seek God All this that I have now said and more as I shall say hereafter is comforting against sin For in the third shewing when I saw that God doth all that is done I saw not sin and then I saw that all is well but when God shewed me for sin then said he All shall be well The xxxv Chapter ANd when God Almighty had shewed so plenteously and so fully of his Goodness I desired to wit of a certain Creature that I loved if it should continue in good Living which I hoped by the Grace of God was begun And in this singular desire it seemed that I letted my self for I was not taught in this time And then was I answered in my Reason as it were by a friendful mean Take it generally and behold the courtesie of thy Lord God as he shewed to thee for it is more Worship to God to behold him in all than in any special thing I assented and therewith I learned that it is more Worship to God to know all thing in general than to like in any thing in special and if I should do wisely after this Teaching I hold not be glad for any thing in special ne greatly diseased for any manner thing for All shall be well For the full-head of joy is to behold God in all for by the same blessed Might Wisdom and Love that he made all thing to the same end our good Lord leadeth it continually and there to himself shall bring it and when it is time we shall see it And the ground of this was shewed in the first and more openly in the third where it saith I saw God in a Point All that our Lord doth is rightfully and all that he suffereth is Worshipful And in these two is comprehended Good and Evil for all that is Good our Lord doth and that is Evil our Lord suffereth I say not that Evil is Worshipful but I say the sufferance of our Lord God is Worshipful whereby his Goodness shall be known without end and his marvellous Meekness and Mild-head by this working of Mercy and Grace Right | i e Plenitude full-head is that thing that is so good that it may not be better than it is For God himself is very rightful head and all his Works be done rightfully as they be ordained fro without beginning by his high Might his high Wisdom his high Goodness And right as he hath ordained it to the best right so he worketh continually and leadeth it to the same end And he is ever full pleased with himself and with all his Works And the beholding of this blessed Accord is full sweet to the Soul that seeth it by Grace All the Souls that shall be saved in Heaven without end be made rightful in the sight of God and by his own Goodness In which rightfullness we be endlesly kept and marvellously above all Creatures And Mercy is a Working that cometh of the Goodness of God And it shall last working as long as sin is suffered to pursue rightful Souls And when sin hath no longer leave to pursue then shall the Working of Mercy cease And then shall all be brought into rightfulness and therein stand without end By his sufferance we fall and in his blessed Love with his Might and his Wisdom we are kept and by Mercy and Grace we be raised to manifold more Joy And thus in Rightfulness and in Mercy he will be known and Loved now and without end And the Soul that wisely beholdeth in Grace is | i e. wel contented well paid with both and endlesly enjoyeth The xxxvj Chapter OUr Lord God shewed that a deed shall be done and himself shall do it and it shall be Worshipful and marvellous and plentuous and by him it shall be done and himself shall do it And this is the highest joy that the Soul understood that God himself shall do it And I shall do right nought but sin and my sin shall not | i e. hinder let his Goodness Working And I saw that the beholding of this is a Heavenly Joy in a * i e. fearful dreadful Soul which evermore Godly by Grace desireth Gods Will This deed shall by begun here and it shall be Worshipful to God and plentuously profitable to all his Lovers in Earth And ever as we come to Heaven we shall see it in marvellous Joy And it shall last thus in Working to the last Day and the Worship and the Bliss of that shall last in Heaven before God and all his Holy Saints without end Thus was this deed seen and understand in our Lords meaning and the cause why he shewed it is to make us to enjoy in him and in all his Works When I saw the shewing continued I understood it was shewed for a great thing that was then for to come Which thing God shewed that himself should do it Which deed hath the Properties before said And this shewed he full blessedfully meaning that I should take it wistly faithfully and trustfully but what the Deed should be it was kept privy to me And in this I saw he will not we dread to know the things that he sheweth He sheweth them for he will we know them By which knowing he will we Love him and like in him and endlesly enjoy in him And for the great Love that he hath to us he sheweth us all that is Worshipful and Profitable for the time And those things that he will now have privy yet of his great Goodness he shewed them * i e. secretly close In which shewing he will we believe and understand that we should see it verily in his endless Bliss Then ought we to enjoy in him for all that he sheweth and all that