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
most God and soonest speedeth For our Soule is so preciouslie loved of him that is highest that it over-passeth the knowing of all Creatures That is to saie There is no Creature that is made that may wit how much and how sweetly and how tenderlie that our Maker loveth us And therefore we may with his Grace and his helpe stand in Ghostlie beholding with everlasting marvailing in this high over-passing unmeasurable Love that our Lord hath to us of his Goodnes And therefore we may aske of our Lover with Reverence all that we will for our * i. e. naturall kindlie Will is to have God and the Good-will of God is to have us And we may never cease of willing ne of loving till we have him in fulhead of joy And then we may no more will for he will that we be occupied in knowing and loving till the time cometh that we shall be fulfilled in Heaven And therefore was this Lesson of Love shewed with all that followeth as you shall see for the strength and the ground of all was shewed in the first sight for of all things the beholding and the loving of the Maker maketh the Soul to seem least in his own sight and most filleth it with reverent dread and true meekness and with plenty of Charity to his even Christian The vij Chapter ANd to learn us this as to my understanding our good Lord shewed our Lady Mary in the same time that is to mean the high Wisdom and Truth that she had in beholding her Maker This Wisdom and Truth made her to behold her God so Great so High so Mighty and so Good This greatness and this | i. e. nobleness Noblety of her beholding of God fulfilled her of reverend deed And with this she saw her self so litle and so low so simple and so poor in regard of her God that this reverend Dread fulfilled her of meekness And thus by this ground she was fulfilled of Grace and of all manner of Vertues and passeth all Creatures And in all the time that he shewed this that I have now said in Ghostly sight I saw the bodily sight lasting of the plentuous 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 it came at the | i. e. forehead Brows there they vanished And notwithstanding the bleeding continued till many things were seen and understanded nevertheless the fair head and the lively head continued in the same beauty and liveliness The plentuous head is like to the drops of Water that fall off the evesing of an House after a great shower of Rain that fall so thick that no man may number them with any bodily Wit And for the roundness they were like to the Seal of her Ring in the spreading of the forehead These three things came to my mind in the time Pellets for the roundhead in the comming out of the blood the Scale of Herring for the round-head in the spreading the dropps of the evesing of an House for the plentuous head unnumerable This shewing was quick and lively and hideous and dreadful and sweet and lovely And of all the sight that I saw this was most comfort to me that our good Lord that is so reverent and dreadful is so homely and so courteous And this most fulfilled me with liking and sickness * i. e. in of Soul And to the understanding of this he shewed this open example It is the most worship that a solemn King or a great Lord may do to a poor Servant if he will be homely with him and namely if he shew it himself of a full true meaning and with a glad chere both in private and openly Then thinketh this poor Creature thus Lo what might this Noble Lord do more Worship and Joy to me than to shew to me that am so little This marvelous himeliness verily it is more joy and liking to me than if he gave me great gifts and were himself strange in manner This bodily example was shewed so high that this mans heart might be ravished and almost forget himself for Joy of this great homeliness Thus it faireth by our Lord Jesu and by us for verily it is the most joy that may be as to my sight that he that is highest and mightest nobliest and worthiest is lowest and meekest homliest and courtesiest And truly and verily this marvellous joy shall he shew us all when we shall see him And this will our good Lord that we believe and trust joy and like comfort us and make solace as we may with his Grace and with his Help into the time that we see it verily for the most fulhed of joy that we shall have as to my sight is this marvellous courtesie and homeliness of our Father that is our Maker in our Lord Jesu Christ that is our Brother and our Saviour But this marvelous Homlliness may no man know in this Life but if he have it by special shewing of our Lord or of great plenty of Grace inwardly given of the Holy Ghost but Faith and Belief with Charity deserve the meed and so it is had by Grace For in Faith with Hope and Charity our Life is grounded the shewing is made to whom that God will plainly teach the same opened and declared with many privy Points belonging to our Faith and Belief which be worshipful to be known And when the shewing which is given for a time is passed and hid then Faith keepeth it by Grace of the Holy Ghost unto our Lives end And thus by the shewing it is none other than Faith no less no more as it may be seen by our Lords meaning in the same matter by than it come to the last end The viij Chapter ANd as long as I saw this sight of the plentuousness of bleeding of the Head I might never stint of these Words Benedicite Dominis In which shewing I understood six things The first is the Tokens of the blessedful Passion and the plentuous shedding of his precious Blood The second is the Maiden that is his dear worthy Mother The third is the blessedful God-head that ever was and shall be all Mighty all Wisdom and all Love The fourth is all thing that he hath made for well I wote that Heaven and Earth and all that is made is great large fair and good but the cause why it sheweth so litle to my sight was for I saw it in the presence of him that is the Maker for a Soul that seeth the Maker of all thing all that is made seemeth full litle The fifth is that he that made all thing that is made for Love and by the same Love it is kept and shall be without end as it is before said The sixth is that God is all
which he protraid with his own blessed face when he was in his hard Passion wilfully going to his Death and often changing of Colour of the brown-head and the black-head rewlyhead and lean-head Of this Image many marvelled how that might be standing that he protraid it with his blessed face which is the fairest of Heaven Flower of Earth and the fruit of the Maidens Womb. Then how might this Image be so discoloured and so far from fair-head I desire to see as I have understood by the Grace of God We know in our Faith and in our Belief by the Teaching and Preaching of Holy Church that the blessedfull Trinity made Mankind to his Image and 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 over-passing And right as we were made like to the Trinity in our first making our Maker would that we should be like to Jesu Christ our Saviour in Heaven without end by the vertue of our own making Then between these two he would for Love and for Worship of man make himself as like to man in this deadly Life in our foul-head and in our wretchedness as man might be without guilt Whereof it meaneth as is before said it was the Image and the Likeness of our foul black deeds wherein our fair bright blessed Lord hid his God-head But verily I dare say and we ought to believe that so fair a man was never none but he till what time that his fair Colour was changed with Travaile and Sorrow Passion and Dying Of this it speaketh in the Second Revelation and in the xviijth Chapter where it speaketh more of the same likeness And there it saith of the Vernacle of Rome it meaneth by diverse changing of Colour and either sometime more comfortable and lively and sometime more ruful and deadly as it may be seen hereafter and this Vision was a learning to my understanding that the continually seeking of the Soul pleaseth God much for it may do no more than seek suffer and trust And this is wrought in every Soul that hath it by the Holy Ghost And the clearness of finding it is of the 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 my understanding that seeking is as good as heholding for the time that he will suffer the Soul to be in Travaile It is God's Will that we seek into the beholding of him for by that shall he shew us himself of his special Grace when he will And how a Soul shall * i e. behave have her in his beholding he shall teach himself and that is most Worship to him and most profit to the Soul and most received of Meekness and Vertues with the Grace and leading of the Holy Ghost for a Soul that only resigneth him to God with very trust either in seeking or in beholding it is the most Worship that he may do as to my sight These be two Workings that may be seen in this Vision That one is seeking the other is beholding The seeking is common that each Soul may have with his Grace and ought to have discretion and teaching of Holy Church It is God's Will that we have three things in our seeking of his Gift The first is that we seek | i e. seriously wilfully and busily without sloath as it may be with his Grace gladly and merrily without unreasonable Heaviness and vain-sorrow The second that we abide him stedfastly for his Love without grudging and striving against him into Lives end for it shall last but a while The third is that we trust in him mightily of full and true Faith For it is his will that we know that he shall appear suddenly and blessedfully to all his Lovers For his Working is privy and he will be perceived and his appearing shall be sweet sudden and he will be trusted for he is full | i