221. 'Breeze, or breath, ¹ of the daytime' means a time when the Church still had a residue of perception. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'day' and of 'night'. The most ancient people compared states of the Church to the times of the day and of the night. States when the Church still had light they compared to times of the day; therefore this verse speaks of 'the breath' or breeze of the daytime' as when they still had some residue of perception, from which they knew that they were fallen. The Lord too calls a state in which there is faith 'the daytime' and one in which there is none 'the night', as in John,

I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when nobody will be able to work. John 9:4.

The consecutive states of man's regeneration for the same reason were called 'days' in Chapter Genesis 1.

Footnotes:

2199. That 'well advanced in years' means that the time was at hand follows from what has now been stated. 'A day' in the Word, as also 'a year', and indeed 'time' in general, means state, as shown in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893. Thus: here 'advanced in years' means, in the internal sense, entering that state in which He was to cast off the human, and so means that the time was at hand.