he hideth And if we | i e. willingly wilfully and meekly do this we shall find therein great ease and endless thanking we shall have of him therefore And this is the understanding of this Word That it shall be done by me that is to say the general Man that is to say all that shall be safe it shall be Worshipful Marvellous and Plentuous and By me it shall be done and God himself shall do it And this shall be highest Joy that may be beholden of the Deed that God himself shall do it and Man shall do right nought but sin Then meaneth our Lord God thus as if he said Behold and see here hast thou matter of Meekness Here hast thou matter of Love Here hast thou matter of Knowing thy self Here hast thou matter of Enjoying in me And for my Love enjoy in me for of all thing therewith might thou most please mee And as long as we be in this Life what time that we by our Folly turn us to the beholding of the reproved tenderly our Lord toucheth us and blissedfully calleth us saying in our Soul Let me alone my dear worthy Child intend to me I am enough to thee and enjoy in thy Saviour and in thy
is not his Worship And if we see that doth it and we pray not we do not our duty And so it may not be that is to say so is it not in his beholding But to see that he doth it and to Pray forthwithall So is he Worshipped and we speed All thing that our Lord hath ordained to doe it is his Will that we pray therefore either in special or in general And the joy and the bliss that is to him and the Thank and the Worship that we shall have therefore it passeth the understanding of all Creatures in this Life as to my sight For Prayer is a rightwise understanding of that full-head of joy that is for to come with true longing and very trust savouring or seeing our bliss that we be ordained to kindly maketh us to long True understanding and Love with sweet meaning in our Saviour graciously maketh us to trust And thus have we of kind to long and of Grace to trust And in these two Workings our Lord beholdeth us continually for it is our duty And his Goodness may no less assigne in us that longeth to us to doe our diligence thereto And when we do it yet shall us think that it is naught And true it is but doe we as we may and meekly ask Mercy and Grace and all that us faileth we shall it find in him And thus meaneth he there he saith I am the Ground of thy beseeching And thus in those blessedful Words with the shewing I saw a full overcoming against all our Wickedness and all our doubtful dreeds The xliij Chapter PRayer owneth the Soul to God which is ever like to God in kind and in substance restored by Grace but it is oft unlike in condition by sin of mans party Then is Prayer a Witness that the Soul will as God will and comforteth the Conscience and ableth Man to Grace And thus he teacheth us to Pray and mightily to trust that we shall have it for he beholdeth us in Love and will make us Partner of his good Will and Deed And therefore he stirreth us to Pray that that liketh him to do For which Prayer and good Will that we have of his gift he will reward us and give us endless meed And this was shewed in this Word And thou beseekest it In this Word God shewed so great pleasance and so great liking as he were much beholding to us for each good Deed that we do and yet it is he that doth it And for that we beseech him mightily to do that thing that him liketh as if he said What might thou please mee more than to beseech mightily wisely and wilfully to do that thing that I will have done And thus the Soul by Prayer is accorded with God But when our courteous Lord of his special Grace sheweth himself to our Soul we have that we desire And then we see not for the time what we should more Pray but all our intent with all our Mights is set whole into the beholding of him And this is an high unperceiveable Prayer as to my sight for all the cause wherefore we Prayer is to be oned in to the sight and beholding of him to whom we Pray marvellously enjoying with reverent dreed and so great sweetness and delight in him that we can pray right naught but as he stirreth us for the time And well I wot the more the Soul seeth of God the more she desireth him by Grace but when we see him not so then feel we need and cause to pray for feeling and for unableness of our self to Jesu For when a Soul is tempted troubled and left to her self by her unrest then it is time to pray to make her self supple and * buxom to God but she by no manner of Prayer maketh God supple to him for he is ever one like in Love And thus I saw that what time we see need wherefore we pray then our Lord God followeth us helping our desire And when we of his special Grace plainly behold him seeing none of other needs then we follow him And he draweth us to him by Love for I saw and and felt that his marvellous and his * i e. plentiful fulsome Goodness fulfilleth all our Mights And therewith I saw that his continual Working in all manner of things is done so godly so wisely and so mightily that it over-passeth all our Imagining and all that we can mean or think And then we can do no more but behold him and enjoy with a high mighty desire to be