In the world of spirits there are many kinds of
punishment; and there is no regard for person, whether one had been
in the world a king or a servant. Every evil carries its punishment
with it, the two making one; therefore whoever is in evil is also in
the punishment of evil. And yet no one in the other world suffers
punishment on account of the evils that he had done in this world,
but only on account of the evils that he then does; although it
amounts to the same and is the same thing whether it be said that men
suffer punishment on account of their evils in the world or that they
suffer punishment on account of the evils they do in the other life,
since everyone after death returns into his own life and thus into
like evils; and the man continues the same as he had been in the life
of the body (n. 470-484). Men are punished for the reason that the
fear of punishment is the sole means of subduing evils in this state.
Exhortation is no longer of any avail, neither is instruction or fear
of the law and of the loss of reputation, since everyone then acts
from his nature; and that nature can be restrained and broken only by
punishments.
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