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"As the purified spirit finds no repose but in God, for whom it
was created, so the soul in sin can rest nowhere but in hell,
which, by reason of its sins, has become its end. Therefore, at
that instant in which the soul separates from the body, it goes to
its prescribed place, needing no other guide than the nature of
the sin itself, if the soul has parted from the body in mortal
sin.
"And if the soul were hindered from obeying that decree
(proceeding from the justice of God), it would find itself in a
yet deeper hell, for it would be outside of the divine order, in
which mercy always finds place and prevents the full infliction of
all the pains the soul has merited. Finding, therefore, no spot
more fitting, nor any in which her pains would be so slight, she
casts herself into her appointed place.
"The same thing is true of purgatory: the soul, leaving the body,
and not finding in herself that purity in which she was created,
and seeing also the hindrances which prevent her union with God,
conscious also that purgatory only can remove them, casts herself
quickly and willingly therein. And if she did not find the means
ordained for her purification, she would instantly create for
herself a hell worse than purgatory, seeing that by reason of this
impediment she is hindered from approaching her end, which is God;
and this is so great an ill that in comparison with it the soul
esteems purgatory as nothing. True it is, as I have said, like
hell; and yet, in comparison with the loss of God it is as
nothing."
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