Title:
Revelations of Divine Love
Creator(s):
Julian, of Norwich, b. 1343
Grace
Warrack (Translator)
Print
Basis: 1901
Rights:
Public Domain
REVELATIONS
OF DIVINE LOVE
Translated
by Grace Warrack
First
published 1901
CHAPTER
I
"A
Revelation of Love – in Sixteen Showings"
THIS
is a Revelation of Love that Jesus Christ, our endless bliss, made in
Sixteen Showings, or Revelations particular.
Of
the which the First is of His precious crowning with thorns; and
therewith was comprehended and specified the Trinity, with the
Incarnation, and unity betwixt God and man's soul; with many fair
showings of endless wisdom and teachings of love: in which all the
Showings that follow be grounded and made one, united.
The
Second is the changing of color of His fair face in token of His
precious Passion.
The
Third is that our Lord God, Almighty Wisdom, All-Love, right as
verily as He hath made everything that is, all-so verily He doeth and
worketh all-thing that is done.
The
Fourth is the scourging of His tender body, with plenteous shedding
of His blood.
The
Fifth is that the Fiend is overcome by the precious Passion of
Christ.
The
Sixth is the honor-bestowing thanking by our Lord God in which He
rewardeth His blessed servants in Heaven.
The
Seventh is [our] often feeling of weal and woe; (the feeling of weal
is gracious touching and lightening, with true assuredness of endless
joy; the feeling of woe is temptation by heaviness and irksomeness of
our fleshly living ;) with ghostly understanding that we are kept all
as securely in Love in woe as in weal, by the Goodness of God.
The
Eighth is of the last pains of Christ, and His cruel dying.
The
Ninth is of the pleasing which is in the Blissful Trinity by the hard
Passion of Christ and His rueful dying: in which joy and pleasing He
willeth that we be solaced and made glad with Him, till when we come
to the fulness in Heaven.
The
Tenth is, our Lord Jesus sheweth in love His blissful heart even
cloven in two, rejoicing.
The
Eleventh is an high ghostly Showing of His dearworthy Mother.
The
Twelfth is that our Lord is most worthy Being.
The
Thirteenth is that our Lord God willeth we have great regard to all
the deeds that He hath done: in the great nobleness of the making of
all things; and the excellency of man's making, which is above all
his works; and the precious amends that He hath made for man's sin,
turning all our blame into endless worship. In which Showing also our
Lord saith: Behold and see! For by the same Might, Wisdom, and
Goodness that I have done all this, by the same Might, Wisdom, and
Goodness I shall make well all that is not well; and thou shalt see
it. And in this He willeth that we keep us in the Faith and truth of
Holy Church, not desiring to see into His secret things now, save as
it belongeth to us in this life.
The
Fourteenth is that our Lord is the Ground of our Prayer. Herein were
seen two properties: the one is rightful prayer, the other is
steadfast trust; which He willeth should both be alike large; and
thus our prayer pleaseth Him and He of His Goodness fulfilleth it.
The
Fifteenth is that we shall suddenly be taken from all our pain and
from all our woe, and of His Goodness we shall come up above, where
we shall have our Lord Jesus for our meed and be fulfilled with joy
and bliss in Heaven.
The
Sixteenth is that the Blissful Trinity, our Maker, in Christ Jesus
our Savior, endlessly dwelleth in our soul, worshipfully ruling and
protecting all things, us mightily and wisely saving and keeping, for
love; and we shall not be overcome of our Enemy.
CHAPTER
II
"A
simple creature unlettered – which creature afore desired
three
gifts of God"
These
Revelations were showed to a simple creature unskilled in letters,
the year of our Lord 1373, the Thirteenth day of May. Which creature
[had] afore desired three gifts of God. The First was to have a mind
of His Passion; the Second was bodily sickness in youth, at thirty
years of age; the Third was to have of God's gift of three wounds.
As
to the First, I thought I had some feeling in the Passion of Christ,
but yet I desired more by the grace of God. I thought I would have
been that time with Mary Magdalene, and with other that were Christ's
lovers, and therefore I desired a bodily sight wherein I might have
more knowledge of the bodily pains of our Savior and of the
compassion of our Lady and of all His true lovers that saw, that
time, His pains. For I would be one of them and suffer with Him.
Other sight nor showing of God desired I never none, till the soul
were disparted from the body. The cause of this petition was that
after the showing I should have the more true mind in the Passion of
Christ.
The
Second came to my mind with contrition; [I] freely desiring that
sickness [to be] so hard as to death, that I might in that sickness
receive all my rites of Holy Church, myself thinking that I should
die, and that all creatures might suppose the same that saw me: for I
would have no manner of comfort of earthly life. In this sickness I
desired to have all manner of pains bodily and ghostly that I should
have if I should die, (with all the dreads and tempests of the
fiends) except the outpassing of the soul. And this I thought of as
being purged, by the mercy of God, and afterward live more to the
worship of God because of that sickness. And that for the more speed
in my death: for I desired to be soon with my God.
These
two desires of the Passion and the sickness I desired with a
condition, saying thus: Lord, Thou knowest what I would, – if
it be
Thy will that I have it – ; and if it be not Thy will, good
Lord,
be not displeased: for I will nought but as Thou wilt.
For
the Third [petition], by the grace of God and teaching of the Holy
Church I conceived a mighty desire to receive three wounds in my
life: that is to say, the wound of very contrition, the wound of kind
compassion, and the wound of steadfast longing toward God. And all
this last petition I asked without any condition.
These
two desires aforesaid passed from my mind, but the third dwelled with
me continually.
CHAPTER
III
"I
desired to suffer with Him"
And
when I was thirty years old and a half, God sent me a bodily
sickness, in which I lay three days and three nights; and on the
fourth night I took all my rites of Holy Church, and expected not to
have lived till day. And after this I languored for two days and two
nights, and on the third night I expected oftentimes to have passed;
and so expected they that were with me.
And
being in youth as yet, I thought it great sorrow to die; –
but for
nothing that was in earth that I liked to live for, nor for no pain
that I had fear of: for I trusted in God of His mercy. But it was to
have lived that I might have loved God better, and longer time, that
I might have the more knowing and loving of God in bliss of Heaven.
For I thought all the time that I had lived here so little and so
short in regard of that endless bliss, – I thought [it was
as]
nothing. Wherefore I thought: Good Lord, may my living no longer be
to Thy worship! And I understood by my reason and by my feeling of my
pains that I should die; and I assented fully with all the will of my
heart to be at God's will. Thus I endured till day, and by then my
body was dead from the middle downwards, as to my feeling. Then was I
minded to be set upright, backward leaning, with help, – for
to
have more freedom of my heart to be at God's will, and thinking on
God while my life would last.
My
Curate was sent for to be at my ending, and by that time when he came
I had set my eyes, and might not speak. He set the Cross before my
face and said: I have brought thee the Image of thy Master and
Savior: look thereupon and comfort thee therewith. I thought I was
well [as it was], for my eyes were set uprightward unto Heaven, where
I trusted to come by the mercy of God; but nevertheless I assented to
set my eyes on the face of the Crucifix, if I might; and so I did.
For I thought I could longer endure to look straight forward than
right up.
After
this my sight began to fail, and it was all dark about me in the
chamber, as if it had been night, save in the Image of the Cross
whereon I beheld a common light; and I understood not how. All that
was away from the Cross was of horror to me, as if it had been
greatly occupied by the fiends.
After
this the upper part of my body began to die, so far forth that
scarcely I had any feeling; – with shortness of breath. And
then I
weened in sooth to have passed. And in this [moment] suddenly all my
pain was taken from me, and I was as whole (and specially in the
upper part of my body) as ever I was before.
I
marveled at this sudden change; for I thought it was a privy working
of God, and not of nature. And yet by the feeling of this ease I
trusted never the more to live; nor was the feeling of this ease any
full ease unto me: for I thought I had liefer have been delivered
from this world.
Then
came suddenly to my mind that I should desire the second wound of our
Lord's gracious gift: that my body might be fulfilled with mind and
feeling of His blessed Passion. For I would that His pains were my
pains, with compassion and afterward longing to God. But in this I
desired never bodily sight nor showing of God, but compassion such as
a kind soul might have with our Lord Jesus, that for love would be a
mortal man: and therefore I desired to suffer with Him.
THE
FIRST REVELATION
CHAPTER
IV
"I
saw . . . as it were in the time of His Passion . . . And in the same
Showing suddenly the Trinity filled my heart with utmost joy"
In
this moment suddenly I saw the red blood trickle down from under the
Garland hot and freshly and right plenteously, as it were in the time
of His Passion when the Garland of thorns was pressed on His blessed
head who was both God and Man, the same that suffered thus for me. I
conceived truly and mightily that it was Himself showed it me,
without any intermediary. And in the same Showing suddenly the
Trinity fulfilled my heart most of joy. And so I understood it shall
be in heaven without end to all that shall come there. For the
Trinity is God: God is the Trinity; the Trinity is our Maker and
Keeper, the Trinity is our everlasting love and everlasting joy and
bliss, by our Lord Jesus Christ. And this was showed in the First
[Showing] and in all: for where Jesus appeareth, the blessed Trinity
is understood, as to my sight.
And
I said: Benedicite Domine! This I said for reverence in my meaning,
with mighty voice; and full greatly was astonished for wonder and
marvel that I had, that He that is so reverend and dreadful will be
so homely with a sinful creature living in wretched flesh.
This
Showing I took for the time of my temptation, for I thought by the
sufferance of God I should be tempted of fiends ere I died. Through
this sight of the blessed Passion, with the Godhead that I saw in
mine understanding, I knew well that it was strength enough for me,
yea, and for all creatures living, against all the fiends of hell and
ghostly temptation.
In
this Showing He brought our blessed Lady to my understanding. I saw
her ghostly, in bodily likeness: a simple maid and a meek, young of
age and little waxen above a child, in the stature that she was when
she conceived. Also God showed in part the wisdom and the truth of
her soul: wherein I understood the reverent beholding in which she
beheld her God and Maker, marveling with great reverence that He
would be born of her that was a simple creature of His making. And
this wisdom and truth: knowing the greatness of her Maker and the
littleness of herself that was made,– caused her to say full
meekly
to Gabriel: Lo I am God's handmaid! In this sight I understood
soothly that she is more than all that God made beneath her in
worthiness and grace; for above her is nothing that is made but the
blessed Manhood Of Christ, as to my sight.
CHAPTER
V
"God,
of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself; – only in Thee I have all"
In
this same time our Lord showed me a spiritual sight of His homely
loving. I saw that He is to us everything that is good and
comfortable for us: He is our clothing that for love wrappeth us,
claspeth us, and all encloseth us for tender love, that He may never
leave us; being to us all-thing that is good, as to mine
understanding.
Also
in this He showed me a little thing, the quantity of an hazel-nut, in
the palm of my hand; and it was as round as a ball. I looked
thereupon with eye of my understanding, and thought: What may this
be? And it was answered generally thus: It is all that is made.
I
marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have
fallen to naught for being so small. And I was answered in my
understanding: It lasts and ever shall last for that God loves it.
And so All-things have their Being by the love of God.
In
this Little Thing (size of a hazel-nut) I saw three properties. The
first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it, the
third, that God keeps it.
But
what is to me verily the Maker, the Keeper, and the Lover – I
cannot tell; for till I am Substantially one with Him, I may never
have full rest nor very bliss: that is to say, till I be so fastened
to Him that there is nothing created (earthly thing – that is
made)
between my God and me.
It
requires us to comprehend the littleness of created things and to
hold as nought (of insufficient value to matter) all that is made in
order to love God and have God – that is unmade. For this is
the
reason (caring too much for created things) why we be not all in ease
of heart and soul: that we seek here rest in those things that are so
little, wherein is no rest, and know not our God that is All-mighty,
All-wise, and All-good. For He is the Very Rest. God wills to be
known, and it pleases Him that we rest in Him; for all that is
beneath Him suffices not us. And this is the cause why that no soul
is rested till it is made nought (emptied of desire for) as to all
things that are made. When it is willingly made nought (emptied of
desire for earthly things), for love (of God), to have Him that is
all, then is it able to receive spiritual rest.
Also
our Lord God showed that it is fully pleases Him that a helpless soul
come to Him simply and plainly and humbly. For this is the natural
yearnings of the soul, by the touching of the Holy Ghost (as by the
understanding that I have in this Showing):
God,
of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself: for Thou art enough to me, and I
may nothing ask that is less that may be full worship to Thee; and if
I ask anything that is less, ever me wanteth (I will never find
satisfaction in it but instead continue to want for more), –
for
only in Thee I have all.
And
these words are full lovely to the soul, and full near touch they the
will of God and His Goodness. For His Goodness encompasses all His
creatures and all His blessed works, and is infinite –
boundless
and without end. For He is the endlessness, and He hath made us only
to Himself, and restored us by His blessed Passion, and keeps us in
His blessed love; and all this of His Goodness.
CHAPTER
VI
"The
Goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down to the
lowest part of our need"
This
Showing was made to learn our soul wisely to cleave to the Goodness
of God. And in that time the custom of our praying was brought to
mind: how we use for lack of understanding and knowing of Love, to
take many means whereby to beseech Him.
Then
saw I truly that it is more worship to God, and more very delight,
that we faithfully pray to Himself of His Goodness and cleave
thereunto by His Grace, with true understanding, and steadfast by
love, than if we took all the means that heart can think. For if we
took all these means, it is too little, and not full worship to God:
but in His Goodness is all the whole, and there faileth right nought.
For
this, as I shall tell, came to my mind in the same time: We pray to
God for [the sake of] His holy flesh and His precious blood, His holy
Passion, His dearworthy death and wounds: and all the blessed
kindness, the endless life that we have of all this, is His Goodness.
And we pray Him for [the sake of] His sweet Mother's love that Him
bare; and all the help we have of her is of His Goodness. And we pray
by His holy Cross that he died on, and all the virtue and the help
that we have of the Cross, it is of His Goodness. And on the same
wise, all the help that we have of special saints and all the blessed
Company of Heaven, the dearworthy love and endless friendship that we
have of them, it is of His Goodness. For God of His Goodness hath
ordained means to help us, full fair and many: of which the chief and
principal mean is the blessed nature that He took of the Maid, with
all the means that go afore and come after which belong to our
redemption and to endless salvation.
Wherefore
it pleaseth Him that we seek Him and worship through means,
understanding that He is the Goodness of all.
For
the Goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down to the
lowest part of our need. It quickens our soul and brings it on life,
and makes it for to waxen in grace and virtue. It is nearest in
nature; and readiest in grace: for it is the same grace that the soul
seeks, and ever shall seek till we know verily that He hath us all in
Himself enclosed. For He hath no despite of that He hath made, nor
hath He any disdain to serve us at the simplest office that to our
body belongeth in nature, for love of the soul that He hath made to
His own likeness.
For
as the body is clad in the cloth, and the flesh in the skin, and the
bones in the flesh, and the heart in the whole, so are we, soul and
body, clad in the Goodness of God, and enclosed. Yea, and more
humbly: for all these may waste and wear away, but the Goodness of
God is ever whole; and more near to us, without any likeness; for
truly our Lover desireth that our soul cleave to Him with all its
might, and that we be evermore cleaving to His Goodness. For of all
things that heart may think, this pleases most God, and soonest
speedeth [the soul].
For
our soul is so specially loved of Him that is highest, that it
overpasseth the knowing of all creatures: that is to say, there is no
creature that is made that may [fully] know how much and how sweetly
and how tenderly our Maker loves us. And therefore we may with grace
and His help stand in spiritual beholding, with everlasting marvel of
this high, overpassing, inestimable Love that Almighty God hath to us
of His Goodness. And therefore we may ask of our Lover with reverence
all that we will.
For
our natural Will is to have God, and the Good Will of God is to have
us; and we may never cease from willing nor from longing till we have
Him in fullness of joy: and then may we no more desire.
For
He willeth that we be occupied in knowing and loving till the time
that we shall be fulfilled in Heaven; and therefore was this lesson
of Love showed, with all that followes, as ye shall see. For the
strength and the Ground of all was showed in the First Sight. For of
all things the beholding and the loving of the Maker maketh the soul
to seem less in his own sight, and most filleth him with reverent
dread and true meekness; with plenty of charity to his fellow
Christians.
CHAPTER
VII
"The
Showing is not other than of faith, nor less nor more"
And
[it was] to learn us this, as to mine understanding, [that] our Lord
God showed our Lady Saint Mary in the same time: that is to say, the
high Wisdom and Truth she had in beholding of her Maker so great, so
holy, so mighty, and so good. This greatness and this nobleness of
the beholding of God fulfilled her with reverent dread, and withal
she saw herself so little and so low, so simple and so poor, in
regard of her Lord God, that this reverent dread fulfilled her with
meekness. And thus, by this ground [of meekness] she was fulfilled
with grace and with all manner of virtues, and overpasses all
creatures.
In
all the time that He showed this that I have told now in spiritual
sight, I saw the bodily sight lasting of the plenteous bleeding of
the Head. The great drops of blood fell down from under the Garland
like pellots, seeming as it had come out of the veins; and in the
coming out they were brown-red, for the blood was full thick; and in
the spreading-abroad they were bright-red; and when they came to the
brows, then they vanished; notwithstanding, the bleeding continued
till many things were seen and understood. The fairness and the
lifelikeness is like nothing but the same; the plenteousness is like
to the drops of water that fall off the eaves after a great shower of
rain, that fall so thick that no man may number them with bodily wit;
and for the roundness, they were like to the scale of herring, in the
spreading on the forehead. These three came to my mind in the time:
pellets, for roundness, in the coming out of the blood; the scale of
herring, in the spreading in the forehead, for roundness; the drops
off eaves, for the plenteousness innumerable.
This
Showing was quick and life-like, and horrifying and dreadful, sweet
and lovely. And of all the sight it was most comfort to me that our
God and Lord that is so reverend and dreadful, is so humble and
courteous: and this most fulfilled me with comfort and assuredness of
soul.
And
to the understanding of this He showed this open example.– it
is
the most worship that a solemn King or a great Lord may do a poor
servant if he will be humble with him, and especially if he showeth
it himself, of a full true meaning, and with a glad cheer, both
privately and in company. Then thinketh this poor creature thus: And
what might this noble Lord do of more worship and joy to me than to
show me that am so simple this marvelous homeliness? Soothly it is
more joy and pleasant to me than [if] he gave me great gifts and were
himself strange in manner. This bodily example was showed so highly
that man's heart might be ravished and almost forgetting itself for
joy of the great homeliness. Thus it fareth with our Lord Jesus and
with us. For verily it is the most joy that may be, as to my sight,
that He that is highest and mightiest, noblest and worthiest, is
lowest and meekest, homeliest and most courteous: and truly and
verily this marvelous joy shall be shown us all when we see Him.
And
this willeth our Lord that we seek for and trust to, joy and delight
in, comforting us and solacing us, as we may with His grace and with
His help, unto the time that we see it verily. For the most fulness
of joy that we shall have, as to my sight, is the marvelous courtesy
and humbleness of our Father, that is our Maker, in our Lord Jesus
Christ that is our Brother and our Savior.
But
this marvelous homeliness may no man fully see in this time of life,
save he have it of special Showing of our Lord, or of great plenty of
grace inwardly given of the Holy Ghost. But faith and belief with
charity deserveth the meed: and so it is had, by grace; for in faith,
with hope and charity, our life is grounded. The Showing, made to
whom that God will, plainly teacheth the same, opened and declared,
with many privy points belonging to our Faith which be worshipful to
know. And when the Showing which is given in a time is passed and
hid, then the faith keepeth [it] by grace of the Holy Ghost unto our
life's end. And thus through the Showing it is not other than of
faith, nor less nor more; as it may be seen in our Lord's teaching in
the same matter, by that time that it shall come to the end.
CHAPTER
VIII
"In
all this I was greatly stirred in charity to my fellow-Christians
that they might see and know the same that I saw"
And
as long as I saw this sight of the plenteous bleeding of the Head I
might never cease from these words: Benedicite Domine!
In
which Showing I understood six things:– The first is, the
tokens of
the blessed Passion and the plenteous shedding of His precious blood.
The second is, the Maiden that is His dearworthy Mother. The third
is, the blissful Godhead that ever was, is, and ever shall be:
Almighty, All-Wisdom, All-Love. The fourth is, all-thing that He hath
made.– For well I understood that heaven and earth and all
that is
made is great and large, fair and good; but the cause why it showed
so little to my sight was for that I saw it in the presence of Him
that is the Maker of all things: for to a soul that seeth the Maker
of all, all that is made seemeth full little. – The fifth is:
He
that made all things for love, by the same love keepeth them, and
shall keep them without end. The sixth is, that God is all that is
good, as to my sight, and the goodness that each thing hath, it is
He.
And
all these our Lord showed me in the first Sight, with time and space
to behold it. And the bodily sight stinted, but the spiritual sight
dwelled in mine understanding, and I abode with reverent dread,
joying in that I saw. And I desired, as I durst, to see more, if it
were His will, or else [to see for] longer time the same.
In
all this I was greatly stirred in love toward mine fellow Christians,
that they might see and know the same that I saw – so they
could be
comforted also. For all this Sight was showed [with] general
[regard].
Then
said I to them that were about me: It is today Doomsday with me. And
this I said for that I thought to have died. (For that day that a man
dieth, he is judged as shall be without end, as to mine
understanding.) This I said for that I would they might love God the
better, for to make them to have in mind that this life is short, as
they might see in example. For in all this time I weened to have
died; and that was marvel to me, and troublous partly: for I thought
this Vision was showed for them that should live. And that which I
say of me, I say in the person of all mine fellow Christians: for I
am taught in the Spiritual Showing of our Lord God that He meaneth
so. And therefore I pray you all for God's sake, and counsel you for
your own profit, that ye leave the beholding of a poor creature that
it was showed to, and mightily, wisely, and meekly behold God that of
His courteous love and endless goodness would show it generally, in
comfort of us all. For it is God's will that ye take it with great
joy and pleasure, as if Jesus had showed it to you all.
CHAPTER
IX
"If
I look singularly to myself, I am right nought"
Because
of the Showing I am not good but if I love God the better: and in as
much as ye love God the better, it is more to you than to me. I say
not this to them that be wise, for they understand it well; but I say
it to you that be simple, for ease and comfort: for we are all one in
comfort. For truly it was not showed me that God loved me better than
the least soul that is in grace; for I am certain that there be many
that never had Showing nor sight but of the common teaching of the
Holy Church, that love God better than I. For if I look singularly to
myself, I am right nought; but in [the] general [Body] I am, I hope,
in oneness of love with all mine fellow Christians.
For
in this oneness standeth the life of all mankind that shall be saved.
For God is all that is good, as to my sight, and God hath made all
that is made, and God loveth all that He hath made: and he that
loveth generally all his fellow Christians for God, he loveth all
that is. For in mankind that shall be saved is comprehended all: that
is to say, all that is made and the Maker of all. For in man is God,
and God is in all. And I hope by the grace of God he that beholdeth
it thus shall be truly taught and mightily comforted, if he needeth
comfort.
I
speak of them that shall be saved, for in this time God showed me
none other. But in all things I believe as Holy Church believeth,
preacheth, and teacheth. For the Faith of the Holy Church, the which
I had aforehand understood and, as I hope, by the grace of God
earnestly kept in use and custom, stood continually in my sight: [I]
willing and meaning never to receive anything that might be contrary
thereunto. And with this intent I beheld the Showing with all my
diligence: for in all this blessed Showing I beheld it as one in
God's meaning.
All
this was showed by three [ways]: that is to say, by bodily sight, and
by word formed in mine understanding, and by spiritual sight. But the
spiritual sight I cannot nor may not shew it as openly nor as fully
as I would. But I trust in our Lord God Almighty that He shall of His
goodness, and for your love, make you to take it more spiritually and
more sweetly than I can or may tell it.
THE
SECOND REVELATION
CHAPTER
X
"God
willeth to be seen and to be sought: to be abided and to be trusted"
And
after this I saw with bodily sight in the face of the crucifix that
hung before me, on the which I gazed continually, a part of His
Passion: despite, spitting and sullying, and buffetting, and many
languoring pains, more than I can tell, and often changing of color.
And one time I saw half the face, beginning at the ear, over-gone
with dry blood till it covered to the mid-face. And after that the
other half [was] covered on the same wise, the whiles in this [first]
part [it vanished] even as it came.
This
saw I bodily, troublously and darkly; and I desired more bodily
sight, to have seen more clearly. And I was answered in my reason: If
God will show thee more, He shall be thy light: thee needeth none but
Him. For I saw Him sought. For we are now so blind and unwise that we
never seek God till He of His goodness shew Himself to us. And when
we aught see of Him graciously, then are we stirred by the same grace
to seek with great desire to see Him more blissfully.
And
thus I saw Him, and sought Him; and I had Him, I wanted Him. And this
is, and should be, our common working in this [life], as to my sight.
One
time mine understanding was led down into the sea-ground, and there I
saw hills and dales green, seeming as it were moss-be-grown, with
wrack and gravel. Then I understood thus: that if a man or woman were
under the broad water, if he might have sight of God so as God is
with a man continually, he should be safe in body and soul, and take
no harm: and overpassing, he should have more solace and comfort than
all this world can tell. For He willeth we should believe that we see
Him continually though that to us it seemeth but little [of sight];
and in this belief He maketh us evermore to gain grace. For He will
be seen and He will be sought: He will be abided and he will be
trusted.
This
Second Showing was so low and so little and so simple, that my
spirits were in great travail in the beholding, – mourning,
full of
dread, and longing: for I was some time in doubt whether it was a
Showing. And then diverse times our good Lord gave me more sight,
whereby I understood truly that it was a Showing. It was a figure and
likeness of our foul deeds' shame that our fair, bright, blessed Lord
bare for our sins: it made me to think of the Holy Vernacle at Rome,
which He hath portrayed with His own blessed face when He was in His
hard Passion, with steadfast will going to His death, and often
changing of color. Of the brownness and blackness, the ruefulness and
wastedness of this Image many marvel how it might be, since that He
portrayed it with His blessed Face who is the fairness of heaven,
flower of earth, and the fruit of the Maiden's womb. Then how might
this Image be so darkening in color and so far from fair? – I
desire to tell like as I have understood by the grace of God:
– We
know in our Faith, and believe by the teaching and preaching of the
Holy Church, that the blessed Trinity made Mankind to His image and
to His likeness. In the same manner-wise we know that when man fell
so deep and so wretchedly by sin, there was none other help to
restore man but through Him that made man. And He that made man for
love, by the same love He would restore man to the same bliss, and
overpassing; and like as we were like-made to the Trinity in our
first making, our Maker would that we should be like Jesus Christ,
Our Savior, in heaven without end, by the virtue of our again-making.
Then
between these two, He would for love and worship of man make Himself
as like to man in this deadly life, in our foulness and our
wretchedness, as man might be without guilt. This is that which is
meant where it is said afore: it was the image and likeness of our
foul black deeds' shame wherein our fair, bright, blessed Lord God
was hid. But full certainly I dare say, and we ought to trow it, that
so fair a man was never none but He, till what time His fair color
was changed with travail and sorrow and Passion and dying. Of this it
is spoken in the Eighth Revelation, where it treateth more of the
same likeness. And where it speaketh of the Vernacle of Rome, it
meaneth by [reason of] diverse changing of colour and countenance,
sometime more comfortably and life-like, sometime more ruefully and
death-like, as it may be seen in the Eighth Revelation.
And
this [dim] vision was a learning, to mine understanding, that the
continual seeking of the soul pleaseth God full greatly: for it may
do no more than seek, suffer and trust. And this is wrought in the
soul that hath it, by the Holy Ghost; and the clearness of finding,
it is of His special grace, when it is His will. The seeking, with
faith, hope, and charity, pleaseth our Lord, and the finding pleaseth
the soul and fulfilleth it with joy. And thus was I learned, to mine
understanding, that seeking is as good as beholding, for the time
that He will suffer the soul to be in travail. It is God's will that
we seek Him, to the beholding of Him, for by that He shall shew us
Himself of His special grace when He will. And how a soul shall have
Him in its beholding, He shall teach Himself: and that is most
worship to Him and profit to thyself, and [the soul thus] most
receiveth of meekness and virtues with the grace and leading of the
Holy Ghost. For a soul that only fastenet itself on to God with very
trust, either by seeking or in beholding, it is the most worship that
it may do to Him, as to my sight.
These
are two workings that may be seen in this Vision: the one is seeking,
the other is beholding. The seeking is common, – that every
soul
may have with His grace, – and ought to have that discretion
and
teaching of the Holy Church. It is God's will that we have three
things in our seeking: – The first is that we seek earnestly
and
diligently, without sloth, and, as it may be through His grace,
without unreasonable heaviness and vain sorrow. The second is, that
we abide Him steadfastly for His love, without murmuring and striving
against Him, to our life's end: for it shall last but awhile. The
third is that we trust in Him mightily of full assured faith. For it
is His will that we know that He shall appear suddenly and blissfully
to all that love Him. For His working is privy, and He willeth to be
perceived; and His appearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth
to be trusted. For He is full gracious and humble: Blessed may He be!
THE
THIRD REVELATION
CHAPTER
XI
"All
thing that is done, it is well done: for our Lord God doeth all."
"Sin is no deed"
And
after this I saw God in a Point, that is to say, in mine
understanding, – by which sight I saw that He is in all
things. I
beheld and considered, seeing and knowing in sight, with a soft
dread, and thought: What is sin?
For
I saw truly that God doeth all-thing, be it never so little. And I
saw truly that nothing is done by hap nor by adventure, but all
things by the foreseeing wisdom of God: if it be hap or adventure in
the sight of man, our blindness and our unforesight is the cause.
For the things
that
are in the foreseeing wisdom of God from without beginning, (which
rightfully and worshipfully and continually He leadeth to the best
end,) as they come about fall to us suddenly, ourselves unwitting;
and thus by our blindness and our unforesight we say: these be haps
and adventures. But to our Lord God they be not so.
Wherefore
me behoveth needs to grant that all-thing that is done, it is
well-done: for our Lord God doeth all. For in this time the working
of creatures was not showed, but [the working] of our Lord God in the
creature: for He is in the Mid-point of all thing, and all He doeth.
And I was certain He doeth no sin. And here I saw verily that sin is
no deed: for in all this was not sin showed. And I would no longer
marvel in this, but beheld our Lord, what He would show. And thus, as
much as it might be for the time, the rightfulness of God's working
was showed to the soul.