all oned into him and | i e. attend entend to his motion and enjoy in his loving and delight in his Goodness And thus shall we with his sweet Grace in our own meek continual Prayer come into him now in this Life by many privy touchings of sweet Ghostly sights and feelings measured to us as our | i e. simplicity simplehead may bare it And this is wrought and shall be by the Grace of the Holy Ghost so long till we shall die in longing for Love and then shall we all come into our Lord our self clearly knowing and God | i e. plentifully fulsomely having And we endlesly be all hid in God verily seeing and fulsomely feeling him Ghostly hearing and him delectably smelling and him sweetly smelling And there shall we see God face to face homely and fulsomely The Creature which is made shall see and endlesly behold God which is the Maker for thus may no man see God and live after that is to say in this deadly Life But when he of his special Grace will shew him here he strengtheneth the Creature above himself and he measureth the shewing after his own Will and it is profitable for the time The xljv Chapter GOD shewed in all the Revelations oft-times that a Holy man worketh evermore his Will and his Worship duringly without stinting And what this Working is was shewed in the first and that in a marvellous Ground For it was shewed in the Working of the blissedful Soul of our Lady Saint Mary by Truth and Wisdom And how I hope by the Grace of the Holy Ghost I shall say as I saw Truth seeth God and Wisdom beholdeth God and of these two cometh the third and that is a marvellous delight in God which is Love Where Truth and Wisdom is verily there is Love verily coming of them both and all of Gods making For God is endless soveraign Truth endless soveraign Wisdom endless soveraign Love unmade And a mans Soul is a Creature in God which hath the same properties made and evermore it doth that it was made for that seeth God it beholdeth God and it loveth God Wherefore God enjoyeth in the Creature and the Creature in God endlesly marvelling In which marvelling he seeth his God his Lord his Maker so high so great and so good in regard of him that is made that unneth the Creature seemeth ought to the self but the brightness and
blessedful Trinity which is everlasting being right as he is endless from without beginning right so it was in his purpose endless to make mankind Which fair kind first was dight to his own Son the second Person and when he would by full accord of all the Trinity he made us all at ones And in our making he knit us and oned us to himself By which oning we be kept as clean and as noble as we were made by the vertue of that each precious oning we love our Maker and like him praise him and thank him and endlesly enjoy in him And this is the working which is wrought continually in each Soul that shall be saved which is the godly Will before said And thus in our making God Almighty is our kindly Father And God all Wisdom is our kindly Mother with the Love and the Goodness of the Holy Ghost which is all one God one Lord. And in the knitting and in the oning he is our very true Spouse and we his loved Wife and his fair Maiden with which Wife he was never displeased for he saith I love thee and thou lovest me and our love shall never part in two I beheld the working of all the blessed Trinity In which beholding I saw and understood these three properties the property of the Father-head and the property of the Mother-head and the property of the Lordship in one God In our Father Almighty we have our keeping and our bliss And aneynst our kindly substance which is to us by our making fro without beginning And in the second Person in Wit and Wisdom we have our keeping And aneynst our sensuality our restoring and our saving for he is our Mother Brother and Saviour And in our good Lord the Holy Ghost we have our rewarding and our yielding for our living and our travel and endlesly over-passing all that we desire in his marvellous courtesie of his high plentuous Grace for all our Life is in three In the first our being And in the second we have our encreasing And in the third we have our fulfilling The first is kind the second is Mercy the third is Grace For the first I saw and understood that the high might of the Trinity is our Father and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother and the great Love of the Trinity is our Lord. And all these have we in kind and in our substantial making And furthermore I saw that the second Person which is our Mother substancially the same deer worthy Person is now become our Mother sensual for we be double of Gods making that is to say substancial and sensual Our substance is the higher party which we have in our Father God Almighty And the second Person of the Trinity is our Mother in kind in our substancial making in whom we be grounded and rooted And he is our Mother of Mercy in our sensuality taking And thus our Mother is to us diverse manner working in whom our parts be kept undeparted For in our Mother Christ we profit and encrease and in Mercy he reformeth us and restoreth And by the vertue of his Passion his Death and