Continuation.- Let us take another example, as the case of a king, a prince, a consul, a governor, or an official, whose principal end is the love of rule, and the means every thing connected with their sway, and with the management and discharge of their office. The uses which these perform are not done for the sake of the good of the kingdom, the commonwealth, the country, society, or their fellow-citizens, but for the sake of the delight of ruling, thus for the sake of themselves. Real uses are not uses to them, but their uses administer to their pride; and they perform them for the sake of appearance and distinction, without any love for them; they extol them, and yet make light of them, just as a master does with his servants. I have seen such persons after their death, and have been astonished. They were devils among fiery devils; for the love of rule, when it is a principal end, is the very fire of hell.

[2] I have seen others also, whose love of rule was not their principal end, but the love of God and their neighbour, which is the love of uses; these were angels, to whom governments (dominia) in the heavens were given. From these cases, again, it is evident that eminence may be either a blessing or a curse; and that when a blessing it is from the Lord, but when a curse it is from the devil. The nature of the love of rule, when it is the principal end, may be seen by every man from that kingdom which is meant in the Word by Babel, in the fact that it has set its throne in the heavens above the lord, by claiming all His power to itself. It has consequently abolished the Divine means of worship, which are from the Lord by means of the Word, and in their stead has established such as are demoniacal, consisting of adorations offered to men living and dead, to sepulchres, also to dead bodies, and to bones. That kingdom is described as Lucifer in Isaiah (xiv. 4-24); those however who have exercised this dominion from the love of it are Lucifers, but not the rest.