3201. About permission
So that I might know how and why the Lord sometimes permits spirits in the other life to undergo such punishments and torments as they do, I was let into the supposition as if a certain very friendly spirit would be brought into most severe punishments, although it was others. 1And then I was held in that supposition that if he did not undergo the most grievous kinds of punishments, he would never become good. In that state of mind I was held with the conviction that it would be impossible for him to become good unless he were thus tempered.
In that state I was unable to feel at all sorry for him, much less come to his aid, for I had at heart the good that would come of it, which I was constantly being inspired to turn over in my mind. From this I am able to know how the Lord permits such punishments, even severe ones, because He turns everything into good, intending nothing else but good, and it is the means for that spirit's reformation. 1748, 19 Sept.
Footnotes:
1. The index has "it was not so."
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.
3201. De permissione
Ut scirem, quomodo et quare Dominus permittat, ut spiritus in altera vita tales punitiones et cruciatus quandoque subeant, missus sum in statum, ut quidam spiritus amicissimus, in gravissimas quasi punitiones ferretur, tametsi alii essent {a}, et tunc tenebar in statu isto, quod si non subiret tales punitiones, quae gravissimae erant, quod nusquam bonus fieret, in quo statu cum tali persuasione tenebar, quod impossibile esset, ut bonus fieri potuisset, nisi ita temperaretur, in quo statu nequicquam potui misereri, minus velle auxilium ferri, nam bonum inde erat cordi, quod mihi quoque volvere continue infundebatur, exinde scire possum, quomodo Dominus permittit tales punitiones etiam graves, quia in bonum vertit omne, et nihil aliud quam bonum intendit, et quod sit medium ad ejus reformationem. 1748, 19 Sept.