406. After death it is easy to tell the difference between the love of babies and children in the case of the spiritual and in the case of the natural. For most fathers on reaching that world remember their children who died before them and present themselves to them, so that they recognise each other. Spiritual fathers merely look at them and ask what their condition is, being pleased if it is well with them and grieved if not. Then after talking to them for a while, telling and warning them about leading a moral life in heaven, they leave them, telling them before leaving that they should no longer be remembered as their father, because the Lord is the sole father of all in heaven, as His words declare (Matt. 23:9), and thereafter they never remember them as their children.
Natural fathers, however, as soon as they realise that they are alive after dying and call to mind their children who died before them, also presenting themselves in accordance with their wishes, immediately become attached to them and cling as close as a bundle of fasces.* Then the father continually takes delight in looking at his children and talking with them. If the father is told that some of his children are satans and have done harm to good people, they none the less keep them in the company around them, or in the crowd before them. If he actually sees them inflicting harm and doing evil, he pays no attention to that, nor does he remove any from his company. To prevent therefore this injurious group lasting, they have to be banished together to hell; there the father is imprisoned before his children are; these are taken apart and each is assigned the place for which his life fits him. * The bundle of rods with an axe carried by the attendants of Roman magistrates.
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