e. familiar homely curteous Blessed mote he be The Third Revelation The xj Chapter ANd after this I saw God in a Point that is to say in my understanding By which sight I saw that he is in all thing I beheld with advisement seeing and knowing in that sight that he doth all that is done I marvelled in that sight with a soft dread and thought what is sin For I saw truly that God doth all thing be it never so litle And I saw verily that nothing is done by happ ne by adventure but all by the aforesaid Wisdom of God if it be happ or Adventure in the sight of man our blind-head and un-fore-sight is the cause For those things that be in the foresaid Wisdom of God been fro without beginning which Rightfully and Worshipfully continually he leadeth to the best end As it cometh about falling to us suddenly our unwitting And thus by our blindness and our unforesight we say these things be by happs and Adventure Thus I understand in this shewing of Love For well I wot in the fight of our Lord God is no happ ne Adventure Wherefore me behoved needs to grant that all things that are done are well done for our Lord God doth all For in this time the Working of Creatures was not shewed but of our Lord God in the Creatures for he is in the mid Point of all things and all he doth And I am sure that he doth no sin And here I saw verily that sin is no deed for in all this sin was not shewed And I would no longer marvel in this but beheld our Lord what he would shew And thus as it might be for the time the rightfulness of God's Work was shewed for the Soul Rightfulness hath two fair Properties It is right and it is full And so be all the Works of our Lord. And thereto needeth neither Working of Mercy ne Grace For they be all rightful wherein faileth right nought And in an other time he shewed for beholding of sin naked as I shall say After when he useth working of Mercy and of Grace This Vision was shewed to my understanding For our Lord will have the Soul turned truly unto the beholding of him and generally of all his Works for they be full good And all his * i e. judgment Dooms be easie and sweet and two great eyes bringing the Soul that is turned from the beholding of the blind deeming of man into the faire sweet deeming of our Lord God For man he holdeth some deeds well done and some deeds evil And our Lord beholdeth them not so for as all that hath being in kind is of God's making so is all thing that is done in Property of Gods doing For it is easie 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
and of thy Travel of thy Youth And in this my understanding was lift up into Heaven where I saw our Lord God as a Lord in his own House which Lord hath called all his dear Worthy Friends to a solemn Feast Then I saw the Lord taking no place in his own House but I saw him royally Reign in his House and all fulfilleth it with Joy and Mirth endlesly to glad and solace his dear worthy Friends full homely and full curteously with marvelous Melody in endless love in his own fair blessedful Cheer Which glorious Cheer of the Godhead fulfilleth all Heaven of joy and bliss God shewed three degrees of bliss that each Soul shall have in Heaven that willingfully hath served God in any degree in Earth The first is the Worship and Thanks that he shall receive of our Lord God when he is delivered of Paine This Thanks is so high and so worshipful that him thinketh that it filleth him though there were no more for methought all the Pain and Travel that might be suffered of all living men might not have deserved the worshipful thank that one man shall have that wilfully hath served God For the second that all the blessed Creatures that be in Heaven shall see the worshipful thanking And he maketh his Service known to all that be in Heaven and in this time this Example was shewed A King if he thank his Subjects it is a great worship to them and if he make it known to all the Realm then their worship is much encreased And for the third that as new and as liking as it is undertaken that time right so shall it last without end And I saw that * i e. friendly homely and sweetly was this shewed that the Age of every man shall be known in Heaven and be rewarded for his wilful Service and for his time and namely the Age of them that wilfully and freely offer their Youth to God passingly is rewarded and wonderfully thanked for I saw that when or what time that a man or woman be truly turned to God for one dayes service and for his endless will he shall have all these three degrees of bliss And the more that the loving Soul seeth this courtesie of God the * i e. more willingly levir she is to serve him all her life The Seventh Revelation The xv Chapter ANd after this he shewed a sovereign Ghostly liking in my Soul In this likeing I was fulfilled of everlasting sureness mightily fastned without any painful dread This feeling was so glad and so Ghostly that I was all in peace in ease 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 my self in heaviness and weariness of my life and irkeness of my self that * ie scarce unueth I could have patience to live There was no comfort ne none to ease my feeling but Faith Hope and Charity and these I had in truth but full litle in feeling And none after this our blessed Lord gave me again of the Comfort and the Rest in Soul likeing and sureness so blessedfully and so mightifully that no dread ne sorrow ne no pain bodily ne Ghostly that might be suffered should have diseased me And then the pain sheweth again to my feeling and then the joy and the liking 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 depart me fro the Charity of Christ And in the pain I might have said with Saint Peter Lord save me I perish This Vision was shewed to learn me at my understanding 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 themself God will that we know that he keepeth us ever in like sure in woe and in weale And for profit of mans Soul a man is sometimes left to himself although his sin is not ever the Cause for in this time I sinned not Wherefore I should be left to my self for it was so sudden Also I deserved not to have had this blessedful Feeling but freely our Lord giveth it when he will and suffereth us in Woe sometime and both is one Love For it is Gods 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 naught to them that shall be saved Therefore it is not Gods Will that we follow the Feeling of Pains in Sorrow and Mourning for them but suddenly pass over and hold us in the endless liking that is God The Eighth Revelation And the xvj Chapter AFter this Christ shewed a part of his Passion near his Dying I saw the sweet face as it were dry and bloodless with pale dying and dead pale Languring and then turned more dead into blew and after in brownblew as the flesh turned more deep dead For his Passion shewed to me most properly in his blessed Face and namely in his Lips Therein I saw these four Colours those that were before fresh and ruddy lively and liking to my sight This was a pittiful Changing to see this deep dying and also his most * cloggering together and dried to my sight And the sweet Body waxed brown and black all changed and turned out of the fair fresh and lively Colour of himself into dry dying for that same time that our Blessed Saviour dyed upon the Roode it was a dry sharp Wind wonder could as to my sight And what time that the precious Blood was bled out of the sweet Body that might pass therefro yet there was a moisture in the sweet flesh of Christ as it was shewed Bloodshed and pain dried within and blowing of the Wind and Cold coming from without met together in the sweet Body of Christ And these four dryed the flesh of Christ by process of time And though this pain were bitter and sharp yet it was full long lasting as to my sight And the pain dried up all the lively Spirits of Christs flesh Thus I saw the sweet flesh dry in my sight part after part drying with marvellous pain and as long as any Spirit had life in Christs flesh so long suffered he This long Pain seemed to me as if he had been a sennet dead dying at the point of out-passing always suffering the great Pain And there I saw it seemed as he had been a sennet dead It specifieth that the sweet Body was so discoloured so dry so clongen so deadly and so piteous as he had been sevenight dead continually dying And methought the drying of Christs flesh was the most Pain and the last of his Passion The Ninth Revelation And the xvij Chapter ANd in this drying was brought to my mind this word that Christ said I thirst For I saw in Christ a double Thirst one Bodily
