4308. THE REASON OF PUNISHMENT, AND THAT SPIRITS ARE HELD IN CORPOREAL THINGS. I have often wondered that souls and spirits should be punished, and sometimes severely, when yet they seem to speak well, especially if held in their ultimate state, i. e., the state in which external bonds bear sway, and when retained the state in which they were when they preached and persuaded others. So long as they are kept in this state, they know and confess sound doctrinals and the truths of faith; and yet they are punished. But the reason is that their interiors do not correspond; while abiding in externals they think themselves upright, but as soon as those externals - namely, bonds and the persuasives of speech and science - are removed, then their interiors are immediately laid open, and shown to be contrary, wherefore they are punished. It was given also to know the cause, to wit, that this external is, as it were, nothing. Many spirits transfer themselves into a subtler sphere, as the sirens, by means of their art, and others also, whither when they come, their interiors are what operate. Unless a soul or spirit is amended before he comes thither, his evil is then continued, and a long time is required before the amendment takes place; wherefore it is not permitted to spirits who are being vastated to come into that other sphere before the vastation is accomplished, or they are amended by punishments. Very many of the infernals are in that sphere. - 1749, June 17.