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
is contrarious to our fair kind for as verily as sin is unclean as truly sin is * i e. unnatural unkind And this is an horrible thing to see to the loving Soul that would be all fair and shining in the sight of God as kind and grace teacheth But be we not adread of this but in as much as dread may speed but meekly make we our moan to our dear worthy Mother and he shall all besprinckle us in his precious blood and make our Soul full soft and full mild and heal us full fair by process of time right as it is most worship to him and joy to us without end And of this sweet fair working he shall never cease nor stint till all his dear worthy Children be brought forth and born And that shewed he where he gave the understanding of the Ghostly thirst that is the Love-longing that shall last till Doomes-day Thus in our very Mother Jesu our Life is grounded in the fore-seeing wisdom of himself fro without beginning with the high might of the Father and the sovereign goodness of the Holy Ghost And in the taking of our kind he quicked us and in his blessed dying upon the Cross he bare us to endless Life And fro that time and now and ever shall into Doomes-day he feedeth us and * i e. nourisheth fordreth us right as the high sovereign Kindness of Mother-head will and as the kindly need of Child-head asketh Fair and sweet is our Heavenly Mother Jesu in the sight of our Soul precious and lovely be the gracious Children in the sight of our Heavenly Mother With mildness and meekness and all that fair vertues that long to Children in kind for | i e. naturally kindly the Child dispaireth not of the Mothers Love kindly the Child presumeth not of it self kindly the Child loveth the Mother and each one of them other These be as fair Vertues with all other that be like wherewith our Heavenly Mother is served and pleased And I understood none higher stature in this Life than Child-hood in feebleness and failing of might and of wit into the time our gracious Mother hath brought us up into that our Fathers bliss And there shall it verily be made known to us his meaning in the sweet Words where he saith All shall be well and thou shalt see it thy self that all manner of thing shall be well The Fifteenth Revelation The Lxjv. Chapter ANd then shall the bliss of our Mother-head in Christ be new to begin in the joyes of our Father God Which new beginning shall last without end Now beginning thus I understood that all his blessed Children which be come out of him by kind should be brought into him again by grace Afore this time I had great longing and desire of Gods gift to be delivered of this World and of this Life for oft-times I beheld the Woe that is here and the weal and the blessed being that is there And if there had no pain been in this Life but the absence of our Lord methought sometime that it was more than I might bear And this made me to mourn and busily to long And also of my own wretchedness slouth and weariness that me liked not to live and to travel as me fell to do And to all this our courteous Lord answered for Comfort and Patience and said these Words Suddenly thou shalt be taken from all thy Pain from all thy Sickness from all thy Disease and from all thy Woe And thou shalt come up above and thou shalt have me to thy meed and thou shalt be fulfilled of joy and bliss and thou shalt never more have no manner of Pain no manner of Sickness no manner misliking no wanting of will but ever joy and bliss without end What should it then grieve thee to suffer a while sithen it is my Will and my Worship And in this word suddenly thou shalt be taken I saw that God rewarded man of the patience that he hath in abiding of Gods will and of his time And that man | i e. lengthneth lengeth his patience * i e. far above over the time of his living for unknowing the time of his passing This is a great profit for if a man knew his time he should not have patience over that time And also God will that while the Soul is in the body it seem to it self that it is ever at the point to be taken out thereof for all this Life and this longing that we have here is but a point And when we be taken suddenly out of Pain into Bliss then Pain shall be nought And in this time I saw a Body lying on the earth Which body shewed heavy and fearful and without shape and form as it were a †i e. foul swilge stinking myre And suddenly out of this body sprung a full fair Creature a little Child full shapen and formed swift and lively and whiter than the Lilly which sharply glided up into Heaven The †i e foulness swilge of the body betokeneth great wretchedness of our deadly flesh And the littleness of the Child betokeneth the cleanness and the pureness of our Soul And I thought with this body †i e. abideth bliveth no fairness of this Child ne of this Child dwelleth no foulness of this body It is full bliss-ful for man to be taken from pain more than pain to be taken from man for if pain be taken from us it may come again Therefore this is a sovereign Comfort and a blessful beholding