7548. 'But yet for this reason have I caused you to stand' means that nevertheless communication would continue, and states would run their orderly course. This is clear from the meaning of 'causing to stand' - when used in reference to plagues or evils, which will not rush in all together, 7541, and to communication or contact with heaven, which will not be taken away from them, 7545 - as a declaration that nevertheless communication would continue, and therefore that states would run their orderly course, that is, those people would experience devastation in successive stages, 7541.

967. When the evil are being punished, angels are always present who moderate the punishment and alleviate the sufferings of those poor wretches. They cannot however take away the sufferings. In the next life all things are counterbalanced in such a way that evil punishes itself, and if it were not removed by means of punishments such persons could not be confined for ever in any one particular hell; for if not so confined and punished they would infest the communities of the good and do violence to that order established by the Lord on which the safety of the whole world depends.