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 be with him in his Kingdom The Ninth Revelation The xxij Chapter THen said our good Lord asking Art thou * i. e. content well apaid that I suffered for thee I said yea good Lord gramercy yea good Lord blessed mote thou be Then said Jesu our good Lord If thou art apaid I am apaid It is a joy a bliss an endless liking to me that ever I suffered Passion for thee And if I might have suffered more I would have suffered more In this feeling my understanding was lifted up into Heaven And there I saw three Heavens Of which sight I was greatly marvelled and thought I see three Heavens and all of the blissedful Man-head of Christ and none is more none is less none is higher none is lower but even like of bliss For the first Heaven Christ shewed 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 * i e. reward meed to his Son Jesu Christ This Gift and this meed is so blissedful to Jesuâ— that his Father might have given him no meed that might have been liked to him better For the first Heaven that is the pleasing of the Father shewed to me as in Heaven and it was full blissedfully for he is well pleased with all the deeds that Jesu hath done about our Salvation Wherefore we be not only his by his * i e. redeeming buying but also by the courteous Gifts of his Father we be his bliss we be his meed we be his Worship we be his Crown and this was a singuler marvaile and a full delectable beholding that we be his Crown This that I say is so great bliss to Jesu that he setteth at naught his Travel and his Passion and his cruel and shameful Death And in these words If I might suffer more I would suffer more I saw truly that as often as he might die as often as he would and Love should never let him have rest till he had done it And I beheld with great diligence for to wit how often he would die if he might And truly the number passed my understanding and my Wits so far that my reason might not nor could not comprehend it ne take it And when he had thus oft died or should die yet he would set it at naught for Love for all thinketh him but litle in regard of his Love for though the sweet manhood of Christ might suffer but once the goodness of him may never cease of profer 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 Earths it were but litle in regard For this might he do each day if he would without any Travel But for to die for my Love so often that the number passeth Creatures reason this is the highest profer that our Lord God might make to mans Soul as to my sight Then meaneth he thus How should it then be that I should not for thy Love do all that I might which deed grieveth me nought sithen that I would for thy Love dye so often having no regard to my hard Pains And here saw I for the second beholding in his blessed Passion the Love that made him to suffer it passeth as far all his Pains as Heaven is above Earth for the Pain was a noble precious and Worshipful deed done in a time by the working of Love And Love was without beginning is and shall be without end for which Love he said full sweetly this Word If I might suffer more I would suffer more He said not if it were needful to suffer more but If I might suffer more For though it were not needful and he might suffer more he would This Deed and this Work about our Salvation was ordained as well as God might ordaine it It was done as worshipfully as Christ might do it And herein I saw a full bliss in Christ for his bliss should not have been full if it might any better have been done than it was done The xxiij Chapter ANd in these three Words It is a Joy a Bliss and endless liking to me were shewed three Heavens as thus For the joy I understood the pleasaunce of the Father and for the bliss the Worship of the Son and for the endless liking of the Holy Ghost The Father is pleased the Son is worshipped and the Holy Ghost liketh And here saw I for the third beholding in his blessedful Passion that is to say the joy and the bliss that maketh him to like it For our courteous Lord shewed his Passion to me in five manners Of which the first is the Bleeding of the Head The second Discolouring of his blessed Face The third is the plentuous Bleeding of the Body in seeming of scourging The fourth is the deep drying These four as it is before said for the Pains of the Passion And the fifth is that was shewed for the joy and the bliss of the Passion for it is Gods will that we have true liking with him in our Salvation And therein he will that we be mightily comforted and strengthened And thus will hee merely with his Grace that our Soul be occupied for we be his bliss for in us he liketh without end And so shall we in him with his Grace all that he doth for us and hath done and ever shall was never cost ne charge to him ne might be but only that he died in our manhead beginning at the sweet Incarnation and lasting to the blessed Uprising on Easter morrow so long dured the cost and charge about our Redemption in deed In which deed he ever joyeth endlesly as it is before said Ah Jesu will we take heed to this bliss that is in the blissedful Trinity of our Salvation and that we desire to have asmuch Ghostly liking with his Grace as it is before said that is to say that the liking of our Salvation be like to the joy that Christ hath of our Salvation as it may be while we be here All the Trinity wrought in the Passion of Christ ministering abundance of Vertue and Plenty of Grace to us by him but only the Maidens Son suffered whereof all the blessed Trinity enjoyeth And this was shewed in this Word Art thou well apaid By that other Word Christ said If thou art well apaid I am well apaid as if he had said It is joy and liking enough to me and I ask not else of thee of my Travel but that I might appay thee And in this he brought to my mind the property of a glad Giver ever a glad Giver taketh but litle heed at the thing that he giveth but all his desire and all his intent is to