Rightfulness
hath two fair properties: it is right and it is full. And so are all
the works of our Lord God: thereto needeth neither the working of
mercy nor grace: for they be all rightful: wherein faileth nought.
But in another time He gave a Showing for the beholding of sin
nakedly, as I shall tell: where He useth working of mercy and grace.
And this vision was showed, to mine understanding, for that our Lord
would have the soul turned truly unto the beholding of Him, and
generally of all His works. For they are full good; and all His
doings are easy and sweet, and to great ease bringing the soul that
is turned from the beholding of the blind Deeming of man unto the
fair sweet Deeming of our Lord God. For a man beholdeth some deeds
well done and some deeds evil, but our Lord beholdeth them not so:
for as all that hath being in nature is of Godly making, so is all
that is done, in property of God's doing. For it is easy to
understand that the best deed is well done: and so well as the best
deed is done – the highest – so well is the least
deed done; and
all thing in its property and in the order that our Lord hath
ordained it to from without beginning. For there is no doer but He.
I
saw full surely that he changeth never His purpose in no manner of
thing, nor never shall, without end. For there was no thing unknown
to Him in His rightful ordinance from without beginning. And
therefore all-thing was set in order ere anything was made, as it
should stand without end; and no manner of thing shall fail of that
point. For He made all things in fulness of goodness, and therefore
the blessed Trinity is ever full pleased in all His works. And all
this showed He full blissfully, signifying thus: See! I am God: see!
I am in all things: see! I do all things: see! I lift never mine
hands off my works, nor ever shall, without end: see! I lead all
things to the end I ordained it to from without beginning, by the
same Might, Wisdom and Love whereby I made it. How should any thing
be amiss? Thus mightily, wisely, and lovingly was the soul examined
in this Vision. Then saw I soothly that me behoved, of need, to
assent, with great reverence enjoying in God.
THE
FOURTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XII
"The
dearworthy blood of our Lord Jesus Christ as verily as it is most
precious, so verily it is most plenteous"
And
after this I saw, beholding, the body plenteously bleeding in seeming
of the Scourging, as thus: – The fair skin was broken full
deep
into the tender flesh with sharp smiting all about the sweet body.
So
plenteously the hot blood ran out that there was neither seen skin
nor wound, but as it were all blood. And when it came where it should
have fallen down, then it vanished. Notwithstanding, the bleeding
continued awhile: till it might be seen and considered. And this was
so plenteous, to my sight, that I thought if it had been so in kind
and in substance at that time, it should have made the bed all one
blood, and have passed over about.
And
then came to my mind that God hath made waters plenteous in earth to
our service and to our bodily ease for tender love that He hath to
us, but yet liketh Him better that we take full humbly His blessed
blood to wash us of sin: for there is no water that is made that He
liketh so well to give us. For it is most plenteous as it is most
precious: and that by the virtue of His blessed Godhead; and it is of
our Kind, and all-blissfully belongeth to us by the virtue of His
precious love.
The
dear worthy blood of our Lord Jesus Christ as verily as it is most
precious, so verily it is most plenteous. Behold and see! The
precious plenty of His dear worthy blood descended down into Hell and
burst her bands and delivered all that were there which belonged to
the Court of Heaven. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood
overfloweth all Earth, and is ready to wash all creatures of sin,
which be of goodwill, have been, and shall be. The precious plenty of
His dearworthy blood ascended up into Heaven to the blessed body of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is in Him, bleeding and praying for
us to the Father, – and is, and shall be as long as it
needeth; –
and ever shall be as long as it needeth. And evermore it floweth in
all Heavens enjoying the salvation of all mankind, that are there,
and shall be – fulfilling the number that faileth.
THE
FIFTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XIII
"The
Enemy is overcome by the blessed Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus
Christ "
And
after this,
ere God showed any words, He suffered me for convenient time to give
heed unto Him and all that I had seen, and all intellect that was
therein, as the simplicity of the soul might take it. Then He,
without voice and opening of lips, formed in my soul these words:
Herewith is the Fiend overcome. These words said our Lord, meaning
His blessed Passion as He showed it afore.
On
this showed our Lord that the Passion of Him is the overcoming of the
Fiend. God showed that the Fiend hath now the same malice that he had
afore the Incarnation. And as sore he travaileth, and as continually
he seeth that all souls of salvation escape him, worshipfully, by the
virtue of Christ's precious Passion. And that is his sorrow, and full
evil is he ashamed: for all that God suffereth him to do turneth
[for] us to joy and [for] him to shame and woe. And he hath as much
sorrow when God giveth him leave to work, as when he worketh not: and
that is for that he may never do as ill as he would: for his might is
all taken into God's hand.
But
in God there may be no wrath, as to my sight: for our good Lord
endlessly hath regard to His own worship and to the profit of all
that shall be saved. With might and right He withstandeth the
Reproved, the which of malice and wickedness busy them to contrive
and to do against God's will. Also I saw our Lord scorn his malice
and set at nought his unmight; and He willeth that we do so. For this
sight I laughed mightily, and that made them to laugh that were about
me, and their laughing was a pleasure to me. I thought that I would
that all mine
fellow
Christians had seen as I saw, and then would they all laugh with me.
But I saw not Christ laugh. For I understood that we may laugh in
comforting of ourselves and joying in God for that the devil is
overcome. And when I saw Him scorn his malice, it was by leading of
mine understanding into our Lord: that is to say, it was an inward
Showing of verity, without changing of look.] For, as to my sight, it
is a worshipful property of God's that He is ever the same.
And
after this I fell into a graveness, and said: I see three things: I
see game, scorn, and earnest. I see [a] game, in that the Fiend is
overcome; I see scorn, in that God scorneth him, and he shall be
scorned; and I see earnest, in that he is overcome by the blissful
Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ that was done in full
earnest and with sober travail.
When
I said, he is scorned, – I meant that God scorneth him, that
is to
say, because He seeth him now as he shall do without end. For in this
word God showed that the Fiend is condemned. And this meant I when I
said: he shall be scorned: he shall be scorned at Doomsday, generally
of all that shall be saved, to whose consolation he hath great
ill-will. For then he shall see that all the woe and tribulation that
he hath done to them shall be turned to increase of their joy,
without end; and all the pain and tribulation that he would have
brought them to shall endlessly go with him to hell.
THE
SIXTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XIV
"The
age of every man shall be acknowledged before him in Heaven, and
every man shall be rewarded for his willing service and for his
time."
After
this our good Lord said: I thank thee for thy travail, and especially
for thy youth.
And
in this Showing mine understanding was lifted up into Heaven where I
saw our Lord as a lord in his own house, which hath called all his
dearworthy servants and friends to a stately feast. Then I saw the
Lord take no place in His own house, but I saw Him royally reign in
His house, fulfilling it with joy and mirth, Himself endlessly to
gladden and to solace His dearworthy friends, full homely and full
courteously, with marvelous melody of endless love, in His own fair
blessed Countenance. Which glorious Countenance of the Godhead
fulfilleth the Heavens with joy and bliss.
God
showed three degrees of bliss that every soul shall have in Heaven
that willingly hath served God in any degree in earth. The first is
the worshipful thanks of our Lord God that he shall receive when he
is delivered of pain. This thanking is so high and so worshipful that
the soul thinketh it filleth him though there were no more. For I
thought that all the pain and travail that might be suffered by all
living men might not deserve the worshipful thanks that one man shall
have that willingly hath served God. The second is that all the
blessed creatures that are in Heaven shall see that worshipful
thanking, and He maketh his service known to all that are in Heaven.
And here this example was showed. – A king, if he thank his
servants, it is a great worship to them, and if he maketh it known to
all the realm, then is the worship greatly increased. The third is,
that as new and as gladdening as it is received in that time, right
so shall it last without end.
And
I saw that homely and sweetly was this showed, and that the age of
every man shall be [made] known in Heaven, and [he] shall be rewarded
for his willing service and for his time. And specially the age of
them that willingly and freely offer their youth unto God, passingly
is rewarded and wonderfully is thanked. For I saw that whene'er what
time a man or woman is truly turned to God, – for one day's
service
and for his endless will he shall have all these three decrees of
bliss. And the more the loving soul seeth this courtesy of God, the
more eager he is to serve him all the days of his life.
THE
SEVENTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XV
"It
is not God's will that we follow the feeling of pains in sorrow and
mourning for them"
And
after this He showed a sovereign ghostly pleasance in my soul. I was
fulfilled with the everlasting sureness, mightily sustained without
any painful dread. This feeling was so glad and so ghostly that I was
in all peace and in rest, that there was nothing in earth that should
have grieved me. This lasted but a while, and I was turned and left
to myself in heaviness, and weariness of my life, and irksomeness of
myself, that scarcely I could have patience to live. There was no
comfort nor none ease to me but faith, hope, and charity; and these I
had in truth, but little in feeling.
And
anon after this our blessed Lord gave me again the comfort and the
rest in soul, in satisfying and sureness so blissful and so mighty
that no dread, no sorrow, no pain bodily that might be suffered
should have distressed me. And then the pain showed again to my
feeling, and then the joy and the pleasing, and now that one, and now
that other, divers times – I suppose about twenty times. And
in the
time of joy I might have said with Saint Paul: Nothing shall dispart
me from the charity of Christ; and in the pain I might have said with
Peter: Lord, save me: I perish!
This
Vision was showed me, according to mine understanding, [for] that it
is speedful to some souls to feel on this wise: sometime to be in
comfort, and sometime to fail and to be left to themselves. God
willeth that we know that He keepeth us even alike secure in woe and
in weal. And for profit of man's soul, a man is sometime left to
himself; although sin is not always the cause: for in this time I
sinned not wherefore I should be left to myself – for it was
so
sudden. Also I deserved not to have this blessed feeling. But freely
our Lord giveth when He will; and suffereth us [to be] in woe
sometime. And both is one love.
For
it is God's will that we hold us in comfort with all our might: for
bliss is lasting without end, and pain is passing and shall be
brought to nought for them that shall be saved. And therefore it is
not God's will that we follow the feelings of pain in sorrow and
mourning for them, but that we suddenly pass over, and hold us in
endless enjoyment.
THE
EIGHTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XVI
"A
Part of His Passion"
AFTER
this Christ showed a part of His Passion near His dying.
I
saw His sweet face as it were dry and bloodless with pale dying. And
later, more pale, dead, languoring; and then turned more dead unto
blue; and then more brown-blue, as the flesh turned more deeply dead.
For His Passion showed to me most specially in His blessed face (and
chiefly in His lips): there I saw these four colours, though it were
afore fresh, ruddy, and pleasing, to my sight. This was a pitiful
change to see, this deep dying. And also the [inward] moisture
clotted and dried, to my sight, and the sweet body was brown and
black, all turned out of fair, life-like colour of itself, unto dry
dying. For that same time that our Lord and blessed Saviour died upon
the Rood, it was a dry, hard wind, and wondrous cold, as to my sight,
and what time [all] the precious blood was bled out of the sweet body
that might pass therefrom, yet there dwelled a moisture in the sweet
flesh of Christ, as it was showed.
Bloodlessness
and pain dried within; and blowing of wind and cold coming from
without met together in the sweet body of Christ. And these four,
–
twain without, and twain within – dried the flesh of Christ
by
process of time. And though this pain was bitter and sharp, it was
full long lasting, as to my sight, and painfully dried up all the
lively spirits of Christ's flesh. Thus I saw the sweet flesh dry in
seeming by part after part, with marvellous pains. And as long as any
spirit had life in Christ's flesh, so long suffered He pain.
This
long pining seemed to me as if He had been seven nights dead, dying,
at the point of outpassing away, suffering the last pain. And when I
said it seemed to me as if He had been seven night dead, it meaneth
that the sweet body was so discoloured, so dry, so shrunken, so
deathly, and so piteous, as if He had been seven night dead,
continually dying. And methought the drying of Christ's flesh was the
most pain, and the last, of His Passion.
CHAPTER
XVII
"How
might any pain be more to me than to see Him that is all my life, and
all my bliss, and all my joy suffer?"
AND
in this dying was brought to my mind the words of Christ: I thirst.
For
I saw in Christ a double thirst: one bodily; another spiritual, the
which I shall speak of in the Thirty-first Chapter. For this word was
showed for the bodily thirst: the which I understood was caused by
failing of moisture. For the blessed flesh and bones was left all
alone without blood and moisture. The blessed body dried alone long
time with wringing of the nails and weight of the body. For I
understood that for tenderness of the sweet hands and of the sweet
feet, by the greatness, hardness, and grievousness of the nails the
wounds waxed wide and the body sagged, for weight by long time
hanging. And [therewith was] piercing and pressing of the head, and
binding of the Crown all baked with dry blood, with the sweet hair
clinging, and the dry flesh, to the thorns, and the thorns to the
flesh drying; and in the beginning while the flesh was fresh and
bleeding, the continual sitting of the thorns made the wounds wide.
And furthermore I saw that the sweet skin and the tender flesh, with
the hair and the blood, was all raised and loosed about from the
bone, with the thorns where through it were rent in many pieces, as a
cloth that were sagging, as if it would hastily have fallen off, for
heaviness and looseness, while it had natural moisture. And that was
great sorrow and dread to me: for methought I would not for my life
have seen it fall. How it was done I saw not; but understood it was
with the sharp thorns and the violent and grievous setting on of the
Garland of Thorns, unsparingly and without pity. This continued
awhile, and soon it began to change, and I beheld and marvelled how
it might be. And then I saw it was because it began to dry, and stint
a part of the weight, and set about the Garland. And thus it
encircled all about, as it were garland upon garland. The Garland of
the Thorns was dyed with the blood, and that other garland [of Blood]
and the head, all was one colour, as clotted blood when it is dry.
The skin of the flesh that showed (of the face and of the body), was
small-rimpled [or shrivelled] with a tanned colour, like a dry board
when it is aged; and the face more brown than the body.
I
saw four manner of dryings: the first was bloodlessness; the second
was pain following after; the third, hanging up in the air, as men
hang a cloth to dry; the fourth, that the bodily Kind asked liquid
and there was no manner of comfort ministered to Him in all His woe
and distress. Ah! hard and grievous was his pain, but much more hard
and grievous it was when the moisture failed and began to dry thus,
shrivelling.
These
were the pains that showed in the blessed head: the first wrought to
the dying, while it had moisture; and that other, slow, with
shrinking drying, [and] with blowing of the wind from without, that
dried and pained Him with cold more than mine heart can think.
And
other pains – for which pains I saw that all is too little
that I
can say: for it may not be told.
The
which Showing of Christ's pains filled me full of pain. For I wist
well He suffered but once, but [this was as if] He would shew it me
and fill me with mind as I had afore desired. And in all this time of
Christ's pains I felt no pain but for Christ's pains. Then
thought-me: I knew but little what pain it was that I asked; and, as
a wretch, repented me, thinking: If I had wist what it had been, loth
me had been to have prayed it. For methought it passed bodily death,
my pains.
I
thought: Is any pain like this? And I was answered in my reason: Hell
is another pain: for there is despair. But of all pains that lead to
salvation this is the most pain, to see thy Love suffer. How might
any pain be more to me than to see Him that is all my life, all my
bliss, and all my joy, suffer? Here felt I soothfastly [in sure
verity] that I loved Christ so much above myself that there was no
pain that might be suffered like to that sorrow that I had to [see]
Him in pain.
CHAPTER
XVIII
"When
He was in pain, we were in pain"
HERE
I saw a part of the compassion of our Lady, Saint Mary: for Christ
and she were so oned in love that the greatness of her loving was
cause of the greatness of her pain. For in this [Showing] I saw a
Substance of Nature's [i.e. natural] Love, continued by Grace, that
creatures have to Him: which Kind Love was most fully showed in His
sweet Mother, and overpassing; for so much as she loved Him more than
all other, her pains passed all other. For ever the higher, the
mightier, the sweeter that the love be, the more sorrow it is to the
lover to see that body in pain that is loved.
And
all His disciples and all His true lovers suffered pains more than
their own bodily dying. For I am sure by mine own feeling that the
least of them loved Him so far above himself that it passeth all that
I can say.
Here
saw I a great oneing betwixt Christ and us, to mine understanding:
for when He was in pain, we were in pain.
And
all creatures that might suffer pain, suffered with Him: that is to
say, all creatures that God hath made to our service. The firmament,
the earth, failed for sorrow in their Nature in the time of Christ's
dying. For it belongeth naturally to their property to know Him for
their God, in whom all their virtue standeth: when He failed, then
behoved it needs to them, because of kindness [between them], to fail
with Him, as much as they might, for sorrow of His pains.
And
thus they that were His friends suffered pain for love. And,
generally, all: that is to say, they that knew Him not suffered for
failing of all manner of comfort save the mighty, privy keeping of
God. I speak of two manner of folk, as they may be understood by two
persons: the one was Pilate, the other was Saint Dionyse [Dionysius,
"the Areopagite," according to the legend of S. Denis] of
France, which was [at] that time a Paynim. For when he saw wondrous
and marvellous sorrows and dreads that befell in that time, he said:
Either the world is now at an end, or He that is Maker of Kind
suffereth. Wherefore he did write on an altar: THIS IS THE ALTAR OF
UNKNOWN GOD. God that of His goodness maketh the planets and the
elements to work of Kind to the blessed man and the cursed, in that
time made withdrawing of it from both; wherefore it was that they
that knew Him not were in sorrow that time.
Thus
was our Lord Jesus made-naught for us; and all we stand in this
manner made-naught with Him, and shall do till we come to His bliss:
as I shall tell after.
CHAPTER
XIX
"Thus
was I learned to choose Jesus for my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain
at that time"
IN
this [time] I would have looked up from the Cross, but I durst not.
For I wist well that while I beheld in the Cross I was surely-safe;
therefore I would not assent to put my soul in peril: for away from
the Cross was no sureness, for frighting of fiends.
Then
had I a proffer in my reason, [see chapters 25, 55] as if it had been
friendly said to me: Look up to Heaven to His Father. And then saw I
well, with the faith that I felt, that there was nothing betwixt the
Cross and Heaven that might have harmed me. Either me behoved to look
up or else to answer. I answered inwardly with all the might of my
soul, and said: Nay; I may not: for Thou art my Heaven. This I said
for that I would not. For I would liever have been in that pain till
Doomsday than to come to Heaven otherwise than by Him. For I wist
well that He that bound me so sore, He should unbind me when that He
would. Thus was I learned to choose Jesus to my Heaven, whom I saw
only in pain at that time: meliked no other Heaven than Jesus, which
shall be my bliss when I come there.
And
this hath ever been a comfort to me, that I chose Jesus to my Heaven,
by His grace, in all this time of Passion and sorrow; and that hath
been a learning to me that I should evermore do so: choose only Jesus
to my Heaven in weal and woe.
And
though I as a wretched creature had repented me (I said afore if I
had wist what pain it would be, I had been loth to have prayed), here
saw I truly that it was reluctance and frailty of the flesh without
assent of the soul: to which God assigneth no blame. Repenting and
willing choice be two contraries which I felt both in one at that
time. And these be [of our] two parts: the one outward, the other
inward. The outward part is our deadly flesh-hood, which is now in
pain and woe, and shall be, in this life: whereof I felt much in this
time; and that part it was that repented. The inward part is an high,
blissful life, which is all in peace and in love: and this was more
inwardly felt; and this part is [that] in which mightily, wisely and
with steadfast will I chose Jesus to my Heaven.
And
in this I saw verily that the inward part is master and sovereign to
the outward, and doth not charge itself with, nor take heed to, the
will of that: but all the intent and will is set to be oned unto our
Lord Jesus. That the outward part should draw the inward to assent
was not showed to me; but that the inward draweth the outward by
grace, and both shall be oned in bliss without end, by the virtue of
Christ, – this was showed.
CHAPTER
XX
"For
every man's sin that shall be saved He suffered, and every man's
sorrow and desolation He saw, and sorrowed for Kinship and Love"
AND
thus I saw our Lord Jesus languoring long time. For the oneing with
the Godhead gave strength to the manhood for love to suffer more than
all men might suffer: I mean not only more pain than all men might
suffer, but also that He suffered more pain than all men of salvation
that ever were from the first beginning unto the last day might tell
or fully think, having regard to the worthiness of the highest
worshipful King and the shameful, despised, painful death. For He
that is highest and worthiest was most fully made-nought and most
utterly despised.
For
the highest point that may be seen in the Passion is to think and
know what He is that suffered. And in this [Showing] He brought in
part to mind the height and nobleness of the glorious Godhead, and
therewith the preciousness and the tenderness of the blessed Body,
which be together united; and also the lothness that is in our Kind
to suffer pain. For as much as He was most tender and pure, right so
He was most strong and mighty to suffer.
And
for every man's sin that shall be saved He suffered: and every man's
sorrow and desolation He saw, and sorrowed for Kindness and love.
(For in as much as our Lady sorrowed for His pains, in so much He
suffered sorrow for her sorrow; – and more, in as greatly as
the
sweet manhood of Him was worthier in Kind.) For as long as He was
passible He suffered for us and sorrowed for us; and now He is
uprisen and no more passible, yet He suffereth with us.
And
I, beholding all this by His grace, saw that the Love of Him was so
strong which He hath to our soul that willingly He chose it with
great desire, and mildly He suffered it with well-pleasing.
For
the soul that beholdeth it thus, when it is touched by grace, it
shall verily see that the pains of Christ's Passion pass all pains:
[all pains] that is to say, which shall be turned into everlasting,
o'erpassing joys by the virtue of Christ's Passion.
CHAPTER
XXI
"We
be now with Him in His Pains and His Passion, dying. We shall be with
Him in Heaven. Through learning in this little pain that we suffer
here, we shall have an high endless knowledge of God which we could
never have without that"
IT
is God's will, as to mine understanding, that we have Three Manners
of Beholding His blessed Passion. The First is: the hard Pain that He
suffered, – [beholding it] with contrition and compassion.
And that
showed our Lord in this time, and gave me strength and grace to
see
it.
And
I looked for the departing with all my might, and thought to have
seen the body all dead; but I saw Him not so. And right in the same
time that methought, by the seeming, the life might no longer last
and the Showing of the end behoved needs to be, – suddenly (I
beholding in the same Cross), He changed [the look of] His blessed
Countenance. The changing of His blessed Countenance changed mine,
and I was as glad and merry as it was possible. Then brought our Lord
merrily to my mind: Where is now any point of the pain, or of thy
grief? And I was full merry.
I
understood that we be now, in our Lord's meaning, in His Cross with
Him in His pains and His Passion, dying; and we, willingly abiding in
the same Cross with His help and His grace unto the last point,
suddenly He shall change His Cheer to us, and we shall be with Him in
Heaven. Betwixt that one and that other shall be no time, and then
shall all be brought to joy. And thus said He in this Showing: Where
is now any point of thy pain, or thy grief? And we shall be full
blessed.
And
here saw I verily that if He showed now [to] us His Blissful Cheer,
there is no pain in earth or in other place that should aggrieve us;
but all things should be to us joy and bliss. But because He sheweth
to us time of His Passion, as He bare it in this life, and His Cross,
therefore we are in distress and travail, with Him, as our frailty
asketh. And the cause why He suffereth [it to be so,] is for [that]
He will of His goodness make us the higher with Him in His bliss; and
for this little pain that we suffer here, we shall have an high
endless knowing in God which we might never have without that. And
the harder our pains have been with Him in His Cross, the more shall
our worship [i.e. glory] be with Him in His Kingdom.
THE
NINTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XXII
"The
Love that made Him to suffer passeth so far all His Pains as Heaven
is above Earth"
THEN
said our good Lord Jesus Christ: Art thou well pleased that I
suffered for thee? I said: Yea, good Lord, I thank Thee; Yea, good
Lord, blessed mayst Thou be.
Then
said Jesus, our kind Lord: If thou art pleased, I am pleased: it is a
joy, a bliss, an endless satisfying to me that ever suffered I
Passion for thee; and if I might suffer more, I would suffer more.
In
this feeling my understanding was lifted up into Heaven, and there I
saw three heavens: of which sight I marvelled greatly. And though I
see three heavens – and all in the blessed manhood of Christ
–
none is more, none is less, none is higher, none is lower, but [they
are] even-like in bliss.
For
the First Heaven, Christ showed me His Father; in no bodily likeness,
but in His property and in His working. That is to say, I saw in
Christ that the Father is. The working of the Father is this, that He
giveth meed to His Son Jesus Christ. This gift and this meed is so
blissful to Jesus that His Father might have given Him no meed that
might have pleased Him better. The first heaven, that is the pleasing
of the Father, showed to me as one heaven; and it was full blissful:
for He is full pleased with all the deeds that Jesus hath done about
our salvation. Wherefore we be not only His by His buying, but also
by the courteous gift of His Father we be His bliss, we be His meed,
we be His worship, we be His crown. (And this was a singular marvel
and a full delectable beholding, that we be His crown!) This that I
say is so great bliss to Jesus that He setteth at nought all His
travail, and His hard Passion, and His cruel and shameful death.
And
in these words: If that I might suffer more, I would suffer more,
–
I saw in truth that as often as He might die, so often He would, and
love should never let Him have rest till He had done it. And I beheld
with great diligence for to learn how often He would die if He might.
And verily the number passed mine understanding and my wits so far
that my reason might not, nor could, comprehend it. And when He had
thus oft died, or should, yet He would set it at nought, for love:
for all seemeth Him but little in regard of His love.
For
though the sweet manhood of Christ might suffer but once, the
goodness in Him may never cease of proffer: every day He is ready to
the same, if it might be. For if He said He would for my love make
new Heavens and new Earth, it were but little in comparison; for this
might be done every day if He would, without any travail. But to die
for my love so often that the number passeth creature's reason, it is
the highest proffer that our Lord God might make to man's soul, as to
my sight. Then meaneth He thus: How should it not be that I should
not do for thy love all that I might of deeds which grieve me not,
sith I would, for thy love, die so often, having no regard to my hard
pains?
And
here saw I, for the Second [see chapter 21, 23] Beholding in this
blessed Passion the love that made Him to suffer passeth as far all
His pains as Heaven is above Earth. For the pains was a noble,
worshipful deed done in a time by the working of love: but Love was
without beginning, is, and shall be without ending. For which love He
said full sweetly these words: If I might suffer more, I would suffer
more. He said not, If it were needful to suffer more: for though it
were not needful, if He might suffer more, He would.
This
deed, and this work about our salvation, was ordained as well as God
might ordain it. And here I saw a Full Bliss in Christ: for His bliss
should not have been full, if it might any better have been done.
CHAPTER
XXIII
"The
Glad Giver"
"All
the Trinity wrought in the Passion of Jesus Christ"
AND
in these three words: It is a Joy, a bliss, an endless satisfying to
me, were showed three heavens, as thus: For the joy, I understood the
pleasure of the Father; and for the bliss, the worship of the Son;
and for the endless satisfying, the Holy Ghost. The Father is
pleased, the Son is worshipped, the Holy Ghost is satisfied.
And
here saw I, for the Third Beholding in His blissful Passion: that is
to say, the Joy and the Bliss that make Him to be well-satisfied in
it. For our Courteous Lord showed His Passion to me in five manners:
of which the first is the bleeding of the head; the second is,
discolouring of His face; the third is, the plenteous bleeding of the
body, in seeming [as] from the scourging; the fourth is, the deep
dying: – these four are aforetold for the pains of the
Passion. And
the fifth is [this] that was showed for the joy and the bliss of the
Passion.
For
it is God's will that we have true enjoying with Him in our
salvation, and therein He willeth [that] we be mightily comforted and
strengthened; and thus willeth He that merrily with His grace our
soul be occupied. For we are His bliss: for in us He enjoyeth without
end; and so shall we in Him, with His grace.
And
all that He hath done for us, and doeth, and ever shall, was never
cost nor charge to Him, nor might be, but only that [which] He did in
our manhood, beginning at the sweet Incarnation and lasting to the
Blessed Uprise on Easter morning: so long dured the cost and the
charge about our redemption in deed: of [the] which deed He enjoyeth
endlessly, as it is aforesaid.
Jesus
willeth that we take heed to the bliss that is in the blessed Trinity
[because] of our salvation and that we desire to have as much
spiritual enjoying, with His grace, (as it is aforesaid): that is to
say, that the enjoying of our salvation be [as] like to the joy that
Christ hath of our salvation as it may be while we are here.
All
the Trinity wrought in the Passion of Christ, ministering abundance
of virtues and plenty of grace to us by Him: but only the Maiden's
Son suffered: whereof all the blessed Trinity endlessly enjoyeth. All
this was showed in these words: Art thou well pleased? – and
by
that other word that Christ said: If thou art pleased, then am I
pleased; – as if He said: It is joy and satisfying enough to
me,
and I ask nought else of thee for my travail but that I might well
please thee.
And
in this He brought to mind the property of a glad giver. A glad giver
taketh but little heed of the thing that he giveth, but all his
desire and all his intent is to please him and solace him to whom he
giveth it. And if the receiver take the gift highly and thankfully,
then the courteous giver setteth at nought all his cost and all his
travail, for joy and delight that he hath pleased and solaced him
that he loveth. Plenteously and fully was this showed.
Think
also wisely of the greatness of this word "ever." For in it
was showed an high knowing of love that He hath in our salvation,
with manifold joys that follow of the Passion of Christ. One is that
He rejoiceth that He hath done it in deed, and He shall no more
suffer; another, that He bought us from endless pains of hell.
THE
TENTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XXIV
"Our
Lord looked unto His [wounded] Side, and beheld, rejoicing. . . .Lo!
how I loved thee”
THEN
with a glad cheer our Lord looked unto His Side and beheld,
rejoicing. With His sweet looking He led forth the understanding of
His creature by the same wound into His Side within. And then he
showed a fair, delectable place, and large enough for all mankind
that shall be saved to rest in peace and in love. And therewith He
brought to mind His dearworthy blood and precious water which he let
pour all out for love. And with the sweet beholding He showed His
blessed heart even cloven in two.
And
with this sweet enjoying, He showed unto mine understanding, in part,
the blessed Godhead, stirring then the poor soul to understand, as it
may be said, that is, to think on, the endless Love that was without
beginning, and is, and shall be ever.
And
with this our good Lord said full blissfully: Lo, how that I loved
thee, as if He had said: My darling, behold and see thy Lord, thy God
that is thy Maker and thine endless joy, see what satisfying and
bliss I have in thy salvation; and for my love rejoice [thou] with
me.
