EVIL AND PUNISHMENT
All evil bears its punishment with it. Evil spirits are punished because the fear of punishment is the one means of subduing evils in this state. Exhortation no longer avails, nor instruction, nor fear of the law nor fear for one's reputation; for now the spirit acts from a nature which cannot be coerced or broken except by punishment.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 509
It is a law in the other life that no one shall become worse than he had been in the world.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 6559