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
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 we desire And notwithstanding all this I beheld and marvelled greatly what is the Mercy and Forgiveness of God For by the Teaching that I had before I understood that the Mercy of God shall be Forgiveness of his Wrath after the time that we have sinned For methought that to a Soul whose meaning and desire is to Love that the Wrath of God were harder than any other Pain And therefore I took that the Forgiveness of his Wrath should be one of the principal Points of his Mercy But for ought that I might behold and desire I could not see this Point in all the shewing But how I saw and understood of the Working of Mercy I shall say some deal as God will give me Grace I understood thus Man is changeable in this Life and by simpleness and uncunning falleth into sin He is unmighty and unwise of himself and also his Will is over-laid In this time he is in Tempest and in Sorrow and in Woe And the cause is blindness for he seeth not God for if he saw God continually he should have no mischievous feeling ne no manner stirring nor sorrowing that serveth to sin Thus saw I and felt in the same time and methought that the sight and the feeling was high and plentuous and gracious in regard that our common feeling is in this Life but yet methought it was but low and small in regard of the great desire that the Soul hath to see God For I felt in me five manner of workings which be these Enjoying Mourning Desire Dreed and true Hope Enjoying for God gave me understanding and knowing that it was himself that I saw Mourning and that was for feeling desire that was that I might see him for ever more and more understanding and knowing that we shall never have full rest till we see him clearly and verily in Heaven Dreed was for it seemed to me in all that time that sight should fail and I to be left to my self True hope was in the endless Love that I saw that I should be kept by his Mercy and brought to the bliss And the joying in his sight with this true Hope of his merciful keeping made me to have Feeling and Comfort So that Mourning and dreed were not greatly painful And yet in all this I beheld in the shewing of God that this manner sight of him may not be continuant in this Life and that for his own Worship and for increase of our endless joy And therefore we fail oftentimes of the sight of him And anon we fall into our self and then find we feeling of right naught but the contrarious that is in our self And that of the old Root of our first sin with all that followeth of our own continuance And in this we be travelled and tempted with feeling of sin and of pain in many diverse manner Ghostly and Bodily as it is known to us in this Life The xlviij Chapter BUt our good Lord the Holy Ghost which is endless Life dwelling in our Soul full truly keepeth us and worketh therein a Peace and bringeth it to ease by Grace and maketh it | i e. complyant buxom and accordeth it to God And this is the Mercy and the Way that our good Lord continually leadeth us in as long as we be in this Life which is changeable For I saw no Wrath but on mans party and that forgiveth he in us For Wrath is not else but a frowardness and a contrariousness to Peace and Love And either it cometh of feeling of Might or of feeling of Wisdom or of feeling of Goodness which feeling is not of God but it is in our party for we by sin and wretchedness have in us a Wrath and a continuant contrariousness to Peace and to Love And that shewed he full oft in his lovely Chear of ruth and pity For the ground of Mercy is in Love and the working of Mercy is our keeping in Love And this was shewed in such a manner that I could not perceive of the property of Mercy otherwise but as it were all Love in Love that is to say as to my sight Mercy is a sweet gracious working in Love * ie mingled medled with plenteous pitty for Mercy worketh us keeping and Mercy worketh turning to us all thing to good Mercy for Love suffereth us to fail by measure and in as much as we fail in so much we fall and in as much as we fall in so much we die For us behooveth needs to die in as much as we fail sight and feeling of God that is our life Our failing is dreadful our falling is shameful and our dying is sorrowful But yet in all this the sweet eye of pity and love departeth never from us ne the working of Mercy ceaseth not For I beheld the property of Mercy and I beheld the property of Grace which have two manner of Working in one Love Mercy is a pitiful property which longeth to Mother-hood in tender Love And Grace is a Worshipful property which longeth to Royal Lordship in the same Love Mercy worketh keeping suffering quickening and healing and all is of tenderness of Love And Grace worketh with Mercy raising rewarding endlesly over-passing that our Loving and our Travel deserveth spreading abroad and shewing the high plenteousness largeness of Gods Royal Lordship in his marvellous courtesie And this is of the abundance