has innate or hereditary evil from parents; but it
is known to few in what that dwells, in its fulness: it dwells in the love
of possessing the goods of all others, and in the love of ruling; for this
latter love is such, that, as far as the reins are given to it, so far it
bursts forth, until it burns with the desire of ruling over all, and, at
length, wishes to be invoked and worshipped as a god. This love is the
serpent, which deceived Eve and Adam; for it said to the woman, _God doth
know, in the day that ye eat of the fruit of that tree, your eyes will be
opened,_ AND THEN YE WILL BE AS GOD. (Gen. iii. 4, 5.) As far, therefore,
as man, without restraint, rushes into this love, so far he averts himself
from God, and turns to himself, and becomes a worshipper of himself; and
then he can invoke God with a warm mouth from the love of self, but with a
cold heart from contempt of God. And then, also, the divine things of the
church may serve for means; but, because the end is dominion, the means
are regarded no more than as they are subservient to it. Such a person, if
he is exalted to the highest honors, is, in his own imagination, like
Atlas bearing the terraqueous globe upon his shoulders, and like Phoebus,
with his horses, carrying the sun around the world.

"Since man hereditarily is such, therefore all who, by papal bulls, have
been made saints, in the spiritual world are removed from the eyes of
others, and concealed, and all intercourse with their worshippers is taken
away from them; the reason is, lest that most pernicious root of evil
should be excited in them, and they should be brought into such fantastic
deliriums as there are with demons. Into such deliriums those come, who,
while they live in the world, zealously aspire to be made saints after
death, that they may be invoked.

"Many of the Roman Catholic persuasion, especially the monks, when they
come into the spiritual world, inquire for the saints, particularly the
saint of their order; but they do not find them, at which they wonder; but
afterwards they are instructed that they are mixed together, either with
those who are in heaven, or with those who are in the earth below; and
that, in either case, they know nothing of the worship and invocation of
themselves, and that those who do know, and wish to be invoked, fall into
deliriums, and talk foolishly. The worship of saints is such an
abomination in heaven, that, if they only hear it, they are filled