understand that the best deed is well done and so well as the best deed that is done and the highest so well is the least deed done And all in the Property and in the Order that our Lord hath it ordeined tofore without beginning For there is no Door but he I saw full truly that he changed never his purpose in no manner of thing ne never shall without end For there was nothing unknown to him in his rightful Ordinance fro without beginning And therefore all thing were set in order ere any thing was made as it should stand without end and no manner of thing shall fail of that Point for he hath made all thing in fulhead of Goodness And therefore the blessed Trinity is ever full pleased in all his Works And all this shewed he full blessedly meaning thus See I am God See I am in all things See I do all things See I never left my hands of my Works ne never shall without end See I lead all thing to the end that I ordaine it to for without beginning by the same Might Wisdom and Love that I made it with How should any thing be amiss Thus mightily wisely and lovingly was the Soul examined in this Vision Then saw I verily that me behoveth needs to assent with great Reverence and Joy in God The Fourth Revelation The xij Chapter ANd after this I saw beholding the body plentuously bleeding in seeming of the scourging as thus The fair Skin was broken full deep into the tender flesh with sharp smitings all about the sweet Body The hot blood ran out so plenteously that there was neither seen Skin ne Wound but as it were all blood And when it came where it should have fallen down there it vanished Notwithstanding the bleeding continued a while till it might be seen with advisement And this was so plentuous to my sight that me thought if it had been so in kind and in substance for that time it should have made the Bed all on blood and have passed over all about Then came to my mind that God hath made Waters plentuous 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 holsomely his blessed Blood to wash us from sin for there is no Liquor that is made that liketh him so well to give us For it is most plentuous as it is most precious and that by the vertue of the blessed Godhead and it is our own kind and blessedfully overfloweth us by the vertue of his precious Love The dear worthy blood of our Lord Jesu Christ also verily as it is most precious as verily it is most plentuous Behold and see the vertue of this precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood It descended down into Hell and brake her Bonds and delivered them all that were there which belongeth to the Court of Heaven The precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood overfloweth all Earth and is ready to wash all Creatures of sin which be of Good-will have been or shall be The precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood ascendeth up into Heaven in the blessed Body of our Lord Jesu Christ And there is in him Bleeding Praying for us to the Father and is and shall be as long as us needeth And evermore it floweth in all Heaven enjoying the Salvation of all Mankind that be there and shall be fulfilling the number that faileth The Fifth Revelation The xiij Chapter ANd after or that God shewed any words he suffered me to behold him a conveniable time And all that I had seen and all the understanding that was therein as the simpleness of the Soul might take it Then he without voyce and opening of Lips formed in my Soul these Words Herewith is the fiend overcome This Word said our Lord meaning his blessed Passion as he shewed before In this our Lord shewed a part of the fiends malice and fully his unmight for he shewed that the Passion of him is the overcoming of the fiend God shewed that the fiend hath now the same malice that he had before the Incarnation and also sore he travelleth And as continually he seeth that all Souls of Salvation escape him Worshipfully by the vertue of his precious Passion and that is his sorrow and full evil is he ashamed For all that God suffereth him to do turneth us to joy and him to shame and pain And he hath as much sorrow when God giveth him leave to Work as when he worketh not And that is for he may never do as ill as he would for his might is all locked in God's hand but in God may be no wrath as to my fight For our good Lord endlesly having regard to his own Worship and to the profit of all them that shall be saved with Might and Right he withstandeth the reproved the which of malice and of shrewdness busie them to contrary and do against God's will Also I saw our Lord scorning his malice and naughting his unmight And he will that we do so For this fight I laught mightly and that made them to laugh that were about me and their laughing was a liking to me I thought that I would that all my even Christen had seen as I saw then should all they have laughed with me but I saw not Christ laughing But well I wot that sight that he shewed me made me to laugh For I understood that we may laugh in comforting of our self and joying in God for the fiend is overcome And there I saw him scorn his malice it was beholding to my understanding into our Lord that is to say an inward shewing of * i. e. truth sooth fastness without changing of cheere For as to my sight it is a worshipful property that is in God which is durable And after this I fell into a sadness and said I see three things Game Scorn and Earnest I see Game that the fiend is overcome And I see Scorne that God scorneth him and he shall be scorned And I see Earnest that he is overcome by the blessedful Passion and Death of our Lord Jesu Christ that was done in full great earnest and with sad Travel And there I said that he is scorned I meant that God scorneth him that is to say for he seeth him now as he shall do without end for in this God shewed that the fiend is damned And this meant I there I said he should be scorned For I saw he shall be scorned at Doomes-day generally of all that shall be saved to whose Salvation he hath had great envy for then he shall see that all the Woe and Tribulation that he hath done them shall be turned into encrease of their joy without end And all the Pain and the Sorrow that he would have brought them to shall for ever go with him to Hell The Sixth Revelation The xiv Chapter ANd after this our Lord said I thank thee of thy Service