in a longing Soul that we shall be taken from pain for in this * i e. promise behest I saw a merciful Compassion that our Lord hath in us for our Woe and a courteous | i e. assurance behighting of clear Deliverance For he will that we be comforted in the overpassing joy And that he shewed in these words And thou shalt come up above and thou shalt have me to thy meed and thou shalt be fulfilled of Joy and Bliss It is Gods will that we set the point of our thought in this blissful beholding as oft-time as we may and as long time keep us therein with his grace for this is a blissful Contemplation to the Soul that is led of God and full much to his Worship for the time that it lasteth And when we fall again to our self by heaviness and Ghostly blindness and feeling of pains Ghostly and Bodily by our fragility It is Gods will that we know that he hath not forget us And so meaneth he in these words and saith for Comfort And thou shalt never more have pain in no manner nor no manner of Sickness no manner of mis-liking no want of Will but ever joy and bliss without end What should it then agrieved thee to suffer a while sithen it is my Will and my Worship It is Gods will that we take his behests and his Comfortings as largely and as mightily as
them to which Grace alone all Good in us is to be ascribed XVI REVELATIONS OF LOVE Here beginneth the First Chapter THis is a Revelation of Love that Jesu Christ our endless Blisse made in xvi Shewings of which The first is of his precious Crowning of Thornes and therein was conteined and specified the Blessed Trinity with the Incarnation and the uniting between God and mans Soul with manie faire Shewings and Teachings of endless Wisdom and Love in which all the Shewings that follow be grounded and joyned The second is of the discolouring of his faire Face in tokening of his dear worthie Passion The third is that our Lord God Almighty all Wisdom and all Love right also verilie as he hath made all thinges that are right also verilie he doth and worketh all things that are done The fourth is scourging of his tender Bodie with plenteous Shedding of his precious Blood The fifth is that the fiend is overcome by the precious Passion of Christ The sixth is the Worshipfull Thanking of our Lord God in which he rewardeth all his blessed Servants in Heaven The seventh is oftentimes feeling of weale and woe feeling of weale is gracious touching and lightning with true * i e. security sikernes of endeles joy The feeling of Woe is of Temptation by Heavines and Wearines of our fleshlie living with Ghostelie understanding that we be kept also verelie in love in woe as in weal by the goodnes of God The eighth is the last paines of Christ and his cruell dying The ninth is of the * i. e. pleasure liking which is in the Blessed Trinity of the hard Passion of Christ after his rufull and sorrowful dying in which joy and liking he will that we be in solace and Mirth with him till that we come to the Glorie in Heaven The tenth is our Lord Jesu Christ by Love his blessed Heart even cloven in two The eleventh is an high Ghostlie shewing of his deare worthie Mother The twelfth is that our Lord God is all Soveraign being The thirteenth is that our Lord God will that we have great regard to all the Deedes which he hath done in the great Nobletie of all things making and of the Excellency of Mans making the which is above all his Works and of the precious amends that he hath made for Mans sin turning all our blame into endeles Worship Than meaneth he thus Beholde and see for by the same Might Wisdome and Goodness that I have done all this by the same Might Wisdome and Goodness I shall make well all that is not well and thou shalt see it And in this he will that we keep us in the Faith and Truth of Holie Church not willing to * i e. know wit his privities not but as it longeth to us in this Life The fourteenth is that our Lord God is the Ground of our | i. e. desire beseekinge Herein was seen two fair properties that one is rightful praier that other is verie trust which he will both be one like large and thus our Praier liketh him and he of his Goodness fulfilleth it The fifteenth is that we should soudeinlie be taken from all our Paine and from all our Woe and of his Goodnes we shall come up above where we shall have our Lord Jesu to our * i. e. reward meed and for to be fulfilled with joy and blisse in Heaven The sixteenth is that the blessed Trinitie our Maker in Christ Jesu our Saviour endleslie dwelleth in our Soule worshipfullie rewarding and commanding all things us mightilie and wiselie saving and keeping for Love and we shall not be over-come of our Enemy The Second Chapter THis Revelation was made to a simple Creature unlettered living in deadlie Flesh the Year of our Lord a Thousand three Hundreth lxxiij the xiiij th daie of Maie Which Creature desired before three Gifts by the Grace of God The first was * i. e. feeling mind of the Passion The second was bodilie Sickness The third was to have of Gods gift three Woundes For the first me thought I had some deale feeling