of Love for Grace worketh our dreadful failing into plenteous and endless solace And Grace worketh our shameful falling into high Worshipful rising and Grace worketh our sorrowful dying into Holy blissful Life For I saw full truly that ever as our contrariousness worketh to us here in Earth pain shame and sorrow Right so on the contrariwise Grace worketh to us in Heaven Solace Worship and Bliss and over-passing so far forth that when we come up and receive that sweet Reward which Grace hath wrought to us there we shall thank and bless our Lord endlesly enjoying that ever we suffered Woe and that shall be for a property of blessed Love that we shall know in God which we might never have known without Woe going before And when I saw all this me behooved needs to grant that the Mercy of God and the Forgiveness slacketh and wasteth our Wrath. The xljx Chapter FOr it was an high marvel to the Soul which was continuantly shewed in all and with great diligence beholding that our Lord God aneynst himself may not forgive for he may not be Wrath. It were unpossible for this was shewed that our Life is all grounded and rooted in Love and without Love we may not live And therefore to the Soul that of his special Grace seeth so far forth of the high marvellous goodness of God that we be endlesly oned to him in Love It is the most unpossible that may be that God should be Wrath for Wrath and Friendship be two Contraries for he that wasteth and destroyeth our Wrath and maketh us meek and mild it
* i e. perfect fulness fulsomness in the bliss in Heaven by his plentuous Grace And this was a beginning of teaching which I saw in the same time whereby I might come to knowing in what manner he beholdeth us in our sin And then I saw that only pain blameth and punisheth And our courteous Lord comforteth and succoureth And ever he is to the Soul in glad chear longing and loving to bring us to his bliss The place that the Lord sat on was simple on the Earth barren and desert alone in Wilderness his Cloathing was wide and side and full seemly as falleth to a Lord The colour of the cloathing was Blew as Azure most sad and fair his chear was merciful The colour of his Face was fair brown white with full seemly Countenance his eyen were black most fair and seemly shewing full of lovely pity And within him an heyward long and broad all full of endless Heavenliness And the lovely looking that he looked on his Servant continually and namely in his falling methought it might melt our Hearts for love and burst them in two for joy This fair looking shewed of a seemly * i e. mixture medelur which was marvellous to behold That one was rewth and pity That other joy and bliss The joy and bliss passeth as far the ruth and the pity as Heaven is above Earth the pity was Earthly and the bliss Heavenly The rewth and the pity of the Father was of the falling of Adam which is his most loved Creature The joy and the bliss was of the falling of his dear worthy Son which is * i e. equal even with the Father The merciful beholding of his lovely chear fufilled all Earth and descended down with Adam into Hell with which continuant pity Adam was kept fro endless Death And this Mercy and Pity dwelleth with mankind into the time that we come up into Heaven But man is blinded in this Life and therefore we may not see our Father God as he is And what time that he of his Goodness will shew him to man he sheweth him | i e. friendly homely as may notwithstanding that I saw verily we ought to know and believe that the Father is not man But his sitting on the Earth barren and desert is this to mean He made mans Soul to be his own City and his dwelling Place which is most pleasing to him of all his Works And what time Man was fallen into sorrow and pain he was not all seemly to serve of that Noble Office And therefore our kind Father would have * i e. adorned for him dight him none other place but to sit upon the Earth abiding mankind which is | i e. mingled medled with Earth Till what time by his Grace his dear worthy Son had brought again his City into the noble fairness with his hard travel The | i e. blewness blewhead of that cloathing betokeneth his stedfastness The * i e. brownness brown-head of his fair face with the seemly | i e. blackness black-head of the eyen was most according to shew his holy Soberness The largeness of his cloathing which was fair flaming about betokeneth that he hath beclosed in him all heaviness and all endless joy and bliss And this was shewed in a touch where I saw that my understanding was led into the Lord in which I saw him highly | i e. rejoyce enjoy for the worshipful restoring that he will and shall bring his Servant to by his plentious Grace And yet I marvelled beholding the Lord and the Servant before said I saw the Lord sit solemnly and the Servant standing reverently before his Lord In which Servant is double understanding one without an other within outward he was clad simple as a Labourer which was disposed to travel and he stood full near the