2619. They have sometimes told me that this was commanded, but it was given to answer them that it was not commanded but permitted, because they were of such a nature. In like manner it is permitted the devil, because of such a nature, to torment men. Such permissions, because there have been such ever since Jacob's [time], seem to them [to be] commanded: for such [men] apprehend nothing else than that [such things] are commanded; wherefore according to the appearance and the fallacy of their sense is it also spoken [the language] in these things. That it was not divine or commanded by the Lord may be most clearly evident from this, that it is contrary or opposite to heavenly love, and [the love] of one man towards another, concerning which love the Lord has so many times spoken, and the Lord is Love Itself, from whom alone [flows] all the heavenly love in the heavens, and conjugial love, and the love of parents towards children. - 1748, July 16.)