his Uprising oned us to our substance This worketh our Mother in mercy to all his beloved Children which be to him buxom and obedient And grace worketh with mercy and namely in two properties as it was shewed Which working longeth to the third Person the Holy Ghost he worketh rewarding and giving Rewarding is a gift of trust that the Lord doth to them that hath traveled And giving is a courteous Working which he doth freely of grace fulfilling and over-passing all that is deserved of Creatures Thus in our Father God Almighty we have our being And in our Mother of mercy Jesu Christ we have our reforming and our restoring in whom our parts be oned and all made perfect man And by yielding and giving in grace of the Holy Ghost we be fulfilled and our substance is in our Father God Almighty And our substance is in our Mother God all Wisdom And our substance is in our Lord God the Holy Ghost all goodness for our substance is whole in each person of the Trinity which is one God And our sensuality is only in the second Person Christ Jesu in whom is the Father and the Holy Ghost And in him and by him we be mightily taken out of Hell and out of the wretchedness in Earth and worshipfully brought up into Heaven and blessedfully oned to our substance encreased in Riches and Nobly by all the vertue of Christ and by the grace and working of the Holy Ghost The Ljx. Chapter ANd all this bliss we have by mercy and grace Which manner bliss we might never have had and known but if that property and goodness which is in God had been contraried whereby we have this bliss For wickedness hath been suffered to rise contrary to that goodness and the goodness of mercy and grace contraried against that wickedness and turned all to goodness and worship to all that shall be saved For it is that property in God which doth good against evil Thus Jesu Christ that doth good against evil is our very Mother We have our being of him where the ground of Mother-head beginneth with all the sweet keeping of Love that endlesly followeth As verily as God is our Father as verily is God our Mother and that shewed he in all and namely in these sweet words there he saith I it am that is to say I it am the Might and the Goodness of the Father-head I it am the Wisdom and the Kindness of the Mother-head I it am the Light and the Grace that is all blessed Love I it am the Trinity I it am the Vnity I it am the high Sovereign Goodness of all manner thing I it am that maketh thee to long I it am the endless fulfilling of all true desires For there the Soul is highest noblest and worshipfullest yet it is lowest meekest and mildest And of this substancioal ground we have all our Vertues in our sensuality by gift of kind and by helping and speeding of mercy and grace without which we may not profit Our high Father Almighty God which is being he knoweth us and loved us fro before any time Of which knowing in his full marvellous deep Charity by the fore-seeing endless counsel of all the blessed Trinity he would that the second Person should become our Mother our Brother and our Saviour Whereof it followeth that as verily as God is our Father verily God is our Mother Our Father willeth our Mother worketh Our good Lord the Holy Ghost confirmeth and therefore it longeth to us to love our God in whom we have our being him reverently thanking and praising of our making mightily praying to our Mother of mercy and pity and to our Lord the Holy Ghost of help and grace for in these three is all our Life Kind Mercy and grace Whereof we have mild-head patience and pity and hating of
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
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
his eternal Love nor we were never the less of price in his sight And by the assey of this falling we shall have an high and a marvellous knowing of Love in God without end For hard and marvellous is that Love which may not nor will not be broken for trespass And this was one understanding of profit An other is the lowness and meekness that we shall get by the sight of our falling for thereby we shall highly be raised in Heaven To which rising we might never have come without that meekness And therefore it needed us to see it and if we see it not though we feel it it should not profit us And commonly first we fall and sithen we see it and both is of the mercy of God The Mother may suffer the Child to fall some time and be diseased in diverse manners for the own profit but she may never suffer that any manner of peril come to her Child for Love And though our earthly Mother may suffer her Child to perish our Heavenly Mother Jesu may never suffer us that be his Children to perish for he is all Mighty all Wisdom and all Love And so is none but he blessed mote he be But oft-times when our Falling and our Wretchedness is shewed us we be sore adread and so greatly ashamed of our self that unneths we wit where that we may hold us But then will not our courteous Mother that we flee away For him were nothing * i e. more unwilling lother But he will then that we use the condition of a Child For when it is diseased and afraid it runneth hastily to the