them to which Grace alone all Good in us is to be ascribed XVI REVELATIONS OF LOVE Here beginneth the First Chapter THis is a Revelation of Love that Jesu Christ our endless Blisse made in xvi Shewings of which The first is of his precious Crowning of Thornes and therein was conteined and specified the Blessed Trinity with the Incarnation and the uniting between God and mans Soul with manie faire Shewings and Teachings of endless Wisdom and Love in which all the Shewings that follow be grounded and joyned The second is of the discolouring of his faire Face in tokening of his dear worthie Passion The third is that our Lord God Almighty all Wisdom and all Love right also verilie as he hath made all thinges that are right also verilie he doth and worketh all things that are done The fourth is scourging of his tender Bodie with plenteous Shedding of his precious Blood The fifth is that the fiend is overcome by the precious Passion of Christ The sixth is the Worshipfull Thanking of our Lord God in which he rewardeth all his blessed Servants in Heaven The seventh is oftentimes feeling of weale and woe feeling of weale is gracious touching and lightning with true * i e. security sikernes of endeles joy The feeling of Woe is of Temptation by Heavines and Wearines of our fleshlie living with Ghostelie understanding that we be kept also verelie in love in woe as in weal by the goodnes of God The eighth is the last paines of Christ and his cruell dying The ninth is of the * i. e. pleasure liking which is in the Blessed Trinity of the hard Passion of Christ after his rufull and sorrowful dying in which joy and liking he will that we be in solace and Mirth with him till that we come to the Glorie in Heaven The tenth is our Lord Jesu Christ by Love his blessed Heart even cloven in two The eleventh is an high Ghostlie shewing of his deare worthie Mother The twelfth is that our Lord God is all Soveraign being The thirteenth is that our Lord God will that we have great regard to all the Deedes which he hath done in the great Nobletie of all things making and of the Excellency of Mans making the which is above all his Works and of the precious amends that he hath made for Mans sin turning all our blame into endeles Worship Than meaneth he thus Beholde and see for by the same Might Wisdome and Goodness that I have done all this by the same Might Wisdome and Goodness I shall make well all that is not well and thou shalt see it And in this he will that we keep us in the Faith and Truth of Holie Church not willing to * i e. know wit his privities not but as it longeth to us in this Life The fourteenth is that our Lord God is the Ground of our | i. e. desire beseekinge Herein was seen two fair properties that one is rightful praier that other is verie trust which he will both be one like large and thus our Praier liketh him and he of his Goodness fulfilleth it The fifteenth is that we should soudeinlie be taken from all our Paine and from all our Woe and of his Goodnes we shall come up above where we shall have our Lord Jesu to our * i. e. reward meed and for to be fulfilled with joy and blisse in Heaven The sixteenth is that the blessed Trinitie our Maker in Christ Jesu our Saviour endleslie dwelleth in our Soule worshipfullie rewarding and commanding all things us mightilie and wiselie saving and keeping for Love and we shall not be over-come of our Enemy The Second Chapter THis Revelation was made to a simple Creature unlettered living in deadlie Flesh the Year of our Lord a Thousand three Hundreth lxxiij the xiiij th daie of Maie Which Creature desired before three Gifts by the Grace of God The first was * i. e. feeling mind of the Passion The second was bodilie Sickness The third was to have of Gods gift three Woundes For the first me thought I had some deale feeling in the Passion of Christ but yet I desired to have more by the Grace of God Me thought I would have been that time with Magdalen and with other that were Christs Lovers that I might have seen bodilie the Passion that our Lord suffered for me that I might have suffered with him as others did that loved him and therefore I desired a bodilie sight wherein I might have more knowledge of the bodilie paines of our Saviour and of the Compassion of Our Lady and of all his true Lovers that were living that time and saw his Paines For I would have bene one of them and have suffered with them Other sight nor shewing of God desired I never none till when the Soule were departed from the body for I believed to be saved by the Mercy of God This was my meaning for I would after because of that shewing have the more true mind in the Passion of Christ For the second came to my mind with Contrition freelie without anie seeking a | i. e. earnest wilfull desire to have of Gods Gift a bodilie sicknes I would that that sicknes were so hard as to the death that I might in that sicknes have undertaken all the Rights of Holie Church my self weening that I should have died and that all Creatures might suppose the same that saw me For I would have no manner of Comfort of fleshly ne earthly Life in that sicknes I desired to have all manner of Paines Bodilie and Ghostlie that I should have if I should have died All the Dreads and Temptations of fiends and all manner of other Paines saving the out-passing of the Soule And this meant I for I would be purged by the Mercy of God and after live more to the Worship of God because of that sicknes For I hoped that it might have bene to my reward when I should have died for I desired to have bene soone with my God and Maker These two desires of the Passion and of the sicknes that I desired of him was with a Condition For me thought this was not the common use of Praier Therefore I said Lord thou knowest what I would and if that it be thy will that I might have it and if it be not thy will Good Lord be not displeased for I will not but as thou wilt This siicknes I desired in my Youth that I might have it when I were thirtie Years Old For the third by the Grace of God and teaching of Holie Church I conceived a mightie desire to receive three Wounds in my Life that is to say the Wound of verie Contrition the Wound of kind Compassion and the Wound of willful Longing to God Right as I asked the other twaine with a Condition so asked I this third mightilie without any Condition These twaine desires before said passed from my mind and the third dwelled
