THE LORD RULES THE HELLS

Above, in treating of heaven, it has been everywhere shown (especially in n. 2-6) that the Lord is the God of heaven, thus that the whole government of the heavens is the Lord's government. And as the relation of heaven to hell and of hell to heaven is like the relation between two opposites which mutually act contrary to each other, and from the action and reaction of which an equilibrium results, in which all things remain in existence, so in order that all things and each thing may be kept in equilibrium it is necessary that He who rules the one should rule the other; for unless the same Lord restrained the uprisings from the hells and checked insanities there, the equilibrium would perish and everything with it.