Mother and if it may do no more it crieth on the Mother for help with all the might so will he that we done as the meek Child saying thus My kind Mother my gracious Mother my dear worthy Mother have mercy upon me I have made my self foul and unlike to thee and I may not nor can amend it but with thine Help and Grace And if we feel us not than eased assoon be we sure that he useth the condition of a wise Mother For if he see that it be for profit to us to mourn and to weep he suffereth with ruth and pity into the best time for Love And he will then that we use the property of a Child that evermore kindly trusteth to the Love of the Mother in Weal and in Woe And he will that we take us mightily to the Faith of Holy Church and find there our dear worthy Mother in solace and true understanding with all the blessed * i e. community of Christians Common For one singular person may oftentimes be broken as it seemeth to the self but the whole body of Holy Church was never broken ne never shall be without end And therefore a sure thing it is a good and a gracious to will meekly and mightily be fastened and oned to our Mother Holy Church that is Christ Jesu For the flood of Mercy that is his dear worthy Blood and and precious Water is plentuous to make us fair and clean The blessed Wounds of our Saviour be open and * i e. rejoyce enjoy to heal us The sweet gracious Hands of our Mother be ready and diligent about us for he in all this Working useth the very Office of a kind Nurse that hath naught else to done but to entend to the Salvation of her Child It is his Office to save us It is his Worship to do it and it is his Will we know it For he will we love him sweetly and trust in him meekly and mightily And this shewed he in these gracious words I keep thee full surely The Lxij Chapter FOr in that time he shewed our frailty and our Fallings our Breakin gs and our Naughtings our Despites and our Chargings and all our Woe as far forth as me thought that it might fall in this Life And therewith he shewed his blessed Might his blessed Wisdom his blessed Love that he keepeth us in this time as tenderly and as sweetly to his Worship and as surely to our Salvation as he doth when we be in most solace and comfort And thereto raiseth us Ghostly and Highly in Heaven and turneth all to his Worship and to our Joy without end For his precious Love he suffereth us never to loose time Since all things turn to our greater good And all this is of the kind goodness of God by the working of Grace God is * i e. nature kind in his being that is to say that goodness that is kind it is God He is the ground he is the substance he is the same thing that is kindness And he is very Father and very Mother of kinds And all kinds that he hath made to flow out of him to work his Will it should be restored and brought again into him by Salvation of man through the working of Grace For of all kinds that he hath set in divers Creatures by party in man is all the whole in ful head and in vertue in fair-head and in good-head in Rialty and in Noblety in all manner of Solemnity of Preciousness and Worship Here may we see that we be all bound to God for kind and we be bound to God for Grace Here may we see that us needeth not greatly to seek far out to know sundry kinds but to Holy Church into our Mothers breast that is to say into our own Soul where our Lord dwelleth And there should we find all now in Faith and in Understanding and after verily in himself clearly in bliss But no Man ne Woman take this singularity to himself for it is not so it is general For it is our precious Mother Christ and to him was this fair kind * i e. appropriated dight for the Worship and the Nobly of mans making and for the joy and the bliss of mans Salvation right as he saw wist and knew from without beginning The Lxiij Chapter HEre may we see that we have verily of * i e. nature kind to hate sin And we have verily of grace to hate sin for kind is all good and fair in it self And grace was sent out to save kind and keep kind and destroy sin and bring again fair kind into the blessed Point fro thence it came that is God with more Nobleness and Worship by the vertuous working of grace for it shall be seen before God of all his Holy in joy without end that kind hath been assaid in the fire of Tribulation and therein found no lack nor no default Thus is kind and grace of one accord for Grace is God as unmade kind is God He is two in manner working and one in Love And neither of them worketh without other ne none be departed And when we by the mercy of God and with his help accord us to kind and to grace we shall see verily that sin is worse viler and painfuller than Hell without any likeness For it