deed the which the blissedful Trinity shall do in the last day as to my sight And what the deed shall be and how it shall be done it is unknown of all Creatures which are beneath Christ and shall be till when it shall be done The Goodness and the Love of our Lord God will that we | i e. know wit that it shall be And the Might and the Wisdom of him by the same Love will * i e. conceal hill it and hide it from us what it shall be and how it shall be done And the cause why he will we wit it thus is for he will we be the more eased in our Soul and peaceable in Love leaving the beholding of all Tempests that might | i e. hinder let us of true enjoying in him This is the great deed ordeined of our Lord God fro without beginning treasured and hid in his blessed Breast only known to himself by which deed he shall make all thing well for right as the blessed Trinity made all thing of naught 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 meaning thus Our Faith is grounded in Gods Word and it longeth to our Faith that we believe that Gods Word shall be saved in all thing And one point of our Faith is that many Creatures shall be damned as Angels that fell out of Heaven for Pride which be now Fiends and many in Earth that dyeth out of the Faith of Holy Church that is to say tho that be Heathen And also many that hath received Christendome and liveth unchristen Life and so dyeth out of Charity all these shall be damned to Hell without end as Holy Church teacheth me to believe And standing all this methought it was unpossible that all manner of thing should be well as our Lord shewed in this time And as to this I had no other answer in shewing of our Lord but this That that is unpossible to thee is not unpossible to mee I shall save my Word in all thing and I shall make all thing well And in this I was taught by the Grace of God that I should stedfastly hold me in the Faith as I had before understood And therewith that I should stand and | i e firmly sadly believe that all manner thing shall be well as our Lord shewed in the same time for this is the great deed that our Lord God shall do In which deed he shall save his Word in all thing and he shall make well all that is not well But what the deed shall be and how it shall be done there is no Creature beneath Christ that wot it ne shall wit it till it is done as to the understanding that I took of our Lords meaning in this time The xxxiij Chapter ANd yet in this I desired as I durst that I might have some fight of Hell and of Purgatory But it was not my meaning to take proof of any thing that longeth to our Faith for I believed | i e. assuredly sothfastlie that Hell and Purgatory is for the same end that Holy Church teacheth for but my meaning was that I might have seen for Learning in all thing that longeth to my Faith whereby I might live the more to Gods Worship and to my Profit And for ought that I could desire I ne could see of this right nought but as it is before said in the first shewing where that I saw the Devil is reproved of God and endless by damned In which sight I understand that all the Creatures that be of the Devils condition in this Life and therein ending there is no more mention made of them before God and all his Holy Ones then of the Devil notwithstanding that they be of Mankind whether they have be-Christened or not For though the Revelation was shewed of Goodness in which was made litle 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 divers shewing In the first in the second in the fourth in the eighth as it is before said wherein I had in part feeling of the sorrow of our Lady and of his true Friends that saw his Pains but I saw not so properly specified the Jews that did him to Death but notwithstanding I knew in my Faith that they were Accursed and Damned without end saving those that were Converted by Grace And I was strengthed and learned generally to keep me in the Faith in every Point and in all as I had before understood hoping that I was therein with Mercy and the Grace of God desiring and praying in my meaning that I might continue therein unto my lives end It is Gods will that we have great regard to all the deeds that he hath done for he will thereby that we know trust and believe all that he shall doe But evermore us needeth leave the beholding what the deed shall be and desire we to be like to our Brethren which be the Saints in Heaven that will right nought but Gods will Then shall we only enjoy in God and be well apaid both with hiding and shewing For I saw verily in our Lords meaning the more we busie us to know his privities in that or in any other thing the farther more shall we be from the knowing The xxxjv Chapter OUr Lord shewed two manner of | i e. secrets privities One is this great privity with all the privy Points thereto belonging And these privities he will we know thus hid into the time that he will clearly shew them to us That other are the privities which himself shewed openly in this Revelation for those are privities which he will make open and known to us for he will that we wit that it is his will that we know them They are privities to us but not only for that he will they be privities to us but they are privities to us for our blind-head and our unknowing And therefore hath he great ruth and therefore he will make them open to us himself whereby we may know him and love him and cleave to him For all that is | i e. profitable speedeful for us to wit and for to know full courteously our good Lord will shew us what it is with all the Preaching and Teaching of Holy Church God shewed full great pleasaunce that he hath in all men and women that mightily and wisely take the Preaching and Teaching of Holy Church for he it is Holy Church He is the Ground He is the Substance He is the Teaching He is the Teacher He is the End and He is the Meed Wherefore every kind Soul Traveleth And this is known and shall be known to each Soul to which the Holy Ghost declareth it And I hope truly all those that seek thus they shall speed for they
Salvation And that this is our Lords Working in us I am sure the Soul that is pearced therewith by Grace shall see it and feel it and though it be so that this Deed be truly take 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 it is not both one but two sundry but this Deed shall be known sooner and that shall be as we come to Heaven And to whom our Lord giveth it it may be known here in party But the great Deed aforesaid shall neither be known in Heaven nor in Earth till that it be done And furthermore he gave special understanding and teaching of Working and shewing of Miracles as this It is known that I have done Miracles here before many and full high and marvellous worshipful and great and so as I have done I do now continually and shall in coming of time It is known that before Miracles come Sorrows and Anguish and Trouble And that is that we should know our own feebleness and mischief that we be fallen in by sin to meek us and make us to cry to God for help and Grace and great Miracles come after and that of the high might and wisdom and goodness of God shewing his vertue and the joyes of Heaven so as it may be in this passing Life and that for the strengthening of our Faith and encrease of our Hope in Charity Wherefore it pleaseth him to be known and Worshipped in Miracles Then meaneth he thus he will that we be not born over low for Sorrows and Tempests that fall to us for it hath ever so been before Miracles comming The xxxvij Chapter GOd brought to mind that I should sin And for liking that I had in beholding of him I * i e. attended entented not redily to that shewing And our Lord full mercifully abode and gave me Grace for to entend And this shewing I took singularly to my self But by all the gracious Comforts that followeth as ye shall see I was learned to take it to all mine even Christen all in general and nothing in special Though our Lord shewed me that I should sin by me alone is understood all And in this I conceived a soft dread And to this our Lord answered I keep thee full surely this Word was said with more Love and Sureness of Ghostly keeping than I can or may tell For as it was afore shewed to me that I should sin right so was the Comfort shewed sureness of keeping for all mine even Christen Who shall be saved What may make me more to love mine even Christen 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 finally assenteth to sinn ne never shall Right as there is a beastly will in the lower party that may will no Good right so there is a godly Will in the higher party which Will is so good that it may never will Evil endlesly but ever Good and therefore we be that he loveth and endlesly we do that he liketh And this shewed our good Lord in the * i e. fulness wholehead of Love that we stand in his sight yea that he loveth us now as well while that we be here as he shall do when we be there before his blessed Face But for failing of Love in our party therefore is all our Travel The xxxviij Chapter ANd God shewed that sin shall be no shame but Worship to man 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 divers sins be punished with divers Pains after that it be grievous right so shall they be rewarded with diverse Joys in Heaven for their Victories * i e. accordingly after as the sin hath been painful and sorrowful to the Soul in Earth for the Soul that shall come to Heaven is so precious to God and the place so Worshipful that the goodness of God suffereth never that Soul to sin finally that shall come thither But what Sinners they are that so shall be rewarded is made known in Holy Church in Earth and also in Heaven by overpassing Worships For in this sight my understanding was lifted up into Heaven And then God brought merily to my mind David and other in the Old Law with him without number And in the New Law he brought to my mind first Magdalen Peter and Paul Thomas and Jude St. John of Beverley and others also without number how they be known in the Church on Earth with their sins and it is to them no shame but all is turned them to Worship And therefore our courteous Lord sheweth for them here in party like as it is there fulfilled for there the Token of sin is turned to Worship And St. John of Beverley our Lord shewed him full highly in Comfort of us for homeliness and countrey sake and brought to my mind how he is a kind Neighbour and of our knowing And God called him plainly St. John of Beverley as we do and that with a full glad and sweet chear shewing that he is a full high Saint in his sight and a blessedful And with this he made mention that in his Youth and in his tender Age he was a dear worthy Servant to God full greatly God loving and dreading And nevertheless God suffered him to fall him mercifully keeping that he perished not ne lost no time And afterward God raised him to manifold more Grace and by the Contrition and the Meekness that he had in his living God hath given him in Heaven manifold joys overpassing that he should have had if he had not sinned or fallen And that this is true God sheweth in Earth with plentuous Miracles doing about his Body continually And all this was to make us glad and merry in Love The xxxjx Chapter SIN is the sharpest Scourge that any chosen Soul may be smitten with Which Scourge all to beateth Man or Woman and all to breaketh him and purgeth him in his own sight So far forth that otherwhile he thinketh himself that he is not worthy but as it were to sink into Hell till when Contrition taketh him by touching of the Holy Ghost and turneth the Bitterness into Hope of Gods Mercy And then begin his Wounds to Heal and the Soul to quicken turned into the Life of Holy Church The Holy Ghost leadeth him to Confession wilfully to shew his sins nakedly and truly with great sorrow and with great shame that he hath so defouled the fair Image of God Then undertaketh he Penance for every sin enjoyned by his * i e Confessarius Domes-man that is grounded in Holy Church by the Teaching of the Holy Ghost And this is one | i e. humiliation Meekness
