[3] In the other life no one ever suffers punishment on
account of his inherited evil, because it is not his evil, that is,
it is not his fault that he is such; he suffers only on account of
actual evil that is his, that is, only so far as he has appropriated
to himself inherited evil by actual life. When, therefore, the
children that have become adults are let down into the state of their
inherited evil it is not that they may suffer punishment for it, but
that they may learn that of themselves they are nothing but evil, and
that it is by the mercy of the Lord that they are taken up into
heaven from the hell in which they are, and that it is from the Lord
that they are in heaven and not from any merit of their own; and
therefore they may not boast before others of the good that is in
them, since this is contrary to the good of mutual love, as it is
contrary to the truth of faith.
{Footnote 1} All kinds of men are born into evils of every
kind, even to the extent that what is their own is nothing but
evil (n. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518,
3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731).
Consequently man must needs be reborn, that is, regenerated (n.
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