This is clear without further proof from what was said above (486). For it is well known that the nature of every deed, and in general of everything, depends upon the circumstances, which may mitigate or aggravate it. But adultery of this type is a mild offence in the first periods after its commission; and it remains mild in so far as the person concerned abstains from it in the course of his or her life thereafter, because it is an evil against God, or an evil against one's neighbour, or an evil against the good of the state, and for all these reasons because it is an evil contrary to reason. On the other hand however, such adultery is counted as serious, if its perpetrators do not abstain for one of the reasons listed. This is in accordance with Divine law (Ezek. 18:21, 22, 24 and elsewhere). A person, however, is not in a position to excuse or condemn such acts, or to qualify and judge them as mild or serious because of the circumstances, since they are not visible to him, nor in fact are they within his competence to judge. It must therefore be understood that they are so reckoned and imputed after death.