and another Ghostly This Word was shewed for the bodily Thirst And for the Ghostly Thirst was shewed as I shall say after And I understood by the bodily Thirst that the Body had feeling of moisture for the blessed Flesh and Bones was left all alone without blood and moisture The blessed Body dried all alone long time with wringing of the Nails and weight of the Body for I understood that for tenderness of the sweet Hands and the sweet Feet by the great hardness and grievousness of the Nails the Wounds waxed wide and the Body setled for weight by long time hanging and pearcing and raising of the Head and binding of the Crown all baken with dry blood with the sweet Hair clinging 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 setting of the Thorns made the Wounds wide And furthermore I saw that the sweet skin and the tender flesh with the hair and with the blood was all raced and loosed about with the Thorns and broken in many pieces and were hanging as they would hastily have fallen down while it had kind moisture how it was down I saw not but I understood that it was with the sharp Thorns and the boystrous grievous sitting on of the Garland not sparing and without pity that altho brake the sweet skin with the flesh and the Hair loosed it from the bone where through it was broken in pieces as a Cloath and sagging downward as it would hastily have fallen for heaviness and for loosness And that was great sorrow and dread to me for methought that I would not for my life have seen it fall This continued a while and after it began to change and I beheld and marvelled how it might be and then I saw it was for it began to dry and stint a part of the weight that was round about the Garland And so it was invironed all about as it were Garland upon Garland the Garland of Thornes was dyed with the Garland of Blood and that other Garland and the Head all was one Colour as clottered blood when it was dried The skin and the flesh that seemed of the Face and of the Body was small rimpild with a tawny Colour like a dry board when it is aged and the face more brown than the body I saw four manner of drying The first was bloodless The second Pain following after The third is that he was hanging up in the Aire as men hang a Cloath for to dry The fourth that the bodily kind asked Liquor and there was no manner of Comfort ministred to him Ah hard and grievous was that Pain but much more hard and grievous it was when the moisture failed and all began to dry thus clinging These were two Pains that shewed in the blessed Head The first wrought to the drying while it was moist and that other slow with clinging and drying with blowing of Wind from without that dryed him more and pained with Cold than my heart can think and all other Pains for which Pains I saw that all is too litle that I can say for it may not be told The shewing of Christs Pains filled me full of Pains for I wist well that he suffered but once but as he would shew it me and fill me with mind as I had before desired And in all this time of Christs presence I felt no Pain but for Christs Pains Then thought me I knew full litle what Pain it was that I asked and as a Wretch I repented me thinking if I had wist what it had been loath had me been to have prayed it for methought my Pains passed any bodily Death I thought Is any Pain in Hell like this and I was answered in my Reason Hell is an other Pain for their is Despair but of all Pains that lead to Salvation this is the most to see the Lover to suffer How might any Pain be more than to see him that is all my Life all my Bliss and all my Joy suffer Here left I stedfastly that I loved Christ so much above my self that there was no Pain that might be suffered like to that sorrow that I had to see him in Pain The xviij Chapter HEre I saw in part the Compassion of our Blessed Lady Saint Mary for Christ And she was so * i. e. united onyd in Love that the greatness of her Love was cause of the greatness of her Pain for in this I saw a substance of kind Love continued by Grace that his Creatures have to him which kind Love was most * i e. plenteous fulsomelie shewed in his sweet Mother and overpassing For so much as she loved him more than all other her Pain passed all other for ever the higher the mightier the sweeter that the Love is the more sorrow it is to the Lover to see that Body in pain that he loved And so all his Disciples and all his true Lovers suffered more Pain than their own bodily dying For I am sure by my 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 * i e. union oning between Christ and Vs to my 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 and Earth failed for sorrow in their kind in the time of Christs dying for it longeth | i e. natural kindly to their property to know him for their Lord in whom all their vertue standeth And when he feeled then behoved needs to them for kindness to feel with him in 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 feeling of all manner of Comfort save the Mighty privy keeping of God I mean of two manner of People that know him not as it may be understood by two Persons That one was Pilate that other Person was St. Dionise of France which was that time a Paynius for when he saw Wonders and Marveils Sorrows and Dreads that befell at that time he said Either the World is now at an End or else he that is Maker of * i e. nature kinds suffereth Wherefore he did Write on an Altar This is an Altar of the unknown God God of his goodness that maketh Planners and the Elements to work in their kind to the blessed man and to the Cursed In that time it was withdrawn from both Wherefore it was that they that knew him not were in sorrow that time Thus was our Lord Jesu Pained for us and we stand all in this manner of Pain with him and shall do till that we come to his bliss as I shall say hereafter The xix