And
also, for more understanding, this blessed word was said: Lo, how I
loved thee! Behold and see that I loved thee so much ere I died for
thee that I would die for thee; and now I have died for thee and
suffered willingly that which I may. And now is all my bitter pain
and all my hard travail turned to endless joy and bliss to me and to
thee. How should it now be that thou shouldst anything pray that
pleaseth me but that I should full gladly grant it thee? For my
pleasing is thy holiness and thine endless joy and bliss with me.
This
is the understanding, simply as I can say it, of this blessed word:
Lo, how I loved thee. This showed our good Lord for to make us glad
and merry.
THE
ELEVENTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XXV
"I
wot well that thou wouldst see my blessed Mother. . . ."
"Wilt
thou see in her how thou art loved?"
AND
with this same cheer of mirth and joy our good Lord looked down on
the right side and brought to my mind where our Lady stood in the
time of His Passion; and said: Wilt thou see her? And in this sweet
word [it was] as if He had said: I wot well that thou wouldst see my
blessed Mother: for, after myself, she is the highest joy that I
might shew thee, and most pleasance and worship to me; and most she
is desired to be seen of my blessed creatures. And for the high,
marvellous, singular love that He hath to this sweet Maiden, His
blessed Mother, our Lady Saint Mary, He showed her highly rejoicing,
as by the meaning of these sweet words; as if He said: Wilt thou see
how I love her, that thou mightest joy with me in the love that I
have in her and she in me?
And
also (unto more understanding this sweet word) our Lord speaketh to
all mankind that shall be saved, as it were all to one person, as if
He said: Wilt thou see in her how thou art loved? For thy love I made
her so high, so noble and so worthy; and this pleaseth me, and so
will I that it doeth thee.
For
after Himself she is the most blissful sight. But hereof am I not
learned to long to see her bodily presence while I am here, but the
virtues of her blessed soul: her truth, her wisdom, her charity;
whereby I may learn to know myself and reverently dread my God. And
when our good Lord had showed this and said this word: Wilt thou see
her? I answered and said: Yea, good Lord, I thank Thee; yea, good
Lord, if it be Thy will. Oftentimes I prayed this, and I weened to
have seen her in bodily presence, but I saw her not so. And Jesus in
that word showed me ghostly sight of her: right as I had seen her
afore little and simple, so He showed her then high and noble and
glorious, and pleasing to Him above all creatures.
And
He willeth that it be known; that [so] all those that please them in
Him should please them in her, and in the pleasance that He hath in
her and she in Him. And, to more understanding, He showed this
example: As if a man love a creature singularly, above all creatures,
he willeth to make all creatures to love and to have pleasance in
that creature that he loveth so greatly. And in this word that Jesus
said: Wilt thou see her? methought it was the most pleasing word that
He might have given me of her, with that ghostly Showing that He gave
me of her. For our Lord showed me nothing in special but our Lady
Saint Mary; and her He showed three times. The first was as she was
with Child; the second was as she was in her sorrows under the Cross;
the third is as she is now in pleasing, worship, and joy.
THE
TWELFTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XXVI
"It
is I, it is I"
AND
after this our Lord showed Himself more glorified, as to my sight,
than I saw Him before [in the Showing] wherein I was learned that our
soul shall never have rest till it cometh to Him, knowing that He is
fulness of joy, homely and courteous, blissful and very life.
Our
Lord Jesus oftentimes said: I it am, I it am: I it am that is
highest, I it am that thou lovest, I it am that thou enjoyest, I it
am that thou servest, I it am that thou longest for, I it am that
thou desirest, I it am that thou meanest, I it am that is all. I it
am that Holy Church preacheth and teacheth thee, I it am that showed
me here to thee. The number of the words passeth my wit and all my
understanding and all my powers. And they are the highest, as to my
sight: for therein is comprehended – I cannot tell,
– but the joy
that I saw in the Showing of them passeth all that heart may wish for
and soul may desire. Therefore the words be not declared here; but
every man after the grace that God giveth him in understanding and
loving, receive them in our Lord's meaning.
THE
THIRTEENTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XXVII
"Often
I wondered why by the great foreseeing wisdom of God the beginning of
sin was not hindered: for then, methought, all should have been
well." "Sin is behovable – [playeth a needful part]
– ;
but all shall be well"
AFTER
this the Lord brought to my mind the longing that I had to Him afore.
And I saw that nothing letted me but sin. And so I looked, generally,
upon us all, and methought: If sin had not been, we should all have
been clean and like to our Lord, as He made us.
And
thus, in my folly, afore this time often I wondered why by the great
foreseeing wisdom of God the beginning of sin was not letted: for
then, methought, all should have been well. This stirring [of mind]
was much to be forsaken, but nevertheless mourning and sorrow I made
therefor, without reason and discretion.
But
Jesus, who in this Vision informed me of all that is needful to me,
answered by this word and said: It behoved that there should be sin;
but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing
shall be well.
In
this naked word sin, our Lord brought to my mind, generally, all that
is not good, and the shameful despite and the utter noughting [being
made as nothing] that He bare for us in this life, and His dying; and
all the pains and passions of all His creatures, ghostly and bodily;
(for we be all partly noughted, and we shall be noughted following
our Master, Jesus, till we be full purged, that is to say, till we be
fully noughted of our deadly flesh and of all our inward affections
which are not very good;) and the beholding of this, with all pains
that ever were or ever shall be, – and with all these I
understand
the Passion of Christ for most pain, and overpassing. All this was
showed in a touch and quickly passed over into comfort: for our good
Lord would not that the soul were affeared of this terrible sight.
But
I saw not sin: for I believe it hath no manner of substance nor no
part of being, nor could it be known but by the pain it is cause of.
And
thus pain, it is something, as to my sight, for a time; for it
purgeth, and maketh us to know ourselves and to ask mercy. For the
Passion of our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and so is His
blessed will.
And
for the tender love that our good Lord hath to all that shall be
saved, He comforteth readily and sweetly, signifying thus: It is
sooth [i.e. truth, an actual reality] that sin is cause of all this
pain; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner
[of] thing shall be well.
These
words were said full tenderly, showing no manner of blame to me nor
to any that shall be saved. Then were it a great unkindness to blame
or wonder on God for my sin, since He blameth not me for sin.
And
in these words I saw a marvellous high mystery hid in God, which
mystery He shall openly make known to us in Heaven: in which knowing
we shall verily see the cause why He suffered sin to come. In which
sight we shall endlessly joy in our Lord God.
"All
things that exist, therefore, seeing that the Creator of them all is
supremely good, are themselves good. But because they are not like
their Creator, supremely and unchangeably good, their good may be
diminished and increased. But for good to be diminished is an evil,
although, however much it may be diminished, it is necessary, if the
being is to continue, that some good should remain to constitute the
being. For however small or of whatever kind the being may be, the
good which makes it a being cannot be destroyed without destroying
the being itself.... So long as a being is in process of corruption,
there is in it some good of which it is being deprived; and if a part
of the being should remain which cannot be corrupted, this will
certainly be an incorruptible being, and accordingly the process of
corruption will result in the manifestation of this great good. But
if it do not cease to be corrupted, neither can it cease to possess
good of which corruption may deprive it. But if it should be
thoroughly and completely consumed by corruption, there will then be
no good left, because there will be no being. Wherefore corruption
can consume the good only by consuming the being. Every being,
therefore, is a good; a great good, if it cannot be corrupted; a
little good, if it can: but in any case, only the foolish or ignorant
will deny that it is a good. And if it be wholly consumed by
corruption, then the corruption itself must cease to exist, as there
is no being left in which it can dwell." Chap 10. "By the
Trinity, thus supremely and equally and unchangeably good, all things
were created; and these are not supremely and equally and
unchangeably good, but yet they are good, even taken separately.
Taken as a whole, however, they are very good, because their ensemble
constitutes the universe in all its wonderful order and beauty "
– The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, (Edited
by
the Rev. Marcus Dods, D.D.), vol. ix.
CHAPTER
XXVIII
"Each
brotherly compassion that man hath on his fellow Christians, with
charity, it is Christ in him"
THUS
I saw how Christ hath compassion on us for the cause of sin. And
right as I was afore in the [Showing of the] Passion of Christ
fulfilled with pain and compassion, like so in this [sight] I was
fulfilled, in part, with compassion of all mine fellow Christians
–
for that well, well beloved people that shall be saved. For God's
servants, Holy Church, shall be shaken in sorrow and anguish,
tribulation in this world, as men shake a cloth in the wind.
And
as to this our Lord answered in this manner: A great thing shall I
make hereof in Heaven of endless worship and everlasting joys.
Yea,
so far forth I saw, that our Lord joyeth of the tribulations of His
servants, with ruth and compassion. On each person that He loveth, to
His bliss for to bring [them], He layeth something that is no blame
in His sight, whereby they are blamed and despised in this world,
scorned, mocked, and outcasted. And this He doeth for to hinder the
harm that they should take from the pomp and the vain-glory of this
wretched life, and make their way ready to come to Heaven, and
up-raise them in His bliss everlasting. For He saith: I shall wholly
break you of your vain affections and your vicious pride; and after
that I shall together gather you, and make you mild and meek, clean
and holy, by oneing to me.
And
then I saw that each kind compassion that man hath on his fellow
Christians with charity, it is Christ in him.
That
same noughting that was showed in His Passion, it was showed again
here in this Compassion. Wherein were two manner of understandings in
our Lord's meaning. The one was the bliss that we are brought to,
wherein He willeth that we rejoice. The other is for comfort in our
pain: for He willeth that we perceive that it shall all be turned to
worship and profit by virtue of His passion, that we perceive that we
suffer not alone but with Him, and see Him to be our Ground, and that
we see His pains and His noughting passeth so far all that we may
suffer, that it may not be fully thought.
The
beholding of this will save us from murmuring and despair in the
feeling of our pains. And if we see soothly that our sin deserveth
it, yet His love excuseth us, and of His great courtesy He doeth away
all our blame, and beholdeth us with ruth and pity as children
innocent and unloathful.
CHAPTER
XXIX
"How
could all be well, for the great harm that is come by sin to the
creature?"
BUT
in this I stood beholding things general, troublously and mourning,
saying thus to our Lord in my meaning, with full great dread: Ah!
good Lord, how might all be well, for the great hurt that is come, by
sin, to the creature? And here I desired, as far as I durst, to have
some more open declaring wherewith I might be eased in this matter.
And
to this our blessed Lord answered full meekly and with full lovely
cheer, and showed that Adam's sin was the most harm that ever was
done, or ever shall be, to the world's end; and also He showed that
this [sin] is openly known in all Holy Church on earth. Furthermore
He taught that I should behold the glorious Satisfaction: for this
Amends-making is more pleasing to God and more worshipful, without
comparison, than ever was the sin of Adam harmful. Then signifieth
our blessed Lord thus in this teaching, that we should take heed to
this: For since I have made well the most harm, then it is my will
that thou know thereby that I shall make well all that is less.
CHAPTER
XXX
"Two
parts of Truth: the part that is open: our Saviour and our salvation;
– and the part that is hid and shut up from us: all beside
our
salvation"
HE
gave me understanding of two parts [of truth]. The one part is our
Saviour and our salvation. This blessed part is open and clear and
fair and light, and plenteous, – for all mankind that is of
good
will, and shall be, is comprehended in this part. Hereto are we
bounden of God, and drawn and counselled and taught inwardly by the
Holy Ghost and outwardly by Holy Church in the same grace. In this
willeth our Lord that we be occupied, joying in Him; for He enjoyeth
in us. The more plenteously that we take of this, with reverence and
meekness, the more thanks we earn of Him and the more speed [i.e.,
profit] to ourselves, thus – may we say – enjoying
our part of
our Lord. The other [part] is hid and shut up from us: that is to
say, all that is beside our salvation. For it is our Lord's privy
counsel, and it belongeth to the royal lordship of God to have His
privy counsel in peace, and it belongeth to His servant, for
obedience and reverence, not to learn wholly His counsel. Our Lord
hath pity and compassion on us for that some creatures make
themselves so busy therein; and I am sure if we knew how much we
should please Him and ease ourselves by leaving it, we would. The
saints that be in Heaven, they will to know nothing but that which
our Lord willeth to shew them: and also their charity and their
desire is ruled after the will of our Lord: and thus ought we to
will, like to them. Then shall we nothing will nor desire but the
will of our Lord, as they do: for we are all one in God's seeing.
And
here was I learned that we shall trust and rejoice only in our
Saviour, blessed Jesus, for all thing.
CHAPTER
XXXI
"The
Spiritual Thirst (which was in Him from without beginning) is desire
in Him as long as we be in need, drawing us up to His Bliss"
AND
thus our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts that I
might make, saying full comfortably: I may make all thing well, I can
make all thing well, I will make all thing well, and I shall make all
thing well; and thou shalt see thyself that all manner of thing shall
be well.
In
that He saith, I may, I understand [it] for the Father; and in that
He saith, I can, I understand [it] for the Son; and where He saith, I
will, I understand [it] for the Holy Ghost; and where He saith, I
shall, I understand [it] for the unity of the blessed Trinity: three
Persons and one Truth; and where He saith, Thou shalt see thyself, I
understand the oneing of all mankind that shall be saved unto the
blessed Trinity. And in these five words God willeth we be enclosed
in rest and in peace.
Thus
shall the Spiritual Thirst of Christ have an end. For this is the
Spiritual Thirst of Christ: the love-longing that lasteth, and ever
shall, till we see that sight on Doomsday. For we that shall be saved
and shall be Christ's joy and His bliss, some be yet here and some be
to come, and so shall some be, unto that day. Therefore this is His
thirst and love-longing, to have us altogether whole in Him, to His
bliss, – as to my sight. For we be not now as fully whole in
Him as
we shall be then.
For
we know in our Faith, and also it was showed in all [the Revelations]
that Christ Jesus is both God and man. And anent the Godhead, He is
Himself highest bliss, and was, from without beginning, and shall be,
without end: which endless bliss may never be heightened nor lowered
in itself. For this was plenteously seen in every Showing, and
specially in the Twelfth, where He saith: I am that [which] is
highest. And anent Christ's Manhood, it is known in our Faith, and
also [it was] showed, that He, with the virtue of Godhead, for love,
to bring us to His bliss suffered pains and passions, and died. And
these be the works of Christ's Manhood wherein He rejoiceth; and that
showed He in the Ninth Revelation, where He saith: It is a joy and
bliss and endless pleasing to me that ever I suffered Passion for
thee. And this is the bliss of Christ's works, and thus he signifieth
where He saith in that same Showing: we be His bliss, we be His meed,
we be His worship, we be His crown.
For
anent that Christ is our Head, He is glorified and impassible; and
anent His Body in which all His members are knit, He is not yet fully
glorified nor all impassible. Therefore the same desire and thirst
that He had upon the Cross (which desire, longing, and thirst, as to
my sight, was in Him from without beginning) the same hath He yet,
and shall [have] unto the time that the last soul that shall be saved
is come up to His bliss.
For
as verily as there is a property in God of ruth and pity, so verily
there is a property in God of thirst and longing. (And of the virtue
of this longing in Christ, we have to long again to Him: without
which no soul cometh to Heaven.) And this property of longing and
thirst cometh of the endless Goodness of God, even as the property of
pity cometh of His endless Goodness. And though longing and pity are
two sundry properties, as to my sight, in this standeth the point of
the Spiritual Thirst: which is desire in Him as long as we be in
need, drawing us up to His bliss. And all this was seen in the
Showing of Compassion: for that shall cease on Doomsday.
Thus
He hath ruth and compassion on us, and He hath longing to have us;
but His wisdom and His love suffereth not the end to come till the
best time.
CHAPTER
XXXII
"There
be deeds evil done in our sight, and so great harms taken, that it
seemeth to us that it were impossible that ever it should come to
good end."
"That
Great Deed ordained . . . by which our Lord God shall make all things
well"
ONE
time our good Lord said: All thing shall be well; and another time he
said: Thou shalt see thyself that all MANNER [of] thing shall be
well; and in these two [sayings] the soul took sundry understandings.
One
was that He willeth we know that not only He taketh heed to noble
things and to great, but also to little and to small, to low and to
simple, to one and to other. And so meaneth He in that He saith: ALL
MANNER OF THINGS shall be well. For He willeth we know that the least
thing shall not be forgotten.
Another
understanding is this, that there be deeds evil done in our sight,
and so great harms taken, that it seemeth to us that it were
impossible that ever it should come to good end. And upon this we
look, sorrowing and mourning therefor, so that we cannot resign us
unto the blissful beholding of God as we should do. And the cause of
this is that the use of our reason is now so blind, so low, and so
simple, that we cannot know that high marvellous Wisdom, the Might
and the Goodness of the blissful Trinity. And thus signifieth He when
He saith: THOU SHALT SEE THYSELF that [Acts 26:8] all manner of
things shall be well. As if He said: Take now heed faithfully and
trustingly, and at the last end thou shalt verily see it in fulness
of joy.
And
thus in these same five words aforesaid: I may make all things well,
etc., I understand a mighty comfort of all the works of our Lord God
that are yet to come. There is a Deed the which the blessed Trinity
shall do in the last Day, as to my sight, and when the Deed shall be,
and how it shall be done, is unknown of all creatures that are
beneath Christ, and shall be till when it is done. ["The
Goodness and the Love of our Lord God" will that we know that it
shall be; And the "Might and the Wisdom of him by the same Love
will" conceal it, and hide it from us what it shall be, "and
how it shall be done."]
And
the cause why He willeth that we know [this Deed shall be], is for
that He would have us the more eased in our soul and [the more] set
at peace in love – leaving the beholding of all troublous
things
that might keep us back from true enjoying of Him. This is that Great
Deed ordained of our Lord God from without beginning, treasured and
hid in His blessed breast, only known to Himself: by which He shall
make all things well.
For
like as the blissful Trinity made all things of nought, right so the
same blessed Trinity shall make well all that is not well.
And
in this sight I marvelled greatly and beheld our Faith, marvelling
thus: Our Faith is grounded in God's word, and it belongeth to our
Faith that we believe that God's word shall be saved in all things;
and one point of our Faith is that many creatures shall be condemned:
as angels that fell out of Heaven for pride, which be now fiends; and
man [many] in earth that dieth out of the Faith of Holy Church: that
is to say, they that be heathen men; and also man [many] that hath
received christendom and liveth unchristian life and so dieth out of
charity: all these shall be condemned to hell without end, as Holy
Church teacheth me to believe. And all this [so] standing, methought
it was impossible that all manner of things should be well, as our
Lord showed in the same time.
And
as to this I had no other answer in Showing of our Lord God but this:
That which is impossible to thee is not impossible to me: I shall
save my word in all things and I shall make all things well. Thus I
was taught, by the grace of God, that I should steadfastly hold me in
the Faith as I had aforehand understood, [and] therewith that I
should firmly believe that all things shall be well, as our Lord
showed in the same time.
For
this is the Great Deed that our Lord shall do, in which Deed He shall
save His word and He shall make all well that is not well. How it
shall be done there is no creature beneath Christ that knoweth it,
nor shall know it till it is done; according to the understanding
that I took of our Lord's meaning in this time.
CHAPTER
XXXIII
"It
is God's will that we have great regard to all His deeds that He hath
done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what the Deed
shall be"
AND
yet in this I desired, as [far] as I durst, that I might have full
sight of Hell and Purgatory. But it was not my meaning to make proof
of anything that belongeth to the Faith: for I believed soothfastly
that Hell and Purgatory is for the same end that Holy Church
teacheth, but my meaning was that I might have seen, for learning in
all things that belong to my Faith: whereby I might live the more to
God's worship and to my profit.
But
for [all] my desire, I could [see] of this right nought, save as it
is aforesaid in the First Showing, where I saw that the devil is
reproved of God and endlessly condemned. In which sight I understood
as to all creatures that are of the devil's condition in this life,
and therein end, that there is no more mention made of them afore God
and all His Holy than of the devil,– notwithstanding that
they be
of mankind – whether they be christened or not.
For
though the Revelation was made of goodness in which was made little
mention of evil, yet I was not drawn thereby from any point of the
Faith that Holy Church teacheth me to believe. For I had sight of the
Passion of Christ in diverse Showings, – the First, the
Second, the
Fifth, and the Eighth, – wherein I had in part a feeling of
the
sorrow of our Lady, and of His true friends that saw Him in pain; but
I saw not so properly specified the Jews that did Him to death.
Notwithstanding I knew in my Faith that they were accursed and
condemned without end, saving those that converted, by grace. And I
was strengthened and taught generally to keep me in the Faith in
every point, and in all as I had before understood: hoping that I was
therein with the mercy and the grace of God; desiring and praying in
my purpose that I might continue therein unto my life's end.
And
it is God's will that we have great regard to all His deeds that He
hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what the
Deed shall be. And let us desire to be like our brethren which be
saints in Heaven, that will right nought but God's will and are well
pleased both with hiding and with Showing. For I saw soothly in our
Lord's teaching, the more we busy us to know His secret counsels in
this or any other thing, the farther shall we be from the knowing
thereof.
CHAPTER
XXXIV
"All
that is speedful for us to learn and to know, full courteously will
our Lord shew us"
OUR
Lord God showed two manner of secret things. One is this great Secret
[Counsel] with all the privy points that belong thereto: and these
secret things He willeth we should know [as being, but as] hid until
the time that He will clearly shew them to us. The other are the
secret things that He willeth to make open and known to us; for He
would have us understand that it is His will that we should know
them. They are secrets to us not only for that He willeth that they
be secrets to us, but they are secrets to us for our blindness and
our ignorance; and thereof He hath great ruth, and therefore He will
Himself make them more open to us, whereby we may know Him and love
Him and cleave to Him. For all that is speedful for us to learn and
to know, full courteously will our Lord shew us: and [of] that is
this [Showing], with all the preaching and teaching of Holy Church.
God
showed full great pleasance that He hath in all men and women that
mightily and meekly and with all their will take the preaching and
teaching of Holy Church. For it is His Holy Church: He is the Ground,
He is the Substance, He is the Teaching, He is the Teacher, He is the
End, He is the Meed for which every kind soul travaileth.
And
this [of the Showing] is [made] known, and shall be known to every
soul to which the Holy Ghost declareth it. And I hope truly that all
those that seek this, He shall speed: for they seek God.
All
this that I have now told, and more that I shall tell after, is
comforting against sin. For in the Third Showing when I saw that God
doeth all that is done, I saw no sin: and then I saw that all is
well. But when God showed me for sin, then said He: All SHALL be
well.
CHAPTER
XXXV
I
desired to learn assuredly as to a certain creature that I loved. . .
. It is more worship to God to behold Him in all
AND
when God Almighty had showed so plenteously and joyfully of His
Goodness, I desired to learn assuredly as to a certain creature that
I loved, if it should continue in good living, which I hoped by the
grace of God was begun. And in this desire for a singular Showing, it
seemed that I hindered myself: for I was not taught in this time. And
then was I answered in my reason, as it were by a friendly intervenor
[intermediary]: Take it GENERALLY, and behold the graciousness of the
Lord God as He sheweth to thee: for it is more worship to God to
behold Him in all than in any special thing. And therewith I learned
that it is more worship to God to know all-thing in general, than to
take pleasure in any special thing. And if I should do wisely
according to this teaching, I should not only be glad for nothing in
special, but I should not be greatly distressed for no manner of
thing: for ALL shall be well. For the fulness of joy is to behold God
in all: for by the same blessed Might, Wisdom, and Love, that He made
all-thing, to the same end our good Lord leadeth it continually, and
thereto Himself shall bring it; and when it is time we shall see it.
And the ground of this was showed in the First [Revelation], and more
openly in the Third, where it saith: I saw God in a point.
All
that our Lord doeth is rightful, and that which He suffereth
[alloweth] is worshipful: and in these two is comprehended good and
ill: for all that is good our Lord doeth, and that which is evil our
Lord suffereth. I say not that any evil is worshipful, but I say the
sufferance of our Lord God is worshipful: whereby His Goodness shall
be known, without end, in His marvellous meekness and mildness, by
the working of mercy and grace.
Rightfulness
is that thing that is so good that [it] may not be better than it is.
For God Himself is very Rightfulness, and all His works are done
rightfully as they are ordained from without beginning by His high
Might, His high Wisdom, His high Goodness. And right as He ordained
unto the best, right so He worketh continually, and leadeth it to the
same end; and He is ever full-pleased with Himself and with all His
works.
And
the beholding of this blissful accord is full sweet to the soul that
seeth by grace. All the souls that shall be saved in Heaven without
end be made rightful in the sight of God, and by His own goodness: in
which rightfulness we are endlessly kept, and marvellously, above all
creatures.
And
Mercy is a working that cometh of the goodness of God, and it shall
last in working all along, as sin is suffered to pursue rightful
souls. And when sin hath no longer leave to pursue, then shall the
working of mercy cease, and then shall all be brought to rightfulness
and therein stand without end.
And
by His sufferance we fall; and in His blissful Love with His Might
and His Wisdom we are kept; and by mercy and grace we are raised to
manifold more joys.
Thus
in Rightfulness and Mercy He willeth to be known and loved, now and
without end. And the soul that wisely beholdeth it in grace, it is
well pleased with both, and endlessly enjoyeth.
CHAPTER
XXXVI
"My
sin shall not hinder His Goodness working. . . . A deed shall be done
– as we come to Heaven – and it may be known here
in part; –
though it be truly taken for the general Man, yet it excludeth not
the special. For what our good Lord will do by His poor creatures, it
is now unknown to me"
OUR
Lord God showed that a deed shall be done, and Himself shall do it,
and I shall do nothing but sin, and my sin shall not hinder His
Goodness working.
And
I saw that the beholding of this is a heavenly joy in a fearing soul
which evermore kindly by grace desireth God's will. This deed shall
be begun here, and it shall be worshipful to God and plenteously
profitable to His lovers in earth; and ever as we come to Heaven we
shall see it in marvellous joy, and it shall last thus in working
unto the last Day; and the worship and the bliss of it shall last in
Heaven afore God and all His Holy [ones] for ever.
Thus
was this deed seen and understood in our Lord's signifying: and the
cause why He showed it is to make us rejoice in Him and in all His
works. When I saw His Showing continued, I understood that it was
showed for a great thing that was for to come, which thing God showed
that He Himself should do it: which deed hath these properties
aforesaid. And this showed He well blissfully, signifying that I
should take it myself faithfully and trustingly.
But
what this deed should be was kept secret from me. And in this I saw
that He willeth not that we dread to know the things that He sheweth:
He sheweth them because He would have us know them; by which knowing
He would have us love Him and have pleasure and endlessly enjoy in
Him. For the great love that He hath to us He sheweth us all that is
worshipful and profitable for the time. And the things that He will
now have privy, yet of His great goodness He sheweth them close: in
which Showing He willeth that we believe and understand that we shall
see the same verily in His endless bliss. Then ought we to rejoice in
Him for all that He sheweth and all that He hideth; and if we
steadily and meekly do thus, we shall find therein great ease; and
endless thanks we shall have of Him therefor.
And
this is the understanding of this word:– That it shall be
done for
me, meaneth that it shall be done for the general Man: that is to
say, all that shall be saved. It shall be worshipful and marvellous
and plenteous, and God Himself shall do it; and this shall be the
highest joy that may be, to behold the deed that God Himself shall
do, and man shall do right nought but sin. Then signifieth our Lord
God thus, as if He said: Behold and see! Here hast thou matter of
meekness, here hast thou matter of love, here hast thou matter to
make nought of thyself, here hast thou matter to enjoy in me;
–
and, for my love, enjoy [thou] in me: for of all things, therewith
mightest thou please me most.
And
as long as we are in this life, what time that we by our folly turn
us to the beholding of the reproved, tenderly our Lord God toucheth
us and blissfully calleth us, saying in our soul: Let be all thy
love, my dearworthy child: turn thee to me – I am enough to
thee –
and enjoy in thy Saviour and in thy salvation. And that this is our
Lord's working in us, I am sure the soul that hath understanding
therein by grace shall see it and feel it.
And
though it be so that this deed be truly taken for the general Man,
yet it excludeth not the special. For what our good Lord will do by
His poor creatures, it is now unknown to me.
But
this deed and that other aforesaid, they are not both one but two
sundry. This deed shall be done sooner (and that [time] shall be as
we come to Heaven), and to whom our Lord giveth it, it may be known
here in part. But that Great Deed aforesaid shall neither be known in
Heaven nor earth till it is done.
And
moreover He gave special understanding and teaching of working of
miracles, as thus: – It is known that I have done miracles
here
afore, many and diverse, high and marvellous, worshipful and great.
And so as I have done, I do now continually, and shall do in coming
of time.
It
is known that afore miracles come sorrow and anguish and tribulation;
and that is for that we should know our own feebleness and our
mischiefs that we are fallen in by sin, to meeken us and make us to
dread God and cry for help and grace. Miracles come after that, and
they come of the high Might, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, Showing His
virtue and the joys of Heaven so far at it may be in this passing
life: and that to strengthen our faith and to increase our hope, in
charity. Wherefore it pleaseth Him to be known and worshipped in
miracles. Then signifieth He thus: He willeth that we be not borne
over low for sorrow and tempests that fall to us: for it hath ever so
been afore miracle-coming.
CHAPTER
XXXVII
"In
every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to
sin, nor ever shall." – "For failing of Love on our part,
therefore is all our travail"
GOD
brought to my mind that I should sin. And for pleasance that I had in
beholding of Him, I attended not readily to that Showing; and our
Lord full mercifully abode, and gave me grace to attend. And this
Showing I took singularly to myself; but by all the gracious comfort
that followeth, as ye shall see, I was learned to take it for all
mine fellow Christians: all in general and nothing in special: though
our Lord showed me that I should sin, by me alone is understood all.
And
therein I conceived a soft dread. And to this our Lord answered: I
keep thee full surely. This word was said with more love and
secureness and spiritual keeping than I can or may tell. For as it
was showed that all should sin, right so was the comfort showed:
secureness and keeping for all mine fellow Christians.
What
may make me more to love mine fellow Christians than to see in God
that He loveth all that shall be saved as it were all one soul?
For
in every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented
to sin, nor ever shall. Right as there is a beastly will in the lower
part that may will no good, right so there is a Godly Will in the
higher part, which will is so good that it may never will evil, but
ever good. And therefore we are that which He loveth and endlessly we
do that which Him pleaseth.