Lord not even fore anenst him but in party aside and that on the left side His cloathing was a white Kirtle single old and all defaulted dyed with sweat of his body streit sitting to him and short as it were an handful beneath the knee bare seeming as it should soon be worn up ready to be ragged and rent And in this I marvelled greatly thinking this is now an unseemly cloathing for the Servant that is so highly loved to stand in before so Worshipful a Lord. And inward in him was shewed a ground of Love which Love he had to the Lord that was even like to the Love that the Lord had to him The Wisdom of the Servant saw inwardly that there was one thing to do which should be Worship to the Lord. And the Servant for Love having no regard to himself nor to nothing that might fall off him hastily did start and run at the sending of his Lord to do that thing which was his Will and his Worship For it seemed by his outward cloathing as if he had been a continuant Labourer and an hard traveller of long time And by the inward sight that I had both in the Lord and in the Servant it seemed that he was anaved that is to say new beginning for to travel which Servant was never sent out before There was a Treasure in the Earth which the Lord loved I marvelled and thought what it might be And I was answered in my understanding it is a meat which is lovesome and pleasing unto the Lord For I saw the Lord sit as a man and I saw neither meat nor drink wherewith to serve him this was one marvel Another marvel was that this solemn Lord had no Servant but one and him he sent out I beheld thinking what Labour it may be that the Servant should do and then I understood that he should do the greatest Labour and the hardest Travel that is he should be a Gardner delving and | i e. ditching diking and sweating and turning the Earth up and down and seek the deepness and water the Plants in time And in this he should continue his Travel and make sweat-floods to run and noble plentuousness Fruit to spring which he should bring before the Lord and serve him therewith to his liking and he should never turn again till he had dight this meat all ready as he knew that it liked to the Lord And then he should take this meat with the drink and bear it full Worfully before the Lord. And all this time the Lord should sit right on the same place abiding the Servant whom he sent out And yet I marvelled fro whence the Servant came For I saw in the Lord that he hath within himself endless Life and all manner of Goodness save the treasure that was in the Earth And that was grounded within the Lord in marvellous deepness of endless Love But it was not all to his Worship till his Servant hath thus nobly | i e. drest dight it and brought it before him in himself present And without the Lord was right nought but
Wilderness And I understood not all what this Example meant and therefore I marvelled from whence the Servant came In the Servant is comprehended the second Person of the Trinity and in the Servant is comprehended Adam that is to say all men And therefore when I say the Son it meaneth the God-head which is even with the Father And when I saw the Servant it meaneth Christs Manhood which is rightful Adam By the nearhood of the Servant is understood the Son And by the standing on the left side is understood Adam The Lord is God the Father The Servant is the Son Jesu Christ The Holy Ghost is the even Love that is in them both When Adam fell Gods Son fell for the right oning which was made in Heaven Gods Son might not be separate from Adam for by Adam I understand all man Adam fell fro Life to Death into the slade of this wretched World and after that into Hell Gods Son fell with Adam into the slade of the Maidens Womb which was the fairest Daughter of Adam and that was for to excuse Adam from blame in Heaven and in Earth And mightily he fetched him out of Hell By the Wisdom and the Goodness that was in the Servant is understood Gods Son by the poor cloathing as a Labourer standing near the left side is understood the manhood of Adam with all the mischief and feebleness that followeth For in all this our good Lord shewed his own Son and Adam but one man The Vertue and the Goodness that we have is of Jesu Christ The feebleness and blindness that we have is of Adam which two were shewed in the Servant And thus hath our good Lord Jesu taken upon him all our blame And therefore our Father may nor will no more blame assigne to us than to his own dear worthy Son Jesu Christ Thus was he the Servant before his coming into the Earth standing ready before the Father in purpose till what time he would send him to do the worshipful deed by which Mankind was brought again into Heaven that is to say notwithstanding that he is God even with the Father as anenst the God-head But in his fore-seeing purpose that he would be Man to save Man in fulfilling of the Will of his Father so he stood before his Father as a Servant wilfully taking upon him all our charge And then he start full readily at the