7541. 'For this time I am sending all My plagues' means that it would be possible for the evil things yet to come to rush in on them all together. This is clear from the meaning of 'plagues' as evils, in this instance the evil things that had yet to come until they were completely cast into hell, which is why it says 'all' the plagues; and from the meaning of 'sending' as irrupting, for plagues or evil things are not sent by Jehovah or the Lord but irrupt from evil itself. For in the next life evil carries punishment with it and holds it so to speak within itself, 696, 967, 1857, 6559. This then is why 'I am sending all My plagues' means that all the evil things would rush in on them.

[2] Order requires that one plague should follow another and that for this reason the casting of the evil into hell should be done in stages. That is why the explanation here says merely that it would be possible for them to rush in all together. Since the member of the Church has no knowledge of what life is like after death he thinks that after life in the body a person is either raised instantly to heaven or cast instantly into hell. But in fact what happens to him takes place in stages, though considerably varying periods of time and states are involved in the process. In the case of the good who are to be raised to heaven evil is separated from them in successive stages, and they are filled at each stage with good according to their ability acquired in the world to receive it. But in the case of the evil who are to be cast into hell good is separated from them in successive stages, and they are filled at each stage with evil according to their ability acquired in the world to receive it. Furthermore a person in the next life goes on entering new states and undergoing changes. Those who are being raised to heaven are constantly being made more perfect, both then and afterwards for evermore. But those who are being cast into hell suffer bad experiences, both then and afterwards - experiences which become repeatedly grimmer, till they reach the point at which they do not dare to inflict harm on another. And after they have been cast into hell they remain there forever. They cannot be released from there because no desire for someone else's good can be imparted to them, only a refusal to do harm to someone, from fear of punishment; for the desire to do it will never forsake them.

6559. 'And will fully return to us all the evil with which we repaid him' means that a punishment as merited is therefore impending. This is clear from the meaning of 'returning the evil with which they repaid him' as a punishment as merited; for the return of evil that is done to someone is the punishment that is duly merited. What the returning of evil is, or what the nature of punishments in the spiritual world is, must be stated because it will show what the internal sense is of the words under consideration here. If in the world of spirits evil spirits do anything evil that exceeds the evil they assimilated by the life they led in the world, those who administer punishment become present in an instant and chastise those spirits in exact accord with the degree of their transgression. For the rule in the next life is that no one should become more evil than he had been in the world. Those who suffer punishment have no knowledge at all of how the ones who administer such punishment know that the evil they do exceeds what they assimilated in the world. But they are told that the nature of order in the next life is such that evil itself carries its own punishment, so that the evil that is committed is completely bound up with the evil inflicted as punishment, that is, within the evil itself lies its own punishment. It is therefore in keeping with order that those who repay with punishment should be instantly present.

[2] This is what happens when evil spirits in the world of spirits perform evil. But in their own hell one spirit chastises another in accord with the evil they assimilated by their actions in the world; for they take that evil with them into the next life. From all this it may now be seen how one is to understand the statement that a punishment as merited is therefore impending, meant by 'will fully return to us all the evil with which we repaid him'.

But as for good spirits, if by chance they utter what is evil or do what is evil, they are not punished but are pardoned and also freed from blame; for it is not their intention to utter what is evil or to do what is evil. And they know that such evil words and deeds were aroused in them by hell and for that reason were not their own fault. This fact can also be recognized from their action against that evil and subsequent grief.