This
showed our Lord in [Showing] the wholeness of love that we stand in,
in His sight: yea, that He loveth us now as well while we are here,
as He shall do while we are there afore His blessed face. But for
failing love on our part, therefore is all our travail.
CHAPTER
XXXVIII
In
Heaven "the token of sin is turned to worship." –
Examples thereof
ALSO
God showed that sin shall be no shame to man, but worship. For right
as to every sin is answering a pain by truth, right so for every sin,
to the same soul is given a bliss by love: right as diverse sins are
punished with diverse pains according as they be grievous, right so
shall they be rewarded with diverse joys in Heaven according as they
have been painful and sorrowful to the soul in earth. For the soul
that shall come to Heaven is precious to God, and the place so
worshipful that the goodness of God suffereth never that soul to sin
that shall come there without that the which sin shall be rewarded;
and it is made known without end, and blissfully restored by
overpassing worship.
For
in this Sight mine understanding was lifted up into Heaven, and then
God brought merrily to my mind David, and others in the Old Law
without number; and in the New Law He brought to my mind first Mary
Magdalene, Peter and Paul, and those of Inde; [119] and Saint John of
Beverley [120] ; and others also without number: how they are known
in the Church in earth with their sins, and it is to them no shame,
but all is turned for them to worship. And therefore our courteous
Lord sheweth [it thus] for them here in part like as it is there in
fulness: for there the token of sin is turned to worship.
And
Saint John of Beverley, our Lord showed him full highly, in comfort
to us for homeliness; and brought to my mind how he is a dear
neighbour, and of our knowing. And God called him Saint John of
Beverley plainly as we do, and that with a most glad sweet cheer,
Showing that he is a full high saint in Heaven in His sight, and a
blissful. And with this he made mention that in his youth and in his
tender age he was a dearworthy servant to God, greatly God loving and
dreading, and yet God suffered him to fall, mercifully keeping him
that he perished not, nor lost no time. And afterward God raised him
to manifold more grace, and by the contrition and meekness that he
had in his living, God hath given him in Heaven manifold joys,
overpassing that [which] he should have had if he had not fallen. And
that this is sooth, God sheweth in earth with plenteous miracles
doing about his body continually.
And
all this was to make us glad and merry in love.
[119]
S. Thomas and S. Jude. According to tradition the Gospel was carried
to India by these Apostles.
[120]
S. John of Beverley was consecrated Bishop of Hexham in 687, and was
afterwards Archbishop of York. "He founded the monastery of
Beverley in the midst of the wood called Deira, among the ruins of
the deserted Roman settlement of Pentuaria. This monastery, like so
many others of the Anglo-Saxons, was a double community of monks and
nuns. In 718 John retired for the remaining years of his life to
Beverley, where he died in 721 on the 7th of May.... He was canonised
in 1037. Henschenius the Bollandist, in the second tome of May, has
published books of the miracles wrought at the relicks of St John of
Beverley written by eye-witnesses. His sacred bones were honourably
translated into the church of Alfric, Archbishop of York, in 1037. A
feast in honour of his translation was kept on the 25th of October."
– Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, etc. Perhaps the fact
that
the Saint's original Feast Day of the 7th of May occurred on the
second day of Julian's illness, had something to do with his being
brought to her mind a few days after with so much vividness.
CHAPTER
XXXIX
"Sin
is the sharpest scourge. . . . By contrition we are made clean, by
compassion we are made ready, and by true longing towards God we are
made worthy"
SIN
is the sharpest scourge that any chosen soul may be smitten with:
which scourge thoroughly beateth [Judges 9:53] man and woman, and
maketh him hateful in his own sight, so far forth that afterwhile he
thinketh himself he is not worthy but as to sink in hell, –
till
[that time] when contrition taketh him by touching of the Holy Ghost,
and turneth the bitterness into hopes of God's mercy. And then He
beginneth his wounds to heal, and the soul to quicken [as it is]
turned unto the life of Holy Church. The Holy Ghost leadeth him to
confession, with all his will to shew his sins nakedly and truly,
with great sorrow and great shame that he hath defouled the fair
image of God. Then receiveth he penance for every sin [as] enjoined
by his doomsman that is grounded in Holy Church by the teaching of
the Holy Ghost. And this is one meekness that greatly pleaseth God;
and also bodily sickness of God's sending, and also sorrow and shame
from without, and reproof, and despite of this world, with all manner
of grievance and temptations that we be cast in, bodily and ghostly.
Full
preciously our Lord keepeth us when it seemeth to us that we are near
forsaken and cast away for our sin and because we have deserved it.
And because of meekness that we get hereby, we are raised well-high
in God's sight by His grace, with so great contrition, and also
compassion, and true longing to God. Then they be suddenly delivered
from sin and from pain, and taken up to bliss, and made even high
saints.
By
contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and by
true longing toward God we are made worthy. These are three means, as
I understand, whereby that all souls come to heaven: that is to say,
that have been sinners in earth and shall be saved: for by these
three medicines it behoveth that every soul be healed. Though the
soul be healed, his wounds are seen afore God, – not as
wounds but
as worships. And so on the contrary-wise, as we be punished here with
sorrow and penance, we shall be rewarded in heaven by the courteous
love of our Lord God Almighty, who willeth that none that come there
lose his travail in any degree. For He [be]holdeth sin as sorrow and
pain to His lovers, to whom He assigneth no blame, for love. The meed
that we shall receive shall not be little, but it shall be high,
glorious, and worshipful. And so shall shame be turned to worship and
more joy.
But
our courteous Lord willeth not that His servants despair, for often
nor for grievous falling: for our falling hindereth not Him to love
us. Peace and love are ever in us, being and working; but we be not
alway in peace and in love. But He willeth that we take heed thus
that He is Ground of all our whole life in love; and furthermore that
He is our everlasting Keeper and mightily defendeth us against our
enemies, that be full fell and fierce upon us;– and so much
our
need is the more for [that] we give them occasion by our falling.
[127]
[127]
See chap. lxviii. In both passages the Brit. Mus. MS. seems to have
"him," not "hem" = them. The reading here might
be: "For we give Him occasion by our falling" – occasion
to keep and defend us: and so in lxxviii.: "He keepeth us
mightily and mercifully in the time that we are in our sin and among
all our enemies that are full fell upon us; – and so much we
are
in the more peril. For we give Him occasion thereto and know not our
own need." Or possibly the sense is (1): He defendeth us "so
much [as] our need is the more" [so much more as]; and (2) "so
much [more as] we are in the more peril." But S. de Cressy's
version has in both passages "them," and this reading
agrees with chap. lxxvi.: "We have this [fear] by the stirring
of our enemy and by our own folly and blindness" – we who
"fall often into sin."
CHAPTER
XL
"True
love teacheth us that we should hate sin only for love." "To
me was showed no harder hell than sin." "God willeth that
we endlessly hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth
it"
THIS
is a sovereign friendship of our courteous Lord that He keepeth us so
tenderly while we be in sin; and furthermore He toucheth us full
privily and sheweth us our sin by the sweet light of mercy and grace.
But when we see our self so foul, then ween we that God were wroth
with us for our sin, and then are we stirred of the Holy Ghost by
contrition unto prayer and desire for the amending of our life with
all our mights, to slacken the wrath of God, unto the time we find a
rest in soul and a softness in conscience. Then hope we that God hath
forgiven us our sins: and it is truth. And then sheweth our courteous
Lord Himself to the soul – well-merrily and with glad cheer
–
with friendly welcoming as if it had been in pain and in prison,
saying sweetly thus: My darling I am glad thou art come to me: in all
thy woe I have ever been with thee; and now seest thou my loving and
we be oned in bliss. Thus are sins forgiven by mercy and grace, and
our soul is worshipfully received in joy like as it shall be when it
cometh to Heaven, as oftentimes as it cometh by the gracious working
of the Holy Ghost and the virtue of Christ's Passion.
Here
understand I in truth that all manner of things are made ready for us
by the great goodness of God, so far forth that what time we be
ourselves in peace and charity, we be verily saved. But because we
may not have this in fulness while we are here, therefore it falleth
to us evermore to live in sweet prayer and lovely longing with our
Lord Jesus. For He longeth ever to bring us to the fulness of joy; as
it is aforesaid, where He sheweth the Spiritual Thirst.
But
now if any man or woman because of all this spiritual comfort that is
aforesaid, be stirred by folly to say or to think: If this be true,
then were it good to sin [so as] to have the more meed, – or
else
to charge the less [guilt] to sin, – beware of this stirring:
for
verily if it come it is untrue, and of the enemy of the same true
love that teacheth us that we should hate sin only for love. I am
sure by mine own feeling, the more that any kind [a naturally-loving,
filial human soul] soul seeth this in the courteous love of our Lord
God, the lother he is to sin and the more he is ashamed. For if afore
us were laid [together] all the pains in Hell and in Purgatory and in
Earth – death and other –, and [by itself] sin, we
should rather
choose all that pain than sin. For sin is so vile and so greatly to
be hated that it may be likened to no pain which is not sin. And to
me was showed no harder hell than sin. For a kind soul hath no hell
but sin.
And
[when] we give our intent to love and meekness, by the working of
mercy and grace we are made all fair and clean. As mighty and as wise
as God is to save men, so willing He is. For Christ Himself is [the]
ground of all the laws of Christian men, and He taught us to do good
against ill: here may we see that He is Himself this charity, and
doeth to us as He teacheth us to do. For He willeth that we be like
Him in wholeness of endless love to ourself and to our fellow
Christians: no more than His love is broken to us for our sin, no
more willeth He that our love be broken to ourself and to our fellow
Christians: but [that we] endlessly hate the sin and endlessly love
the soul, as God loveth it. Then shall we hate sin like as God hateth
it, and love the soul as God loveth it. And this word that He said is
an endless comfort: I keep thee securely.
THE
FOURTEENTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
XLI
"I
am the Ground of thy beseeching.
AFTER
this our Lord showed concerning Prayer. In which Showing I see two
conditions in our Lord's signifying: one is rightfulness, another is
sure trust.
But
yet oftentimes our trust is not full: for we are not sure that God
heareth us, as we think because of our unworthiness, and because we
feel right nought, (for we are as barren and dry oftentimes after our
prayers as we were afore); and this, in our feeling our folly, is
cause of our weakness. For thus have I felt in myself.
And
all this brought our Lord suddenly to my mind, and showed these
words, and said: I am Ground of thy beseeching: first it is my will
that thou have it; and after, I make thee to will it; and after, I
make thee to beseech it and thou beseechest it. How should it then be
that thou shouldst not have thy beseeching?
And
thus in the first reason, with the three that follow, our good Lord
sheweth a mighty comfort, as it may be seen in the same words. And in
the first reason, – where He saith: And thou beseechest it,
there
He sheweth [His] full great pleasance, and endless meed that He will
give us for our beseeching. And in the second reason, where He saith:
How should it then be? etc., this was said for an impossible
[thing]. For it is most impossible that we should beseech mercy and
grace, and not have it. For everything that our good Lord maketh us
to beseech, Himself hath ordained it to us from without beginning.
Here may we see that our beseeching is not cause of God's goodness;
and that showed He soothfastly in all these sweet words when He
saith: I am [the] Ground. – And our good Lord willeth that
this be
known of His lovers in earth; and the more that we know [it] the more
should we beseech, if it be wisely taken; and so is our Lord's
meaning.
Beseeching
is a true, gracious, lasting will of the soul, oned and fastened into
the will of our Lord by the sweet inward work of the Holy Ghost. Our
Lord Himself, He is the first receiver of our prayer, as to my sight,
and taketh it full thankfully and highly enjoying; and He sendeth it
up above and setteth it in the Treasure, where it shall never perish.
It is there afore God with all His Holy continually received, ever
speeding [the help of] our needs; and when we shall receive our bliss
it shall be given us for a degree of joy, with endless worshipful
thanking from Him.
Full
glad and merry is our Lord of our prayer; and He looketh thereafter
and He willeth to have it because with His grace He maketh us like to
Himself in condition as we are in kind: and so is His blissful will.
Therefore He saith thus: Pray inwardly, though thee thinketh it
savour thee not: for it is profitable, though thou feel not, though
thou see nought; yea, though thou think thou canst not. For in
dryness and in barrenness, in sickness and in feebleness, then is thy
prayer well-pleasant to me, though thee thinketh it savour thee
nought but little. And so is all thy believing prayer in my sight.
For the meed and the endless thanks that He will give us, therefor He
is covetous to have us pray continually in His sight. God accepteth
the goodwill and the travail of His servant, howsoever we feel:
wherefore it pleaseth Him that we work both in our prayers and in
good living, by His help and His grace, reasonably with discretion
keeping our powers [turned] to Him, till when that we have Him that
we seek, in fulness of joy: that is, Jesus. And that showed He in the
Fifteenth [Revelation], farther on, in this word: Thou shalt have me
to thy meed.
And
also to prayer belongeth thanking. Thanking is a true inward knowing,
with great reverence and lovely dread turning ourselves with all our
mights unto the working that our good Lord stirreth us to, enjoying
and thanking inwardly. And sometimes, for plenteousness it breaketh
out with voice, and saith: Good Lord, I thank Thee! Blessed mayst
Thou be! And sometime when the heart is dry and feeleth not, or else
by temptation of our enemy, – then it is driven by reason and
by
grace to cry upon our Lord with voice, rehearing His blessed Passion
and His great Goodness; and the virtue of our Lord's word turneth
into the soul and quickeneth the heart and entereth it by His grace
into true working, and maketh it pray right blissfully. And truly to
enjoy our Lord, it is a full blissful thanking in His sight.
CHAPTER
XLII
"Prayer
is a right understanding of that fulness of joy that is to come, with
accordant longing and sure trust"
OUR
Lord God willeth that we have true understanding, and specially in
three things that belong to our prayer. The first is: by whom and how
that our prayer springeth. By whom, He sheweth when He saith: I am
[the] Ground; and how, by His Goodness: for He saith first: It is my
will. The second is: in what manner and how we should use our prayer;
and that is that our will be turned unto the will of our Lord,
enjoying: and so meaneth He when He saith: I make thee to will it.
The third is that we should know the fruit and the end of our
prayers: that is, that we be oned and like to our Lord in all things;
and to this intent and for this end was all this lovely lesson
showed. And He will help us, and we shall make it so as He saith
Himself; – Blessed may He be!
For
this is our Lord's will, that our prayer and our trust be both alike
large. For if we trust not as much as we pray, we do not full worship
to our Lord in our prayer, and also we tarry and pain our self. The
cause is, as I believe, that we know not truly that our Lord is [the]
Ground on whom our prayer springeth; and also that we know not that
it is given us by the grace of His love. For if we knew this, it
would make us to trust to have, of our Lord's gift, all that we
desire. For I am sure that no man asketh mercy and grace with true
meaning, but if mercy and grace be first given to him.
But
sometimes it cometh to our mind that we have prayed long time, and
yet we think to ourselves that we have not our asking. But herefor
should we not be in heaviness. For I am sure, by our Lord's
signifying, that either we abide a better time, or more grace, or a
better gift. He willeth that we have true knowing in Himself that He
is Being; and in this knowing He willeth that our understanding be
grounded, with all our mights and all our intent and all our meaning;
and in this ground He willeth that we take our place and our
dwelling, and by the gracious light of Himself He willeth that we
have understanding of the things that follow. The first is our noble
and excellent making; the second, our precious and dearworthy
again-buying; the third, all-thing that He hath made beneath us, [He
hath made] to serve us, and for our love keepeth it. Then signifieth
He thus, as if He said: Behold and see that I have done all this
before thy prayers; and now thou art, and prayest me. And thus He
signifieth that it belongeth to us to learn that the greatest deeds
be [already] done, as Holy Church teacheth; and in the beholding of
this, with thanking, we ought to pray for the deed that is now in
doing: and that is, that He rule and guide us, to His worship, in
this life, and bring us to His bliss. And therefor He hath done all.
Then
signifieth He thus: that we [should] see that He doeth it, and that
we [should] pray therefor. For the one is not enough. For if we pray
and see not that He doeth it, it maketh us heavy and doubtful; and
that is not His worship. And if we see that He doeth, and we pray
not, we do not our debt, and so may it not be: that is to say, so is
it not [the thing that is] in His beholding.
But
to see that He doeth it, and to pray forthwithal, – so is He
worshiped and we sped. All-thing that our Lord hath ordained to do,
it is His will that we pray therefor, either in special or in
general. And the joy and the bliss that it is to Him, and the thanks
and the worship that we shall have therefor, it passeth the
understanding of creatures, as to my sight.
For
prayer is a right understanding of that fulness of joy that is to
come, with well-longing and sure trust. Failing of our bliss that we
be kindly ordained to, maketh us to long; true understanding and
love, with sweet mind in our Saviour, graciously maketh us to trust.
And in these two workings our Lord beholdeth us continually: for it
is our due part, and His Goodness may no less assign to us.
Thus
it belongeth to us to do our diligence; and when we have done it,
then shall us yet think that [it] is nought, – and sooth it
is. But
if we do as we can, and ask, in truth, for mercy and grace, all that
faileth us we shall find in Him. And thus signifieth He where He
saith: I am Ground of thy beseeching. And thus in this blessed word,
with the Showing, I saw a full overcoming against all our weakness
and all our doubtful dreads.
CHAPTER
XLIII
"Prayer
uniteth the soul to God"
PRAYER
oneth the soul to God. For though the soul be ever like to God in
kind and substance, restored by grace, it is often unlike in
condition, by sin on man's part. Then is prayer a witness that the
soul willeth as God willeth; and it comforteth the conscience and
enableth man to grace. And thus He teacheth us to pray, and mightily
to trust that we shall have it. For He beholdeth us in love and would
make us partners of His good deed, and therefore He stirreth us to
pray for that which it pleaseth him to do. For which prayer and good
will, that we have of His gift, He will reward us and give us endless
meed.
And
this was showed in this word: And thou beseechest it. In this word
God showed so great pleasance and so great content, as though He were
much beholden to us for every good deed that we do (and yet it is He
that doeth it) because that we beseech Him mightily to do all things
that seem to Him good: as if He said: What might then please me more
than to beseech me, mightily, wisely, and earnestly, to do that thing
that I shall do?
And
thus the soul by prayer accordeth to God. But when our courteous
Lord of His grace sheweth Himself to our soul, we have that [which]
we desire. And then we see not, for the time, what we should more
pray, but all our intent with all our might is set wholly to the
beholding of Him. And this is an high unperceivable prayer, as to my
sight: for all the cause wherefor we pray it, it is oned into the
sight and beholding of Him to whom we pray; marvellously enjoying
with reverent dread, and with so great sweetness and delight in Him
that we can pray right nought but as He stirreth us, for the time.
And well I wot, the more the soul seeth of God, the more it desireth
Him by His grace.
But
when we see Him not so, then feel we need and cause to pray, because
of failing, for enabling of our self, to Jesus. For when the soul is
tempested, troubled, and left to itself by unrest, then it is time to
pray, for to make itself pliable and obedient to God. (But the soul
by no manner of prayer maketh God pliant to it: for He is ever alike
in love.)
And
this I saw: that what time we see needs wherefor we pray, then our
good Lord followeth us, helping our desire; and when we of His
special grace plainly behold Him, seeing none other needs, then we
follow Him and He draweth us unto Him by love. For I saw and felt
that His marvellous and plentiful Goodness fulfilleth all our powers;
and therewith I saw that His continuant working in all manner of
things is done so goodly, so wisely, and so mightily, that it
overpasseth all our imagining, and all that we can ween and think;
and then we can do no more but behold Him, enjoying, with an high,
mighty desire to be all oned unto Him, – centred to His
dwelling, –
and enjoy in His loving and delight in His goodness.
And
then shall we, with His sweet grace, in our own meek continuant
prayer come unto Him now in this life by many privy touchings of
sweet spiritual sights and feeling, measured to us as our simpleness
may bear it. And this is wrought, and shall be, by the grace of the
Holy Ghost, so long till we shall die in longing, for love. And then
shall we all come into our Lord, our Self clearly knowing, and God
fully having; and we shall endlessly be all had in God: Him verily
seeing and fully feeling, Him spiritually hearing, and Him delectably
in-breathing, and [of] Him sweetly drinking. And then shall we see
God face to face, homely and fully. The creature that is made shall
see and endlessly behold God which is the Maker. For thus may no man
see God and live after, that is to say, in this deadly life. But when
He of His special grace will shew Himself here, He strengtheneth the
creature above its self, and He measureth the Showing, after His own
will, as it is profitable for the time.
ANENT
CERTAIN POINTS IN THE FOREGOING
FOURTEEN REVELATIONS
CHAPTER
XLIV
"God
is endless, sovereign Truth, – Wisdom, – Love,
not-made; and
man's Soul is a creature in God which hath the same properties made"
GOD
showed in all the Revelations, oftentimes, that man worketh evermore
His will and His worship lastingly without any stinting. And what
this work is, was showed in the First, and that in a marvellous
example: for it was showed in the working of the soul of our blissful
Lady, Saint Mary: [that is, the working of] Truth and Wisdom. And how
[it is done] I hope by the grace of the Holy Ghost I shall tell, as I
saw.
Truth
seeth God, and Wisdom beholdeth God, and of these two cometh the
third: that is, a holy marvellous delight in God; which is Love.
Where Truth and Wisdom are verily, there is Love verily, coming of
them both. And all of God's making: for He is endless sovereign
Truth, endless sovereign Wisdom, endless sovereign Love, unmade; and
man's Soul is a creature in God which hath the same properties made,
and evermore it doeth that it was made for: it seeth God, it
beholdeth God, and it loveth God. Whereof God enjoyeth in the
creature; and the creature in God, endlessly marvelling.
In
which marvelling he seeth his God, his Lord, his Maker so high, so
great, and so good, in comparison with him that is made, that
scarcely the creature seemeth ought to the self. But the clarity and
the clearness of Truth and Wisdom maketh him to see and to bear
witness that he is made for Love in which God endlessly keepeth him.
CHAPTER
XLV
"All
heavenly things and all earthly things that belong to Heaven are
comprehended in these two judgments"
GOD
deemeth us [looking] upon our Nature-Substance, which is ever kept
one in Him, whole and safe without end: and this doom is [because] of
His rightfulness [in the which it is made and kept]. And man judgeth
[looking] upon our changeable Sense-soul, which seemeth now one
[thing], now other, – according as it taketh of the [higher
or
lower] parts, – and [is that which] showeth outward. And this
wisdom [of man's judgment] is mingled [because of the diverse things
it beholdeth]. For sometimes it is good and easy, and sometimes it is
hard and grievous. And in as much as it is good and easy it belongeth
to the rightfulness; and in as much as it is hard and grievous [by
reason of the sin beheld, which sheweth in our Sense-soul,] our good
Lord Jesus reformeth it by [the working in our Sense-soul of] mercy
and grace through the virtue of His blessed Passion, and so bringeth
it to the rightfulness.
And
though these two [judgments] be thus accorded and oned, yet both
shall be known in Heaven without end. The first doom, which is of
God's rightfulness, is [because] of His high endless life [in our
Substance]; and this is that fair sweet doom that was showed in all
the fair Revelation, in which I saw Him assign to us no manner of
blame. But though this was sweet and delectable, yet in the beholding
only of this, I could not be fully eased: and that was because of the
doom of Holy Church, which I had afore understood and which was
continually in my sight. And therefore by this doom methought I
understood that sinners are worthy sometime of blame and wrath; but
these two could I not see in God; and therefore my desire was more
than I can or may tell. For the higher doom was showed by God Himself
in that same time, and therefore me behoved needs to take it; and the
lower doom was learned me afore in Holy Church, and therefore I might
in no way leave the lower doom. Then was this my desire: that I might
see in God in what manner that which the doom of Holy Church teacheth
is true in His sight, and how it belongeth to me verily to know it;
whereby the two dooms might both be saved, so as it were worshipful
to God and right way to me.
And
to all this I had none other answer but a marvellous example of a
lord and of a servant, as I shall tell after: – and that full
mistily showed. And yet I stand desiring, and will unto my end, that
I might by grace know these two dooms as it belongeth to me. For all
heavenly, and all earthly things that belong to Heaven, are
comprehended in these two dooms. And the more understanding, by the
gracious leading of the Holy Ghost, that we have of these two dooms,
the more we shall see and know our failings. And ever the more that
we see them, the more, of nature, by grace, we shall long to be
fulfilled of endless joy and bliss. For we are made thereto, and our
Nature-Substance is now blissful in God, and hath been since it was
made, and shall be without end.
CHAPTER
XLVI
"It
is needful to see and to know that we are sinners: wherefore we
deserve pain and wrath." "He is God: Good, Life, Truth,
Love, Peace: His Clarity and His Unity suffereth Him not to be wroth"
BUT
our passing life that we have here in our sense-soul knoweth not what
our Self is. And when we verily and clearly see and know what our
Self is] then shall we verily and clearly see and know our Lord God
in fulness of joy. And therefore it behoveth needs to be that the
nearer we be to our bliss, the more we shall long [after it]: and
that both by nature and by grace. We may have knowing of our Self in
this life by continuant help and virtue of our high Nature. In which
knowing we may exercise and grow, by forwarding and speeding of mercy
and grace; but we may never fully know our Self until the last point:
in which point this passing life and manner of pain and woe shall
have an end. And therefore it belongeth properly to us, both by
nature and by grace, to long and desire with all our mights to know
our Self in fulness of endless joy.
And
yet in all this time, from the beginning to the end, I had two manner
of beholdings. The one was endless continuant love, with secureness
of keeping, and blissful salvation, – for of this was all the
Showing. The other was of the common teaching of Holy Church, in
which I was afore informed and grounded – and with all my
will
having in use and understanding. And the beholding of this went not
from me: for by the Showing I was not stirred nor led therefrom in no
manner of point, but I had therein teaching to love it and find it
good: whereby I might, by the help of our Lord and His grace,
increase and rise to more heavenly knowing and higher loving.
And
thus in all the Beholding methought it was needful to see and to know
that we are sinners, and do many evils that we ought to leave, and
leave many good deeds undone that we ought to do: wherefore we
deserve pain and wrath. And notwithstanding all this, I saw
soothfastly that our Lord was never wroth, nor ever shall be. For He
is God: Good, Life, Truth, Love, Peace; His Clarity [The dim sight of
God comes before the dim sight of the Self, but the clear sight of
God comes after the clear sight of the Self.] and His Unity suffereth
Him not to be wroth. For I saw truly that it is against the property
of His Might to be wroth, and against the property of His Wisdom, and
against the property of His Goodness. God is the Goodness that may
not be wroth, for He is not [other] but Goodness: our soul is oned to
Him, unchangeable Goodness, and between God and our soul is neither
wrath nor forgiveness in His sight. For our soul is so fully oned to
God of His own Goodness that between God and our soul may be right
nought.
And
to this understanding was the soul led by love and drawn by might in
every Showing: that it is thus our good Lord showed, and how it is
thus in the truth of His great Goodness. And He willeth that we
desire to learn it – that is to say, as far as it belongeth
to His
creature to learn it. For all things that the simple soul understood,
God willeth that they be showed and [made] known. For the things that
He will have privy, mightily and wisely Himself He hideth them, for
love. For I saw in the same Showing that much privity is hid, which
may never be known until the time that God of His goodness hath made
us worthy to see it; and therewith I am well-content, abiding our
Lord's will in this high marvel. And now I yield me to my Mother,
Holy Church, as a simple child oweth.
CHAPTER
XLVII
"We
fail oftentimes of the sight of Him, and anon we fall into our self,
and then find we no feeling of right, – nought but
contrariness
that is in our self"
TWO
things belong to our soul as duty: the one is that we reverently
marvel, the other that we meekly suffer, ever enjoying in God. For He
would have us understand that we shall in short time see clearly in
Himself all that we desire.
And
notwithstanding all this, I beheld and marvelled greatly: What is the
mercy and forgiveness of God? For by the teaching that I had afore, I
understood that the mercy of God should be the forgiveness of His
wrath after the time that we have sinned. For methought that to a
soul whose meaning and desire is to love, the wrath of God was harder
than any other pain, and therefore I took that the forgiveness of His
wrath should be one of the principal points of His mercy. But
howsoever I might behold and desire, I could in no wise see this
point in all the Showing.
But
how I understood and saw of the work of mercy, I shall tell somewhat,
as God will give me grace. I understood this: Man is changeable in
this life, and by frailty and overcoming falleth into sin: he is weak
and unwise of himself, and also his will is overlaid. And in this
time he is in tempest and in sorrow and woe; and the cause is
blindness: for he seeth not God. For if he saw God continually, he
should have no mischievous feeling, nor any manner of motion or
yearning that serveth to sin.
Thus
saw I, and felt in the same time; and methought that the sight and
the feeling was high and plenteous and gracious in comparison with
that which our common feeling is in this life; but yet I thought it
was but small and low in comparison with the great desire that the
soul hath to see God.
For
I felt in me five manner of workings, which be these: Enjoying,
mourning, desire, dread, and sure hope. Enjoying: for God gave me
understanding and knowing that it was Himself that I saw; mourning:
and that was for failing; desire: and that was I might see Him ever
more and more, understanding and knowing that we shall never have
full rest till we see Him verily and clearly in heaven; dread was:
for it seemed to me in all that time that that sight should fail, and
I be left to myself; sure hope was in the endless love: that I saw I
should be kept by His mercy and brought to His bliss. And the joying
in His sight with this sure hope of His merciful keeping made me to
have feeling and comfort so that mourning and dread were not greatly
painful. And yet in all this I beheld in the Showing of God that this
manner of sight may not be continuant in this life, – and
that for
His own worship and for increase of our endless joy. And therefore we
fail oftentimes of the sight of Him, and anon we fall into our self,
and then find we no feeling of right, – naught but
contrariness
that is in our self; and that of the elder root of our first sin,
with all the sins that follow, of our contrivance. And in this we are
in travail and tempest with feeling of sins, and of pain in many
divers manners, spiritual and bodily, as it is known to us in this
life.
CHAPTER
XLVIII
"I
beheld the property of Mercy, and I beheld the property of Grace:
which have two manners of working in one love"
BUT
our good Lord the Holy Ghost, which is endless life dwelling in our
soul, full securely keepeth us; and worketh therein a peace and
bringeth it to ease by grace, and accordeth it to God and maketh it
pliant.
And
this is the mercy and the way that our Lord continually leadeth us in
as long as we be here in this life which is changeable.
