Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/162

 they were seen and likewise felt; but it was in vain, for they hardened their minds, saying, let come what will, provided only that we are in the delight and joy of our hearts while we are here. We shall not suffer more evil than many others. But after a stated time they are cast into hell, where they are compelled by punishments not to do evil; but punishments do not take away the will, the purpose, and consequent thought of evil; they only prevent the evil act."—Apocalpse Explained n. 1165.

"While man lives in the world, he is kept continually in a state capable of being reformed, provided he desists from evil from a free principle. But his life follows him after death, and he remains in the state which he had procured to himself by the whole course of his life in the world. Then he who was in evil, is no longer capable of being reformed; and lest he should have communication with any society of heaven, all truth and good are taken away from him, in consequence of which he remains in the evil and false, which principles increase according to the faculty of receiving them which he has acquired in the world; but he is not permitted to pass beyond the acquired bounds. . . . His state then is such that he cannot any longer be amended as to his interiors, but only as to his exteriors; and this by fear of punishments, which, being often repeated, compel the spirit at last to abstain from evil, which he does, not in freedom but through compulsion, the lust of doing evil still re-