Chapter IN this time I would have looked fro the Cross and I durst not for I wist well whiles that I beheld the Cross I was sure and safe Therefore I would not assent to put my Soul in Peril for besides the Cross was no sureness for dreed of fiends Then had I a proffer in my Reason as 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 between the Cross and Heaven that might have diseased me Here 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 had * i. e. rather leaver have been in that Pain till Dooms-day than have come to Heaven otherwise than by him For I wist well that he that bound me so sore he should unbind me when he would Thus was I learned to choose Jesu for my Heaven whom I saw only in Pain at that time Me liked no other Heaven than Jesu which shall be my bliss when I come there and this hath ever been a Comfort to me that I chose Jesu to be 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 to chose Jesu only to my Heaven in weal and in woe And though I as a Wretch hath repented me as I said before if I had wist what Pain it had been I had been loath to have prayed it Here I saw verily that it was grudging and frailty of the flesh without assent of the Soul in which God assigneth no blame Repenting and wilful choise be two Contraries which I felt both at that time And those be two parts that one outward that other inward The outward party is our deadily flesh which is now in Pain and now in woe and shall be in this Life Whereof I felt much at this time and that part was that I repented The inward party is a high and a blessedful Life which is all in Peace and Love And this is more privily felt and this party is in which mightily wisely and wilfully I chose Jesu to my Heaven And in this I saw truly that the inward party is Master and Soveraign to the outward nought charging nor taking heede to the Wills of that but all the intent and the Will is set endless to be oned to our Lord Jesu that the outward party should draw the inward to assent was not shewed to me but that the inward party draweth the outward party by Grace and both shall be owned in bliss without end by the vertue of Christ this was shewed The xx Chapter ANd thus saw I our Lord Jesu languring long time for the uning of the Godhead gave strength to the Man-head for Love to suffer more than all men might I mean not only more Pain than all men might suffer but also that he suffered more Pain than all man of Salvation that ever was from the first beginning into the last day might tell or fully think Having regard to the worthiness of the highest worshipful King and the shameful and despiteous painful Death for he that is highest and worthiest was foulest condemned and utterly despised For his Passion is to think and to know that he is God that suffered Seeing after these other two points which be lower that one is what he suffered and that other for whom that he suffered And in this he brought to mind in part the height and the nobility of the glorious God-head and therewith the precious head and the tenderness of the blessedful body which be together owned and also the loathfulness that in our kind is to suffer Pain for as much as he was most tender and clean right so he was most strong and mighty to suffer And for every mans sin that shall be saved he suffered and every mans sorrow dissolation and anguish he saw and sorrowed for kindness and Love for in as much as our Lady sorrowed for his Pains as much suffered he sorrow for her sorrows And moreover in as much as the sweet Man-head 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 up-risen and no more passible yet he suffered with us as I shall say after And I beholding all this by his Grace saw that the Love in him was so strong which he hath to our Soul that willingfully he chose it with great desire and mildly he suffered it with great joy for the Soul that beholdeth thus when it is touched by Grace he shall verily see that the Pains of Christs Passion pass all Pains that is to say which Pains shall be turned into everlasting Joy by the vertue of Christs Passion It is Gods will as to my understanding that we have three manners of beholding of his blessed Passion The first is the beholding the hard Pain that he suffered with a Contrition and Compassion And that shewed our Lord in this time and gave me might and grace to see it And I looked after the departing with all my mights and * i. e. thought wende to have seen the Body all dead but I saw him not so And right in the same time that me thought by seeming that the Life might no longer last and the shewing of the end behoved needs to be nigh The xxj Chapter SUddenly I beholding in the same Cross he changed in blessedful Chear the changing of his blessed Chear 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 thy Pain or of thy Anguish And I was full merry I understood that we be now in our Lords meaning in his Cross with him in our Pains and in our Passion daying And we wilfully abiding in the same Cross with his help and his Grace into the last point suddenly he shall change his Chear to us And we shall be with him in Heaven between that one and that other shall all be one time and then shall all be brought into Joy And so meant he in this shewing Where is now any point of thy Pain or of thy Grief And we shall be full of bliss and here saw I verily that if he shewed now to us his blessedful Chear there is no Pain in Earth ne in no other place that should trouble us But all things should be to us joy and bliss but for he sheweth us the sad Chear of Passion as he bare in this Life his Cross therefore we be in Disease and Travaile with him as our kind asketh And the cause why that he suffereth is for he will of his Goodness make us the Heirs with him in his bliss And for this litle Pain that we suffer here we shall have an high
