AC 7795 - Succession of States

AC 7795

. . . the signification of the "wonders" and "signs"
 that were done in Egypt,
as being vastations
and consequent confirmations that they were evil;
for these "wonders" signified so many degrees
of the vastation of those
who within the church
had been in the memory-knowledge
of such things as are of faith,
and yet had lived evilly;
and because these are they
who infest the upright in the other life,
it is their state now which is here signified.
. . . The reason why there are so many degrees
 is in order that the evil may be confirmed in the fact
that they are in evil;
and also that the good may be enlightened
concerning the state of those within the church
who have lived evilly.
Except for these reasons,
the evil might be condemned and let down into hell
without so many successive changes of states. 

That before the evil are condemned
and let down into hell
they undergo so many states
is altogether unknown in the world.
It is believed that man is at once
either condemned or saved,
and that this is effected without any process;
but the case is otherwise.
Justice reigns there,
and no one is condemned until he himself knows,
and is inwardly convinced,
that he is in evil,
and that it is utterly impossible for him to be in heaven.
His own evils are also laid open to him,
according to the words of the Lord in Luke:

There is nothing covered up,
that shall not be revealed;
or hidden, that shall not be known.
Wherefore whatsoever you have said in the darkness
shall be heard in the light;
and that which you have spoken in the ear
in the bed chambers
shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
(Luke 12:2-3; Matt. 10:26-27; Mark 4:22);

and what is more,
he is also warned to desist from evil;
but when he cannot do this
because of the dominion of evil,
the power is then taken away from him
of doing evil by falsifications of truth
and pretenses of good,
which is effected successively
from one degree to another,
and finally condemnation follows
and the letting down into hell.
This takes place
when he comes into the evil of his life.

The evil of the life is evil of the will
and of the thought from there derived;
thus it is the man's inward quality
and what would be his quality outwardly
if he were not hindered by the laws,
and likewise by fears
of the loss of gain, of honor, of reputation, and of life.
This is the life which follows every man after death,
but not the outward life,
except that which proceeds from the inward life;
for in outward things a man pretends what is contrary;
and therefore when a man after death
is being vastated in respect to outward things,
it then plainly appears what had been his quality
both in will and in thought.
To this state every evil person
is reduced by means of degrees of vastation,
for all vastation in the other life advances
from outward to inward things.
From all this it can be seen
what is the nature of the justice in the other life,
and what the nature of the process
before an evil person is condemned.