now fro this time evermore be so busie to keep thee from sin this were a good and a soveraign occupation For I thought faithfully were I safe from sin I were full safe from all the fiends in Hell and enemies of my Soul And thus he occupied me all that night and on the morrow till it was about prime day And anon they were all gone and passed and there left nothing but stink and lasted still a while and I scorned him And thus was I delivered of him by the vertue of Christs Passion for therewith is the fiend overcome as our Lord Jesu Christ said afore In all this blessed shewing our good Lord gave understanding that the sight should pass Which blessed shewing the Faith keepeth with his own good will and his grace for he left with me neither signe ne token whereby I might know it But he left with me his own blessed word in true understanding bidding me full mightily that I should believe it and so I do Blessed mote he be I believe that he is our Saviour that shewed it and that it is in the Faith that he shewed And therefore I love it ever joying and thereto I am bound by all his own meaning with the next words that follow Keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith and trust thereto Thus I am beholding to keep it in my Faith For on the same day that it was shewed what time the sight was passed as a wretch I forsook it and openly I said that I had raved Then our Lord Jesu of his mercy would not let it perish but he shewed it all again within my Soul with more fulhead with the blessed Light of his precious Love saying these Words full mightily and full meekly Wit it now well it was no raving that thou saw this day as if he had said for the sight was passed from thee thou lost it and could or might not keep it But wit it now that is to say now thou seest it This was said not only for the same time but also to set thereupon the ground of my Faith where he saith anon following But take it and learn it and keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith and trust thereto and thou shalt not be overcome The Lxxj. Chapter IN these six Words that followeth where he saith Take it his meaning is to fasten it faithfully in our Heart for he will it dwell with us in Faith into our Lives end and after in fulhead of joy willing that we have ever faithful trust of his blessedful promises knowing his goodness For our Faith is contraried in diverse manner by our own blindness and our Ghostly Enemies within and without And therefore our precious Lover helpeth us with Ghostly Light and true Teaching on diverse manner within and without whereby that we may know him And therefore in what manner that he teacheth us he will that we perceive him wisely receiving him sweetly and keep us in him faithfully For above the Faith is no goodness kept in this Life as to my sight And beneath the Faith is no Health of Soul But in the Faith there will our Lord we keep us For we have by his goodness and his own working to keep us in the Faith And by his sufferance through Ghostly enmity we are | i e. tryed assaid in the Faith and made mighty For if our Faith had not enmity it should deserve no meed as by the understanding that I have in our Lords meaning Glad and merry and sweet is the blessedful Lovely Chear of our Lord to our Souls for he beheld us ever living in Love-Longing And he will our Soul be in glad chear to him to yield him his meed And thus I hope with his grace he hath and more shall draw the * i. e. outward utter chear to the inner and make us all at one with him and each of us with other in true lasting joy that is Jesu I have meaning of three manner of chears of our Lord The first is chear of Passion as he shewed whiles he was with us in this Life dying And though this beholding be mourning and | i. e. dark swemful yet it is glad and merry for he is God The second manner of chear it is pitty and ruth and compassion and this sheweth he to all his Lovers with * sikerness of keeping that hath ‑ i. e. sureness need to his mercy The third is the blissedful chear as it shall be without end And this was oftenest shewed longest continued And thus in the time of our Pain and our Woe he sheweth to us chear of his Passion and his Cross helping us to bear it by his own blessed vertue And in time of our sinning he sheweth to us chear of ruth and pity mightily keeping us and defending against all our Enemies And these two be the common chears which he sheweth to us in this Life therewith medling the third And that is his blessed chear like in party as it shall be in Heaven and that is by gracious touching of sweet Lightning of Ghostly Life whereby that we are kept in true Faith Hope and Charity with Contrition and Devotion and also with Contemplation and all manner of true joyes and sweet Comforts The blessedful chear of our Lord God worketh it in us by Grace But now me behooveth to tell in what manner that I saw sin deadly in the Creatures which should not die for sin but live in the joy of God without end I saw that two contraries should not be together in one steed The most contrarious that are is the highest bliss and the deepest pain The highest bliss that is is to have God in clerity of endless Light him verily seeing him sweetly feeling him all peaceable having in fulhead of joy And thus was the blessedful chear of our Lord God shewed in party In which shewing I saw that sin was the most contrary so far forth that as long as we be medled with any part of sin we shall never see clearly the blessed chear of God And the horriblier and the grievouser that our sins be the deeper are we for that time fro this blessed sight And therefore it seemeth to us ostentimes as we were in peril of Death and in a party of Hell for the sorrow and the pain that sin is to us And thus we are dead for the time fro the very sight of our blessedful Life But in all this I saw faithfully that we be not dead in the sight of God ne he passeth never from us but he shall never have his full bless in us till we have our full bless in him verily seeing his fair blessedful chear for we are ordained thereto in kind and getten thereto by grace Thus I saw how sin is deadly for a short time to the blessed Creatures of endless Life and ever the more clearly that the Soul seeth the blissful chear by grace of Loving the more it longeth to see it
