that is in the dawn and morning;
afterwards, he advances into its day, and, he who loves its truths,
even to its mid-day; if he then stops in the way, and does not
advance into the heat of spring and summer, his day declines towards
evening, and at length, like light at night-time, it grows dark; and
then his intelligence in the spiritual things of the church becomes
a cold light, like the light of the days in winter, when he indeed
sees the trees standing near his house, or in his gardens, but stript of leaves and deprived of fruits, thus like bare logs.
For,
the man of the church advances from morning to day, to the end that
he may be reformed and regenerated by means of the light of reason,
which is effected only by a life according to the precepts of the
Lord in the Word. If this does not take place, his light becomes
darkness, and the darkness, thick darkness; that is, the truths of
light with him are turned into falsities, and the falsities into
unseen evils. It is otherwise with the man who suffers himself to be
regenerated: night does not overtake him, for he walks in God, and
hence is continually in the day; into which, also, he fully enters
after death, when he is associated with angels in heaven. This is
meant by these things in the Apocalypse, concerning the New
Jerusalem, which is the New Church, truly Christian:
That city shall have no need of the sun and moon to shine in it; for
the glory of God shall lighten it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof;
and the nations which are saved shall walk in the light of it and
there shall be no night there (21:23-25; Ezek. 32:8; Amos. 5:20;
8:9).
That the successive states of the church are meant by
"morning," "day," "evening," and "night," in the Word, is evident
from the following passages therein:
Watch; for ye know not when the Lord of the house will come, at
even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning (Mark
13:35; Matt. 25:13).
The subject there treated of is the Consummation of the Age, and the
Coming of the Lord at that time:
The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me; he is as the
light of the morning, a morning without clouds (2 Sam. 23:3, 4).
I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright and morning
Star (Apoc. 22:16).
God shall help her, when He shall look to the morning (Ps. 46:5).
He is calling to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh,
and also the night (Isa. 21:11, 12).
The end is come upon thee, O inhabitant of the land; the time is
come, the day is near. Behold the day, behold, it is come; the
morning hath gone forth (Ezek. 7:5-7, 10).
There shall be a day which shall be known to Jehovah; not day nor
night; for about the time of evening there shall be light (Zech.
14:7).
About the time of evening, behold, terror; before the morning, he is
not (Isa. 17:14).
In the evening, weeping will tarry all night, but there will be
singing in the morning (Ps. 30:5).
Even to the evening and the morning, two thousand three hundred;
then shall the holy place be justified: the vision of the evening
and morning is truth (Dan. 8:14, 26).
Jehovah in the morning will give His judgement in the light; He will
not fail (Zeph. 3:5).
Thus said Jehovah, If ye have made void My covenant of the day and
My covenant of the night, so that there be not day and night in
their season, My covenant also shall be made void with David My
servant (Jer. 33:20, 21, 25).
Jesus said, I must work the works of God while it is day; the night
cometh when no one can work (John 9:4).
In this night there shall be two on one bed; one shall be taken, but
the other shall be left (Luke 17:34).
In these passages, it treats of the consummation of the age and the
Coming of the Lord. Hence it may be evident what is meant by "There
shall be time no longer" (Apoc. 10:6); namely, that there would not
be morning, day, or evening in the church, but night; likewise what
is meant by "time, times, and half a time" (Apoc. 12:14; Dan. 12:7);
as also what is meant by the "fulness of time" (Eph. 1:10; Gal.
4:4).
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