For
I saw no wrath but on man's part; and that forgiveth He in us. For
wrath is not else but a forwardness and a contrariness to peace and
love; and either it cometh of failing of might, or of failing of
wisdom, or of failing of goodness: which failing is not in God, but
is on our part. For we by sin and wretchedness have in us a wretched
and continuant contrariness to peace and to love. And that showed He
full often in His lovely Regard of Ruth and Pity. For the ground of
mercy is love, and the working of mercy is our keeping in love. And
this was showed in such manner that I could not have perceived of the
part of mercy but as it were alone in love; that is to say, as to my
sight.
Mercy
is a sweet gracious working in love, mingled with plenteous pity: for
mercy worketh in keeping us, and mercy worketh turning to us all
things to good. Mercy, by love, suffereth us to fail in measure and
in as much as we fail, in so much we fall; and in as much as we fall,
in so much we die: for it needs must be that we die in so much as we
fail of the sight and feeling of God that is our life. Our failing is
dreadful, our falling is shameful, and our dying is sorrowful: but in
all this the sweet eye of pity and love is lifted never off us, nor
the working of mercy ceaseth.
For
I beheld the property of mercy, and I beheld the property of grace:
which have two manners of working in one love. Mercy is a pitiful
property which belongeth to the Motherhood in tender love; and grace
is a worshipful property which belongeth to the royal Lordship in the
same love. Mercy worketh: keeping, suffering, quickening, and
healing; and all is tenderness of love. And grace worketh: raising,
rewarding, endlessly overpassing that which our longing and our
travail deserveth, spreading abroad and Showing the high plenteous
largess of God's royal Lordship in His marvellous courtesy; and this
is of the abundance of love. For grace worketh our dreadful failing
into plenteous, endless solace; and grace worketh our shameful
falling into high, worshipful rising; and grace worketh our sorrowful
dying into holy, blissful life.
For
I saw full surely that ever as our contrariness worketh to us here in
earth pain, shame, and sorrow, right so, on the contrary wise, grace
worketh to us in heaven solace, worship, and bliss; and overpassing.
And so far forth, that when we come up and receive the sweet reward
which grace hath wrought for us, then we shall thank and bless our
Lord, endlessly rejoicing that ever we suffered woe. And that shall
be for a property of blessed love that we shall know in God which we
could never have known without woe going before.
And
when I saw all this, it behoved me needs to grant that the mercy of
God and the forgiveness is to slacken and waste our wrath.
CHAPTER
XLIX
"Where
our Lord appeareth, peace is taken, and wrath hath. no place."
"Immediately is the soul made at one with God when it is truly
set at peace in itself"
FOR
this was an high marvel to the soul which was continually showed in
all the Revelations, and was with great diligence beholden, that our
Lord God, anent Himself may not forgive, for He may not be wroth: it
were impossible. For this was showed: that our life is all grounded
and rooted in love, and without love we may not live; and therefore
to the soul that of His special grace seeth so far into the high,
marvellous Goodness of God, and seeth that we are endlessly oned to
Him in love, it is the most impossible that may be, that God should
be wroth. For wrath and friendship be two contraries. For He that
wasteth and destroyeth our wrath and maketh us meek and mild,
– it
behoveth needs to be that He [Himself] be ever one in love, meek and
mild: which is contrary to wrath.
For
I saw full surely that where our Lord appeareth, peace is taken and
wrath hath no place. For I saw no manner of wrath in God, neither for
short time nor for long; – for in sooth, as to my sight, if
God
might be wroth for an instant, we should never have life nor place
nor being. For as verily as we have our being of the endless Might of
God and of the endless Wisdom and of the endless Goodness, so verily
we have our keeping in the endless Might of God, in the endless
Wisdom, and in the endless Goodness. For though we feel in ourselves,
[frail] wretches, debates and strifes, yet are we all-mannerful
enclosed in the mildness of God and in His meekness, in His benignity
and in His graciousness. For I saw full surely that all our endless
friendship, our place, our life and our being, is in God.
For
that same endless Goodness that keepeth us when we sin, that we
perish not, the same endless Goodness continually treateth in us a
peace against our wrath and our contrarious falling, and maketh us to
see our need with a true dread, and mightily to seek unto God to have
forgiveness, with a gracious desire of our salvation. And though we,
by the wrath and the contrariness that is in us, be now in
tribulation, distress, and woe, as falleth to our blindness and
frailty, yet are we securely safe by the merciful keeping of God,
that we perish not. But we are not blissfully safe, in having of our
endless joy, till we be all in peace and in love: that is to say,
full pleased with God and with all His works, and with all His
judgments, and loving and peaceable with our self and with our fellow
Christians and with all that God loveth, as love beseemeth. And this
doeth God's Goodness in us.
Thus
saw I that God is our very Peace, and He is our sure Keeper when we
are ourselves in unpeace, and He continually worketh to bring us into
endless peace. And thus when we, by the working of mercy and grace,
be made meek and mild, we are fully safe; suddenly is the soul oned
to God when it is truly peaced in itself: for in Him is found no
wrath. And thus I saw when we are all in peace and in love, we find
no contrariness, nor no manner of letting through that contrariness
which is now in us; [nay], our Lord of His Goodness maketh it to us
full profitable. For that contrariness is cause of our tribulations
and all our woe, and our Lord Jesus taketh them and sendeth them up
to Heaven, and there are they made more sweet and delectable than
heart may think or tongue may tell. And when we come thither we shall
find them ready, all turned into very fair and endless worships. Thus
is God our steadfast Ground: and He shall be our full bliss and make
us unchangeable, as He is, when we are there.
CHAPTER
L
"The
blame of our sin continually hangeth upon us." "In the
sight of God the soul that shall be saved was never dead, nor ever
shall be dead"
AND
in this life mercy and forgiveness is our way and evermore leadeth us
to grace. And by the tempest and the sorrow that we fall into on our
part, we be often dead as to man's doom in earth; but in the sight of
God the soul that shall be saved was never dead, nor ever shall be.
But
yet here I wondered and marvelled with all the diligence of my soul,
saying thus within me: Good Lord, I see Thee that art very Truth; and
I know in truth that we sin grievously every day and be much
blameworthy; and I may neither leave the knowing of Thy truth, nor do
I see Thee shew to us any manner of blame. How may this be?
For
I knew by the common teaching of Holy Church and by mine own feeling,
that the blame of our sin continually hangeth upon us, from the first
man unto the time that we come up unto heaven: then was this my
marvel that I saw our Lord God Showing to us no more blame than if we
were as clean and as holy as Angels be in heaven. And between these
two contraries my reason was greatly travailed through my blindness,
and could have no rest for dread that His blessed presence should
pass from my sight and I be left in unknowing [of] how He beholdeth
us in our sin. For either [it] behoved me to see in God that sin was
all done away, or else me behoved to see in God how He seeth it,
whereby I might truly know how it belongeth to me to see sin, and the
manner of our blame. My longing endured, Him continually beholding;
–
and yet I could have no patience for great straits and perplexity,
thinking: If I take it thus that we be no sinners and not
blameworthy, it seemeth as I should err and fail of knowing of this
truth; and if it be so that we be sinners and blameworthy, –
Good
Lord, how may it then be that I cannot see this true thing in Thee,
which art my God, my Maker, in whom I desire to see all truths?
For
three points make me hardy to ask it. The first is, because it is so
low a thing: for if it were an high thing I should be a-dread. The
second is, that it is so common: for if it were special and privy,
also I should be a-dread. The third is, that it needeth me to know it
(as methinketh) if I shall live here for knowing of good and evil,
whereby I may, by reason and grace, the more dispart them asunder,
and love goodness and hate evil, as Holy Church teacheth. I cried
inwardly, with all my might seeking unto God for help, saying thus:
Ah! Lord Jesus, King of bliss, how shall I be eased? Who shall teach
me and tell me that [thing] me needeth to know, if I may not at this
time see it in Thee?
CHAPTER
LI
"He
is the Head, and we be His members." "Therefore our Father
nor may nor will more blame assign to us than to His own Son,
precious and worthy Christ"
AND
then our Courteous Lord answered in Showing full mistily a wonderful
example of a Lord that hath a Servant: and He gave me sight to my
understanding of both. Which sight was showed doubly in the Lord and
doubly in the Servant: the one part was showed spiritually in bodily
likeness, and the other part was showed more spiritually, without
bodily likeness.
For
the first [sight], thus, I saw two persons in bodily likeness: that
is to say, a Lord and a Servant; and therewith God gave me spiritual
understanding. The Lord sitteth stately in rest and in peace; the
Servant standeth by afore his Lord reverently, ready to do his Lord's
will. The Lord looketh upon his Servant full lovingly and sweetly,
and meekly he sendeth him to a certain place to do his will. The
Servant not only he goeth, but suddenly he starteth, and runneth in
great haste, for love to do his Lord's will. And anon he falleth into
a slade, and taketh full great hurt. And then he groaneth and moaneth
and waileth and struggleth, but he neither may rise nor help himself
by no manner of way.
And
of all this the most mischief that I saw him in, was failing of
comfort: for he could not turn his face to look upon his loving Lord,
which was to him full near, – in Whom is full comfort;
– but as a
man that was feeble and unwise for the time, he turned his mind to
his feeling and endured in woe.
In
which woe he suffered seven great pains. The first was the sore
bruising that he took in his falling, which was to him feelable pain;
the second was the heaviness of his body; the third was feebleness
following from these two; the fourth, that he was blinded in his
reason and stunned in his mind, so far forth that almost he had
forgotten his own love; the fifth was that he might not rise; the
sixth was most marvellous to me, and that was that he lay all alone:
I looked all about and beheld, and far nor near, high nor low, I saw
to him no help; the seventh was that the place which he lay on was a
long, hard, and grievous [place].
I
marvelled how this Servant might meekly suffer there all this woe,
and I beheld with carefulness to learn if I could perceive in him any
fault, or if the Lord should assign to him any blame. And in sooth
there was none seen: for only his goodwill and his great desire was
cause of his falling; and he was unlothful, and as good inwardly as
when he stood afore his Lord, ready to do his will. And right thus
continually his loving Lord full tenderly beholdeth him. But now with
a double manner of Regard: one outward, full meekly and mildly, with
great ruth and pity, – and this was of the first [sight],
another
inward, more spiritually, – and this was showed with a
leading of
mine understanding into the Lord, [in the] which I saw Him highly
rejoicing for the worshipful restoring that He will and shall bring
His Servant to by His plenteous grace; and this was of that other
Showing.
And
now [was] my understanding led again into the first [sight]; both
keeping in mind. Then saith this courteous Lord in his meaning: Lo,
lo, my loved Servant, what harm and distress he hath taken in my
service for my love, – yea, and for his goodwill. Is it not
fitting
that I award him [for] his affright and his dread, his hurt and his
maim and all his woe? And not only this, but falleth it not to me to
give a gift that [shall] be better to him, and more worshipful, than
his own wholeness should have been? – or else methinketh I
should
do him no grace.
And
in this an inward spiritual Showing of the Lord's meaning descended
into my soul: in which I saw that it behoveth needs to be, by virtue
of His great [Goodness] and His own worship, that His dearworthy
Servant, which He loved so much, should be verily and blissfully
rewarded, above that he should have been if he had not fallen. Yea,
and so far forth, that his falling and his woe, that he hath taken
thereby, shall be turned into high and overpassing worship and
endless bliss.
And
at this point the Showing of the example vanished, and our good Lord
led forth mine understanding in sight and in Showing of the
Revelation to the end. But notwithstanding all this forth-leading,
the marvelling over the example went never from me: for methought it
was given me for an answer to my desire, and yet could I not take
therein full understanding to mine ease at that time. For in the
Servant that was showed for Adam, as I shall tell, I saw many diverse
properties that might in no manner of way be assigned to single Adam.
And thus in that time I stood for much part in unknowing: for the
full understanding of this marvellous example was not given me in
that time. In which mighty example three properties of the Revelation
be yet greatly hid; and notwithstanding this [further forthleading],
I saw and understood that every Showing is full of secret things
[left hid].
And
therefore me behoveth now to tell three properties in which I am
somewhat eased. The first is the beginning of teaching that I
understood therein, in the same time; the second is the inward
teaching that I have understood therein afterward; the third, all the
whole Revelation from the beginning to the end (that is to say of
this Book) which our Lord God of His goodness bringeth oftentimes
freely to the sight of mine understanding. And these three are so
oned, as to my understanding, that I cannot, nor may, dispart them.
And by these three, as one, I have teaching whereby I ought to
believe and trust in our Lord God, that of the same goodness of which
He showed it, and for the same end, right so, of the same goodness
and for the same end He shall declare it to us when it is His will.
For,
twenty years after the time of the Showing, save three months, I had
teaching inwardly, as I shall tell: It belongeth to thee to take heed
to all the properties and conditions that were showed in the example,
though thou think that they be misty and indifferent to thy sight. I
assented willingly, with great desire, and inwardly [beheld] with
heedfulness all the points and properties that were showed in the
same time, as far forth as my wits and understanding would serve:
beginning my beholding at the Lord and at the Servant, and the manner
of sitting of the Lord, and the place that he sat on, and the colour
of his clothing and the manner of shape, and his countenance without,
and his nobleness and his goodness within; at the manner of standing
of the Servant, and the place where, and how; at his manner of
clothing, the colour and the shape; at his outward having and at his
inward goodness and his unloathfulness.
The
Lord that sat stately in rest and in peace, I understood that He is
God. The Servant that stood afore the Lord, I understood that it was
showed for Adam: that is to say, one man was showed, that time, and
his falling, to make it thereby understood how God beholdeth All-Man
and his falling. For in the sight of God all man is one man, and one
man is all man. This man was hurt in his might and made full feeble;
and he was stunned in his understanding so that he [was] turned from
the beholding of his Lord. But his will was kept whole in God's
sight; – for his will I saw our Lord commend and approve. But
himself was letted and blinded from the knowing of this will; and
this is to him great sorrow and grievous distress: for neither doth
he see clearly his loving Lord, which is to him full meek and mild,
nor doth he see truly what himself is in the sight of his loving
Lord. And well I wot when these two are wisely and truly seen, we
shall get rest and peace here in part, and the fulness of the bliss
of Heaven, by His plenteous grace.
And
this was a beginning of teaching which I saw in the same time,
whereby I might come to know in what manner He beholdeth us in our
sin. And then I saw that only Pain blameth and punisheth, and our
courteous Lord comforteth and sorroweth; and ever He is to the soul
in glad Cheer, loving, and longing to bring us to His bliss.
The
place that the Lord sat on was simple, on the earth, barren and
desert, alone in wilderness; his clothing was ample and full seemly,
as falleth to a Lord; the colour of his cloth was blue as azure, most
sad and fair. his cheer was merciful; the colour of his face was
fair-brown, – with full seemly features; his eyes were black,
most
fair and seemly, Showing [outward] full of lovely pity, and
[Showing], within him, an high Regard, long and broad, all full of
endless heavens. And the lovely looking wherewith He looked upon His
Servant continually, – and especially in his falling,
– methought
it might melt our hearts for love and burst them in two for joy. The
fair looking showed [itself] of a seemly mingledness which was
marvellous to behold: the one [part] was Ruth and Pity, the other was
Joy and Bliss. The Joy and Bliss passeth as far Ruth and Pity as
Heaven is above earth: the Pity was earthly and the Bliss was
heavenly: the Ruth and Pity of the Father was [in regard] of the
falling of Adam, which is His most loved creature; the Joy and Bliss
was [in regard] of His dearworthy Son, which is even with the Father.
The Merciful Beholding of His Countenance of love fulfilled all earth
and descended down with Adam into hell, with which continuant pity
Adam was kept from endless death. And thus Mercy and Pity dwelleth
with mankind unto the time we come up into Heaven.
But
man is blinded in this life and therefore we may not see our Father,
God, as He is. And what time that He of His goodness willeth to shew
Himself to man, He sheweth Himself homely, as man. Notwithstanding, I
reason, in verity we ought to know and believe that the Father is not
man.
But
his sitting on the earth barren and desert, is to signify this:
–
He made man's soul to be His own City and His dwelling-place: which
is most pleasing to Him of all His works. And what time that man was
fallen into sorrow and pain, he was not all seemly to serve in that
noble office; and therefore our Lord Father would prepare Himself no
other place, but would sit upon the earth abiding mankind, which is
mingled with earth, till what time by His grace His dearworthy Son
had brought again His City into the noble fairness with His hard
travail. The blueness of the clothing betokeneth His steadfastness;
the brownness of his fair face, with the seemly blackness of the
eyes, was most accordant to shew His holy soberness. The length and
breadth of his garments, which were fair, flaming about, betokeneth
that He hath, beclosed in Him, all Heavens, and all Joy and Bliss:
and this was showed in a touch [of time], where I have said: Mine
understanding was led into the Lord; in which [inward Showing] I saw
Him highly rejoice for the worshipful restoring that He will and
shall bring His servant to by His plenteous grace.
And
yet I marvelled, beholding the Lord and the Servant aforesaid. I saw
the Lord sit stately, and the Servant standing reverently afore his
Lord. In which Servant there is double understanding, one
without,another within. Outwardly: – he was clad simply, as a
labourer which were got ready for his toil; and he stood full near
the Lord – not evenly in front of him, but in part to one
side, on
the left. His clothing was a white kirtle, single, old, and all
defaced, dyed with sweat of his body, strait-fitting to him, and
short – as it were an handful beneath the knee; [thread]bare,
seeming as it should soon be worn out, ready to be ragged and rent.
And of this I marvelled greatly, thinking: this is now an unseemly
clothing for the Servant that is so greatly loved to stand in afore
so worshipful a Lord. And inwardly in him was showed a ground of
love: which love that he had to the Lord was even-like to the love
that the Lord had to him.
The
wisdom of the Servant saw inwardly that there was one thing to do
which should be to the worship of the Lord. And the Servant, for
love, having no regard to himself nor to nothing that might befall
him, hastily he started and ran at the sending of his Lord, to do
that thing which was his will and his worship. For it seemed by his
outward clothing as he had been a continuant labourer of long time,
and by the inward sight that I had both of the Lord and the Servant
it seemed that he was a new [one], that is to say, new beginning to
travail: which Servant was never sent out afore.
There
was a treasure in the earth which the Lord loved. I marvelled and
thought what it might be, and I was answered in mine understanding:
It is a food which is delectable and pleasant to the Lord. For I saw
the Lord sit as a man, and I saw neither meat nor drink wherewith to
serve him. This was one marvel. Another marvel was that this majestic
Lord had no servant but one, and him he sent out. I beheld, thinking
what manner of labour it might be that the Servant should do. And
then I understood that he should do the greatest labour and hardest
travail: that is, he should be a gardener, delve and dyke, toil and
sweat, and turn the earth upside-down, and seek the deepness, and
water the plants in time. And in this he should continue his travail
and make sweet floods to run, and noble and plenteous fruits to
spring, which he should bring afore the Lord to serve him therewith
to his desire. And he should never turn again till he had prepared
this food all ready as he knew that it pleased the Lord. And then he
should take this food, with the drink in the food, and bear it full
worshipfully afore the Lord. And all this time the Lord should sit in
the same place, abiding his Servant whom he sent out.
And
yet I marvelled from whence the Servant came. For I saw in the Lord
that HE hath within Himself endless life, and all manner of goodness,
save that treasure that was in the earth. And [also] that [treasure]
was grounded in the Lord in marvellous deepness of endless love, but
it was not all to His worship till the Servant had thus nobly
prepared it, and brought it before Him in himself present. And
without the Lord was nothing but wilderness. And I understood not all
what this example meant, and therefore I marvelled whence the Servant
came.
In
the Servant is comprehended the Second Person in the Trinity; and in
the Servant is comprehended Adam: that is to say, All-Man. And
therefore when I say the Son, it meaneth the Godhead which is even
with the Father; and when I say the Servant, it meaneth Christ's
Manhood, which is rightful Adam. By the nearness of the Servant is
understood the Son, and by the standing on the left side is
understood Adam. The Lord is the Father, God; the Servant is the Son,
Christ Jesus; the Holy Ghost is Even Love which is in them both.
When
Adam fell, God's Son fell: because of the rightful oneing which had
been made in heaven, God's Son might not [be disparted] from Adam.
(For by Adam I understand All-Man.) Adam fell from life to death,
into the deep of this wretched world, and after that into hell: God's
Son fell with Adam, into the deep of the Maiden's womb, who was the
fairest daughter of Adam; and for this end: to excuse Adam from blame
in heaven and in earth; and mightily He fetched him out of hell.
By
the wisdom and goodness that was in the Servant is understood God's
Son; by the poor clothing as a labourer standing near the left side,
is understood the Manhood and Adam, with all the scathe and
feebleness that followeth. For in all this our good Lord showed His
own Son and Adam but one Man. The virtue and the goodness that we
have is of Jesus Christ, the feebleness and the blindness that we
have is of Adam: which two were showed in the Servant.
And
thus hath our good Lord Jesus taken upon Him all our blame, and
therefore our Father nor may nor will more blame assign to us than to
His own Son, dearworthy Christ. Thus was He, the Servant, afore His
coming into earth standing ready afore the Father in purpose, till
what time He would send Him to do that worshipful deed by which
mankind was brought again into heaven; – that is to say,
notwithstanding that He is God, even with the Father as anent the
Godhead. But in His foreseeing purpose that He would be Man, to save
man in fulfilling of His Father's will, so He stood afore His Father
as a Servant, willingly taking upon Him all our charge. And then He
started full readily at the Father's will, and anon He fell full low,
into the Maiden's womb, having no regard to Himself nor to His hard
pains.
The
white kirtle is the flesh; the singleness is that there was right
nought atwix the Godhead and Manhood; the straitness is poverty; the
eld is of Adam's wearing: the defacing, of sweat of Adam's travail;
the shortness sheweth the Servant's labour.
And
thus I saw the Son saying in His meaning: Lo! my dear Father, I stand
before Thee in Adam' kirtle, all ready to start and to run: I would
be in the earth to do Thy worship when it is Thy will to send me. How
long shall I desire? Full soothfastly wist the Son when it would be
the Father's will and how long He should desire: that is to say, [He
wist it] anent the Godhead: for He is the Wisdom of the Father;
wherefore this question was showed with understanding of the Manhood
of Christ. For all mankind that shall be saved by the sweet
Incarnation and blissful Passion of Christ, all is the Manhood of
Christ: for He is the Head and we be His members. To which members
the day and the time is unknown when every passing woe and sorrow
shall have an end, and the everlasting joy and bliss shall be
fulfilled; which day and time for to see, all the Company of Heaven
longeth. And all that shall be under heaven that shall come thither,
their way is by longing and desire. Which desire and longing was
showed in the Servant's standing afore the Lord, – or else
thus in
the Son's standing afore the Father in Adam's kirtle. For the longing
and desire of all Mankind that shall be saved appeared in Jesus: for
Jesus is All that shall be saved, and All that shall be saved is
Jesus. And all of the Charity of God; with obedience, meekness, and
patience, and virtues that belong to us.
Also
in this marvellous example I have teaching with me as it were the
beginning of an A.B.C., whereby I have some understanding of our
Lord's meaning. For the secret things of the Revelation be hid
therein; – notwithstanding that all the Showings are full of
secret
things. The sitting of the Father betokeneth His Godhead: that is to
say, by Showing of rest and peace: for in the Godhead may be no
travail. And that He showed Himself as Lord, betokeneth His
[governance] to our manhood. The standing of the Servant betokeneth
travail; on one side, and on the left, betokeneth that he was not all
worthy to stand even-right afore the Lord; his starting was the
Godhead, and the running was the Manhood: for the Godhead started
from the Father into the Maiden's womb, falling into the taking of
our Kind. And in this falling he took great sore: the sore that He
took was our flesh, in which He had also swiftly feeling of deadly
pains. That he stood adread before the Lord and not even-right,
betokeneth that His clothing was not seemly to stand in even-right
afore the Lord, nor that might not, nor should not, be His office
while He was a labourer; nor also He might not sit in rest and peace
with the Lord till He had won His peace rightfully with His hard
travail; and that he stood by the left side [betokeneth] that the
Father left His own Son, willingly, in the Manhood to suffer all
man's pains, without sparing of Him. By that his kirtle was in point
to be ragged and rent, is understood the blows, the scourgings, the
thorns and the nails, the drawing and the dragging, His tender flesh
rending. (As I saw in some part [before] how the flesh was rent from
the skull, falling in pieces until the time when the bleeding ceased,
and then it began to dry again, cleaving to the bone.) And by the
struggling and writhing, groaning and moaning, is understood that He
might never rise almightily from the time that He was fallen into the
Maiden's womb, till his body was slain and dead, He yielding the soul
into the Father's hands with all Mankind for whom He was sent.
And
at this point He began first to shew His might: for He went into
Hell, and when He was there He raised up the great Root out of the
deep deepness which rightfully was knit to Him in high Heaven. The
body was in the grave till Easter-morrow, and from that time He lay
nevermore. For then was rightfully ended the struggling and the
writhing, the groaning and the moaning. And our foul deadly flesh
that God's Son took on Him, which was Adam's old kirtle, strait,
[worn]-bare, and short, was then by our Saviour made fair, new white
and bright and of endless cleanness; loose and long; fairer and
richer than was then the clothing which [before] I saw on the Father:
for that clothing was blue, but Christ's clothing is [coloured] now
of a fair seemly medlour, which is so marvellous that I can it not
describe: for it is all of very worships.
Now
sitteth not the Son on earth in wilderness, but He sitteth in His
noblest Seat, which He made in Heaven most to His pleasing. Now
standeth not the Son afore the Father as a Servant afore the Lord
dreadingly, meanly clad, in part naked; but He standeth afore the
Father even-right, richly clad in blissful largeness, with a Crown
upon His head of precious richness. For it was showed that we be His
Crown: which Crown is the Joy of the Father, the Worship of the Son,
the Satisfying of the Holy Ghost, and endless marvellous Bliss to all
that be in Heaven. Now standeth not the Son afore the Father on the
left side, as a labourer, but He sitteth on His Father's right hand,
in endless rest and peace. (But it is not meant that the Son sitteth
on the right hand, side by side, as one man sitteth by another in
this life, – for there is no such sitting, as to my sight, in
the
Trinity, – but He sitteth on His Father's right hand,
– that is
to say: in the highest nobleness of the Father's joys.) Now is the
Spouse, God's Son, in peace with His loved Wife, which is the Fair
Maiden of endless Joy. Now sitteth the Son, Very God and Man, in His
City in rest and peace: which [City] His Father hath adight to Him of
His endless purpose; and the Father in the Son; and the Holy Ghost in
the Father and in the Son.
CHAPTER
LII
"We
have now matter of mourning: for our sin is cause of Christ's pains;
and we have, lastingly, matter of joy: for endless love made Him to
suffer"
AND
thus I saw that God rejoiceth that He is our Father, and God
rejoiceth that He is our Mother, and God rejoiceth that He is our
Very Spouse and our soul is His loved Wife. And Christ rejoiceth that
He is our Brother, and Jesus rejoiceth that He is our Saviour. These
are five high joys, as I understand, in which He willeth that we
enjoy; Him praising, Him thanking, Him loving, Him endlessly
blessing.
All
that shall be saved, we have in us, for the time of this life, a
marvellous mingling both of weal and woe: we have in us our Lord
Jesus uprisen, we have in us the wretchedness and the mischief of
Adam's falling, dying. By Christ we are steadfastly kept, and by His
grace touching us we are raised into sure trust of salvation. And by
Adam's falling we are so broken, in our feeling, in diverse manners
by sins and by sundry pains, in which we are made dark, that scarsely
we can take any comfort.
But
in our intent we abide in God, and faithfully trust to have mercy and
grace; and this is His own working in us. And of His goodness He
openeth the eye of our understanding, by which we have sight,
sometime more and sometime less, according as God giveth ability to
receive. And now we are raised into the one, and now we are suffered
to fall into the other.
And
thus is this medley so marvellous in us that scarsely we know of our
self or of our even-Christian in what way we stand, for the
marvellousness of this sundry feeling. But that same Holy Assent,
that we assent to God when we feel Him, truly setting our will to be
with Him, with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our
might. And then we hate and despise our evil stirrings and all that
might be occasion of sin, spiritual and bodily. And yet nevertheless
when this sweetness is hid, we fall again into blindness, and so into
woe and tribulation in diverse manners. But then is this our comfort,
that we know in our faith that by virtue of Christ which is our
Keeper, we assent never thereto, but we groan there-against, and dure
on, in pain and woe, praying, unto that time that He sheweth Him
again to us.
And
thus we stand in this medley all the days of our life. But He willeth
that we trust that He is lastingly with us. And that in three manner.
– He is with us in Heaven, very Man, in His own Person, us
updrawing; and that was showed in [the Showing of] the Spiritual
Thirst. And He is with us in earth, us leading; and that was showed
in the Third [Showing], where I saw God in a Point. And He is with us
in our soul, endlessly dwelling, us ruling and keeping; and that was
showed in the Sixteenth [Showing], as I shall tell.
And
thus in the Servant was showed the scathe and blindness of Adam's
falling; and in the Servant was showed the wisdom and goodness of
God's Son. And in the Lord was showed the ruth and pity of Adam's
woe, and in the Lord was showed the high nobility and the endless
worship that Mankind is come to by the virtue of the Passion and
death of His dearworthy Son. And therefore mightily He joyeth in his
falling for the high raising and fulness of bliss that Mankind is
come to, overpassing that we should have had if he had not fallen.
–
And thus to see this overpassing nobleness was mine understanding led
into God in the same time that I saw the Servant fall.
And
thus we have, now, matter of mourning: for our sin is cause of
Christ's pains; and we have, lastingly, matter of joy: for endless
love made Him to suffer. And therefore the creature that seeth and
feeleth the working of love by grace, hateth nought but sin: for of
all things, to my sight, love and hate are [the] hardest and most
unmeasureable contraries. And notwithstanding all this, I saw and
understood in our Lord's meaning that we may not in this life keep us
from sin as wholly in full cleanness as we shall be in Heaven. But we
may well by grace keep us from the sins which would lead us to
endless pains, as Holy Church teacheth us; and eschew venial [ones]
reasonably up to our might. And if we by our blindness and our
wretchedness any time fall, we should readily rise, knowing the sweet
touching of grace, and with all our will amend us upon the teaching
of Holy Church, according as the sin is grievous, and go forthwith to
God in love; and neither, on the one side, fall over low, inclining
to despair, nor, on the other side, be over-reckless, as if we made
no matter of it; but nakedly acknowledge our feebleness, finding that
we may not stand a twinkling of an eye but by Keeping of grace, and
reverently cleave to God, on Him only trusting.
