34. The Coming of the Lord is according to the order that the spring does not come until after the winter, nor the morning until after the night; nor comfort and joy to the travailing woman until after the pain; that consolations are after temptations; one lives truly after death, even as the Lord says,
Except the grain . . . die, etc. (John xii 24).
The Lord exhibited the type of this order in that He suffered Himself to be crucified and to die, and afterwards rose again. This type signifies the state of the Church. . . . This, also, is involved in the image which appeared to Nebuchadnezzar, in that the Stone became a great Rock at the last; it is further involved in the four beasts out of the sea, and in what is related there concerning that horrible nation (all of which is to be explained). It is likewise involved in the four Ages known to the ancients, the golden, the silver, the copper and the iron ages; further, in the ages of every man, from infancy to old age-then is the end of the life of the body, and then comes the life of the spirit, which is the life of all those who have lived well. The same also is implied in the heaven which has first to pass away (Rev. xxi 1, 2). The case with the Church is similar.
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