judgments, are to them more or less
good as there is in their judgments more or less of regard for
friendship, favor, or gain; also as there is more or less in them of a
love of what is just for the sake of the public good, which is that
justice may prevail among their fellow citizens, and that those who live
according to the laws may have security. Such judges have eternal life
in a degree that accords with their works; for they are judged as they
themselves have judged. (A.E., n. 976.)

Take as an example managers of the goods of others, higher or lower. If
these secretly by arts or under some pretext by fraud deprive their
kings, their country, or their masters of their goods, they have no
religion and thus no conscience, for they hold the Divine law respecting
theft in contempt and make it of no account. And although they frequent
churches, devoutly listen to preachings, observe the sacrament of the
Supper, pray morning and evening, and talk piously from the Word, yet
nothing from heaven flows in and is present in their worship, piety, or
discourse, since their interiors are full of theft, plundering, robbery,
and injustice; and so long as these are within, the way into them from
heaven is closed; consequently all the works they do are evil works.

But the managers of property who shun unlawful gains and fraudulent
profits because they are contrary to the Divine law respecting theft,
have religion, and thus also conscience; and all the works they do are
good, for they act from sincerity for the sake of sincerity, and from
justice for the sake of justice, and furthermore are content with their
own, and are cheerful in mind and glad in heart whenever it happens that
they have refrained from fraud; and after death they are welcomed by the
angels and received by them as brothers, and are presented with good
things even to abundance. But the opposite is true of evil managers;
these after death are cast out of societies, and afterward seek wages
and finally are sent into the caverns of robbers to labor there. (A.E.,
n. 977.)

Take merchants as an example: All their works are evil works so long as
they do not regard as sins, and thus shun as sins, unlawful gains and
wrongful usury, also fraud and craft; for such works cannot be done from
the Lord, but must be done from man himself. And the more expert they
are in skillfully and artfully contriving devices from within for
overreaching their companions the more evil