that greatly pleaseth God and also meekly taketh bodily sickness of Gods sending Also Sorrow and Shame outwardly with reproof and despite of the World with all manner of Grievance and Temptations that we be cast in Ghostly and Bodily Full preciously our good Lord keepeth us when it seemeth to us that we be near forsaken and cast away for our sin and for we see that we have deserved it And because of the Meekness that we get thereby we be raised full high in Gods sight by his Grace And also whom our Lord will he visiteth of his special Grace with so great Contrition and also with Compassion and true longing to God that they be suddenly delivered of Sin and of Pain and taken up to bliss and made even with Saints By Contrition we be made clean by Compassion we be made ready And by true Longing to God we be made worthy These be three means as I understood whereby that all Souls come to Heaven that is to say that have been Sinners in Earth and shall be saved For by these Medicines behoveth that every sinful Soul be healed though that he be healed his Wounds be seen before God not as Wounds but as Worships And so on the contrariwise as we be punished here with Sorrow and with Penance we shall be rewarded in Heaven by the courteous Love of our God Almighty that will that none that come there leese his Travel in any degree For he beholdeth sin as Sorrow and Pains to his Lovers in whom he assigneth no blame for Love The meed that we undertake shall not be litle but it shall be high glorious and worshipful and so shall all shame turn to Worship and to Joy For our courteous Lord will not that his Servants despair for oft failing ne for grievous falling for our falling letteth not him to Love us Peace and Love is ever in us being and working but we be not ever in Peace and in Love But he will 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 all our Enemies that be full fell and full fierce upon us And so much our need is the more for we give them occasion by our falling The xl Chapter ANd this is a sovereign Friendship of our courteous Lord that he keepeth us so tenderly whiles we be in our 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 we wene that God were wrath with us for our sin Then be we stirred of the Holy Ghost by Contrition into Prayer and desire amending of our self with all our Might to slack the Wrath of God unto the time we find a rest in Soul and softness in Conscience And then hope we that God hath forgiven us our sin and it is true And then sheweth our courteous Lord himself to the Soul merrily and of full glad chear with friendfully welcoming as if it had been in Pain and in Prison saying thus My dear Darling I am glad thou art come to me in all thy Woe I have ever been with thee and now seest thou me loving and we be oned in Bliss Thus are sins forgiven by Grace and Mercy and our Soul Worshipfully received in Joy like as it shall be when it cometh into Heaven as oftimes as it cometh by the gracious Working of the Holy Ghost and the vertue of Christs Passion Here understood I verily that all manner of thing is made ready to us by the great Goodness of God so far forth that what time we be our self in Peace and in Charity we be verily safe But for we may not have this in fullhead while we be here therefore it befalleth us ever to live in sweet Praying and in lovely Longing with our Lord Jesu for he longeth ever for to bring us to the fulhead of Joy as it is before said where he sheweth the Ghostly Thirst But now because of all this Ghostly Comfort that is before said if any Man or Woman be stirred by Folly to say or to think Ob. If this be true then were it good for to Sin to have the more meed or else to charge the less to sin Sol. Beware of this stirring for truly if it come it is untrue and of the Enemy For the same true Love that toucheth us all by his blessed Comfort the same blessed Love teacheth us that we shall hate sin only for Love And I am sure by my own feeling the more that each kind Soul seeth this in the courteous Love of our Lord God the lother is him to sin and the more he is ashamed For if it were laid before us all the Pain that is in Hell and in Purgatory and in Earth to suffer it rather than sin we should rather choose all that Pain than sin For sin is so vile and so mickle for to hate that it may be likned to no Pain which Pain is not sin And to me was shewed none harder Hell than sin for a kind Soul hateth no Pain but sin for all is good but sin and naught is evil but sin And when we give our intent to Love and Meekness by the working of Mercy and Grace we be made all Fair and Clean. And as Mighty and as Wise as God is to save Man as willing he is For Christ himself is ground of all the Laws of Christen Men and he taught us to doe Good against Evil. Here we may see that he is himself this Charity and doth to us as he teacheth us to do For he will that we be like him in whole-head of endless Love to our self and to our even Christen No more than his Love is broken to us for our sin no more will he that our Love be broken to our self nor to our even Christen but nakedly hate sin and endlesly love the Soul as God loveth it Then should we hate sin like as God hateth it and love the Soul as God loveth it for these words that God said is an endless Comfort I keep thee full truly The Fourteenth Revelation The xlj Chapter AFter this our Lord shewed for Prayer In which shewing I saw two Conditions in our Lords meaning One is rightful Prayer Another is * i e. sure siker trust But yet oftentimes our trust is not full for we be not sure that God heareth us as we think for our unworthiness and for we feel right naught for we be as barren and as dry oft-times after our Prayers as we were before And thus in our feelling our folly is cause of our Weakness For thus have I felt by my self And all this brought our Lord suddenly to my mind and shewed these Words and said I am ground of thy beseeking First it is my will that thou have it And sithen I make thee to will it And sithen I make thee to beseek it and
* 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
Wilderness And I understood not all what this Example meant and therefore I marvelled from whence the Servant came In the Servant is comprehended the second Person of the Trinity and in the Servant is comprehended Adam that is to say all men And therefore when I say the Son it meaneth the God-head which is even with the Father And when I saw the Servant it meaneth Christs Manhood which is rightful Adam By the nearhood of the Servant is understood the Son And by the standing on the left side is understood Adam The Lord is God the Father The Servant is the Son Jesu Christ The Holy Ghost is the even Love that is in them both When Adam fell Gods Son fell for the right oning which was made in Heaven Gods Son might not be separate from Adam for by Adam I understand all man Adam fell fro Life to Death into the slade of this wretched World and after that into Hell Gods Son fell with Adam into the slade of the Maidens Womb which was the fairest Daughter of Adam and that was for to excuse Adam from blame in Heaven and in Earth And mightily he fetched him out of Hell By the Wisdom and the Goodness that was in the Servant is understood Gods Son by the poor cloathing as a Labourer standing near the left side is understood the manhood of Adam with all the mischief and feebleness that followeth For in all this our good Lord shewed his own Son and Adam but one man The Vertue and the Goodness that we have is of Jesu Christ The feebleness and blindness that we have is of Adam which two were shewed in the Servant And thus hath our good Lord Jesu taken upon him all our blame And therefore our Father may nor will no more blame assigne to us than to his own dear worthy Son Jesu Christ Thus was he the Servant before his coming into the Earth standing ready before the Father in purpose till what time he would send him to do the worshipful deed by which Mankind was brought again into Heaven that is to say notwithstanding that he is God even with the Father as anenst the God-head But in his fore-seeing purpose that he would be Man to save Man in fulfilling of the Will of his Father so he stood before his Father as a Servant wilfully taking upon him all our charge And then he start full readily at the Fathers Will and anon he fell full low in the Maidens Womb having no regard to himself ne to his hard Pains The white Kirtle is the flesh The single-head