1. The souls that are in Purgatory (as it seems to me) can have no other choice than to be in that place; and this is by the ordinance of God, who has ordained it justly. Nor can they turn back toward themselves any more, nor say: "I have committed such sins that I deserve to remain here." Nor can they say: "I would that I had not committed them, for then I would go now to Paradise." Nor can they say again: "That soul will depart sooner than I," or: "I shall depart sooner than he."
2. They can have no remembrance of their own, nor of others either, for good or for ill, that could bring them an affliction greater than their accustomed one. But they have so great a contentment in being within the ordinance of God, and in His working all that pleases Him and as it pleases Him, that they cannot have any thought of themselves that would increase their pain.
3. And they see only the working of the divine goodness, which shows so much mercy to man in order to draw him to itself, that they can see nothing of pain or of good that may befall them as belonging to their selfhood; and if they could see it, they would not be in pure charity.
4. They cannot even see that they are in those pains because of their sins, nor can they hold that sight in their minds; for there would be in it an active imperfection, which cannot be in that place, because there one can no longer actually sin.
5. The cause of the Purgatory they have within them, they see only once, in the moment of passing from this life, and never see it again; for otherwise there would be selfhood.
6. Being therefore in charity, and unable any longer to deviate from it by any actual fault, they can no longer will or desire anything but the pure will of pure charity; and being in that divine fire, they are in the divine ordinance (which is pure charity), and can no longer deviate from it in anything: for they are as much deprived of the power of actually sinning as they are of actually meriting.