The more the intellect approves of evils, the more a person takes them to himself and makes them his own. Approval is consent, and consent induces the mind to love them. It is much the same with adultery, if to begin with committed without the consent of the intellect, and approved [afterwards]. The reverse happens, if afterwards they are not approved. The reason is that evils or acts of adultery committed while the intellect is blinded are due to bodily desire, being much like the instincts which animals have. In the case of human beings the intellect is admittedly present while the acts are being committed, but its powers are dormant or dead, not active or alive. It is the automatic consequence of this that such deeds are not imputed, except so far as they are subsequently approved or not. We mean by imputation here incurring blame and so judgment after death, and this depends on the state of a person's spirit. We do not mean being blamed by a person before a judge; this is not dependent on the state of his spirit, but on the deeds of the body. If this difference did not exist, those who are acquitted in the world would be acquitted after death, and those who are damned then would be condemned here. So they would not have any hope of being saved.