is that there was right nought between the God-head and the Man-hood The straitness is Poverty the old is of Adams Wearing the defaulting is the sweat of Adams travel the shortness sheweth the Servant-Labourer And thus I saw the Son stand saying in his meaning Loe my dear Father I stand before thee in Adams Kirtle all ready to start and to run I would be in the Earth to thy Worship when it is thy Will to send me how long shall I desire it Full truly | i e. knew wist the Son when it was the Fathers Will and how long he should desire that is to say as anenst the God-head for he is the Wisdom of the Father Wherefore this meaning was shewed in understanding of the Manhood of Christ For all Mankind that shall be saved by the sweet Incarnation and 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 desireth and all that be under Heaven which shall come thither their way is by longing and desiring Which desiring and longing was shewed in the Servant standing before the Lord or else thus in the Son standing before the Father in Adams Kirtle For the longing and desiring of all Mankind that shall be safe appeared in Jesu for Jesu is in all that may be safe and all that be saved is in Jesu And all of the Charity of God with obedience meekness and patience and vertues that longeth to us Also in this marvellous Example I have teaching within me as it were the beginning of an A. B. C. whereby I may have some understanding of our Lords meaning For the privities of the Revelation be hid therein notwithstanding that all the shewings be full of privities The sitting of the Father betokeneth the God-head that is to say for shewing of Rest and Peace For in the God-head may be no travel And that he sheweth himself as Lord betokeneth to our Manhood The standing of the Servant betokeneth travel and on the left side betokeneth that he was not all worthy to stand even right before the Lord. His starting was the God-head and the running was the Man-head for the God-head start fro the Father into the Maidens 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 as soon as he took it he had feeling of deadly Pains By that he stood dreadfull before the Lord and not even right betokeneth that his cloathing was not honest to stand even right before the Lord nor that might not nor should not be his Office whiles he was a Labourer nor also he might not sit with the Lord in rest and peace till he had won his peace rightfully with his hard travel And by the left side that the Father left his own Son wilfully in the manhood to suffer all mans pain without sparing of him By that his Kirtle was at the point to be ragged and rent is understood the Roddes and Scourges the Thornes and the Nails the drawing and the dragging his tender flesh renting as I saw in some part the tender flesh was rent from the head-pann falling on pieces unto the time the bleeding failed And then it began to dry again cleaving to the bone And by the wallowing and writhing groaning and mourning is understood that he might never rise all mightily fro that time that he was fallen into the Maidens Womb till his body was slain and dead he yielding the Soul into the Fathers hand with all mankind for whom he was sent And at this point he began first to shew his might for then he went into Hell And when he was there then he raised up the great root out of the deep deepness which rightfully was knit to him in high Heaven The body lay in the Grave till Easter morrow and fro that time he lay never more for there was rightfully ended the wallowing and the writhing the groaning and the mourning And our foul deadly flesh that Gods Son took upon him which was Adams old Kirtle strait bare and short then by our Saviour was made fair new white and bright and
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
God in substance Of which substance by God we be that we be And I saw no difference between God and our substance but as it were all God And yet my 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 be closed And the high Goodness of the Trinity is our Lord and in him we be closed and he in us We be closed in the Father and we be closed in the Son and we be closed in the Holy Ghost And the Father is beclosed in us the Son is beclosed in us and the Holy Ghost is beclosed in us All Might all Wisdom and all Goodness one God one Lord. And our Faith is a vertue that cometh of our kind substance into our sensual Soul by the Holy Ghost In which vertue all our vertues come into us for without that no man may receive vertues for it is naught else but a right understanding with true belief and sure trust of our being that we be in God and he in us which we see not And this vertue with all others that God hath ordained to us coming therein worketh in us great things for Christ mercifully is working in us And we graciously according to him through the gift and the vertue of the Holy Ghost This working maketh that we be Christs Children and Christen in Lyving The lv Chapter ANd thus Christ is our way us surely leading in his Laws And Christ in his body mightily beareth as 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 unto his Son Jesu Christ Which Gift and Working is joy to the Father and bliss to the Son and liking to the Holy Ghost And of all thing that to us longeth it is most liking to our Lord that we enjoy in this joy which is in the blessed Trinity of our Salvation And this was seen in the Ninth Shewing where it speaketh more of this matter And notwithstanding all our feeling woe or weal God will we understand and believe that we we more verily in Heaven than in Earth Our Faith cometh of the kind Love of our Soul and of the clear light of our Reason and of the stedfast mind which we have of God in our first making And what time our Soul is inspired in our body in which we be made sensual assoon Mercy and Grace begin to work having of us cure and keeping with pity and love In which Working the the Holy Ghost formeth in our Faith hope that we shall come again up above to our substance into the vertue of Christ encreased and fulfilled through the Holy Ghost Thus I understood that the sensuality is grounded in kind in Mercy and in Grace Which ground ableth us to receive Gifts that lead us to endless Life for I saw full surely that our substance is in God And also I saw that in our sensuality God is for in the same point that our Soul is made sensual in the same point is the City of God ordained to him from without beginning In which City he cometh and never shall remove it For God is never out of the Soul in which he shall dwell blessedly without end And this was said in the xvjth shewing where it saith The place that Jesu taketh in our Soul he shall never remove it And all the Gifts that God may give to the Creature he hath given to his Son Jesu for us Which Gifts he * ie dwelling wonning in us hath beclosed in him into the time that we be waxen and grown our Soul with our Body and our Body with our Soul either of them take help of other till we be brought up into stature as kind worketh And then in the ground of kind with working of Mercy the Holy Ghost graciously enspireth into us Gifts leading to endless Life And thus was my understanding led of God to see in him and to wit to understand and to know that our Soul is a made Trinity like to the unmade blessed Trinity known and loved from without beginning and in the making oned to the Maker as it is before said This sight was full sweet and marvellous to behold peaceable and restful sure and delectable And for the worshipful oning that was thus made of God between the Soul and the Body it behooved needs to be that mankind should be restored fro double death Which restoring might never be into the time that the second Person in the Trinity had taken the lower party of mankind to whom that highest was oned in the first making And these two parties were in Christ the higher and the lower which is but one Soul The higher party was ever in peace with God in full joy and bliss The lower party which is sensuality suffered for the Salvation of mankind And these two parties were seen and felt in the viijth Shewing in which my body was fulfilled of feeling and mind of Christs Passion and his dying And furthermore with this was a subtile feeling and a privy inward sight of the high parts And that was shewed in the same time where I might not for the mean profer look up into Heaven And that was for that each mighty beholding of the inward Life Which inward Life is that high substance that precious Soul which is endless enjoying in the God-head The lvj Chapter ANd thus I saw full surely that it is ready to us and more easie to come to the knowing of God than to know our own Soul For our Soul is so deep grounded in God and so endlesly 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 kindly of fulhead to desire wisely and truly to know our own Soul whereby we be learned to seek it * i e. where there it is and that is into God And thus by the gracious leading of the Holy Ghost we shall know him both in one Whether we be stirred to know God or our Soul it is both good and true God is more nearer to us than our own Soul for he is ground in whom our Soul standeth and he is mean that keepeth the substance and the sensuality together so that it shall never depart For our Soul sitteth in God in very rest and our Soul standeth in God in sure strength And our Soul is kindly rooted in God in endless Love And therefore if we will have knowing of our Soul and commoning and daliance therewith it behooveth to seek into our Lord God in whom it is inclosed And of this enclosing I saw