in the Passion of Christ but yet I desired to have more by the Grace of God Me thought I would have been that time with Magdalen and with other that were Christs Lovers that I might have seen bodilie the Passion that our Lord suffered for me that I might have suffered with him as others did that loved him and therefore I desired a bodilie sight wherein I might have more knowledge of the bodilie paines of our Saviour and of the Compassion of Our Lady and of all his true Lovers that were living that time and saw his Paines For I would have bene one of them and have suffered with them Other sight nor shewing of God desired I never none till when the Soule were departed from the body for I believed to be saved by the Mercy of God This was my meaning for I would after because of that shewing have the more true mind in the Passion of Christ For the second came to my mind with Contrition freelie without anie seeking a | i. e. earnest wilfull desire to have of Gods Gift a bodilie sicknes I would that that sicknes were so hard as to the death that I might in that sicknes have undertaken all the Rights of Holie Church my self weening that I should have died and that all Creatures might suppose the same that saw me For I would have no manner of Comfort of fleshly ne earthly Life in that sicknes I desired to have all manner of Paines Bodilie and Ghostlie that I should have if I should have died All the Dreads and Temptations of fiends and all manner of other Paines saving the out-passing of the Soule And this meant I for I would be purged by the Mercy of God and after live more to the Worship of God because of that sicknes For I hoped that it might have bene to my reward when I should have died for I desired to have bene soone with my God and Maker These two desires of the Passion and of the sicknes that I desired of him was with a Condition For me thought this was not the common use of Praier Therefore I said Lord thou knowest what I would and if that it be thy will that I might have it and if it be not thy will Good Lord be not displeased for I will not but as thou wilt This siicknes I desired in my Youth that I might have it when I were thirtie Years Old For the third by the Grace of God and teaching of Holie Church I conceived a mightie desire to receive three Wounds in my Life that is to say the Wound of verie Contrition the Wound of kind Compassion and the Wound of willful Longing to God Right as I asked the other twaine with a Condition so asked I this third mightilie without any Condition These twaine desires before said passed from my mind and the third dwelled
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Chapter IN this time I would have looked fro the Cross and I durst not for I wist well whiles that I beheld the Cross I was sure and safe Therefore I would not assent to put my Soul in Peril for besides the Cross was no sureness for dreed of fiends Then had I a proffer in my Reason as it had been friendly said to me Look up to Heaven to his Father And then saw I well with the Faith that I felt that there was nothing between the Cross and Heaven that might have diseased me Here me behoved to look up or else to answer I answered inwardly with all the Might of my Soul and said Nay I may not for thou art my Heaven This I said for that I would not for I had * i. e. rather leaver have been in that Pain till Dooms-day than have come to Heaven otherwise than by him For I wist well that he that bound me so sore he should unbind me when he would Thus was I learned to choose Jesu for my Heaven whom I saw only in Pain at that time Me liked no other Heaven than Jesu which shall be my bliss when I come there and this hath ever been a Comfort to me that I chose Jesu to be my Heaven by his Grace in all this time of Passion and Sorrow And that hath been a Learning to me that I should evermore do so to chose Jesu only to my Heaven in weal and in woe And though I as a Wretch hath repented me as I said before if I had wist what Pain it had been I had been loath to have prayed it Here I saw verily that it was grudging and frailty of the flesh without assent of the Soul in which God assigneth no blame Repenting and wilful choise be two Contraries which I felt both at that time And those be two parts that one outward that other inward The outward party is our deadily flesh which is now in Pain and now in woe and shall be in this Life Whereof I felt much at this time and that part was that I repented The inward party is a high and a blessedful Life which is all in Peace and Love And this is more privily felt and this party is in which mightily wisely and wilfully I chose Jesu to my Heaven And in this I saw truly that the inward party is Master and Soveraign to the outward nought charging nor taking heede to the Wills of that but all the intent and the Will is set endless to be oned to our Lord Jesu that the outward party should draw the inward to assent was not shewed to me but that the inward party draweth the outward party by Grace and both shall be owned in bliss without end by the vertue of