Temporal things relate to dignities and riches, thus to honors and acquisitions in the world. Temporal things are manifold, but they all relate to dignities and riches. Temporal things mean such as either perish with time, or are merely terminated with man's life in the world; but eternal things mean such as do not perish or terminate with time, thus not with life in the world. And since, as has been said, all temporal things have relation to dignities and riches it is important to know the following, namely:
- What dignities and riches are and whence they are
- What the love of them for their own sake is, and what the love of them for the sake of uses is
- That these two loves are as distinct from each other as heaven and hell are
- That the difference between these two loves can scarcely be known by man.
But of these separately.
First: What dignities and riches are, and whence they are. Dignities and riches in the most ancient times were wholly different from what they afterwards gradually became. Dignities in the earliest times were such only as were accorded by children to parents; they were dignities of love, full of respect and veneration, not on account of their birth from them but because of the instruction and wisdom received from them, which was a second birth, in itself spiritual, because it was the birth of their spirit. This was the only dignity in the earliest times; for tribes, families, and households then dwelt apart, and not under general governments as at this day. It was the father of the family to whom this dignity was accorded. By the ancients those times were called the golden ages.
But after those times the love of rule from the mere delight of that love gradually came in; and because enmity and hostility against those who were unwilling to submit entered at the same time, tribes, families, and households necessarily gathered themselves together into general communities, and appointed over themselves one whom they at first called judge, and afterwards prince, and finally king and emperor. At the same time they began to protect themselves by towers, earthworks, and walls. From judge, prince, king, or emperor, as from the head into the body, the lust of ruling spread like a contagion to others; and from this arose degrees of dignity, and also honors according to them; and with these the love of self and the pride of one's own prudence.
Then there was a like change in regard to the love of riches. In the earliest times, when tribes and families dwelt apart from one another, there was no other love of riches than a desire to possess the necessaries of life, which they acquired by means of their flocks and herds, and their lands, fields, and gardens, which furnished them with food. Among their necessaries of life were also suitable houses, furnished with useful things of every kind, and also clothing. The parents, children, servants, and maids in a house, were engaged in the care and labor connected with all these things.
But when the love of rule had entered and destroyed this commonwealth, the love of possessing wealth beyond their necessities also entered, and grew to such a height that it desired to possess the wealth of all others. These two loves are like blood-relations; for he that wishes to rule over all things also wishes to possess all things; for thus all others become servants, and they alone lords. This is clearly evident from those within the papal jurisdiction, who have exalted their dominion even into heaven to the throne of the Lord, upon which they have placed themselves; they also seek to grasp the wealth of all the earth, and to enlarge their treasuries without end.
Secondly: What the love of dignities and riches for their own sake is, and what the love of dignities and riches for the sake of uses is. The love of dignities and honors for the sake of dignities and honors is the love of self, strictly, the love of ruling from the love of self; and the love of riches and possessions for the sake of riches and possessions is the love of the world, strictly, the love of possessing the goods of others by any device whatever. But the love of dignities and riches for the sake of uses is the love of uses, which is the same as love of the neighbor; for that for the sake of which man acts is the end from which he acts, and this is first or chief, while all other things are means and are secondary.
As to the love of dignities and honors for their own sake, which is the same as the love of self, or, strictly, the same as the love of rule from the love of self, it is the love of one's own (proprium), and man's own is all evil. For this reason man is said to be born into all evil, and what he has hereditarily is nothing but evil. What man has hereditarily is his own, in which he is and into which he comes through the love of self, and especially through the love of ruling from love of self; for the man who is in that love looks only to himself, and thus immerses his thoughts and affections in what is his own. Consequently there is in the love of self the love of doing evil; and for the reason that the man loves not the neighbor but himself alone; and he who loves himself alone sees others only as apart from himself, or as insignificant or of no account, and he despises them in comparison with himself, accounting it nothing to inflict evil upon them.
And this is why one who is in the love of ruling from the love of self thinks nothing of defrauding the neighbor, committing adultery with his wife, defaming him, breathing revenge against him even to murder, venting his rage against him, and so on. Man becomes such for the reason that the devil himself, with whom he is conjoined and by whom he is led, is nothing else than a love of ruling from the love of self; and he who is led by the devil, that is, by hell, is led into all these evils; and he is led continually by means of the delights of these evils. For this reason all who are in hell wish to do evil to all, while those who are in heaven wish to do good to all. From the opposition between these an intermediate state arises in which man is, and in it he is as it were in equilibrium, which enables him to turn either to hell or to heaven; and so far as he favors the evils of love of self he turns towards hell, but so far as he rejects those evils from himself he turns toward heaven.
What and how great the delight of the love of ruling from the love of self is it has been granted me to feel. I was let into it that I might know what it is. It was such as to surpass all the delights that there are in the world; it was a delight of the whole mind from its inmosts to its outmosts; but it was felt in the body only as an agreeable and pleasurable sensation in the swelling breast. It was also granted me to perceive that from that delight, as from their fountain, gushed forth the delights of all evils, as adultery, revenge, fraud, defamation, and evil doing in general. There is a like delight in the love of possessing the goods of others by whatever device, and from that love in the lusts derived from it; yet not in the same degree unless that love is conjoined with the love of self. But in regard to dignities and riches not for their own sake but for the sake of uses, this is not a love of dignities and riches, but a love of uses, to which dignities and riches are serviceable as means; this is a heavenly love. But more on this subject hereafter.
Thirdly: These two loves are distinct from each other as heaven and hell are. This is clear from what has just been said; to which I will add, that all who are in a love of ruling from a love of self, whoever they are, whether great or small, are in hell as to their spirits; and that all who are in that love are in the love of all evils, and if they do not commit them, in their spirit they believe them to be allowable, and therefore they do them in the body when dignity and honor and fear of the law do not hinder. And what is more, the love of ruling from the love of self inmostly conceals in itself hatred against God, consequently against the Divine things pertaining to the church, and especially against the Lord. If they acknowledge God it is only with the lips; and if they acknowledge the Divine things of the church it is from a fear of the loss of honor. Such a love has inmostly stored up in it hatred against the Lord, for the reason that there is inmostly in it a desire to be God, since it worships and adores itself alone. Therefore if any one honors it so far as to say that it possesses Divine wisdom and is the deity of the world, it heartily loves him.
It is not so with the love of dignities and riches for the sake of uses; this is a heavenly love, being the same, as has been said, as love of the neighbor. By uses goods are meant; and therefore doing uses means doing goods, and doing uses or goods means serving others and ministering to them. Although such enjoy dignity and wealth they regard them only as a means for performing uses, thus for serving and ministering. Such are meant by these words of the Lord: -
Whosoever will become great among you must be your minister; and whosoever will be first must be your servant (Matt. 20:26-27).
To such also dominion in heaven is entrusted by the Lord; because to such, dominion is a means for doing uses or goods, thus for serving; and when uses or goods are the ends or loves it is the Lord and not they that rule, for all good is from the Lord.