that should burn 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 only to tempt me And anon I took me to that our Lord had shewed me on the same day with all the Faith of Holy Church for I beheld it as both in 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 Lxviij Chapter ANd then our good Lord opened my Ghostly eye and shewed me my Soul in the midst of my heart I saw the Soul so large as it were and endless World and also as it were a blessed Kingdom And by the conditions that I saw therein I understood that it is a worshipful City In mids of that City our Lord Jesu very God and very Man a fair Person and of large stature Highest Bishop most Solemne King Worshipful Lord. And I saw him clothed solemnly in Worship he sitteth in the Soul even right in Peace and rest And he ruleth and giveth Heaven and Earth and all that is The Man-hood with the God-head sitteth in rest The God-head ruleth and giveth without any instrument or business And the Soul is all occupied with the blessed God-head that is sovereign Might sovereign Wisdom and severeign Goodness The place that Jesu taketh in our Soul he shall never remove without end as to my sight for in us is his homliest home and his endless dwelling And in this he sheweth the Liking that he hath of the making of mans Soul for as well as the Father might make a Creature and as well as the Son might make a Creature So well would the Holy Ghost that mans Soul were made and so it was done And therefore the blessedful Trinity enjoyeth without end in the making of mans Soul For he saw without beginning what should like him without end All thing that he hath made sheweth his Lordship as understanding was given in the same time by example of a Creature that is led to see great Nobleness and Kingdoms longing to a Lord. And when it had seen all the Nobleness beneath then marvelling it was stirred to seek up above to that high place where the Lord dwelleth knowing by reason that his dwelling is in the worthiest place And thus I understand truly that our Soul may never have rest in things that is beneath it self And when it cometh above all Creatures into it self yet may it not abide in the beholding of it self but all the beholding is blessedfully set in God that is the Maker dwelling therein for in mans Soul is his very dwelling And the highest Light and the brightest Shining of the City is the glorious Love of our Lord God as to my sight And what may make us more enjoy in God than to see in him that he enjoyeth in us highest of all his Works For I saw in the same shewing that if the blessed Trinity might have made mans Soul any better any fairer any nobler than it was made he should not have been full pleased with making of mans Soul But for he made mans Soul as fair as good as precious as he might make it a Creature therefore the blessed Trinity is full pleased without end in the making of mans Soul And he will that our hearts be mightily raised above the deepness of the earth and all vain sorrowes and enjoy in him This was a delectable sight and a restful shewing that is without end And the beholding of this whiles we are here it is full pleasant to God and full great speed to us And the Soul that thus beholdeth it maketh him like to him that is beholden and oned it in rest and in peace by his grace And this was a singular joy and bliss to me that I saw him sitting for the truth of sitting shewed endless dwelling And he gave me knowing truly that it was he that shewed me all before and when I had beholden all this with advisement then shewed our good Lords words full meekly without voice and without opening of lips right as he had done afore and said full sweetly Wit it now well 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 thereto and thou shalt not be overcome These last words were said for learning of full true | i e. assurance sikerness that is our Lord Jesu that shewed me all And right as in the first word that our good Lord shewed meaning his blessed Passion herewith is the fiend overcome right so he said in the last word with full true faithfulness meaning us all Thou shalt not be overcome And all this Learning and this true Comfort is general to all mine even Christen as it is aforesaid and so is Gods will And this word Thou shalt not be overcome was said full sharply and full mightily for sickness and comfort against all Tribulations that may come He said not thou shalt not be troubled thou shalt not be travelled thou shalt not be diseased but he said Thou shalt not be overcome God will that we take heed at this word and that we be ever mighty in faithful trusting in weal and woe for he loveth us and liketh us and so will he that we Love him and Like him and mightily trust in him and all shall be well and soon all was close and I saw no more after this The Lxjx. Chapter THe fiende came again with his heat and with his stench and made me full busie The stench was so vile and so painful and bodily heat also dreadful and travellous Also I heard a bodily talking as it had been of two bodies and both to my thinking talked at one time as they had held a Parliament with great business And all was soft whistering And I understood not what they said And all this was to stir me to dispair as methought seeming to me as they scorned | i e. praying bidding of Beads which are said * i e. hastily boystously with much failing of devout intending and wise diligence the which we owe to God in our prayer And our good Lord God gave me grace mightily to trust in him and to comfort my Soul with bodily speech as I should have done to another Person that had been travelled methought that business might not be likened to no bodily likeness The Lxx. Chapter MY bodily eye I set in the same Cross there I had seen in comfort afore that time My tongue with speech of Christs Passion and rehersing the Faith of Holy Church and my heart to fasten on God with all the trust and the might that I thought to my self meaning Thou hast now great business to keep thee in the Faith for that thou shouldest not be taken of thine enemies Wouldest thou
in fulhead that is to say in his own Likeness For notwithstanding that our Lord God dwelleth now in us and is here with us and * i e. embraceth colleth us and becloseth us for tender Love that he may never leave us and is more near to us than Tongue may tell or Heart may think Yet may we never stint of mourning ne of weeping nor of seeking nor of Longing till when we see him clear in his blessedful chear For in that precious sight there may no Woe abide nor Weal fail And in this I saw matter of Mirth and matter of Mourning Matter of Mirth that our Lordour Maker is so near to us and in us and we in him by faithfulness of keeping of his great goodness Matter of Mourning for our Ghostly eye is so blind and we so boarn down with Weight of our deadly flesh and Darkness of sin that we may not see our Lord God clearly in his blessedful chear No and because of this Darkness scarce we can believe or * i e. think trowe his great Love and our Faithfulness of keeping And therefore it is that I say we may never leave off Mourning ne Weeping This Weeping meaneth not all in pouring out of tears by our bodily eye but also to more Ghostly understanding for the | i e. natural kindly desire of our Soul is so great and so unmeasurable that if it were given us to our joy and our comfort all the * i e. nobleness nobly that ever God made in Heaven and in Earth and we saw not the fair blessedful chear of himself yet should we never leave mourning ne of Ghostly Weeping that is to say of painful Longing till when we see verily the fair blessedful chear of our Maker And if we were in all the pain that heart may think or tongue may tell and we might in that time see his blessedful chear all this pain should us not grieve Thus is that blessedful sight end of all manner of pain to Loving Souls and fulfilling of all manner of joy and bliss And that shewed he in the high marvellous Words where he saith I it am that is highest I it am that thou lovest I it am that is all It longeth 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 kind and in grace The third is that we know meekly that our self is against our sin and against our feebleness And for these three was all this shewing made as to my understanding The Lxxij Chapter ALL this blessed teaching of our Lord God was shewed by three parts that is to say By bodily sight and by Word formed in my understanding and by Ghostly 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 shewed them me And for the Ghostly sight I have said some deal but I may never full tell it And therefore of this Ghostly sight I am stirred to say more as God will give me grace God shewed two manner of sickness that we have That one is unpatience or slouth for we bear our travel and our pain heavily That other is despair or doubtful dreed as I shall say after Generally he shewed sin wherein all is comprehended but in special he shewed none but these two And these two are it that most travelleth and troubleth us as by that our Lord shewed me Of which he will we be amended I speak of such men and women that for Gods Love hate sin and dispose them to do Gods Will Then by our Ghostly blind-head and bodily heaviness we are most enclining to this And therefore it is Gods will that they be known and then should we refuse them as we do other sins And for help against this full meekly our Lord shewed the patience that he had in this hard Passion And also the joy and the liking that he hath of that Passion for Love And this he shewed in Example that we should gladly and easily bear our pains for that is great pleasing to him and endless profit to us And the cause why we are travelled with them is for unknowing of Love Though the Three Persons of the blessed Trinity