a Light kindly coming of our endless day that is our Father God In which Light our Mother Christ and our good Lord the Holy Ghost leadeth us in this passing Life This Light is measured discreetly needfully standeth to us in the Night the Light is cause of our Life the Night is cause of our Pain and all our Woe In which Woe we desire endless meed and thank of God for we with mercy and grace wilfully know and believe our Light going therein wisely and mightily And at the end of Woe suddenly our eye shall be opened and in clearness of sight our Light shall be full Which Light is God our Maker Father and Holy Ghost in Christ Jesu our Saviour Thus I saw and understood that our Faith is our Light in our night which Light is God our endless day The Lxxxiij Chapter THis light is Charity and the measuring of this Light is done to us profitably by the Wisdom of God For neither the Light is so large that we may see clearly our blessedful day ne it is all * i e. shut up speered from us but it is such a Light in which we may live | i e. meritoriously meedfully with travel reserving the worshipful thanks of God And this was seen in the vjth Shewing where he saith I thank thee of thy service and of thy travel Thus Charity keepeth us in Faith and in Hope And Faith and Hope leadeth us in Charity and at the end all shall be Charity I had three manner of understandings in this Light of Charity The first is Charity unmade The second is Charity made The third is Charity given Charity unmade is God Charity made is our Soul in God Charity given is vertue and that is a gracious gift of working In which we Love God for himself and our self in God and all that God Loveth for God The Lxxxjv. Chapter ANd in this sight I marvelled highly for notwithstanding our simple Living and our blindness here yet endlesly our courteous Lord beholdeth us in this Working enjoying And of all thing we may please him best wisely and truly to believe it and to enjoy with him and in him for as verily as we shall be in bliss of God without end him praising and thanking as verily we have been in the foresight of God Loved and known in his endless purpose fro without beginning In which unbegun Love he made us in the same Love he keepeth us and never suffereth us to be hurt by which our bliss might be lessed And therefore when the doome is given we be all brought up above then shall we clearly see in God the privities which now be hid to us And then shall none of us be stirred to say in any thing Lord if it had been thus it had been well But we shall all say with one voyce Lord blessed mote thou be for it is thus Thus it is well And now we see verily that all thing is done as it was thine Ordinance * i e before or any thing was made The Lxxxv. Chapter THis Book is begun by Gods gift and his grace but it is not yet performed as to my sight For Charity pray we all together with Gods working thanking trusting enjoying For this will our good Lord be praid by the understanding that I took in all his own meaning And in the sweet words where he saith full merrily I am ground of thy beseeching For truly I saw and understood in our Lords meaning that he shewed it for he will have it knowing more then it is In which knowing he will give us grace to Love him and cleave to him For he beholds his heavenly Treasure and Solace in heavenly Joy in drawing of our hearts from sorrow and darkness which we are in And fro the time that it was shewed I de-desired oftentimes to wit in what was our Lords meaning And fifteen Year after and more I was answered in Ghostly understanding saying thus What wouldest thou wit thy Lords meaning in this thing Wit it well Love was his meaning Who sheweth it thee Love Wherefore sheweth he it thee For Love Hold thee therein thou shalt wit more in the same But thou shalt never wit therein other without end Thus was I Learned that love is our Lords meaning And I saw full surely in this and in all that our God made us he Loved us which Love was never slacked ne never shall And in this Love he hath done all his Works And in this Love he hath made all thing profitable to us And in this Love our Life is everlasting in our making we had beginning But the Love wherein he made us was in him fro without beginning In which Love we have our beginning And all this shall we see in God without end Deo Gratias Explicit liber Revelationum Juliane Anachorite Norwic. cujus anime propicietur Deus FINIS