69、通过对比天堂之爱就能明显看出自我之爱是何性质。天堂之爱是为了功用而对功用的爱，或为了良善而对良善的爱，就是一个人为教会、国家、人类社会和同胞所履行的功用或良善。但他若为了自己而爱他们，就不是爱他们，而是把他们视为自己的仆人，因为他们为他服务。由此可知，人若爱自己，就会希望教会、国家、社会和同胞都为他服务，而不是他为他们服务。他将自己置于他们之上，将他们置于自己之下。
69、与天堂之爱相比较，能清楚地看出自爱的性质。天堂之爱是因热爱奉献而服务，因为热爱良善而践行良善，并如此施行于他的教会、国家、社会和同胞。但是人若做这些事仅仅是为了自己，他就不爱他们，视他们为伺候他的仆人。爱自己的人希望教会、国家、社会和同胞都为他服务，而不是他服务他们。他拿自己凌驾于他们之上，置他们于自己之下。
69. We can tell what self-love is like by contrasting it with heavenly love. Heavenly love is loving service for its own sake, loving for their own sakes the good things we do for church, country, community, and fellow citizen. When we love these things for the sake of ourselves instead, we love them only as servants who wait on us. Therefore when we live in self-love we want the church, our country, our community, and our fellow citizens to serve us rather than wanting to serve them. We place ourselves above them, and them beneath us.
69. We can see what selfish love is like by comparing it to heavenly love. Heavenly love is loving to do good and useful things for our religion, our country, community, and fellow citizens just for the sake of being good and useful. But if we love doing these things just to serve our own interests, we only love them the way we would love a servant who waits on us. If we are selfish, we want our religion, country, community, and fellow citizens to wait on us, and not the other way around. We put ourselves above them, and them below us.
69. A comparison with heavenly love can show what self-love is like. Heavenly love is loving to perform services for their own sake, or to do good actions for their own sake; and these are those one does for the church, one's country, a human community and one's fellow citizen. But someone who loves doing those things for his own sake loves them only as servants who do his bidding. It follows that a person who is in a state of self-love wants the church, his country, human communities and his fellow citizens to be his servants, instead of his being theirs. He sets himself above them and looks down on them.
69. The quality of the love of self appears from a comparison with heavenly love. Heavenly love consists in loving uses for the sake of uses, that is, in loving for their own sakes the goods which a man does to the Church, to his country, to society, and to a fellow-citizen; but he who loves them for his own sake, loves them in the same way in which he loves domestics, because he is served by them. From this it follows, that he who is in the love of self, desires that the Church, his country, society, and his fellow-citizens, shall serve him, and not that he himself should serve them; he puts himself above them, and places them beneath himself.
69. What the nature of the love of self is, may be evident from a comparison with heavenly love. Heavenly love is to love uses for the sake of uses, or goods for the sake of goods, which the man performs to the church, to his country, to human society, and to a fellow-citizen. But he who loves them for the sake of himself, does not love them otherwise than as his servants, because they are of service to him. It follows from this that he who is in the love of self wills that the church, his country, human societies, and his fellow-citizens serve him, and not he them. He puts himself above them, and them below him.
69. Ex comparatione cum amore caelesti, constare potest qualis est amor sui. Amor caelestis est amare usus propter usus, seu bona propter bona, quae homo praestat ecclesiae, patriae, societati humanae, et concivi; at qui amat illa propter se, is non amat illa aliter quam famulitia, quia serviunt sibi: inde sequitur quod qui in amore sui est, velit ut ecclesia, patria, societates humanae, et concives, serviant sibi, et non is illis; ponit se supra illos, et illos infra se.