be all even in the self The Soul took most understanding in Love yea and he will in all thing that 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 All mighty 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 fail And this unknowing it is that most letteth Gods 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 by the beholding of our self and of our sin afore done And some of us for our every day sins for we hold not our promise nor keep our cleanness that our Lord setteth us in but fall oft-times into so much wretchedness that shame it is to say it And the beholding of this maketh us so sorry and so heavy that unneths we can see any comfort And this dread we take sometime for a meekness but it is a foul blindness and a wickedness And we cannot despise it as we do another sin that we know which cometh through lack of true Judgment and it is again truth For of all the properties of the blissedful Trinity it is Gods will that we have most Faithfulness and Liking in Love for Love maketh Might and Wisdom full meek to us For right as by the courtesie of God he forgetteth our sin after the time that we repent us So will he that we forget our sin as against our unskillful heaviness and our doubtful dreads The Lxxiij Chapter FOr I understood four manner of Dreads One is dread of a | i e. fright fray that cometh to man suddenly by frailty This dread doth good for it helpeth to purge man as doth bodily sickness or such other pain that 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 waked fro sleep of sin For man that is hard of sleep of sin he is not able for the time to receive the soft comfort of the Holy Ghost till he hath undertaken this dread of pain of bodily death and of Ghostly Enemies And this dread stirreth us to seek Comfort and Mercy of God And thus this dread helpeth us as an entry and ableth us to have contrition by the blissedful touching of the Holy Ghost The third is doubtful dread Doubtful dread is as much as it draweth to despair God will have it turned in us into Love by true knowing of Love that is to say that the bitterness of doubts
be turned into sweetness of kind 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 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 kind to Love and we have of grace to Love and have we of kind to dread and we have of grace to dread It longeth to the Lordship and to the Father-head to be dread as it longeth to the goodness to be Loved and it longeth to us that are his Servants and his Children to dread him for Lordship and Father-head as it longeth to us to Love him for God-head And though this reverent Dread and Love be not both in one but are two in property and in working and neither of them may be had without other And therefore I am sure he that Loveth he dreadeth though he feel it but little All dreads other than reverend dread that are proferred to us though they come under colour of Holiness they are not so true And hereby may they be known asunder That dread that maketh us hastily to flee fro all that is not good and fall into our Lords breast as the Child into the Mothers arme with all our intent and with all our mind knowing our feebleness and our great need knowing his everlasting Goodness and his blessed Love only seeking into him for Salvation cleaving to with faithful trust That dread that bringeth us into this Working it is kind and gracious and good and true And all that is contrarious to this either it is wrong or it is medled with wrong Then is this the remedy to know them both and refuse the wrong For the kind 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 full sweet And thus we shall in Love be homely and near to God And we in dread be gentle and curteous to God and both in one manner like * i e. equal even Desire we then of our Lord God to dread him reverently and Love him meekly and 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 mightilier that we trust the more we please and worship our Lord that we trust in And if us fail this reverent dread and meek Love as God forbid we should our trust shall soon be mis-ruled for that time And therefore us needeth much to pray our Lord of grace that we may have this reverent dread and make Love of his Gift in Heart and in Work for without this no man may please God The Lxxjv. Chapter I Saw that God may do all that us deedeth And these three that I shall say Need Love Longing Pitty and Love keepeth us in the time of our need And Longing in the some Love draweth us into Heaven for the thirst of God is to have the general man into him In which thirst he hath drawn his Holy Souls that be now in bliss And so * i e. taâ—â—ng getting his lively Members ever he draweth and drinketh and yet him Thirsteth and Longeth I saw three manner of Longings in God and all to one end The first is for that he Longeth to learn us to know him and to Love him ever more and more as it is convenient and speedful to us The second is that he longeth to have us up into bliss as Souls are when they be taken out of pain into Heaven The third is to fulfill us of bliss and that shall be on the last day fulfilled ever to last For I saw as it is known in our Faith that then pain and 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 which plentuously shall flie out of God into us and fulfill us And those be the goods which he hath ordained to give us from without beginning These goods are treasured and hid in himself for into that time Creature is not mighty ne worthy to receive them In this we should see verily the cause of all the Deeds that God hath done And over-more we should see the cause of all thing that he hath suffered And the bliss and the fulfilling shall be so deep and so high that for Wonder and Marvel all Creatures should have to God so great reverent and dread over-passing that hath been seen and felt before that the Pillars of Heaven shall travel and quake But this manner of trembling and dread shall have no manner of pain but it longeth to the worthy majesty of God thus to be beholden of his Creatures dreadfully trembling and quaking For much more of joy endlesly marvelling of the greatness of God the Maker and of the least part of all that is made For the beholding of this maketh Creature marvellous meek and mild Wherefore God will and also it longeth to us both in kind and in grace to will to have knowing of this desiring the sight and the 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 as great he is And as much as it longeth to his God-head to be Loved so much it longeth to his great highness to be dread For this reverent dread is the fairer courtesie that is in Heaven before Gods face And as much as he shall be known and Loved over-passing that he is now In so much he shall be dread over-passing that he is now Wherefore it behooveth needs to be that all Heaven all Earth shall tremble and quake when the Pillars shall tremble and quake The Lxxv. Chapter I Speak but little of this reverent dread For I hope it may be seen in this matter aforesaid But well I wote that our Lord shewed me no Souls but those that dread him for well I wote the Soul that truly taketh the teaching of the Holy Ghost it hateth more sin for the vileness and the horribility than it doth all the pain that is in Hell For the Soul that beholdeth the kindness of our Lord Jesu it hateth no Hell but Hell is sin as to my sight And therefore it is Gods will that we know sin and pray busily and travel wilfully 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 will be in rest when other mens sins come to mind he should flee it as the pain of Hell
stedfastly he abideth us and changeth no chear for he will that we be turned and unied to him in Love as he is to us And thus by gracious knowing we may see our sin profitable without despair For soothly us needeth to see it and by the sight we should be made ashamed of our self breaking down as against our Pride and our Presumption For us behooveth verily to see that of our self we are right naught but Sin and Wretchedness And thus by the sight of the Less part of sin that our Lord sheweth us the more is wasted which we see not For he of his courtesie measureth the sight to us For it is so foul and so horrible that we should not endure to see it as it is And thus by this meek knowing through Contrition and Grace we shall be broken from all thing that is not our Lord. And then shall our blessed Saviour perfectly cure us and one us to him This breaking and this curing our Lord meaneth by the general man for he that is highest and nearest with God he may see himself sinful and needy with me And I that am the least and the lowest of those that shall be saved I may be comforted with him that is highest So hath our Lord oned us in Charity when he shewed me that I should sin And for joy that I had in beholding him I entended not readily to that shewing And our courteous Lord rested there and would no further teach me till when that he gave me Grace and Will to entend And hereof was I Learned though that we be highly lifted into Contemplation by the special gift of our Lord yet us behooveth needs therewith to have sight and knowing of our sin and of our feebleness For without this knowing we may not have true meekness and without this we may not be safe And also I saw we may not have this knowing of our self nor of none of all our Ghostly Enemies for they will not us so much good For if it were by their Will we should never see it till our ending day Then are we much bound to God that he will himself for Love shew it us in time of mercy and grace The Lxxviij Chapter ALso I had in this more understanding in that he shewed me that I should sin I took it nakedly to my own singular Person for