3201. CONCERNING PERSUASION. In order that I may know how and wherefore the Lord permits spirits to undergo sometimes such punishments and torments in the other life, I was let into a state so that a certain very friendly spirit might, as it were, be borne into the most grievous punishments, although it was others [who endured them]; and then I was held in that state [so as to see] [know] that if he did not undergo such punishments as were most grievous, he would never become good. In that state I was kept with a persuasion that it was impossible for him to have become good unless tempered. In that state I could not at all pity him, still less wish to yield him assistance; for good was then in my heart and was continually infused into my meditation [volvere]. Hence I may know how the Lord permits such even grievous punishments, because he turns everything into good, and intends nothing else but good, and what may be a means to his reformation. - 1748, September 19.