8832. 'And also the priests coming near Jehovah must sanctify themselves' means that those governed by spiritual good, which has the Divine within it, are to be covered over. This is clear from the meaning of 'the priests' as good, dealt with in 1728, 2015 (end), 6148, at this point spiritual good since the children of Israel, whose priests they were, represented those belonging to the spiritual Church, and so those governed by good coming through truth and guided by truth springing from good, 7957, 8234; from the meaning of 'going near Jehovah' - said in reference to 'the priests', by whom good is meant - as having the Divine within it; and from the meaning of 'being sanctified' as having one's interiors covered over, dealt with in 8788, 8806.

2308. In the next life no one ever undergoes punishment on account of hereditary evil, since this is not his own and thus he is not at fault for being such. He undergoes it on account of the evil of his own doing, thus for that amount of hereditary evil which he makes his own by his own actions in life, as stated already in 966. The reason for returning the young children, when they have become adult, to the state of their hereditary evil is not therefore so that they may undergo punishment, but so that they may know that of themselves they are nothing but evil, and that it is in the Lord's mercy they are taken away from the hell that exists with them into heaven, and that they are not in heaven on account of any merit of their own but on account of the Lord. In this way they are prevented from boasting to others of the good that exists with them, for that is contrary to the good flowing from mutual love, as it is contrary to the truth of faith.