Christ this was shewed The xx Chapter ANd thus saw I our Lord Jesu languring long time for the uning of the Godhead gave strength to the Man-head for Love to suffer more than all men might I mean not only more Pain than all men might suffer but also that he suffered more Pain than all man of Salvation that ever was from the first beginning into the last day might tell or fully think Having regard to the worthiness of the highest worshipful King and the shameful and despiteous painful Death for he that is highest and worthiest was foulest condemned and utterly despised For his Passion is to think and to know that he is God that suffered Seeing after these other two points which be lower that one is what he suffered and that other for whom that he suffered And in this he brought to mind in part the height and the nobility of the glorious God-head and therewith the precious head and the tenderness of the blessedful body which be together owned and also the loathfulness that in our kind is to suffer Pain for as much as he was most tender and clean right so he was most strong and mighty to suffer And for every mans sin that shall be saved he suffered and every mans sorrow dissolation and anguish he saw and sorrowed for kindness and Love for in as much as our Lady sorrowed for his Pains as much suffered he sorrow for her sorrows And moreover in as much as the sweet Man-head of him was worthier in kind for as long as he was passible he suffered for us and sorrowed for us And now he is up-risen and no more passible yet he suffered with us as I shall say after And I beholding all this by his Grace saw that the Love in him was so strong which he hath to our Soul that willingfully he chose it with great desire and mildly he suffered it with great joy for the Soul that beholdeth thus when it is touched by Grace he shall verily see that the Pains of Christs Passion pass all Pains that is to say which Pains shall be turned into everlasting Joy by the vertue of Christs Passion It is Gods will as to my understanding that we have three manners of beholding of his blessed Passion The first is the beholding the hard Pain that he suffered with a Contrition and Compassion And that shewed our Lord in this time and gave me might and grace to see it And I looked after the departing with all my mights and * i. e. thought wende to have seen the Body all dead but I saw him not so And right in the same time that me thought by seeming that the Life might no longer last and the shewing of the end behoved needs to be nigh The xxj Chapter SUddenly I beholding in the same Cross he changed in blessedful Chear the changing of his blessed Chear changed mine and I was as glad and merry as it was possible Then brought our Lord merrily to my mind Where is now any point of thy Pain or of thy Anguish And I was full merry I understood that we be now in our Lords meaning in his Cross with him in our Pains and in our Passion daying And we wilfully abiding in the same Cross with his help and his Grace into the last point suddenly he shall change his Chear to us And we shall be with him in Heaven between that one and that other shall all be one time and then shall all be brought into Joy And so meant he in this shewing Where is now any point of thy Pain or of thy Grief And we shall be full of bliss and here saw I verily that if he shewed now to us his blessedful Chear there is no Pain in Earth ne in no other place that should trouble us But all things should be to us joy and bliss but for he sheweth us the sad Chear of Passion as he bare in this Life his Cross therefore we be in Disease and Travaile with him as our kind asketh And the cause why that he suffereth is for he will of his Goodness make us the Heirs with him in his bliss And for this litle Pain that we suffer here we shall have an high
one was shewed outward full meekly and mildly with great ruth and pity And that other of inward endless Love And right thus will our good Lord that we accuse our self wilfully and truly see and know his everlasting Love that he hath to us and his plentuous Mercy And thus graciously to see and know both together is the meek accusing that our good Lord asketh of us And himself worketh | i e. where there it is and this is the lower party of mans Life And it was shewed in the outward chear In which shewing I saw two parts The one is the ruful falling of Man That other is the worshipful | i e satisfaction asseth that our Lord hath made for man That other chear was shewed inward and that was more highly and all one For the Life and the Vertue that we have in the lower party is of the higher And it cometh down to us of the kind Love of the self by Grace Between that one and that other is right naught for it all is one Love Which one blessed Love hath now in us double Working for in the lower party be Pains and Passions Ruths and Pities Mercies and Forgiveness and such other which be profitable But in the higher party be none of these but all one high Love and marvellous joy In which marvellous joy all Pains be wholly destroyed And in this