* i e. perfect fulness fulsomness in the bliss in Heaven by his plentuous Grace And this was a beginning of teaching which I saw in the same time whereby I might come to knowing 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 succoureth And ever he is to the Soul in glad chear longing and loving 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 Cloathing was wide and side and full seemly as falleth to a Lord The colour of the cloathing was Blew as Azure most sad and fair his chear was merciful The colour of his Face was fair brown white with full seemly Countenance his eyen were black most fair and seemly shewing full of lovely pity And within him an heyward long and broad all full of endless Heavenliness And the lovely looking that he looked on his Servant continually and namely in his falling methought it might melt our Hearts for love and burst them in two for joy This fair looking shewed of a seemly * i e. mixture medelur which was marvellous to behold That one was rewth and pity That other joy and bliss The joy and bliss passeth as far the ruth and the pity as Heaven is above Earth the pity was Earthly and the bliss Heavenly The rewth and the pity of the Father was of the falling of Adam which is his most loved Creature The joy and the bliss was of the falling of his dear worthy Son which is * i e. equal even with the Father The merciful beholding of his lovely chear fufilled all Earth and descended down with Adam into Hell with which continuant pity Adam was kept fro endless Death And this Mercy and Pity dwelleth with mankind into the time that 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 will shew him to man he sheweth him | i e. friendly homely as may notwithstanding that I saw verily we ought to know and believe that the Father is not man But his sitting on the Earth barren and desert is this to mean He made mans Soul to be his own City and his dwelling Place which is most pleasing to him of all his Works And what time Man was fallen into sorrow and pain he was not all seemly to serve of that Noble Office And therefore our kind Father would have * i e. adorned for him dight him none other place but to sit upon the Earth abiding mankind which is | i e. mingled medled with Earth Till what time by his Grace his dear worthy Son had brought again his City into the noble fairness with his hard travel The | i e. blewness blewhead of that cloathing betokeneth his stedfastness The * i e. brownness brown-head of his fair face with the seemly | i e. blackness black-head of the eyen was most according to shew his holy Soberness The largeness of his cloathing which was fair flaming about betokeneth that he hath beclosed in him all heaviness and all endless joy and bliss And this was shewed in a touch where I saw that my understanding was led into the Lord in which I saw him highly | i e. rejoyce enjoy for the worshipful restoring that he will and shall bring his Servant to by his plentious Grace And yet I marvelled beholding the Lord and the Servant before said I saw the Lord sit solemnly and the Servant standing reverently before his Lord In which Servant is double understanding one without an other within outward he was clad simple as a Labourer which was disposed to travel and he stood full near the Lord not even fore anenst him but in party aside and that on the left side His cloathing was a white Kirtle single old and all defaulted dyed with sweat of his body streit sitting to him and short as it were an handful beneath the knee bare seeming as it should soon be worn up ready to be ragged and rent And in this I marvelled greatly thinking this is now an unseemly cloathing for the Servant that is so highly loved to stand in before so Worshipful a Lord. And inward in him was shewed a ground of Love which Love he had to the Lord that 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 Worship to the Lord. And the Servant for Love having no regard to himself nor to nothing that might fall off him hastily did start and run at the sending of his Lord to do that thing which was his Will and his Worship For it seemed by his outward cloathing as if he had been a continuant Labourer and an hard traveller of long time And by the inward sight that I had both in the Lord and in the Servant it seemed that he was anaved that is to say new beginning for to travel which Servant was never sent out before There was a Treasure in the Earth which the Lord loved I marvelled and thought what it might be And I was answered in my understanding it is a meat which is lovesome and pleasing unto 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 solemn Lord had no Servant but one and him he sent out I beheld thinking what Labour it may be that the Servant should do and then I understood that he should do the greatest Labour and the hardest Travel that is he should be a Gardner delving and | i e. ditching diking and sweating and turning the Earth up and down and seek the deepness and water the Plants in time And in this he should continue his Travel and make sweat-floods to run and noble plentuousness Fruit to spring which he should bring before the Lord and serve him therewith to his liking and he should never turn again till he had dight this meat all ready as he knew that it liked to the Lord And then he should take this meat with the drink and bear it full Worfully before the Lord. And all this time the Lord should sit right on the same place abiding the Servant whom he sent out And yet I marvelled fro whence the Servant came For I saw in the Lord that he hath within himself endless Life and all manner of Goodness save the treasure that was in the Earth And that was grounded within the Lord in marvellous deepness of endless Love But it was not all to his Worship till his Servant hath thus nobly | i e. drest dight it and brought it before him in himself present And without the Lord was right nought but