For
after one wise is the Beholding by God, and after another wise is the
Beholding by man. For it belongeth to man meekly to accuse himself,
and it belongeth to the proper Goodness of our Lord God courteously
to excuse man. And these be two parts that were showed in the double
Manner of Regard with which the Lord beheld the falling of His loved
Servant. The one was showed outward, very meekly and mildly, with
great ruth and pity; and that of endless Love. And right thus willeth
our Lord that we accuse our self, earnestly and truly seeing and
knowing our falling and all the harms that come thereof; seeing and
learning that we can never restore it; and therewith that we
earnestly and truly see and know His everlasting love that He hath to
us, and His plenteous mercy. And thus graciously to see and know both
together is the meek accusing that our Lord asketh of us, and Himself
worketh it where it is. And this is the lower part of man's life, and
it was showed in the [Lord's] outward manner of Regard. In which
Showing I saw two parts: the one is the rueful falling of man, the
other is the worshipful Satisfaction that our Lord hath made for man.
The
other manner of Regard was showed inward: and that was more highly
and all [fully] one. For the life and the virtue that we have in the
lower part is of the higher, and it cometh down to us [from out] of
the Natural love of the [high] Self, by [the working of] grace. Atwix
[the life of] the one and [the life of] the other there is right
nought: for it is all one love. Which one blessed love hath now, in
us, double working: for in the lower part are pains and passions,
mercies and forgiveness, and such other that are profitable; but in
the higher part are none of these, but all one high love and
marvellous joy: in which joy all pains are highly restored. And in
this [time] our Lord showed not only our Excusing [from blame, in His
beholding of our higher part], but the worshipful nobility that He
shall bring us to [by the working of grace in our lower part],
turning all our blame [that is therein, from our falling] into
endless worship [when we be oned to the high Self above].
CHAPTER
LIII
"In
every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to
sin, nor ever shall." "Ere that He made us He loved us, and
when we were made we loved Him"
AND
I saw that He willeth that we understand He taketh not harder the
falling of any creature that shall be saved than He took the falling
of Adam, which, we know, was endlessly loved and securely kept in the
time of all his need, and now is blissfully restored in high
overpassing joy. For our Lord is so good, so gentle, and so
courteous, that He may never assign default [in those] in whom He
shall ever be blessed and praised.
And
in this that I have now told was my desire in part answered, and my
great difficulty some deal eased, by the lovely, gracious Showing of
our good Lord. In which Showing I saw and understood full surely that
in every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented
to sin, nor ever shall: which Will is so good that it may never will
evil, but evermore continually it willeth good; and worketh good in
the sight of God. Therefore our Lord willeth that we know this in the
Faith and the belief; and especially that we have all this blessed
Will whole and safe in our Lord Jesus Christ. For that same Kind that
Heaven shall be filled with behoveth needs, of God's rightfulness, so
to have been knit and oned to Him, that therein was kept a Substance
which might never, nor should, be parted from Him; and that through
His own Good Will in His endless foreseeing purpose.
But
notwithstanding this rightful knitting and this endless oneing, yet
the redemption and the again-buying of mankind is needful and
speedful in everything, as it is done for the same intent and to the
same end that Holy Church in our Faith us teacheth.
For
I saw that God began never to love mankind: for right the same that
mankind shall be in endless bliss, fulfilling the joy of God as anent
His works, right so the same, mankind hath been in the foresight of
God: known and loved from without beginning in his rightful intent.
By the endless assent of the full accord of all the Trinity, the
Mid-Person willed to be Ground and Head of this fair Kind: out of
Whom we be all come, in Whom we be all enclosed, into Whom we shall
all wend, in Him finding our full Heaven in everlasting joy, by the
foreseeing purpose of all the blessed Trinity from without beginning.
For
ere that He made us He loved us, and when we were made we loved Him.
And this is a Love that is made, [to our Kindly Substance], [by
virtue] of the Kindly Substantial Goodness of the Holy Ghost; Mighty,
in Reason, [by virtue] of the Might of the Father; and Wise, in Mind,
[by virtue] of the Wisdom of the Son. And thus is Man's Soul made by
God and in the same point knit to God.
And
thus I understand that man's Soul is made of nought: that is to say,
it is made, but of nought that is made. And thus: – When God
should
make man's body He took the clay of earth, which is a matter mingled
and gathered of all bodily things; and thereof He made man's body.
But to the making of man's Soul He would take right nought, but made
it. And thus is the Nature-made rightfully oned to the Maker, which
is Substantial Nature not-made: that is, God. And therefore it is
that there may nor shall be right nought atwix God and man's Soul.
And
in this endless Love man's Soul is kept whole, as the matter of the
Revelations signifieth and sheweth: in which endless Love we be led
and kept of God and never shall be lost. For He willeth we be aware
that our Soul is a life, which life of His Goodness and His Grace
shall last in Heaven without end, Him loving, Him thanking, Him
praising. And right the same that we shall be without end, the same
we were treasured in God and hid, known and loved from without
beginning.
Wherefore
He would have us understand that the noblest thing that ever He made
is mankind: and the fullest Substance and the highest Virtue is the
blessed Soul of Christ. And furthermore He would have us understand
that His dearworthy Soul [of Manhood] was preciously knit to Him in
the making [by Him of Manhood's Substantial Nature] which knot is so
subtle and so mighty that (it) – [man's soul] – is
oned into God:
in which oneing it is made endlessly holy. Furthermore He would have
us know that all the souls that shall be saved in Heaven without end,
are knit and oned in this oneing and made holy in this holiness.
CHAPTER
LIV
"Faith
is nought else but a right understanding, with true belief and sure
trust, of our Being: that we are in God, and God is in us: Whom we
see not"
AND
because of this great, endless love that God hath to all Mankind, He
maketh no disparting in love between the blessed Soul of Christ and
the least soul that shall be saved. For it is full easy to believe
and to trust that the dwelling of the blessed Soul of Christ is full
high in the glorious Godhead, and verily, as I understand in our
Lord's signifying, where the blessed Soul of Christ is, there is the
Substance of all the souls that shall be saved by Christ.
Highly
ought we to rejoice that God dwelleth in our soul, and much more
highly ought we to rejoice that our soul dwelleth in God. Our soul is
made to be God's dwelling-place; and the dwelling-place of the soul
is God, Which is unmade. And high understanding it is, inwardly to
see and know that God, which is our Maker, dwelleth in our soul; and
an higher understanding it is, inwardly to see and to know that our
soul, that is made, dwelleth in God's Substance: of which Substance,
God, we are that we are.
And
I saw no difference between God and our Substance: but as it were all
God; and yet mine understanding took that our Substance is in God:
that is to say, that God is God, and our Substance is a creature in
God. For the Almighty Truth of the Trinity is our Father: for He made
us and keepeth us in Him; and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our
Mother, in Whom we are all enclosed; the high Goodness of the
Trinity is our Lord, and in Him we are enclosed, and He in us. We are
enclosed in the Father, and we are enclosed in the Son, and we are
enclosed in the Holy Ghost. And the Father is enclosed in us, and the
Son is enclosed in us, and the Holy Ghost is enclosed in us:
Almightiness, All-Wisdom, All-Goodness: one God, one Lord.
And
our faith is a Virtue that cometh of our Nature-Substance into our
Sense-soul by the Holy Ghost; in which all our virtues come to us:
for without that, no man may receive virtue. For it is nought else
but a right understanding, with true belief, and sure trust, of our
Being: that we are in God, and God in us, Whom we see not. And this
virtue, with all other that God hath ordained to us coming therein,
worketh in us great things. For Christ's merciful working is in us,
and we graciously accord to Him through the gifts and the virtues of
the Holy Ghost. This working maketh that we are Christ's children,
and Christian in living.
CHAPTER
LV
"Christ
is our Way" – "Mankind shall be restored from double
death"
AND
thus Christ is our Way, us surely leading in His laws, and Christ in
His body mightily beareth us up into heaven. For I saw that Christ,
us all having in Him that shall be saved by Him, worshipfully
presenteth His Father in heaven with us; which present full
thankfully His Father receiveth, and courteously giveth it to His
Son, Jesus Christ: which gift and working is joy to the Father, and
bliss to the Son, and pleasing to the Holy Ghost. And of all things
that belong to us [to do], it is most pleasing to our Lord that we
enjoy in this joy which is in the blessed Trinity [in virtue] of our
salvation. (And this was seen in the Ninth Showing, where it speaketh
more of this matter.) And notwithstanding all our feeling of woe or
weal, God willeth that we should understand and hold by faith that we
are more verily in heaven than in earth.
Our
Faith cometh of the natural Love of our soul, and of the clear light
of our Reason, and of the steadfast Mind which we have from God in
our first making. And what time that our soul is inspired into our
body, in which we are made sensual, so soon mercy and grace begin to
work, having of us care and keeping with pity and love: in which
working the Holy Ghost formeth, in our Faith, Hope that we shall come
again up above to our Substance, into the Virtue of Christ, increased
and fulfilled through the Holy Ghost. Thus I understood that the
sense-soul is grounded in Nature, in Mercy, and in Grace: which
Ground enableth us to receive gifts that lead us to endless life.
For
I saw full assuredly that our Substance is in God, and also I saw
that in our sense-soul God is: for in the self-[same] point that our
Soul is made sensual, in the self-[same] point is the City of God
ordained to Him from without beginning; into which seat He cometh,
and never shall remove [from] it. For God is never out of the soul:
in which He dwelleth blissfully without end. And this was seen in the
Sixteenth Showing where it saith: The place that Jesus taketh in our
soul, He shall never remove [from] it. And all the gifts that God may
give to creatures, He hath given to His Son Jesus for us: which gifts
He, dwelling in us, hath enclosed in Him unto the time that we be
waxen and grown, – our soul with our body and our body with
our
soul, either of them taking help of other, – till we be
brought up
unto stature, as nature worketh. And then, in the ground of nature,
with working of mercy, the Holy Ghost graciously inspireth into us
gifts leading to endless life.
And
thus was my understanding led of God to see in Him and to understand,
to perceive and to know, that our soul is made-trinity, like to the
unmade blissful Trinity, known and loved from without beginning, and
in the making oned to the Maker, as it is aforesaid. This sight was
full sweet and marvellous to behold, peaceable, restful, sure, and
delectable.
And
because of the worshipful oneing that was thus made by God betwixt
the soul and body, it behoveth needs to be that mankind shall be
restored from double death: which restoring might never be until the
time that the Second Person in the Trinity had taken the lower part
of man's nature; to Whom the highest [part] was oned in the
First-making. And these two parts were in Christ, the higher and the
lower: which is but one Soul; the higher part was one in peace with
God, in full joy and bliss; the lower part, which is sense-nature,
suffered for the salvation of mankind.
And
these two parts [in Christ] were seen and felt in the Eighth Showing,
in which my body was fulfilled with feeling and mind of Christ's
Passion and His death, and furthermore with this was a subtile
feeling and privy inward sight of the High Part which I was showed in
the same time when I could not, [even] for the friendly proffer [made
to me], look up into Heaven: and that was because of that mighty
beholding [that I had] of the Inward Life. Which Inward Life is that
High Substance, that precious Soul, [of Christ], which is endlessly
rejoicing in the Godhead.
CHAPTER
LVI
"God
is nearer to us than our own soul" "We can never come to
full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul"
AND
thus I saw full surely that it is readier to us to come to the
knowing of God than to know our own Soul. For our Soul is so
deep-grounded in God, and so endlessly treasured, that we may not
come to the knowing thereof till we have first knowing of God, which
is the Maker, to whom it is oned. But, notwithstanding, I saw that we
have, for fulness, to desire wisely and truly to know our own Soul:
whereby we are learned to seek it where it is, and that is, in God.
And thus by gracious leading of the Holy Ghost, we should know them
both in one: whether we be stirred to know God or our Soul, both
[these stirrings] are good and true.
God
is nearer to us than our own Soul: for He is [the] Ground in whom our
Soul standeth, and He is [the] Mean that keepeth the Substance and
the Sense-nature together so that they shall never dispart. For our
soul sitteth in God in very rest, and our soul standeth in God in
very strength, and our Soul is kindly rooted in God in endless love:
and therefore if we will have knowledge of our Soul, and communing
and dalliance therewith, it behoveth to seek unto our Lord God in
whom it is enclosed. (And of this enclosement I saw and understood
more in the Sixteenth Showing, as I shall tell.)
And
as anent our Substance and our Sense-part, both together may rightly
be called our Soul: and that is because of the oneing that they have
in God. The worshipful City that our Lord Jesus sitteth in is our
Sense-soul, in which He is enclosed: and our Kindly Substance is
enclosed in Jesus with the blessed Soul of Christ sitting in rest in
the Godhead.
And
I saw full surely that it behoveth needs to be that we should be in
longing and in penance unto the time that we be led so deep into God
that we verily and truly know our own Soul. And truly I saw that into
this high deepness our good Lord Himself leadeth us in the same love
that He made us, and in the same love that He bought us by Mercy and
Grace through virtue of His blessed Passion. And notwithstanding all
this, we may never come to full knowing of God till we know first
clearly our own Soul. For until the time that our Soul is in its full
powers we cannot be all fully holy: and that is [until the time] that
our Sense-soul by the virtue of Christ's Passion be brought up to the
Substance, with all the profits of our tribulation that our Lord
shall make us to get by Mercy and Grace.
I
had, in part, [experience of the] Touching [of God in the soul], and
it is grounded in Nature. That is to say, our Reason is grounded in
God, which is Substantial Naturehood. [Out] of this Substantial
Naturehood Mercy and Grace springeth and spreadeth into us, working
all things in fulfilling of our joy: these are our Ground in which we
have our Increase and our Fulfilling.
These
be three properties in one Goodness: and where one worketh, all work
in the things which be now belonging to us. God willeth that we
understand [this], desiring with all our heart to have knowing of
them more and more unto the time that we be fulfilled: for fully to
know them is nought else but endless joy and bliss that we shall have
in Heaven, which God willeth should be begun here in knowing of His
love.
For
only by our Reason we may not profit, but if we have evenly therewith
Mind and Love: nor only in our Nature-Ground that we have in God we
may not be saved but if we have, coming of the same Ground, Mercy and
Grace. For of these three working all together we receive all our
Goodness. Of the which the first [gifts] are goods of Nature: for in
our First making God gave us as full goods as we might receive in our
spirit alone, and also greater goods; but His foreseeing purpose in
His endless wisdom willed that we should be double.
CHAPTER
LVII
"In
Christ our two natures are united"
AND
anent our Substance He made us noble, and so rich that evermore we
work His will and His worship. (Where I say "we," it
meaneth Man that shall be saved.) For soothly I saw that we are that
which He loveth, and do that which Him pleaseth, lastingly without
any stinting: and [that by virtue] of the great riches and of the
high noble virtues by measure come to our soul what time it is knit
to our body: in which knitting we are made Sensual.
And
thus in our Substance we are full, and in our Sense-soul we fail:
which failing God will restore and fulfil by working of Mercy and
Grace plenteously flowing into us out of His own Nature-Goodness. And
thus His Nature-Goodness maketh that Mercy and Grace work in us, and
the Nature-goodness that we have of Him enableth us to receive the
working of Mercy and Grace.
I
saw that our nature is in God whole: in which [whole nature of
Manhood] He maketh diversities flowing out of Him to work His will:
whom Nature keepeth, and Mercy and Grace restoreth and fulfilleth.
And of these none shall perish: for our nature that is the higher
part is knit to God, in the making; and God is knit to our nature
that is the lower part, in our flesh-taking: and thus in Christ our
two natures are oned. For the Trinity is comprehended in Christ, in
whom our higher part is grounded and rooted; and our lower part the
Second Person hath taken: which nature first to Him was made-ready.
For I saw full surely that all the works that God hath done, or ever
shall, were fully known to Him and aforeseen from without beginning.
And for Love He made Mankind, and for the same Love would be Man.
The
next Good that we receive is our Faith, in which our profiting
beginneth. And it cometh [out] of the high riches of our
nature-Substance into our Sensual soul, and it is grounded in us
through the Nature-Goodness of God, by the working of Mercy and
Grace. And thereof come all other goods by which we are led and
saved. For the Commandments of God come therein: in which we ought to
have two manners of understanding: [the one is that we ought to
understand and know] which are His biddings, to love and to keep
them; the other is that we ought to know His forbiddings, to hate and
to refuse them. For in these two is all our working comprehended.
Also in our faith come the Seven Sacraments, each following other in
order as God hath ordained them to us: and all manner of virtues.
For
the same virtues that we have received of our Substance, given to us
in Nature by the Goodness of God, – the same virtues by the
working
of Mercy are given to us in Grace through the Holy Ghost, renewed:
which virtues and gifts are treasured to us in Jesus Christ. For in
that same time that God knitted Himself to our body in the Virgin's
womb, He took our Sensual soul: in which taking He, us all having
enclosed in Him, oned it to our Substance: in which oneing He was
perfect Man. For Christ having knit in Him each man that shall be
saved, is perfect Man. Thus our Lady is our Mother in whom we are all
enclosed and of her born, in Christ: (for she that is Mother of our
Saviour is Mother of all that shall be saved in our Saviour;) and our
Saviour is our Very Mother in whom we be endlessly borne, and never
shall come out of Him.
Plenteously
and fully and sweetly was this showed, and it is spoken of in the
First, where it saith: We are all in Him enclosed and He is enclosed
in us. And that [enclosing of Him in us] is spoken of in the
Sixteenth Showing where it saith: He sitteth in our soul.
For
it is His good-pleasure to reign in our Understanding blissfully, and
sit in our Soul restfully, and to dwell in our Soul endlessly, us all
working into Him: in which working He willeth that we be His helpers,
giving to Him all our attending, learning His lores, keeping His
laws, desiring that all be done that He doeth; truly trusting in Him.
For
soothly I saw that our Substance is in God.
CHAPTER
LVIII
"All
our life is in three: `Nature, Mercy, Grace.' The high Might of the
Trinity is our Father, and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our
Mother, and the great Love of the Trinity is our Lord"
GOD,
the blessed Trinity, which is everlasting Being, right as He is
endless from without beginning, right so it was in His purpose
endless, to make Mankind.
Which
fair Kind first was prepared to His own Son, the Second Person. And
when He would, by full accord of all the Trinity, He made us all at
once; and in our making He knit us and oned us to Himself: by which
oneing we are kept as clear and as noble as we were made. By the
virtue of the same precious oneing, we love our Maker and seek Him,
praise Him and thank Him, and endlessly enjoy Him. And this is the
work which is wrought continually in every soul that shall be saved:
which is the Godly Will aforesaid. And thus in our making, God,
Almighty, is our Nature's Father; and God, All-Wisdom, is our
Nature's Mother; with the Love and the Goodness of the Holy Ghost:
which is all one God, one Lord. And in the knitting and the oneing He
is our Very, True Spouse, and we His loved Wife, His Fair Maiden:
with which Wife He is never displeased. For He saith: I love thee and
thou lovest me, and our love shall never be disparted in two.
I
beheld the working of all the blessed Trinity: in which beholding I
saw and understood these three properties: the property of the
Fatherhood, the property of the Motherhood, and the property of the
Lordhood, in one God. In our Father Almighty we have our keeping and
our bliss as anent our natural Substance, which is to us by our
making, without beginning. And in the Second Person in skill and
wisdom we have our keeping as anent our Sense-soul: our restoring and
our saving; for He is our Mother, Brother, and Saviour. And in our
good Lord, the Holy Ghost, we have our rewarding and our meed-giving
for our living and our travail, and endless overpassing of all that
we desire, in His marvellous courtesy, of His high plenteous grace.
For
all our life is in three: in the first we have our Being, in the
second we have our Increasing, and in the third we have our
Fulfilling: the first is Nature, the second is Mercy, and the third
is Grace.
For
the first, I understood that the high Might of the Trinity is our
Father, and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, and the
great Love of the Trinity is our Lord: and all this have we in Nature
and in the making of our Substance.
And
furthermore I saw that the Second Person, which is our Mother as
anent the Substance, that same dearworthy Person is become our Mother
as anent the Sense-soul. For we are double by God's making: that is
to say, Substantial and Sensual. Our Substance is the higher part,
which we have in our Father, God Almighty; and the Second Person of
the Trinity is our Mother in Nature, in making of our Substance: in
whom we are grounded and rooted. And He is our Mother in Mercy, in
taking of our Sense-part. And thus our Mother is to us in diverse
manners working: in whom our parts are kept undisparted. For in our
Mother Christ we profit and increase, and in Mercy He reformeth us
and restoreth, and, by the virtue of His Passion and His Death and
Uprising, oneth us to our Substance. Thus worketh our Mother in Mercy
to all His children which are to Him yielding and obedient.
And
Grace worketh with Mercy, and specially in two properties, as it was
showed: which working belongeth to the Third Person, the Holy Ghost.
He worketh rewarding and giving. Rewarding is a large giving-of-truth
that the Lord doeth to him that hath travailed; and giving is a
courteous working which He doeth freely of Grace, fulfilling and
overpassing all that is deserved of creatures.
Thus
in our Father, God Almighty, we have our being; and in our Mother of
Mercy we have our reforming and restoring: in whom our Parts are oned
and all made perfect Man; and by [reward]-yielding and giving in
Grace of the Holy Ghost, we are fulfilled.
And
our Substance is [in] our Father, God Almighty, and our Substance is
[in] our Mother, God, All-wisdom; and our Substance is in our Lord
the Holy Ghost, God All-goodness. For our Substance is whole in each
Person of the Trinity, which is one God. And our Sense-soul is only
in the Second Person Christ Jesus; in whom is the Father and the Holy
Ghost: and in Him and by Him we are mightily taken out of Hell, and
out of the wretchedness in Earth worshipfully brought up into Heaven
and blissfully oned to our Substance: increased in riches and in
nobleness by all the virtues of Christ, and by the grace and working
of the Holy Ghost.
CHAPTER
LIX
"Jesus
Christ that doeth Good against evil is our Very Mother: we have our
Being of Him where the Ground of Motherhood beginneth, – with
all
the sweet Keeping by Love, that endlessly followeth."
AND
all this bliss we have by Mercy and Grace: which manner of bliss we
might never have had nor known but if that property of Goodness which
is God had been contraried: whereby we have this bliss. For
wickedness hath been suffered to rise contrary to the Goodness, and
the Goodness of Mercy and Grace contraried against the wickedness and
turned all to goodness and to worship, to all these that shall be
saved. For it is the property in God which doeth good against evil.
Thus Jesus Christ that doeth good against evil is our Very Mother: we
have our Being of Him, – where the Ground of Motherhood
beginneth,
– with all the sweet Keeping of Love that endlessly
followeth. As
verily as God is our Father, so verily God is our Mother; and that
showed He in all, and especially in these sweet words where He saith:
I it am. That is to say, I it am, the Might and the Goodness of the
Fatherhood; I it am, the Wisdom of the Motherhood; I it am, the Light
and the Grace that is all blessed Love: I it am, the Trinity, I it
am, the Unity: I am the sovereign Goodness of all manner of things. I
am that maketh thee to love: I am that maketh thee to long: I it am,
the endless fulfilling of all true desires.
For
there the soul is highest, noblest, and worthiest, where it is
lowest, meekest, and mildest: and [out] of this Substantial Ground we
have all our virtues in our Sense-part by gift of Nature, by helping
and speeding of Mercy and Grace: without the which we may not profit.
Our
high Father, God Almighty, which is Being, He knew and loved us from
afore any time: of which knowing, in His marvellous deep charity and
the foreseeing counsel of all the blessed Trinity, He willed that the
Second Person should become our Mother. Our Father [willeth], our
Mother worketh, our good Lord the Holy Ghost confirmeth: and
therefore it belongeth to us to love our God in whom we have our
being: Him reverently thanking and praising for our making, mightily
praying to our Mother for mercy and pity, and to our Lord the Holy
Ghost for help and grace.
For
in these three is all our life: Nature, Mercy, Grace: whereof we have
meekness and mildness; patience and pity; and hating of sin and of
wickedness, – for it belongeth properly to virtue to hate sin
and
wickedness. And thus is Jesus our Very Mother in Nature [by virtue]
of our first making; and He is our Very Mother in Grace, by taking
our nature made. All the fair working, and all the sweet natural
office of dearworthy Motherhood is impropriated to the Second Person:
for in Him we have this Godly Will whole and safe without end, both
in Nature and in Grace, of His own proper Goodness. I understood
three manners of beholding of Motherhood in God: the first is
grounded in our Nature's making; the second is taking of our nature,
– and there beginneth the Motherhood of Grace; the third is
Motherhood of working, – and therein is a forthspreading by
the
same Grace, of length and breadth and height and of deepness without
end. And all is one Love.
CHAPTER
LX
"The
Kind, loving, Mother"
BUT
now behoveth to say a little more of this forthspreading, as I
understand in the meaning of our Lord: how that we be brought again
by the Motherhood of Mercy and Grace into our Nature's place, where
that we were made by the Motherhood of Nature-Love: which
Kindly-love, it never leaveth us.
Our
Kind Mother, our Gracious Mother, for that He would all wholly become
our Mother in all things, He took the Ground of His Works full low
and full mildly in the Maiden's womb. (And that He showed in the
First [Showing] where He brought that meek Maid afore the eye of mine
understanding in the simple stature as she was when she conceived.)
That is to say: our high God is sovereign Wisdom of all: in this low
place He arrayed and dight Him full ready in our poor flesh, Himself
to do the service and the office of Motherhood in all things.
The
Mother's service is nearest, readiest, and surest: [nearest, for it
is most of nature; readiest, for it is most of love; and surest ] for
it is most of truth. This office none might, nor could, nor ever
should do to the full, but He alone. We know that all our mothers'
bearing is [bearing of] us to pain and to dying: and what is this but
that our Very Mother, Jesus, He – All-Love –
beareth us to joy
and to endless living? – blessed may He be! Thus He
sustaineth
[238] us within Himself in love; and travailed, unto the full time
that He would suffer the sharpest throes and the most grievous pains
that ever were or ever shall be; and died at the last. And when He
had finished, and so borne us to bliss, yet might not all this make
full content to His marvellous love; and that sheweth He in these
high overpassing words of love: If I might suffer more, I would
suffer more.
He
might no more die, but He would not stint of working: wherefore then
it behoveth Him to feed us; for the dearworthy love of Motherhood
hath made Him debtor to us. The mother may give her child suck of her
milk, but our precious Mother, Jesus, He may feed us with Himself,
and doeth it, full courteously and full tenderly, with the Blessed
Sacrament that is precious food of my life; and with all the sweet
Sacraments He sustaineth us full mercifully and graciously. And so
meant He in this blessed word where that He said: It is I that Holy
Church preacheth thee and teacheth thee. That is to say: All the
health and life of Sacraments, all the virtue and grace of my Word,
all the Goodness that is ordained in Holy Church for thee, it is I.
The Mother may lay the child tenderly to her breast, but our tender
Mother, Jesus, He may homely lead us into His blessed breast, by His
sweet open side, and shew therein part of the Godhead and the joys of
Heaven, with spiritual sureness of endless bliss. And that showed He
in the Tenth [Showing], giving the same understanding in this sweet
word where He saith: Lo! how I loved thee; looking unto [the Wound
in] His side, rejoicing.
This
fair lovely word Mother, it is so sweet and so close in Nature of
itself that it may not verily be said of none but of Him; and to her
that is very Mother of Him and of all. To the property of Motherhood
belongeth natural love, wisdom, and knowing; and it is good: for
though it be so that our bodily forthbringing be but little, low, and
simple in regard of our spiritual forthbringing, yet it is He that
doeth
it in the
creatures by whom that it is done. The Kindly, loving Mother that
witteth and knoweth the need of her child, she keepeth it full
tenderly, as the nature and condition of Motherhood will. And as it
waxeth in age, she changeth her working, but not her love. And when
it is waxen of more age, she suffereth that it be beaten in breaking
down of vices, to make the child receive virtues and graces. This
working, with all that be fair and good, our Lord doeth it in them by
whom it is done: thus He is our Mother in Nature by the working of
Grace in the lower part for love of the higher part. And He willeth
that we know this: for He will have all our love fastened to Him. And
in this I saw that all our duty that we owe, by God's bidding, to
Fatherhood and Motherhood, for [reason of] God's Fatherhood and
Motherhood is fulfilled in true loving of God; which blessed love
Christ worketh in us. And this was showed in all [the Revelations]
and especially in the high plenteous words where He saith: It is I
that thou lovest.
CHAPTER
LXI
"By
the assay of this falling we shall have an high marvellous knowing of
Love in God, without end. For strong and marvellous is that love
which may not, nor will not, be broken for trespass"
AND
in our spiritual forthbringing He useth more tenderness of keeping,
without any likeness: by as much as our soul is of more price in His
sight. He kindleth our understanding, He directeth our ways, He
easeth our conscience, He comforteth our soul, He lighteneth our
heart, and giveth us, in part, knowing and believing in His blissful
Godhead, with gracious mind in His sweet Manhood and His blessed
Passion, with reverent marvelling in His high, overpassing Goodness;
and maketh us to love all that He loveth, for His love, and to be
well-pleased with Him and all His works. And when we fall, hastily He
raiseth us by His lovely calling and gracious touching. And when we
be thus strengthened by His sweet working, then we with all our will
choose Him, by His sweet grace, to be His servants and His lovers
lastingly without end.
And
after this He suffereth some of us to fall more hard and more
grievously than ever we did afore, as us thinketh. And then ween we
(who be not all wise) that all were nought that we have begun. But
this is not so. For it needeth us to fall, and it needeth us to see
it. For if we never fell, we should not know how feeble and how
wretched we are of our self, and also we should not fully know that
marvellous love of our Maker. For we shall see verily in heaven,
without end, that we have grievously sinned in this life, and
notwithstanding this, we shall see that we were never hurt in His
love, we were never the less of price in His sight. And by the assay
of this falling we shall have an high, marvellous knowing of love in
God, without end. For strong and marvellous is that love which may
not, nor will not, be broken for trespass. And this is one
understanding of [our] profit. Another is the lowness and meekness
that we shall get by the sight of our falling: for thereby we shall
highly be raised in heaven; to which raising we might never have come
without that meekness. And therefore it needeth us to see it; and if
we see it not, though we fell it should not profit us. And commonly,
first we fall and later we see it: and both of the Mercy of God.