not only our good Lord shewed our excusing but also the worshipful nobility that he shall bring us to turning all our blame into endless Worship The Liij Chapter ANd thus I saw that he will that we know that he taketh no harder the falling of any Creature that shall be saved then he took the falling of Adam which we know was endlesly loved and surely kept in the time of all his need and now is blessedfully restored in high over-passing joyes For our Lord God is so good so gentle and so courteous that he may never assigne default final in whom he shall be ever blessed and praised And in this that I have now said was my desire in party answered and my great fear some deal eased by the lovely gracious shewing of our Lord God In which shewing I saw and understood full surely that in each Soul that shall be safe is a godly Will that never assented to sin ne never shall Which Will is so good that it may never will Evil finally But evermore continually it willeth good and worketh good in the sight of God Wherefore our Lord will we know it in the Faith and the Belief And namely and truly that we have all this blessed Will whole and safe in our Lord Jesu Christ For that each kind that Heaven shall be fulfilled with behooved needs of Gods rightfulness so to be knit and * i e. united onid in him that therein were kept a substance which might never nor should be parted from him and that through his own good Will in his endless foresaid purpose And notwithstanding this rightful knitting and this endless oning yet the Redemption and the again buying of Mankind is needful and speedful in every thing as it is done for the same intent and the same end that Holy Church in our Faith us teacheth For I saw that God began never to love Mankind For right the same that mankind shall be in endless bliss fulfilling the joy of God as anempts his Works right so the same Mankind hath been in the foresight of God known and loved fro without beginning in his rightful intent And by the endless intent and assent and the full accord of all the Trinity the mid Person would be Ground and Head of this fair kind out of whom we be all come in whom we be all enclosed into whom we shall all goe in him finding our full Heaven in everlasting joy by the foreseeing purpose of all the blessed Trinity fro without beginning For * i e. before or that he made us he loved us and when we were made we loved him And this is a love made of the kindly substancial Goodness of the Holy Ghost mightily in reason of the Might of the Father and wise in mind of the Wisdom of the Son And thus is mans Soul made of God and in the same point knit to God And thus I understood that mans Soul is made of naught that is to say it is made but of naught that is made as thus When God should make mans body he took the slime of the Earth which is a matter medled and gathered of all bodily things and thereof he made mans body But to the making of mans Soul he would take right naught but made it And thus is the kind made rightfully oned to the Maker which is substancial kind unmade that is God And therefore it is that there may ne shall be right naught between God and mans Soul And in this endless Love mans Soul is kept whole as all the matter of the Revelation meaneth and sheweth In which endless Love we be led and kept of God and never shall be lost for he will that we know that our Soul is a Life which Life of his Goodness and his Grace shall last in Heaven without end him loving him thanking him praising And right the same that we should be without end the same we were treasured in God and hid known and loved fro without beginning Wherefore he will we wit that the noblest thing that ever he made is mankind and the fullest substance and the highest vertue is the blessed Soul of Christ And furthermore he will we wit that this dear worthy Soul was preciously knit to him in the making Which knot is so subtile and so mighty that it is owned into God In which oning it is made endlesly holy Furthermore he will we wit that all the Souls that shall be saved in Heaven without end be knit in this knot and oned in this oning and made Holy in this Holiness The Ljv. Chapter ANd for the great endless Love that God hath to all mankind he maketh no departing in Love between the blessed Soul of Christ and the least Soul that shall be saved For it is full easie to believe and trust that the dwelling of the blessed Soul of Christ is full high in the glorious God-head And truly as I understood in our Lords meaning Where the blessed Soul of Christ is there is the substance of all the Souls that shall be saved by Christ in their Exemplar and final cause Highly * ie ought owe we to enjoy that God dwelleth in our Soul and more highly we owe to enjoy that our Soul dwelleth in God Our Soul is made to be Gods dwelling place and the dwelling of our Soul is God which is unmade A high understanding it is inwardly to see and to know that God which is our Maker dwelleth in our Soul And a higher understanding it is and more inwardly to see and to know our Soul that is made dwelleth in