57. IV. The fourth state of this church was the profanation of holy things, and then its consummation or night. Vastation and consummation differ from each other, as the shade of evening and the thick darkness of night differ from each other; for vastation is a receding from the church, but consummation a full separation from it. Vastation, therefore, is as when anyone descends from heaven but not as far as to hell, and tarries in the middle, standing beside both of them; but consummation exists when anyone, 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 whom see Rev. 12); while they were fighting with Michael, they were in the middle; but when they were vanquished, they were in hell. Vastation takes place when a 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 comprehended, it shall be illustrated by comparisons. The state of vastation may be compared with a garden or grove around a temple, which by reason of the Divine worship in the temple, is regarded as holy; in which are places for drinking, feasting, dancing, and play acting and buffoonery, with the 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 priapi, along with harlots and fortune tellers, who all together enter the temple dancing, and there celebrate their profane revels, as the pythons did on their holidays. [3] The state of vastation may also be compared with a hostile army, when it enters the suburbs of a besieged city and rules in them; but the state of consummation may be compared with the same army, when it has demolished the wall, and breaks through into the city and gives the inhabitants over to destruction. The state of vastation may further be compared with a ship upon sand banks, or a sandy shore, when it is violently tossed there, and raised and depressed, so that the pilot, captain, and sailors lament on account of their danger; but the state of consummation is when the ship's keel is fretted away by the gravel beneath, and the ship, being broken up and full of holes, sinks, and the navigators and merchandise 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 forebodes death, consults a physician, takes medicines, and all the while lies in bed in the hope of being healed; but the state of consummation may be compared to 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.