of endless cleanness wide and side fairer and richer than was the cloathing which I saw on the Father for that cloathing was blew And Christs cloathing is now of fair seemly | i e. mixture medelour which is so marvellous that I can it no descrie for it is all of very Worship Now sitteth not the Lord on Earth in Wilderness but he sitteth on his rich and noble Seat which he made in Heaven most to his liking Now standeth not the Son before the Father as a Servant before the Lord dreadfully cloathed in party naked but he standeth before the Father even right richly cloathed in blissful largeness with a Crown upon his head of precious richness For it was shewed that we be his Crown Which Crown is the Fathers joy the Sons Worship the Holy Ghosts liking And endless marvellous bliss to all that be in Heaven Now standeth not the Son before the Father on the left side as a Labourer but he sitteth on the Fathers right hand in endless rest and peace But it is not meant that the Son sitteth on the right hand beside 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 Fathers right hand that is to say right in the highest nobility of the Fathers joy Now is the Spouse Gods Son in peace with his loved Wife Which is the fair Maiden of endless joy Now sitteth the Son very God and very Man in his City in rest and in peace which his Father hath dight to him of endless purpose And the Father in the Son And the Holy Ghost in the Father and in the Son The Lij Chapter ANd thus I saw that God | i e. rejoyce enjoyeth that he is our Father and God enjoyeth that he is our Mother And God enjoyeth that he is our very Spouse and our Soul his loved Wife And Christ enjoyeth that he is our Brother And Jesu enjoyeth that he is our Saviour These be five high joyes as I understand in which he will that we enjoy him praising him thanking him loving him endlesly blessing all that shall be saved for the time of this Life we have in us a marvellous | i e. mixture medelour both of weal and of woe We have in us our Lord Jesu Christ up-risen and we have in us the wretchedness and the mischief of Adams falling dying By Christ we be lastingly kept and by his gracious touching we be raised into very trust of Salvation And by Adams falling we be so briken in our feeling on diverse manners by sin and by sundry pains In which we be made dark and so blind that unneths we can take any Comfort But in our meaning we abide God and faithfully trust to have Mercy and Grace And this is his own working in us and of his Goodness openeth the eye of our understanding by which we have sight some time more and sometime less | i e. according as after that God giveth ability to take And now we be raised into that one and now we are suffered to fall into that other And thus is that medle so marvellous in us that unneths we know of our self or of our even Christen in what way we stand for the marvellousness of this sundry feeling But that each holy assent that we assent to God when we feel him truly willing to be with him with all our heart with all our Soul and with all our might And then we hate and despise our evil stirring and all that might be occasion of sin Ghostly and Bodily And yet nevertheless when this sweetness is hid we fall again into blindness and so into Woe and Tribulation on diverse manners But then is this our comfort that we know in our Faith that by the vertue of Christ which is our Keeper we assent never thereto But we grudge there against and endure in pain and in woe praying into that time that he shewed him again to us And thus we stand in this medelour all the dayes of our Life But he will we trust that he is lastingly with us and that in three manners He is with us Heaven very man in his own person us up-drawing And that was shewed in the Ghostly thirst And he is with us in Earth us leading and that was shewed in the third where I saw God in a point And he is with us in our Soul endlesly | ie dwelling wonning ruling and guiding us And that was shewed in the xvjth as I shall say And thus in the Servant was shewed the blindness and the mischief of Adams falling And in the Servant was shewed the Wisdom and the Goodness of Gods Son And in the Lord was shewed the rewth and the pity of Adams Woe And in the Lord was shewed the high nobility and endless Worship that mankind is come to by the vertue of the Passion and the Death of his dear worthy Son And therefore mightily he enjoyeth in his falling for the high raising and fulhead of bliss that mankind is come to over-passing that we should have had if he had not fallen And thus to see this over-passing nobility was my understanding led into God in the same time that I saw the Servant fall And thus we have matter of mourning for our sin is cause of Christs 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 thing as to my sight Love and Hate be hardest and most unmeasurable contraries And notwithstanding all this I saw and understood this in our Lords meaning that we | i e. can may not in this Life keep us from sin all holy in full cleanness as we shall be in Heaven But we may well by Grace keep us fro the sins which would lead us to endless pain as Holy Church teacheth us and eschew Venial reasonably * i e. according to up our might And if we by our blindness and our wretchedness any time fall that we readily rise knowing the sweet touching of Grace and wilfully amend us upon teaching of Holy Church after that the sin is grievous and go forth with God in Love And neither on that one side fall over low enclining to despair ne on that other side be over richless as we | i e. cared not give no force But meekly know our feebleness witting that we may not stand the twinkling of an eye but with keeping of Grace and reverently cleave to God in him only trusting For otherwise is the beholding of God and otherwise is the beholding of Man For it longeth to man meekly to accuse himself and it longeth to the proper Goodness of our Lord God courteously to excuse man And these be two parties that were shewed in the double chear in which the Lord beheld the falling of his loved Servant That
