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:

3650. CHAPTER 28

The preliminary section of the previous chapter, paragraphs 3486-3489, explained what the Lord has taught and foretold about the Last Judgement or last days of the Church in Matthew 24:8-14. In the preliminary section of the present chapter there now follows, in the section-by-section method of presentation that has been adopted, the explanation of verses 15-18 of that chapter in Matthew,

When therefore you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place - let him who is reading this take note - then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him who is on the roof of the house not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his clothing.