The
mother may suffer the child to fall sometimes, and to be hurt in
diverse manners for its own profit, but she may never suffer that any
manner of peril come to the child, for love. And though our earthly
mother may suffer her child to perish, our heavenly Mother, Jesus,
may not suffer us that are His children to perish: for He is
All-mighty, All-wisdom, and All-love; and so is none but He,
–
blessed may He be!
But
oftentimes when our falling and our wretchedness is showed us, we are
so sore adread, and so greatly ashamed of our self, that scarcely we
find where we may hold us. But then willeth not our courteous Mother
that we flee away, for Him were nothing lother. But He willeth then
that we use the condition of a child: for when it is hurt, or adread,
it runneth hastily to the mother for help, with all its might. So
willeth He that we do, as a meek child saying thus: My kind Mother,
my Gracious Mother, my dearworthy Mother, have mercy on me: I have
made myself foul and unlike to Thee, and I nor may nor can amend it
but with thine help and grace. And if we feel us not then eased
forthwith, be we sure that He useth the condition of a wise mother.
For if He see that it be more profit to us to mourn and to weep, He
suffereth it, with ruth and pity, unto the best time, for love. And
He willeth then that we use the property of a child, that evermore of
nature trusteth to the love of the mother in weal and in woe.
And
He willeth that we take us mightily to the Faith of Holy Church and
find there our dearworthy Mother, in solace of true Understanding,
with all the blessed Common. For one single person may oftentimes be
broken, as it seemeth to himself, but the whole Body of Holy Church
was never broken, nor never shall be, without end. And therefore a
sure thing it is, a good and a gracious, to will meekly and mightily
to be fastened and oned to our Mother, Holy Church. that is, Christ
Jesus. For the food of mercy that is His dearworthy blood and
precious water is plenteous to make us fair and clean; the blessed
wounds of our Saviour be open and enjoy to heal us; the sweet,
gracious hands of our Mother be ready and diligently about us. For He
in all this working useth the office of a kind nurse that hath nought
else to do but to give heed about the salvation of her child.
It
is His office to save us: it is His worship to do [for] us, and it is
His will [that] we know it: for He willeth that we love Him sweetly
and trust in Him meekly and mightily. And this showed He in these
gracious words: I keep thee full surely.
CHAPTER
LXII
"God
is Very Father and Very Mother of Nature: and all natures that He
hath made to flow out of Him to work His will shall be restored and
brought again into Him by the salvation of Mankind through the
working of Grace"
FOR
in that time He showed our frailty and our fallings, our afflictings
and our settings at nought, our despites and our outcastings, and all
our woe so far forth as methought it might befall in this life. And
therewith He showed His blessed Might, His blessed Wisdom, His
blessed Love: that He keepeth us in this time as tenderly and as
sweetly to His worship, and as surely to our salvation, as He doeth
when we are in most solace and comfort. And thereto He raiseth us
spiritually and highly in heaven, and turneth it all to His worship
and to our joy, without end. For His love suffereth us never to lose
time. And all this is of the Nature-Goodness of God, by the working
of Grace. God is Nature in His being: that is to say, that Goodness
that is Nature, it is God. He is the ground, He is the substance, He
is the same thing that is Nature-hood. And He is very Father and very
Mother of Nature: and all natures that He hath made to flow out of
Him to work His will shall be restored and brought again into Him by
the salvation of man through the working of Grace.
For
of all natures that He hath set in diverse creatures by part, in man
is all the whole; in fulness and in virtue, in fairness and in
goodness, in royalty and nobleness, in all manner of majesty, of
preciousness and worship. Here may we see that we are all beholden to
God for nature, and we are all beholden to God for grace. Here may we
see us needeth not greatly to seek far out to know sundry natures,
but to Holy Church, unto our Mother's breast: that is to say, unto
our own soul where our Lord dwelleth; and there shall we find all now
in faith and in understanding. And afterward verily in Himself
clearly, in bliss.
But
let no man nor woman take this singularly to himself: for it is not
so, it is general: for it is [of] our precious Christ, and to Him was
this fair nature adight for the worship and nobility of man's making,
and for the joy and the bliss of man's salvation even as He saw,
wist, and knew from without beginning.
CHAPTER
LXIII
"As
verily as sin is unclean, so verily is it unkind" – a disease
or monstrous thing against nature. "He shall heal us full fair."
HERE
may we see that we have verily of Nature to hate sin, and we have
verily of Grace to hate sin. For Nature is all good and fair in
itself, and Grace was sent out to save Nature and destroy sin, and
bring again fair nature to the blessed point from whence it came:
that is God; with more nobleness and worship by the virtuous working
of Grace. For it shall be seen afore God by all His Holy in joy
without end that Nature hath been assayed in the fire of tribulation
and therein hath been found no flaw, no fault. Thus are Nature and
Grace of one accord: for Grace is God, as Nature is God: He is two in
manner of working and one in love; and neither of these worketh
without other: they be not disparted.
And
when we by Mercy of God and with His help accord us to Nature and
Grace, we shall see verily that sin is in sooth viler and more
painful than hell, without likeness: for it is contrary to our fair
nature. For as verily as sin is unclean, so verily is it unnatural,
and thus an horrible thing to see for the loved soul that would be
all fair and shining in the sight of God, as Nature and Grace
teacheth.
Yet
be we not adread of this, save inasmuch as dread may speed us: but
meekly make we our moan to our dearworthy Mother, and He shall
besprinkle us in His precious blood and make our soul full soft and
full mild, and heal us full fair by process of time, right as it is
most worship to Him and joy to us without end. And of this sweet fair
working He shall never cease nor stint till all His dearworthy
children be born and forthbrought. (And that showed He where He
showed [me] understanding of the ghostly Thirst, that is the
love-longing that shall last till Doomsday.)
Thus
in [our] Very Mother, Jesus, our life is grounded in the foreseeing
Wisdom of Himself from without beginning, with the high Might of the
Father, the high sovereign Goodness of the Holy Ghost. And in the
taking of our nature He quickened us; in His blessed dying upon the
Cross He bare us to endless life; and from that time, and now, and
evermore unto Doomsday, He feedeth us and furthereth us: even as that
high sovereign Kindness of Motherhood, and as Kindly need of
Childhood asketh.
Fair
and sweet is our Heavenly Mother in the sight of our souls; precious
and lovely are the Gracious Children in the sight of our Heavenly
Mother, with mildness and meekness, and all the fair virtues that
belong to children in Nature. For of nature the Child despaireth not
of the Mother's love, of nature the Child presumeth not of itself, of
nature the Child loveth the Mother and each one of the other
[children]. These are the fair virtues, with all other that be like,
wherewith our Heavenly Mother is served and pleased.
And
I understood none higher stature in this life than Childhood, in
feebleness and failing of might and of wit, unto the time that our
Gracious Mother hath brought us up to our Father's Bliss. And then
shall it verily be known to us His meaning in those sweet words where
He saith: All shall be well: and thou shalt see, thyself, that all
manner of things shall be well. And then shall the Bliss of our
Mother, in Christ, be new to begin in the Joys of our God: which new
beginning shall last without end, new beginning.
Thus
I understood that all His blessed children which be come out of Him
by Nature shall be brought again into Him by Grace.
THE
FIFTEENTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
LXIV
"Thou
shalt come up above
AFORE
this time I had great longing and desire of God's gift to be
delivered of this world and of this life. For oftentimes I beheld the
woe that is here, and the weal and the bliss that is being there:
(and if there had been no pain in this life but the absence of our
Lord, methought it was some-time more than I might bear ;) and this
made me to mourn, and eagerly to long. And also from mine own
wretchedness, sloth, and weakness, me liked not to live and to
travail, as me fell to do.
And
to all this our courteous Lord answered for comfort and patience, and
said these words: Suddenly thou shalt be taken from all thy pain,
from all thy sickness, from all thy distress and from all thy woe.
And thou shalt come up above and thou shalt have me to thy meed, and
thou shalt be fulfilled of love and of bliss. And thou shalt never
have no manner of pain, no manner of misliking, no wanting of will;
but ever joy and bliss without end. What should it then aggrieve thee
to suffer awhile, seeing that it is my will and my worship?
And
in this word: Suddenly thou shalt be taken, – I saw that God
rewardeth man for the patience that he hath in abiding God's will,
and for his time, and [for] that man lengtheneth his patience over
the time of his living. For not-knowing of his time of passing, that
is a great profit: for if a man knew his time, he should not have
patience over that time; but, as God willeth, while the soul is in
the body it seemeth to itself that it is ever at the point to be
taken. For all this life and this languor that we have here is but a
point, and when we are taken suddenly out of pain into bliss then
pain shall be nought.
And
in this time I saw a body lying on the earth, which body showed heavy
and horrible, without shape and form, as it were a swollen quag of
stinking mire. And suddenly out of this body sprang a full fair
creature, a little Child, fully shapen and formed, nimble and lively,
whiter than lily; which swiftly glided up into heaven. And the
swollenness of the body betokeneth great wretchedness of our deadly
flesh, and the littleness of the Child betokeneth the cleanness of
purity in the soul. And methought: With this body abideth no fairness
of this Child, and on this Child dwelleth no foulness of this body.
It
is more blissful that man be taken from pain, than that pain be taken
from man; for if pain be taken from us it may come again: therefore
it is a sovereign comfort and blissful beholding in a loving soul
that we shall be taken from pain. For in this behest I saw a
marvellous compassion that our Lord hath in us for our woe, and a
courteous promising of clear deliverance. For He willeth that we be
comforted in the overpassing; and that He showed in these words: And
thou shalt come up above, and thou shalt have me to thy meed, and
thou shalt be fulfilled of joy and bliss.
It
is God's will that we set the point of our thought in this blissful
beholding as often as we may, – and as long time keep us
therein
with His grace; for this is a blessed contemplation to the soul that
is led of God, and full greatly to His worship, for the time that it
lasteth. And [when] we fall again to our heaviness, and spiritual
blindness, and feeling of pains spiritual and bodily, by our frailty,
it is God's will that we know that He hath not forgotten us. And so
signifieth He in these words: And thou shalt never more have pain; no
manner of sickness, no manner of misliking, no wanting of will; but
ever joy and bliss without end. What should it then aggrieve thee to
suffer awhile, seeing it is my will and my worship?
It
is God's will that we take His behests and His comfortings as largely
and as mightily as we may take them, and also He willeth that we take
our abiding and our troubles as lightly as we may take them, and set
them at nought. For the more lightly we take them, and the less price
we set on them, for love, the less pain we shall have in the feeling
of them, and the more thanks and meed we shall have for them.
CHAPTER
LXV
"The
Charity of God maketh in us such a unity that, when it is truly seen,
no man can part himself from other"
AND
thus I understood that what man or woman with firm will chooseth God
in this life, for love, he may be sure that he is loved without end:
which endless love worketh in him that grace. For He willeth that we
be as assured in hope of the bliss of heaven while we are here, as we
shall be in sureness while we are there. And ever the more pleasance
and joy that we take in this sureness, with reverence and meekness,
the better pleaseth Him, as it was showed. This reverence that I mean
is a holy courteous dread of our Lord, to which meekness is united:
and that is, that a creature seeth the Lord marvellous great, and
itself marvellous little. For these virtues are had endlessly by the
loved of God, and this may now be seen and felt in measure through
the gracious presence of our Lord when it is [seen]: which presence
in all things is most desired, for it worketh marvellous assuredness
in true faith, and sure hope, by greatness of charity, in dread that
is sweet and delectable.
It
is God's will that I see myself as much bound to Him in love as if He
had done for me all that He hath done; and thus should every soul
think inwardly of its Lover. That is to say, the Charity of God
maketh in us such a unity that, when it is truly seen, no man can
part himself from other. And thus ought our soul to think that God
hath done for it all that He hath done.
And
this sheweth He to make us to love Him and nought dread but Him. For
it is His will that we perceive that all the might of our Enemy is
taken into our Friend's hand; and therefore the soul that knoweth
assuredly this, he shall not dread but Him that he loveth. All other
dread he setteth among passions and bodily sickness and imaginations.
And therefore though we be in so much pain, woe, and distress that it
seemeth to us we can think [of] right nought but [of] that [which] we
are in, or [of] that [which] we feel, [yet] as soon as we may, pass
we lightly over, and set we it at nought. And why? For that God
willeth we know [Him]; and if we know Him and love Him and reverently
dread Him, we shall have peace, and be in great rest, and it shall be
great pleasance to us, all that He doeth. And this showed our Lord in
these words: What should it then aggrieve thee to suffer awhile, sith
it is my Will and my worship?
Now
have I told you of Fifteen Revelations, as God vouchsafed to minister
them to [my] mind, renewed by lightings and touchings, I hope of the
same Spirit that showed them all.
Of
which Fifteen Showings the First began early in the morn, about the
hour of four; and they lasted, Showing by process full fair and
steadily, each following other, till it was nine of the day,
overpassed.
CHAPTER
LXVI
"All
was closed, and I saw no more." "For the folly of feeling a
little bodily pain I unwisely lost for the time the comfort of all
this blessed Showing of our Lord God"
AND
after this the good Lord showed the Sixteenth [Revelation] on the
night following, as I shall tell after: which Sixteenth was
conclusion and confirmation to all Fifteen.
But
first me behoveth to tell you as anent my feebleness, wretchedness
and blindness. – I have said in the beginning: And in this
[moment]
all my pain was suddenly taken from me: of which pain I had no grief
nor distress as long as the Fifteen Showings lasted following. And at
the end all was close, and I saw no more. And soon I felt that I
should live and languish; and anon my sickness came again: first in
my head with a sound and a din, and suddenly all my body was
fulfilled with sickness like as it was afore. And I was as barren and
as dry as [if] I never had comfort but little. And as a wretched
creature I moaned and cried for feeling of my bodily pains and for
failing of comfort, spiritual and bodily.
Then
came a Religious person to me and asked me how I fared. I said I had
raved to-day. And he laughed loud and heartily. And I said: The Cross
that stood afore my face, methought it bled fast. And with this word
the person that I spake to waxed all sober and marvelled. And anon I
was sore ashamed and astonished for my recklessness, and I thought:
This man taketh in sober earnest the least word that I might say.
Then said I no more thereof. And when I saw that he took it earnestly
and with so great reverence, I wept, full greatly ashamed, and would
have been shriven; but at that time I could tell it no priest, for I
thought: How should a priest believe me? I believe not our Lord God.
This [Showing] I believed verily for the time that I saw Him, and so
was then my will and my meaning ever for to do without end; but as a
fool I let it pass from my mind. Ah! lo, wretch that I am! this was a
great sin, great unkindness, that I for folly of feeling of a little
bodily pain, so unwisely lost for the time the comfort of all this
blessed Showing of our Lord God. Here may you see what I am of
myself.
But
herein would our Courteous Lord not leave me. And I lay still till
night, trusting in His mercy, and then I began to sleep. And in the
sleep, at the beginning, methought the Fiend set him on my throat,
putting forth a visage full near my face, like a young man's and it
was long and wondrous lean: I saw never none such. The colour was red
like the tilestone when it is new-burnt, with black spots therein
like black freckles – fouler than the tilestone. His hair was
red
as rust, clipped in front, with full locks hanging on the temples. He
grinned on me with a malicious semblance, Showing white teeth: and so
much methought it the more horrible. Body nor hands had he none
shapely, but with his paws he held me in the throat, and would have
strangled me, but he might not.
This
horrible Showing was made [whilst I was] sleeping, and so was none
other. But in all this time I trusted to be saved and kept by the
mercy of God. And our Courteous Lord gave me grace to waken; and
scarcely had I my life. The persons that were with me looked on me,
and wet my temples, and my heart began to comfort. And anon a light
smoke came in the door, with a great heat and a foul stench. I said:
Benedicite Domine! it is all on fire that is here! And I weened it
had been a bodily fire that should have burnt us all to death. I
asked them that were with me if they felt any stench. They said, Nay:
they felt none. I said: Blessed be God! For then wist I well it was
the Fiend that was come to tempest me. And anon I took to that
[which] our Lord had showed me on the same day, with all the Faith of
Holy Church (for I beheld it is both one), and fled thereto as to my
comfort. And anon all vanished away, and I was brought to great rest
and peace, without sickness of body or dread of conscience.
THE
SIXTEENTH REVELATION
CHAPTER
LXVII
"The
place that Jesus taketh in our soul He shall never remove from,
without end: – for in us is His homliest home and His endless
dwelling." "Our soul can never have rest in things that are
beneath itself – yet may it not abide in the beholding of its
self"
AND
then our Lord opened my spiritual eye and showed me my soul in midst
of my heart. I saw the Soul so large as it were an endless world, and
as it were a blissful kingdom. And by the conditions that I saw
therein I understood that it is a worshipful City. In the midst of
that City sitteth our Lord Jesus, God and Man, a fair Person of large
stature, highest Bishop, most majestic King, most worshipful Lord;
and I saw Him clad majestically. And worshipfully He sitteth in the
Soul, even-right in peace and rest. And the Godhead ruleth and
sustaineth [280] heaven and earth and all that is, –
sovereign
Might, sovereign Wisdom, and sovereign Goodness, – [but] the
place
that Jesus taketh in our Soul He shall never remove it, without end,
as to my sight: for in us is His homliest home and His endless
dwelling.
And
in this [sight] He showed the satisfying that He hath of the making
of Man's Soul. For as well as the Father might make a creature, and
as well as the Son could make a creature, so well would the Holy
Ghost that Man's Soul were made: and so it was done. And therefore
the blessed Trinity enjoyeth without end in the making of Man's Soul:
for He saw from without beginning what should please Him without end.
All thing that He hath made sheweth His Lordship, – as
understanding was given at the same time by example of a creature
that is to see great treasures and kingdoms belonging to a lord; and
when it had seen all the nobleness beneath, then, marvelling, it was
moved to seek above to the high place where the lord dwelleth,
knowing, by reason, that his dwelling is in the worthiest place. And
thus I understood in verity that our Soul may never have rest in
things that are beneath itself. And when it cometh above all
creatures into the Self, yet may it not abide in the beholding of its
Self, but all the beholding is blissfully set in God that is the
Maker dwelling therein. For in Man's Soul is His very dwelling; and
the highest light and the brightest shining of the City is the
glorious love of our Lord, as to my sight.
And
what may make us more to enjoy in God than to see in Him that He
enjoyeth in the highest of all His works? For I saw in the same
Showing that if the blessed Trinity might have made Man's Soul any
better, any fairer, any nobler than it was made, He should not have
been full pleased with the making of Man's Soul. And He willeth that
our hearts be mightily raised above the deepness of the earth and all
vain sorrows, and rejoice in Him.
CHAPTER
LXVIII
"He
said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed,
thou shalt not be afflicted
Thou
shalt not be overcome
THIS
was a delectable Sight and a restful Showing, that it is so without
end. The beholding of this while we are here is full pleasing to God
and full great profit to us; and the soul that thus beholdeth, it
maketh it like to Him that is beheld, and oneth it in rest and peace
by His grace. And this was a singular joy and bliss to me that I saw
Him sitting: for the [quiet] secureness of sitting sheweth endless
dwelling.
And
He gave me to know soothfastly that it was He that showed me all
afore. And when I had beheld this with heedfulness, then showed our
good Lord words full meekly without voice and without opening of
lips, right as He had [afore] done, and said full sweetly: Wit it now
well that it was no raving that thou sawest to-day: but take it and
believe it, and keep thee therein, and comfort thee therewith, and
trust thou thereto: and thou shalt not be overcome.
These
Last Words were said for believing and true sureness that it is our
Lord Jesus that showed me all. And right as in the first word that
our good Lord showed, signifying His blissful Passion, –
Herewith
is the devil overcome, – right so He said in the last word,
with
full true secureness, meaning us all: Thou shalt not be overcome.
And
all this teaching in this true comfort, it is general, to all mine
fellow Christians, as it is aforesaid: and so is God's will.
And
this word: Thou shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full
mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that
may come. He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be
travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted; but He said: Thou shalt not
be overcome. God willeth that we take heed to these words, and that
we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For He loveth and
enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and
mightily trust in Him; and all shall be well.
And
soon after, all was close and I saw no more.
CHAPTER
LXIX
"I
was delivered from the Enemy by the virtue of Christ's Passion"
AFTER
this the Fiend came again with his heat and with his stench, and gave
me much ado, [285] the stench was so vile and so painful, and also
dreadful and travailous. Also I heard a bodily jangling, [286] as if
it had been of two persons; and both, to my thinking, jangled at one
time as if they had holden a parliament with a great busy-ness; and
all was soft muttering, so that I understood nought that they said.
And all this was to stir me to despair, as methought, –
seeming to
me as [though] they mocked at praying of prayers which are said
boisterously with [the] mouth, failing [of] devout attending and wise
diligence: the which we owe to God in our prayers.
And
our Lord God gave me grace mightily for to trust in Him, and to
comfort my soul with bodily speech as I should have done to another
person that had been travailed. Methought that busy-ness might not be
likened to no bodily busy-ness. My bodily eye I set in the same Cross
where I had been in comfort afore that time; my tongue with speech of
Christ's Passion and rehearsing the Faith of Holy Church; and my
heart to fasten on God with all the trust and the might. And I
thought to myself, saying: Thou hast now great busy-ness to keep thee
in the Faith for that thou shouldst not be taken of the Enemy:
wouldst thou now from this time evermore be so busy to keep thee from
sin, this were a good and sovereign occupation! For I thought in
sooth were I safe from sin, I were full safe from all the fiends of
hell and enemies of my soul.
And
thus he occupied me all that night, and on the morn till it was about
prime day. And anon they were all gone, and all passed; and they left
nothing but stench, and that lasted still awhile; and I scorned him.
And
thus was I delivered from him by the virtue of Christ's Passion: for
therewith is the Fiend overcome, as our Lord Jesus Christ said afore.
CHAPTER
LXX
"Above
the Faith is no goodness kept in this life, as to my sight, and
beneath the Faith is no help of soul; but in there
IN
all this blessed Showing our good Lord gave understanding that the
Sight should pass: which blessed Showing the Faith keepeth, with His
own good will and His grace. For He left with me neither sign nor
token whereby I might know it, but He left with me His own blessed
word in true understanding, bidding me full mightily that I should
believe it. And so I do, – Blessed may He be! – I
believe that He
is our Saviour that showed it, and that it is the Faith that He
showed: and therefore I believe it, rejoicing. And thereto I am
bounden by all His own meaning, with the next words that follow: Keep
thee therein, and comfort thee therewith, and trust thou thereto.
Thus
I am bounden to keep it in my faith. For on the same day that it was
showed, what time that the Sight was passed, as a wretch I forsook
it, and openly I said that I had raved. Then our Lord Jesus of His
mercy would not let it perish, but He showed it all again within in
my soul with more fulness, with the blessed light of His precious
love: saying these words full mightily and full meekly: Wit it now
well: it was no raving that thou sawest this day. As if He had said:
For that the Sight was passed from thee, thou losedst it and hadst
not skill to keep it. But wit it now; that is to say, now that thou
seest it. This was said not only for that same time, but also to set
thereupon the ground of my faith when He saith anon following: But
take it, believe it, and keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith
and trust thou thereto; and thou shalt not be overcome.
In
these six words that follow (Take it – [etc.] His meaning is
to
fasten it faithfully in our heart: for He willeth that it dwell with
us in faith to our life's end, and after in fulness of joy, desiring
that we have ever steadfast trust in His blissful behest –
knowing
His Goodness.
For
our faith is contraried in diverse manners by our own blindness, and
our spiritual enemy, within and without; and therefore our precious
Lover helpeth us with spiritual sight and true teaching in sundry
manners within and without, whereby that we may know Him. And
therefore in whatsoever manner He teacheth us, He willeth that we
perceive Him wisely, receive Him sweetly, and keep us in Him
faithfully. For above the Faith is no goodness kept in this life, as
to my sight, and beneath the Faith is no help of soul; but in the
Faith, there willeth the Lord that we keep us. For we have by His
goodness and His own working to keep us in the Faith; and by His
sufferance through ghostly enmity we are assayed in the Faith and
made mighty. For if our faith had none enmity, it should deserve no
meed, according to the understanding that I have in all our Lord's
teaching.
CHAPTER
LXXI
"Three
manners of looking seen in our Lord's Countenance"
GLAD
and joyous and sweet is the Blissful lovely Cheer of our Lord to our
souls. For He [be]holdeth us ever, living in love-longing: and He
willeth that our soul be in glad cheer to Him, to give Him His meed.
And thus, I hope, with His grace He hath [drawn], and more shall
draw, the Outer Cheer to the Inner Cheer, and make us all one with
Him, and each of us with other, in true lasting joy that is Jesus.
I
have signifying of Three manners of Cheer of our Lord. The first is
Cheer of Passion, as He showed while He was here in this life, dying.
Though this [manner of] Beholding be mournful and troubled, yet it is
glad and joyous: for He is God. – The second manner of Cheer
is
[of] Ruth and Compassion: and this sheweth He, with sureness of
Keeping, to all His lovers that betake them to His mercy. The third
is the Blissful Cheer, as it shall be without end: and this was
[showed] oftenest and longest-continued.
And
thus in the time of our pain and our woe He sheweth us Cheer of His
Passion and His Cross, helping us to bear it by His own blessed
virtue. And in the time of our sinning He sheweth to us Cheer of Ruth
and Pity, mightily keeping us and defending us against all our
enemies. And these be the common Cheer which He sheweth to us in this
life; therewith mingling the third: and that is His Blissful Cheer,
like, in part, as it shall be in Heaven. And that [Showing is] by
gracious touching and sweet lighting of the spiritual life, whereby
that we are kept in sure faith, hope, and charity, with contrition
and devotion, and also with contemplation and all manner of true
solace and sweet comforts.
CHAPTER
LXXII
"As
long as we be meddling with any part of sin we shall never see
clearly the Blissful Countenance of our Lord"
BUT
now behoveth me to tell in what manner I saw sin deadly in the
creatures which shall not die for sin, but live in the joy of God
without end.
I
saw that two contrary things should never be together in one place.
The most contrary that are, is the highest bliss and the deepest
pain. The highest bliss that is, is to have Him in clarity of endless
life, Him verily seeing, Him sweetly feeling, all-perfectly having in
fulness of joy. And thus was the Blissful Cheer of our Lord showed in
Pity: in which Showing I saw that sin is most contrary, – so
far
forth that as long as we be meddling with any part of sin, we shall
never see clearly the Blissful Cheer of our Lord. And the more
horrible and grievous that our sins be, the deeper are we for that
time from this blissful sight. And therefore it seemeth to us
oftentimes as we were in peril of death, in a part of hell, for the
sorrow and pain that the sin is to us. And thus we are dead for the
time from the very sight of our blissful life. But in all this I saw
soothfastly that we be not dead in the sight of God, nor He passeth
never from us. But He shall never have His full bliss in us till we
have our full bliss in Him, verily seeing His fair Blissful Cheer.
For we are ordained thereto in nature, and get thereto by grace. Thus
I saw how sin is deadly for a short time in the blessed creatures of
endless life.
And
ever the more clearly that the soul seeth this Blissful Cheer by
grace of loving, the more it longeth to see it in fulness. For
notwithstanding that our Lord God dwelleth in us and is here with us,
and albeit He claspeth us and encloseth us for tender love that He
may never leave us, and is more near to us than tongue can tell or
heart can think, yet may we never stint of moaning nor of weeping nor
of longing till when we see Him clearly in His Blissful Countenance.
For in that precious blissful sight there may no woe abide, nor any
weal fail.
And
in this I saw matter of mirth and matter of moaning: matter of mirth:
for our Lord, our Maker, is so near to us, and in us, and we in Him,
by sureness of keeping through His great goodness; matter of moaning:
for our ghostly eye is so blind and we be so borne down by weight of
our mortal flesh and darkness of sin, that we may not see our Lord
God clearly in His fair Blissful Cheer. No; and because of this
dimness scarsely we can believe and trust His great love and our
sureness of keeping. And therefore it is that I say we may never
stint of moaning nor of weeping. This "weeping" meaneth not
all in pouring out of tears by our bodily eye, but also hath more
ghostly understanding. For the kindly desire of our soul is so great
and so unmeasurable, that if there were given us for our solace and
for our comfort all the noble things that ever God made in heaven and
in earth, and we saw not the fair Blissful Cheer of Himself, yet we
should not stint of moaning nor ghostly weeping, that is to say, of
painful longing, till when we [should] see verily the fair Blissful
Cheer of our Maker. And if we were in all the pain that heart can
think and tongue may tell, if we might in that time see His fair
Blissful Cheer, all this pain should not aggrieve us.
Thus
is that Blissful Sight [the] end of all manner of pain to the loving
soul, and the fulfilling of all manner of joy and bliss. And that
showed He in the high, marvellous words where He said: I it am that
is highest; I it am that is lowest; I it am that is all. It belongeth
to us to have three manner of knowings: the first is that we know our
Lord God; the second is that we know our self: what we are by Him, in
Nature and Grace; the third is that we know meekly what our self is
anent our sin and feebleness. And for these three was all the Showing
made, as to mine understanding.
CHAPTER
LXXIII
"Two
manners of sickness that we have: impatience, or sloth; –
despair,
or mistrustful dread"
ALL
the blessed teaching of our Lord was showed by three parts: that is
to say, by bodily sight, and by word formed in mine understanding,
and by spiritual sight. For the bodily sight, I have said as I saw,
as truly as I can; and for the words, I have said them right as our
Lord showed them to me; and for the spiritual sight, I have told some
deal, but I may never fully tell it: and therefore of this sight I am
stirred to say more, as God will give me grace. Generally, He showed
sin, wherein that all is comprehended, but in special He showed only
these two. And these two are they that most do travail and tempest
us, according to that which our Lord showed me; and of them He would
have us be amended. I speak of such men and women as for God's love
hate sin and dispose themselves to do God's will: then by our
spiritual blindness and bodily heaviness we are most inclining to
these. And therefore it is God's will that they be known, for then we
shall refuse them as we do other sins.
