29
And also on the men-servants, and on the maid-servants, In those days I do pour out My Spirit.
Joel 2:29
Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #57
57. IV. THE FOURTH STATE OF THE CHURCH WAS THE PROFANATION OF HOLY THINGS, AND THEN WAS ITS CONSUMMATION OR NIGHT. Vastation and consummation differ from each other, as do the shade of evening and the thick darkness of night; for vastation is a receding from the Church, but consummation a complete separation from it. Vastation, therefore, is as when any one descends from heaven but not as far as to hell, and tarries in the middle, standing near both; but consummation exists when any one, standing thus, turns his face and breast to hell, and his back and the hinder part of his head to. heaven; in like manner as happened with the Dragon and his angels when they were cast down out of heaven (concerning which see Rev. 12): while they were fighting with Michael, they were in the middle; but when vanquished, they were in hell. Vastation takes place when man looks upon the holy things of the Church from falsities and falsified truths; but consummation when he lives in evils or in adulterated goods.
[2] But, that the difference and distinction between the state of vastation and the state of consummation may be still more clearly grasped, it shall be illustrated by comparisons. The state of vastation may be compared with a certain garden, or grove, round a temple-which garden, by reason of the Divine worship performed in the temple, is regarded as holy-in which are places for drinking, feasting, dancing, and histrionics and farce, with spectators in the courts and windows of the temple; but the state of consummation may be compared to the same garden, or grove, in which are satyrs and libertines, with harlots and witches, who all together enter the temple dancing, and there celebrate profane revels, as the Pythons in their sabbaths.
[3] The state of vastation may also be compared with a hostile army, when it enters the suburbs of a besieged city and rules them; but the state of consummation may be compared with the same army, when it has demolished the wall, and rushes into the city and gives the inhabitants over to destruction. The state of vastation may further be compared with a ship upon sandbanks, or a sandy shore, when it is violently battered there, and tossed up and down, and the steersman, captain and sailors bewail on account of their danger; but the state is one of consummation when the ship's keel is fretted away by the gravel beneath, and the ship, being shattered and pierced with holes, sinks, and those on board, and the cargo, perish in the waves.
[4] The state of vastation may be compared with every disease which invades the members, viscera and organs of the body, by reason of which the patient apprehends death, consults a physician, takes medicines, and all the while lies in bed in hope of recovery; but the state of consummation may be compared with the same disease when it invades the breast, where the heart and lungs reside as in their tabernacle, into which when the disease penetrates, it makes an end of the life of the body.
Ezekiel 4
1
You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:
2
and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.
3
Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
4
Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; [according to] the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.
5
For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days: so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6
Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it to you.
7
You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.
8
Behold, I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn you from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.
9
Take for yourself also wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it; [according to] the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.
10
Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time you shall eat it.
11
You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time you shall drink.
12
You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.
13
Yahweh said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.
14
Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
15
Then he said to me, Behold, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread thereon.
16
Moreover he said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay:
17
that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