I was no otherwise stirred in that time But by the high gracious comfort 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 into 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 there was I Learned that I should see mine own sin and not other mens but if it may be for comfort or help of my even Christen And also in the same shewing there I saw that I should sin There was I Learned to be dreadful for * i e. frailty unsikerness of my self For I wot not how I shall fall ne I know not the measure ne the greatness of my sin For that would * i e. I desired with fear to have known I a wist dreadful and thereto I had none answer Also our courteous Lord in that same time he shewed full sweetly and full mightily the endless-head and the unchange-ability of his Love and also his great goodness and his gracious inwardly keeping that the Love of him and of our Souls shall never be departed into without end And thus in the dread I have matter of meekness that saveth me fro Presumption And in the blessed shewing of Love I have matter of true Comfort and of Joy that saveth me from dispair All this homely shewing of our courteous Lord it is a Lovely Lesson and a sweet gracious Teaching of himself in comforting of our Soul For he will that we know by the sweetness of the homely Love of him that all that we see or feel within or without which is contrarious to this that it is of the Enemy and not of God as thus If that we be stirred to be the more retchlesser of our Living or of the keeping of our heart because that we have knowing of this plentuous Love than needeth us greatly to beware of this stirring if it come It is untrue and greatly we owe to hate it for it hath no likeness of Gods Will and when befallen by frailty or blindness Then our courteous Lord touching us stirreth us and keepeth And then will he that we see our wretchedness and meekly be it a known But he will not that we abide therewith ne he will not that we busie us greatly about our accusing ne he will not that we be too wretchedful on our self but he will that we hastily entend to him For he standeth all alone and abideth us continually moaning and mourning till when we come And he hath haste to have us to him For we are his joy and his delight and he is our Salve of our Life there I say he standeth all alone I leave the speaking of the blessed company in Heaven and speak only of his Office and his Working here in Earth upon the * i e manner condition of the Shewing The Lxxjx. Chapter BY three things man standeth in this Life By which three God is Worshipped â—nd we be speed kept and saved The first is use of mans kindly Reason The second is the common Teaching of Holy Church The third is the inward gracious Working of the Holy Ghost And these three be all of one God God is ground of our kindly Reason and God is teaching of Holy Church and God is the Holy Ghost And all be sundry gifts to which he will we have great regard and according us thereto For these work in us continually altogether and those be great things Of which greatness he will we have knowing here as it were in an A. B. C. that is to say that we may have a little knowing whereof we should have fulhead in Heaven and that is for to speed us We know in our Faith that God alone took our kind and none but hee And furthermore that Christ alone did all the great Works that longeth to our Salvation and none but he And right so he alone doth now in the last end that is to say he dwelleth here in us and ruleth us and giveth us in this Living and bringeth us to his bliss And thus shall he do as long as any Soul is in Earth that shall come to Heaven And so far forth that if there were none such Soul in Earth but one he should be with that all alone till he had brought it up to his bliss I believe and understand the ministration of Holy Angels as Clarkes tell but it was not shewed me For himself is nearest and meekest highest and lowest and doth all And not only all that us
needeth but also he doth all that is Worshipful to our joy in Heaven And there I say he abideth us moaning and mourning It meaneth all the true feeling that we have in our self in Contrition and in Compassion and all moaning and mourning for we are not oned with our Lord and such as is speedful it is Christ in us And though some of us feel it seldom it passeth never fro Christ till what time he have brought us out of all our Woe For Love suffereth him 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 beareth Christ alone all the charge of us And thus standeth he moaning and mourning Then Longeth it to us for reverence and kindness to turn us hastily to our Lord and let him not all alone he is here alone with us all that is to say only for us he is here And what time I be strange to him by sin despair or slouth then I let my Lord stand alone in as much as he 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 keepeth us from blame in his sight The Lxxx. Chapter OUr good Lord shewed him to his Creature in diverse manner both in Heaven and in Earth But I saw him take no place but in mans Soul He shewed him in Earth in the sweet Incarnation and his blessed Passion and in other manner he shewed him in Earth where I said I saw God in a point And in other manner he shewed him in Earth thus as it were a 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 shewed him diverse times raigning as it is aforesaid but principally in mans Soul He hath taken there his resting place and his Worshipful City out of which Worshipful * i e. scat See he shall never rise ne remove without end Marvellous and solemn is the place where the Lord dwelleth And therefore he will that we readily entend to his gracious touching more enjoying in his whole Love then sorrowing in our often fallings For it is the most worship to him of any thing 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 to be Penance For kind Longing in us to him is a Lasting Penance in us which Penance he worketh in us and mercifully helpeth us to bear it for his Love maketh him to Long his Wisdom and his Truth with his rightful-head maketh him to suffer us here And in this manner he will see it in us for this is our kindly Penance and the highest to my sight For this Penance cometh never fro us till what time that we be fulfilled when we should have him to our meed And therefore he will that we set our hearts in the over-passing that is to say fro the pain that we feel into the bliss that we trust The Lxxxj. Chapter BUt here shewed our courteous Lord the moaning and the mourning of our Soul meaning thus I wot well thou wilt live for my Love merrily and gladly suffering all the Penance that may come to thee But forasmuch as thou livest not without sin therefore thou art heavy and sorrowful And if thou mightest live without sin thou wouldest suffer for my Love all the Woe that might come to thee and it is sooth But be not too much agrieved with sin that falleth to thee against thy will that is not maliciously And here I understood that the Lord beheld the Servant with Pity and not with blaim for this passing Life asketh not to Live all without sin He Loveth us endlesly and we sin customably and he sheweth it us full mildely and then we sorrow and mourn discreetly turning us into the beholding of his mercy cleaving to his Love and to his Goodness seeing that he is our Medicine witting that we do nothing but sin And thus by the meekness that we get in 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 never be departed on two and for thy profit I suffer And all this was shewed in Ghostly understanding saying this blessed word I keep thee full * i e. surely sikerly And by the great desire that I saw in our blessed Lord that we should Live in this manner that is to say in Longing and enjoying as all this Lesson of Love sheweth Thereby I understand that all that is contrarious to this it is not of him but it is of Enmity And he will that we know it by the sweet gracious Light of his kind Love If any such Liver be in Earth which is continually kept from falling I know it not for it was not shewed me But this was shewed that in falling and in rising we are ever preciously kept in one Love by which we were ehosen before others from all eternity For in the beholding of God we fall not And in the beholding of our self we stand not And both these be * i e. true sooth as to my sight But the beholding of our Lord God is the higher †i e truth soothness Then are we much bound to him that he will in this Living shew us this high soothness And I understood whiles we be in this Life it is full speedful to us that we see these both at once For the higher beholding keepeth us in Ghostly joy and true enjoying in God That other that is the lower beholding keepeth us in dread and maketh us ashamed of our self But our good Lord will ever that we hold us much more in the beholding of the higher and not leave the knowing of the Lower into the time that we be brought up above where we shall have our Lord Jesu to our meed and be fulfilled of joy and bliss without end The Lxxxij Chapter I Had in party touching sight and feeling in three properties of God in which the strength and the effect of all the Revelation standeth And it were seen in every shewing And most properly in the Twelfth where it saith oftentimes I it am The properties are these life love and light In life is marvellous homeli-head In love is gentle courtesie And in light is endless kindness These three properties were seen in one goodness into which goodness my reason would be oned and cleaving to with all the mights I beheld with reverent dread and highly marvelling in the sight and in 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 kind Our Faith is