now fro this time evermore be so busie to keep thee from sin this were a good and a soveraign occupation For I thought faithfully were I safe from sin I were full safe from all the fiends in Hell and enemies of my Soul And thus he occupied me all that night and on the morrow till it was about prime day And anon they were all gone and passed and there left nothing but stink and lasted still a while and I scorned him And thus was I delivered of him by the vertue of Christs Passion for therewith is the fiend overcome as our Lord Jesu Christ said afore In all this blessed shewing our good Lord gave understanding that the sight should pass Which blessed shewing the Faith keepeth with his own good will and his grace for he left with me neither signe ne 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 mote he be I believe that he is our Saviour that shewed it and that it is in the Faith that he shewed And therefore I love it ever joying and thereto I am bound by all his own meaning with the next words that follow Keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith and trust thereto Thus I am beholding to keep it in my Faith For on the same day that it was shewed what time the sight was passed as a wretch I forsook it and openly I said that I had raved Then our Lord Jesu of his mercy would not let it perish but he shewed it all again within my Soul with more fulhead 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 saw this day as if he had said for the sight was passed from thee thou lost it and could or might not keep it But wit it now that is to say now thou seest it This was said not only for the same time but also to set thereupon the ground of my Faith where he saith anon following But take it and learn it and keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith and trust thereto and thou shalt not be overcome The Lxxj. Chapter IN these six Words that followeth where he saith Take it his meaning is to fasten it faithfully in our Heart for he will it dwell with us in Faith into our Lives end and after in fulhead of joy willing that we have ever faithful trust of his blessedful promises knowing his goodness For our Faith is contraried in diverse manner by our own blindness and our Ghostly Enemies within and without And therefore our precious Lover helpeth us with Ghostly Light and true Teaching on diverse manner within and without whereby that we may know him And therefore in what manner that he teacheth us he will that we perceive him wisely receiving 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 Health of Soul But in the Faith there will our Lord 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 | i e. tryed assaid in the Faith and made mighty For if our Faith had not enmity it should deserve no meed as by the understanding that I have in our Lords meaning Glad and merry and sweet is the blessedful Lovely Chear of our Lord to our Souls for he beheld us ever living in Love-Longing And he will our Soul be in glad chear to him to yield him his meed And thus I hope with his grace he hath and more shall draw the * i. e. outward utter chear to the inner and make us all at one with him and each of us with other in true lasting joy that is Jesu I have meaning of three manner of chears of our Lord The first is chear of Passion as he shewed whiles he was with us in this Life dying And though this beholding be mourning and | i. e. dark swemful yet it is glad and merry for he is God The second manner of chear it is pitty and ruth and compassion and this sheweth he to all his Lovers with * sikerness of keeping that hath ‑ i. e. sureness need to his mercy The third is the blissedful chear as it shall be without end And this was oftenest shewed longest continued And thus in the time of our Pain and our Woe he sheweth to us chear of his Passion and his Cross helping us to bear it by his own blessed vertue And in time of our sinning he sheweth to us chear of ruth and pity mightily keeping us and defending against all our Enemies And these two be the common chears which he sheweth to us in this Life therewith medling the third And that is his blessed chear like in party as it shall be in Heaven and that is by gracious touching of sweet Lightning of Ghostly Life whereby that we are kept in true Faith Hope and Charity with Contrition and Devotion and also with Contemplation and all manner of true joyes and sweet Comforts The blessedful chear of our Lord God worketh it in us by Grace But now me behooveth to tell in what manner that I saw sin deadly in the Creatures which should not die for sin but live in the joy of God without end I saw that two contraries should not be together in one steed The most contrarious that are is the highest bliss and the deepest pain The highest bliss that is is to have God in clerity of endless Light him verily seeing him sweetly feeling him all peaceable having in fulhead of joy And thus was the blessedful chear of our Lord God shewed in party In which shewing I saw that sin was the most contrary so far forth that as long as we be medled with any part of sin we shall never see clearly the blessed chear of God And the horriblier and the grievouser that our sins be the deeper are we for that time fro this blessed sight And therefore it seemeth to us ostentimes as we were in peril of Death and in a party of Hell for the sorrow and the pain that sin is to us And thus we are dead for the time fro the very sight of our blessedful Life But in all this I saw faithfully that we be not dead in the sight of God ne he passeth never from us but he shall never have his full bless in us till we have our full bless in him verily seeing his fair blessedful chear for we are ordained thereto in kind and getten thereto by grace Thus I saw how sin is deadly for a short time to the blessed Creatures of endless Life and ever the more clearly that the Soul seeth the blissful chear by grace of Loving the more it longeth to see it