9. The end of the church, or the consummation of the age, is when there is not any genuine truth and hence not any genuine good, or when there is not any good and hence not any truth remaining, but, in their place falsity and evil therefrom, or evil and falsity therefrom, rule; and then there is the "fullness [of time]" in the church, the members of which are like persons walking in the night, who, because they do not see anything that appears in the light of the sun, are in doubt about all things relating to the church, and in general about God, heaven and hell, and the life after death; and both those who confirm themselves in the denial of these things, and those who remain alternately in doubt and in affirmation, become shunners of the light, and, if they are priests, they procure to themselves a false light on those subjects, such as night-owls, cats, and mice have in the darkness of night. This light is excited with them, as with these wild beasts, through the activities of their lusts.