And
for help of this, full meekly our Lord showed the patience that He
had in His Hard Passion; and also the joying and the satisfying that
He hath of that Passion, for love. And this He showed in example that
we should gladly and wisely bear our pains, for that is great
pleasing to Him and endless profit to us. And the cause why we are
travailed with them is for lack in knowing of Love. Though the three
Persons in the Trinity be all even in Itself, the soul took most
understanding in Love; yea, and He willeth that in all things we have
our beholding and our enjoying in Love. And of this knowing are we
most blind. For some of us believe that God is Almighty and may do
all, and that He is All-Wisdom and can do all; but that He is
All-Love and will do all, there we stop short. And this not-knowing
it is, that hindereth most God's lovers, as to my sight. For when we
begin to hate sin, and amend us by the ordinance of Holy Church, yet
there dwelleth a dread that letteth us, because of the beholding of
our self and of our sins afore done. And some of us because of our
every-daily sins: for we hold not our Covenants, nor keep we our
cleanness that our Lord setteth us in, but fall oftentimes into so
much wretchedness that shame it is to see it. And the beholding of
this maketh us so sorry and so heavy, that scarsely we can find any
comfort.
And
this dread we take sometime for a meekness, but it is a foul
blindness and a weakness. And we cannot despise it as we do another
sin, that we know [as sin]: for it cometh [subtly] of Enmity, and it
is against truth. For it is God's will that of all the properties of
the blissful Trinity, we should have most sureness and comfort in
Love: for Love maketh Might and Wisdom full meek to us. For right as
by the courtesy of God He forgiveth our sin after the time that we
repent us, right so willeth He that we forgive our sin, as anent our
unskilful heaviness and our doubtful dreads.
CHAPTER
LXXIV
"There
is no dread that fully pleaseth God in us but reverent dread"
FOR
I understand [that there be] four manner of dreads. One is the dread
of an affright that cometh to a man suddenly by frailty. This dread
doeth good, for it helpeth to purge man, as doeth bodily sickness or
such other pain as is not sin. For all such pains help man if they be
patiently taken. The second is dread of pain, whereby man is stirred
and wakened from sleep of sin. He is not able for the time to
perceive the soft comfort of the Holy Ghost, till he have
understanding of this dread of pain, of bodily death, of spiritual
enemies; and this dread stirreth us to seek comfort and mercy of God,
and thus this dread helpeth us, and enableth us to have contrition by
the blissful touching of the Holy Ghost. The third is doubtful dread.
Doubtful dread in as much as it draweth to despair, God will have it
turned in us into love by the knowing of love: that is to say, that
the bitterness of doubt be turned into the sweetness of natural love
by grace. For it may never please our Lord that His servants doubt in
His Goodness. The fourth is reverent dread: for there is no dread
that fully pleaseth God in us but reverent dread. And that is full
soft, for the more it is had, the less it is felt for sweetness of
love.
Love
and Dread are brethren, and they are rooted in us by the Goodness of
our Maker, and they shall never be taken from us without end. We have
of nature to love and we have of grace to love: and we have of nature
to dread and we have of grace to dread. It belongeth to the Lordship
and to the Fatherhood to be dreaded, as it belongeth to the Goodness
to be loved: and it belongeth to us that are His servants and His
children to dread Him for Lordship and Fatherhood, as it belongeth to
us to love Him for Goodness.
And
though this reverent-dread and love be not parted asunder, yet they
are not both one, but they are two in property and in working, and
neither of them may be had without other. Therefore I am sure, he
that loveth, he dreadeth, though that he feel it but a little.
All
dreads other than reverent dread that are proffered to us, though
they come under the colour of holiness yet are not so true, and
hereby may they be known asunder. – That dread that maketh us
hastily to flee from all that is not good and fall into our Lord's
breast, as the Child into the Mother's bosom, with all our intent and
with all our mind, knowing our feebleness and our great need, knowing
His everlasting goodness and His blissful love, only seeking to Him
for salvation, cleaving to [Him] with sure trust: that dread that
bringeth us into this working, it is natural, gracious, good and
true. And all that is contrary to this, either it is wrong, or it is
mingled with wrong. Then is this the remedy, to know them both and
refuse the wrong.
For
the natural property of dread which we have in this life by the
gracious working of the Holy Ghost, the same shall be in heaven afore
God, gentle, courteous, and full delectable. And thus we shall in
love be homely and near to God, and we shall in dread be gentle and
courteous to God: and both alike equal.
Desire
we of our Lord God to dread Him reverently, to love Him meekly, to
trust in Him mightily; for when we dread Him reverently and love Him
meekly our trust is never in vain. For the more that we trust, and
the more mightily, the more we please and worship our Lord that we
trust in. And if we fail in this reverent dread and meek love (as God
forbid we should!), our trust shall soon be misruled for the time.
And therefore it needeth us much to pray our Lord of grace that we
may have this reverent dread and meek love, of His gift, in heart and
in work. For without this, no man may please God.
CHAPTER
LXXV
"We
shall see verily the cause of all things that He hath done; and
evermore we shall see the cause of all things that He hath permitted"
I
SAW that God can do all that we need. And these three that I shall
speak of we need: love, longing, pity. Pity in love keepeth us in the
time of our need; and longing in the same love draweth us up into
Heaven. For the Thirst of God is to have the general Man unto Him: in
which thirst He hath drawn His Holy that be now in bliss; and getting
His lively members, ever He draweth and drinketh, and yet He
thirsteth and longeth.
I
saw three manners of longing in God, and all to one end; of which we
have the same in us, and by the same virtue and for the same end.
The
first is, that He longeth to teach us to know Him and love Him
evermore, as it is convenient and speedful to us. The second is, that
He longeth to have us up to His Bliss, as souls are when they are
taken out of pain into Heaven. The third is to fulfill us in bliss;
and that shall be on the Last Day, fulfilled ever to last. For I saw,
as it is known in our Faith, that the pain and the sorrow shall be
ended to all that shall be saved. And not only we shall receive the
same bliss that souls afore have had in heaven, but also we shall
receive a new [bliss], which plenteously shall be flowing out of God
into us and shall fulfill us; and these be the goods which He hath
ordained to give us from without beginning. These goods are treasured
and hid in Himself; for unto that time [no] Creature is mighty nor
worthy to receive them.
In
this [fulfilling] we shall see verily the cause of all things that He
hath done; and evermore we shall see the cause of all things that He
hath suffered. And the bliss and the fulfilling shall be so deep and
so high that, for wonder and marvel, all creatures shall have to God
so great reverent dread, overpassing that which hath been seen and
felt before, that the pillars of heaven shall tremble and quake. But
this manner of trembling and dread shall have no pain; but it
belongeth to the worthy might of God thus to be beholden by His
creatures, in great dread trembling and quaking for meekness of joy,
marvelling at the greatness of God the Maker and at the littleness of
all that is made. For the beholding of this maketh the creature
marvellously meek and mild.
Wherefore
God willeth – and also it belongeth to us, both in nature and
grace
– that we wit and know of this, desiring this sight and this
working; for it leadeth us in right way, and keepeth us in true life,
and oneth us to God. And as good as God is, so great He is; and as
much as it belongeth to His goodness to be loved, so much it
belongeth to His greatness to be dreaded. For this reverent dread is
the fair courtesy that is in Heaven afore God's face. And as much as
He shall then be known and loved overpassing that He is now, in so
much He shall be dreaded overpassing that He is now.
Wherefore
it behoveth needs to be that all Heaven and earth shall tremble and
quake when the pillars shall tremble and quake.
CHAPTER
LXXVI
"The
soul that beholdeth the fair nature of our Lord Jesus, it hateth no
hell but sin"
I
SPEAK but little of reverent dread, for I hope it may be seen in this
matter aforesaid. But well I wot our Lord showed me no souls but
those that dread Him. For well I wot the soul that truly taketh the
teaching of the Holy Ghost, it hateth more sin for vileness and
horribleness than it doth all the pain that is in hell. For the soul
that beholdeth the fair nature of our Lord Jesus, it hateth no hell
but sin, as to my sight. And therefore it is God's will that we know
sin, and pray busily and travail earnestly and seek teaching meekly
that we fall not blindly therein; and if we fall, that we rise
readily. For it is the most pain that the soul may have, to turn from
God any time by sin.
The
soul that willeth to be in rest when [an] other man's sin cometh to
mind, he shall flee it as the pain of hell, seeking unto God for
remedy, for help against it. For the beholding of other man's sins,
it maketh as it were a thick mist afore the eyes of the soul, and we
cannot, for the time, see the fairness of God, but if we may behold
them with contrition with him, with compassion on him, and with holy
desire to God for him. For without this it harmeth and tempesteth and
hindereth the soul that beholdeth them. For this I understood in the
Showing of Compassion.
In
this blissful Showing of our Lord I have understanding of two
contrary things: the one is the most wisdom that any creature may do
in this life, the other is the most folly. The most wisdom is for a
creature to do after the will and counsel of his highest sovereign
Friend. This blessed Friend is Jesus, and it is His will and His
counsel that we hold us with Him, and fasten us to Him homely
–
evermore, in what state soever that we be; for whether-so that we be
foul or clean, we are all one in His loving. For weal nor for woe He
willeth never we flee from Him. But because of the changeability that
we are in, in our self, we fall often into sin. Then we have this
[doubting dread] by the stirring of our enemy and by our own folly
and blindness: for they say thus: Thou seest well thou art a wretched
creature, a sinner, and also unfaithful. For thou keepest not the
Command; thou dost promise oftentimes our Lord that thou shalt do
better, and anon after, thou fallest again into the same, especially
into sloth and losing of time. (For that is the beginning of sin, as
to my sight, – and especially to the creatures that have
given them
to serve our Lord with inward beholding of His blessed Goodness.) And
this maketh us adread to appear afore our courteous Lord. Thus is it
our enemy that would put us aback with his false dread, [by reason]
of our wretchedness, through pain that he threateth us with. For it
is his meaning to make us so heavy and so weary in this, that we
should let out of mind the fair, Blissful Beholding of our
Everlasting Friend.
CHAPTER
LXXVII
"Accuse
not thyself overmuch, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is all
thy fault." "All thy living is penance profitable."
"In the remedy He willeth that we rejoice"
OUR
good Lord showed the enmity of the Fiend: in which Showing I
understood that all that is contrary to love and peace is of the
Fiend and of his part. And we have, of our feebleness and our folly,
to fall; and we have, of mercy and grace of the Holy Ghost, to rise
to more joy. And if our enemy aught winneth of us by our falling,
(for it is his pleasure, he loseth manifold more in our rising by
charity and meekness. And this glorious rising, it is to him so great
sorrow and pain for the hate that he hath to our soul, that he
burneth continually in envy. And all this sorrow that he would make
us to have, it shall turn to himself. And for this it was that our
Lord scorned him, and [it was] this [that] made me mightily to laugh.
Then
is this the remedy, that we be aware of our wretchedness and flee to
our Lord: for ever the more needy that we be, the more speedful it is
to us to draw nigh to Him. And let us say thus in our thinking: I
know well I have a shrewd pain; but our Lord is All-Mighty and may
punish me mightily; and He is All-Wisdom and can punish me
discerningly; and He is all-Goodness and loveth me full tenderly. And
in this beholding it is necessary for us to abide; for it is a lovely
meekness of a sinful soul, wrought by mercy and grace of the Holy
Ghost, when we willingly and gladly take the scourge and chastening
of our Lord that Himself will give us. And it shall be full tender
and full easy, if that we will only hold us satisfied with Him and
with all His works.
For
the penance that man taketh of himself was not showed me: that is to
say, it was not showed specified. But specially and highly and with
full lovely manner of look was it showed that we shall meekly bear
and suffer the penance that God Himself giveth us, with mind in His
blessed Passion. (For when we have mind in His blessed Passion, with
pity and love, then we suffer with Him like as His friends did that
saw it. And this was showed in the Thirteenth Showing, near the
beginning, where it speaketh of Pity.) For He saith: Accuse not
[thy]self overdone much, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is
all for thy fault; for I will not that thou be heavy or sorrowful
indiscreetly. For I tell thee, howsoever thou do, thou shalt have
woe. And therefore I will that thou wisely know thy penance; and
[thou] shalt see in truth that all thy living is penance profitable.
This
place is prison and this life is penance, and in the remedy He
willeth that we rejoice. The remedy is that our Lord is with us,
keeping and leading into the fulness of joy. For this is an endless
joy to us in our Lord's signifying, that He that shall be our bliss
when we are there, He is our keeper while we are here. Our way and
our heaven is true love and sure trust; and of this He gave
understanding in all [the Showings] and especially in the Showing of
the Passion where He made me mightily to choose Him for my heaven.
Flee
we to our Lord and we shall be comforted, touch we Him and we shall
be made clean, cleave we to Him and we shall be sure, and safe from
all manner of peril.
For
our courteous Lord willeth that we should be as homely with Him as
heart may think or soul may desire. But [let us] beware that we take
not so recklessly this homeliness as to leave courtesy. For our Lord
Himself is sovereign homeliness, and as homely as He is, so courteous
He is: for He is very courteous. And the blessed creatures that shall
be in heaven with Him without end, He will have them like to Himself
in all things. And to be like our Lord perfectly, it is our very
salvation and our full bliss.
And
if we wot not how we shall do all this, desire we of our Lord and He
shall teach us: for it is His own good-pleasure and His worship;
blessed may He be!
CHAPTER
LXXVIII
"Though
we be highly lifted up into contemplation by the special gift of our
Lord, yet it is needful to us to have knowledge and sight of our sin
and our feebleness"
OUR
Lord of His mercy sheweth us our sin and our feebleness by the sweet
gracious light of Himself; for our sin is so vile and so horrible
that He of His courtesy will not shew it to us but by the light of
His grace and mercy. Of four things therefore it is His will that we
have knowing: the first is, that He is our Ground from whom we have
all our life and our being. The second is, that He keepeth us
mightily and mercifully in the time that we are in our sin and among
all our enemies, that are full fell upon us; and so much we are in
the more peril for [that] we give them occasion thereto, and know not
our own need. The third is, how courteously He keepeth us, and maketh
us to know that we go amiss. The fourth is, how steadfastly He
abideth us and changeth no regard: for He willeth that we be turned
[again], and oned to Him in love as He is to us.
And
thus by this gracious knowing we may see our sin profitably without
despair. For truly we need to see it, and by the sight we shall be
made ashamed of our self and brought down as anent our pride and
presumption; for it behoveth us verily to see that of ourselves we
are right nought but sin and wretchedness. And thus by the sight of
the less that our Lord sheweth us, the more is reckoned which we see
not. For He of His courtesy measureth the sight to us; for it is so
vile and so horrible that we should not endure to see it as it is.
And by this meek knowing after this manner, through contrition and
grace we shall be broken from all that is not our Lord. And then
shall our blessed Saviour perfectly heal us, and one us to Him.
This
breaking and this healing our Lord meaneth for the general Man. For
he that is highest and nearest with God, he may see himself sinful
–
and needeth to – with me; and I that am the least and lowest
that
shall be saved, I may be comforted with him that is highest: so hath
our Lord oned us in charity; [as] where He showed me that I should
sin.
And
for joy that I had in beholding of Him I attended not readily to that
Showing, and our courteous Lord stopped there and would not further
teach me till that He gave me grace and will to attend. And hereby
was I learned that though we be highly lifted up into contemplation
by the special gift of our Lord, yet it is needful to us therewith to
have knowing and sight of our sin and our feebleness. For without
this knowing we may not have true meekness, and without this
[meekness] we may not be saved.
And
afterward, also, I saw that we may not have this knowing from our
self; nor from none of all our spiritual enemies: for they will us
not so great good. For if it were by their will, we should not see it
until our ending day. Then be we greatly beholden to God for that He
will Himself, for love, shew it to us in time of mercy and grace.
CHAPTER
LXXIX
"I
was taught that I should see mine own sin, and not other men's sin
except it may be for comfort and help of my fellow-Christians"
(lxxvi.)
ALSO
I had of this [Revelation] more understanding. In that He showed me
that I should sin, I took it nakedly to mine own singular person, for
I was none otherwise showed at that time. But by the high, gracious
comfort of our Lord that followed after, I saw that His meaning was
for the general Man: that is to say, All-Man; which is sinful and
shall be unto the last day. Of which Man I am a member, as I hope, by
the mercy of God. For the blessed comfort that I saw, it is large
enough for us all. And here was I learned that I should see mine own
sin, and not other men's sins but if it may be for comfort and help
of mine fellow Christians.
And
also in this same Showing where I saw that I should sin, there was I
learned to be in dread for unsureness of myself. For I wot not how I
shall fall, nor I know not the measure nor the greatness of sin; for
that would I have wist, with dread, and thereto I had none answer.
Also
our courteous Lord in the same time He showed full surely and
mightily the endlessness and the unchangeability of His love; and,
afterward, that by His great goodness and His grace inwardly keeping,
the love of Him and our soul shall never be disparted in two, without
end.
And
thus in this dread I have matter of meekness that saveth me from
presumption, and in the blessed Showing of Love I have matter of true
comfort and of joy that saveth me from despair. All this homely
Showing of our courteous Lord, it is a lovely lesson and a sweet,
gracious teaching of Himself in comforting of our soul. For He
willeth that we [should] know by the sweetness and homely loving of
Him, that all that we see or feel, within or without, that is
contrary to this is of the enemy and not of God. And thus –
If we
be stirred to be the more reckless of our living or of the keeping of
our hearts because that we have knowing of this plenteous love, then
need we greatly to beware. For this stirring, if it come, is untrue;
and greatly we ought to hate it, for it all hath no likeness of God's
will. And when that we be fallen, by frailty or blindness, then our
courteous Lord toucheth us and stirreth us and calleth us; and then
willeth He that we see our wretchedness and meekly be aware of it.
But He willeth not that we abide thus, nor He willeth not that we
busy us greatly about our accusing, nor He willeth not that we be
wretched over our self; but He willeth that we hastily turn ourselves
unto Him. For He standeth all aloof and abideth us sorrowfully and
mournfully till when we come, and hath haste to have us to Him. For
we are His joy and His delight, and He is our salve and our life.
When
I say He standeth all alone, I leave the speaking of the blessed
Company of heaven, and speak of His office and His working here on
earth, – upon the condition of the Showing.
CHAPTER
LXXX
"Himself
is nearest and meekest, highest and lowest, and doeth all." Love
suffereth never to be without Pity"
BY
three things man standeth in this life; by which three God is
worshipped, and we be speeded, kept and saved.
The
first is, use of man's Reason natural; the second is, common teaching
of Holy Church; the third is, inward gracious working of the Holy
Ghost. And these three be all of one God: God is the ground of our
natural reason; and God, the teaching of Holy Church; and God is the
Holy Ghost. And all be sundry gifts to which He willeth that we have
great regard, and attend us thereto. For these work in us continually
all together; and these be great things. Of which great things He
willeth that we have knowing here as it were in an A.B.C., that is to
say, that we have a little knowing; whereof we shall have fulness in
Heaven. And that is for to speed us.
We
know in our Faith that God alone took our nature, and none but He;
and furthermore that Christ alone did all the works that belong to
our salvation, and none but He; and right so He alone doeth now the
last end: that is to say, He dwelleth here with us, and ruleth us and
governeth us in this living, and bringeth us to His bliss. And this
shall He do as long as any soul is in earth that shall come to
heaven, – and so far forth that if there were no such soul
but one,
He should be withal alone till He had brought him up to His bliss. I
believe and understand the ministration of angels, as clerks tell us:
but it was not showed me. For Himself is nearest and meekest, highest
and lowest, and doeth all. And not only all that we need, but also He
doeth all that is worshipful, to our joy in heaven.
And
where I say that He abideth sorrowfully and moaning, it meaneth all
the true feeling that we have in our self, in contrition and
compassion, and all sorrowing and moaning that we are not oned with
our Lord. And all such that is speedful, it is Christ in us. And
though some of us feel it seldom, it passeth never from Christ till
what time He hath brought us out of all our woe. For love suffereth
never to be without pity. And what time that we fall into sin and
leave the mind of Him and the keeping of our own soul, then keepeth
Christ alone all the charge; and thus standeth He sorrowfully and
moaning.
Then
belongeth it to us for reverence and kindness to turn us hastily to
our Lord and leave Him not alone. He is here alone with us all: that
is to say, only for us He is here. And what time I am strange to Him
by sin, despair or sloth, then I let my Lord stand alone, in as much
as it is in me. And thus it fareth with us all which be sinners. But
though it be so that we do thus oftentimes, His Goodness suffereth us
never to be alone, but lastingly He is with us, and tenderly He
excuseth us, and ever shieldeth us from blame in His sight.
CHAPTER
LXXXI
"God
seeth all our living a penance: for nature-longing of our love is to
Him a lasting penance in us." "His love maketh Him to long"
OUR
Good Lord showed Himself in diverse manners both in heaven and in
earth, but I saw Him take no place save in man's soul.
He
showed Himself in earth in the sweet Incarnation and in His blessed
Passion. And in other manner He showed Himself in earth [as in the
Revelation] where I say: I saw God in a Point. And in another manner
He showed Himself in earth thus as it were in pilgrimage: that is to
say, He is here with us, leading us, and shall be till when He hath
brought us all to His bliss in heaven. He showed Himself diverse
times reigning, as it is aforesaid; but principally in man's soul. He
hath taken there His resting-place and His worshipful City: out of
which worshipful See He shall never rise nor remove without end.
Marvellous
and stately is the place where the Lord dwelleth, and therefore He
willeth that we readily answer to His gracious touching, more
rejoicing in His whole love than sorrowing in our often fallings. For
it is the most worship to Him of anything that we may do, that we
live gladly and merrily, for His love, in our penance. For He
beholdeth us so tenderly that He seeth all our living [here] a
penance: for nature's longing in us is to Him aye-lasting penance in
us: which penance He worketh in us and mercifully He helpeth us to
bear it. For His love maketh Him to long [for us]; His wisdom and His
truth with His rightfulness maketh Him to suffer us [to be] here: and
in this same manner [of longing and abiding] He willeth to see it in
us. For this is our natural penance, – and the highest, as to
my
sight. For this penance goeth [332] never from us till what time that
we be fulfilled, when we shall have Him to our meed. And therefore He
willeth that we set our hearts in the Overpassing: that is to say,
from the pain that we feel into the bliss that we trust.
CHAPTER
LXXII
"In
falling and in rising we are ever preciously kept in one Love "
BUT
here showed our courteous Lord the moaning and the mourning of the
soul, signifying thus: I know well thou wilt live for my love,
joyously and gladly suffering all the penance that may come to thee;
but in as much as thou livest not without sin thou wouldest suffer,
for my love, all the woe, all the tribulation and distress that might
come to thee. And it is sooth. But be not greatly aggrieved with sin
that falleth to thee against thy will.
And
here I understood that [which was showed] that the Lord beholdeth the
servant with pity and not with blame. For this passing life asketh
not to live all without blame and sin. He loveth us endlessly, and we
sin customably, and He sheweth us full mildly, and then we sorrow and
mourn discreetly, turning us unto the beholding of His mercy,
cleaving to His love and goodness, seeing that He is our medicine,
perceiving that we do nought but sin. And thus by the meekness we get
by the sight of our sin, faithfully knowing His everlasting love, Him
thanking and praising, we please Him: – I love thee, and thou
lovest me, and our love shall not be disparted in two: for thy profit
I suffer [these things to come]. And all this was showed in spiritual
understanding, saying these blessed words: I keep thee full surely.
And
by the great desire that I saw in our blessed Lord that we shall live
in this manner, – that is to say, in longing and enjoying, as
all
this lesson of love sheweth, – thereby I understood that that
which
is contrarious to us is not of Him but of enmity; and He willeth that
we know it by the sweet gracious light of His kind love. If any such
lover be in earth which is continually kept from falling, I know it
not: for it was not showed me. But this was showed: that in falling
and in rising we are ever preciously kept in one Love. For in the
Beholding of God we fall not, and in the beholding of self we stand
not; and both these [manners of beholding] be sooth as to my sight.
But the Beholding of our Lord God is the highest soothness. Then are
we greatly bound to God [for] that He willeth in this living to shew
us this high soothness. And I understood that while we be in this
life it is full speedful to us that we see both these at once. For
the higher Beholding keepeth us in spiritual solace and true enjoying
in God; [and] that other that is the lower Beholding keepeth us in
dread and maketh us ashamed of ourself. But our good Lord willeth
ever that we hold us much more in the Beholding of the higher, and
[yet] leave not the knowing of the lower, unto the time that we be
brought up above, where we shall have our Lord Jesus unto our meed
and be fulfilled of joy and bliss without end.
CHAPTER
LXXXIII
"Life,
Love, and Light"
I
HAD, in part, touching, sight, and feeling in three properties of
God, in which the strength and effect of all the Revelation standeth:
and they were seen in every Showing, and most properly in the
Twelfth, where it saith oftentimes: [It is I.] The properties are
these: Life, Love, and Light. In life is marvellous homeliness, and
in love is gentle courtesy, and in light is endless Nature-hood.
These properties were in one Goodness: unto which Goodness my Reason
would be oned, and cleave to it with all its might.
I
beheld with reverent dread, and highly marvelling in the sight and in
the feeling of the sweet accord, that our Reason is in God;
understanding that it is the highest gift that we have received; and
it is grounded in nature.
Our
faith is a light by nature coming of our endless Day, that is our
Father, God. In which light our Mother, Christ, and our good Lord,
the Holy Ghost, leadeth us in this passing life. This light is
measured discreetly, needfully standing to us in the night. The light
is cause of our life; the night is cause of our pain and of all our
woe: in which we earn meed and thanks of God. For we, with mercy and
grace, steadfastly know and believe our light, going therein wisely
and mightily.
And
at the end of woe, suddenly our eyes shall be opened, and in
clearness of light our sight shall be full: which light is God, our
Maker and Holy Ghost, in Christ Jesus our Saviour.
Thus
I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night: which
light is God, our endless Day.
CHAPTER
LXXXIV
"Charity"
THE
light is Charity, and the measuring of this light is done to us
profitably by the wisdom of God. For neither is the light so large
that we may see our blissful Day, nor is it shut from us; but it is
such a light in which we may live meedfully, with travail deserving
the endless worship of God. And this was seen in the Sixth Showing
where He said: I thank thee of thy service and of thy travail.
Thus-Charity keepeth us in Faith and Hope, and Hope leadeth us in
Charity. And in the end all shall be Charity.
I
had three manners of understanding of this light, Charity. The first
is Charity unmade; the second is Charity made; the third is Charity
given. Charity unmade is God; Charity made is our soul in God;
Charity given is virtue. And that is a precious gift of working in
which we love God, for Himself; and ourselves, in God; and that which
God loveth, for God.
CHAPTER
LXXXV
"Lord,
blessed mayest Thou be, for it is thus: it is well"
AND
in this sight I marvelled highly. For notwithstanding our simple
living and our blindness here, yet endlessly our courteous Lord
beholdeth us in this working, rejoicing; and of all things, we may
please Him best wisely and truly to believe, and to enjoy with Him
and in Him. For as verily as we shall be in the bliss of God without
end, Him praising and thanking, so verily we have been in the
foresight of God, loved and known in His endless purpose from without
beginning. In which unbegun love He made us; and in the same love He
keepeth us and never suffereth us to be hurt [in manner] by which our
bliss might be lost. And therefore when the Doom is given and we be
all brought up above, then shall we clearly see in God the secret
things which be now hid to us. Then shall none of us be stirred to
say in any wise: Lord, if it had been thus, then it had been full
well; but we shall say all with one voice: Lord, blessed mayst thou
be, for it is thus: it is well; and now see we verily that all-thing
is done as it was then ordained before that anything was made.
CHAPTER
LXXXVI
"Love
was our Lord's Meaning"
THIS
book is begun by God's gift and His grace, but it is not yet
performed, as to my sight.
For
Charity pray we all; [together] with God's working, thanking,
trusting, enjoying. For thus will our good Lord be prayed to, as by
the understanding that I took of all His own meaning and of the sweet
words where He saith full merrily: I am the Ground of thy beseeching.
For truly I saw and understood in our Lord's meaning that He showed
it for that He willeth to have it known more than it is: in which
knowing He will give us grace to love Him and cleave to Him. For He
beholdeth His heavenly treasure with so great love on earth that He
willeth to give us more light and solace in heavenly joy, in drawing
to Him of our hearts, for sorrow and darkness which we are in.
And
from that time that it was showed I desired oftentimes to learn what
was our Lord's meaning. And fifteen years after, and more, I was
answered in ghostly understanding, saying thus: Wouldst thou learn
thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was His
meaning. Who showed it thee? Love. What showed He thee? Love.
Wherefore showed it He? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt
learn and know more in the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn
therein other thing without end Thus was I learned that Love was our
Lord's meaning.
And
I saw full surely that ere God made us He loved us; which love was
never slacked, nor ever shall be. And in this love He hath done all
His works; and in this love He hath made all things profitable to us;
and in this love our life is everlasting. In our making we had
beginning; but the love wherein He made us was in Him from without
beginning: in which love we have our beginning. And all this shall we
see in God, without end.
POSTSCRIPT
BY A SCRIBE
[The
Sloane MS. is entitled "Revelations to one who could not read a
Letter, Anno Dom. 1373," and each chapter is headed by a few
lines denoting its contents. These titles are in language similar to
that of the text, and are probably the work of an early scribe. No
doubt it is the same scribe who after the last sentence of the book
adds the aspiration :] Which Jesus mot grant us Amen.
[And
to him also may be assigned this conclusion: – ]Thus endeth
the
Revelation of Love of the blissid Trinite shewid by our Savior Christ
Jesu for our endles comfort and solace and also to enjoyen in him in
this passand journey of this life.
Amen
Jesu amen
I
pray Almyty God that this booke com not but to the hands of them that
will be his faithfull lovers, and to those that will submitt them to
the faith of holy Church, and obey the holesom understondying and
teching of the men that be of vertuous life, sadde Age and sound
lering: ffor this Revelation is hey Divinitye and hey wisdom,
wherfore it may not dwelle with him that is thrall to synne and to
the Devill.
And
beware thou take not on thing after thy affection and liking, and
leve another: for that is the condition of an heretique. But take
everything with other. And, trewly understonden, All is according to
holy Scripture and groundid in the same. And that Jesus, our very
love, light and truth, shall shew to all clen soulis that with
mekeness aske profe reverently this wisdom of hym.
And
thou to whom this boke shall come, thank heyley and hertily our
Saviour Christ Jesu that he made these Showings and revelations, for
the, and to the, of his endles love, mercy and goodnes for thine and
our save guide, to conduct to everlastying bliss: the which Jesus mot
grant us. AMEN.
Transcribed
by John Ockerbloom ([1]spok@cs.cmu.edu)