Jerusalem remembers past humiliation when doctrines fall

For the one remembering while suffering such-and-such things does not remember the present, but the past. And after a little: Having raised such difficulties in the place and seeking a reminder of her past humiliation and of her rejections—because her people have fallen into a hand of an afflictor and the things brought upon her have come about—we consider whether perhaps humiliation in the proper sense is nothing other than sin, just as exaltation is right practice, and rejection comes about from nothing operating except base action; for this is sufficient to thrust away from God and from everything finest according to nature. When, then, Jerusalem was drunk—that is, those dwelling in her—and beside herself from the sin she was being humbled, she was not delighted in the stumbles; but when her repayments have come through her people having fallen into hands of the afflictor, no one helping her, then she was reminded of the things because of which she was suffering, grasping those as causes both of her people’s having fallen and of her having been left helpless.

And after a little: And if such a soul is Jerusalem, it is worthwhile to seek her people, upon whose falling into a hand of an afflictor—because there is no helper—she herself remembers the days of her humiliation, and still also of her own rejections by which she was rejected, and besides also of her desirable things, as many as were from ancient days. And see whether the contemplations in the knowing soul are not the people of Jerusalem, which, because the soul has come to be in inattention and neglect, falls, being thrown down by every afflictor. For the doctrines of those neglecting flow away, being squeezed out by the sins that have gained room in the one neglecting the better things, in no way having the help from the Word.