Fathers Will and anon he fell full low in the Maidens Womb having no regard to himself ne to his hard Pains The white Kirtle is the flesh The single-head is that there was right nought between the God-head and the Man-hood The straitness is Poverty the old is of Adams Wearing the defaulting is the sweat of Adams travel the shortness sheweth the Servant-Labourer And thus I saw the Son stand saying in his meaning Loe my dear Father I stand before thee in Adams Kirtle all ready to start and to run I would be in the Earth to thy Worship when it is thy Will to send me how long shall I desire it Full truly | i e. knew wist the Son when it was the Fathers Will and how long he should desire that is to say as anenst the God-head for he is the Wisdom of the Father Wherefore this meaning was shewed in understanding of the Manhood of Christ For all Mankind that shall be saved by the sweet Incarnation and Passion of Christ all is the Manhood of Christ for he is the Head and we be his Members To which Members the day and the time is unknown when every passing Woe and Sorrow shall have an end and the everlasting Joy and Bliss shall be fulfilled Which day and time for to see all the company of Heaven longeth and desireth and all that be under Heaven which shall come thither their way is by longing and desiring Which desiring and longing was shewed in the Servant standing before the Lord or else thus in the Son standing before the Father in Adams Kirtle For the longing and desiring of all Mankind that shall be safe appeared in Jesu for Jesu is in all that may be safe and all that be saved is in Jesu And all of the Charity of God with obedience meekness and patience and vertues that longeth to us Also in this marvellous Example I have teaching within me as it were the beginning of an A. B. C. whereby I may have some understanding of our Lords meaning For the privities of the Revelation be hid therein notwithstanding that all the shewings be full of privities The sitting of the Father betokeneth the God-head that is to say for shewing of Rest and Peace For in the God-head may be no travel And that he sheweth himself as Lord betokeneth to our Manhood The standing of the Servant betokeneth travel and on the left side betokeneth that he was not all worthy to stand even right before the Lord. His starting was the God-head and the running was the Man-head for the God-head start fro the Father into the Maidens Womb falling into the taking of our kind And in this falling he took great sore The sore that he took was our flesh in which as soon as he took it he had feeling of deadly Pains By that he stood dreadfull before the Lord and not even right betokeneth that his cloathing was not honest to stand even right before the Lord nor that might not nor should not be his Office whiles he was a Labourer nor also he might not sit with the Lord in rest and peace till he had won his peace rightfully with his hard travel And by the left side that the Father left his own Son wilfully in the manhood to suffer all mans pain without sparing of him By that his Kirtle was at the point to be ragged and rent is understood the Roddes and Scourges the Thornes and the Nails the drawing and the dragging his tender flesh renting as I saw in some part the tender flesh was rent from the head-pann falling on pieces unto the time the bleeding failed And then it began to dry again cleaving to the bone And by the wallowing and writhing groaning and mourning is understood that he might never rise all mightily fro that time that he was fallen into the Maidens Womb till his body was slain and dead he yielding the Soul into the Fathers hand with all mankind for whom he was sent And at this point he began first to shew his might for then he went into Hell And when he was there then he raised up the great root out of the deep deepness which rightfully was knit to him in high Heaven The body lay in the Grave till Easter morrow and fro that time he lay never more for there was rightfully ended the wallowing and the writhing the groaning and the mourning And our foul deadly flesh that Gods Son took upon him which was Adams old Kirtle strait bare and short then by our Saviour was made fair new white and bright and
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
blessedful Trinity which is everlasting being right as he is endless from without beginning right so it was in his purpose endless to make mankind Which fair kind first was dight to his own Son the second Person and when he would by full accord of all the Trinity he made us all at ones And in our making he knit us and oned us to himself By which oning we be kept as clean and as noble as we were made by the vertue of that each precious oning we love our Maker and like him praise him and thank him and endlesly enjoy in him And this is the working which is wrought continually in each Soul that shall be saved which is the godly Will before said And thus in our making God Almighty is our kindly Father And God all Wisdom is our kindly Mother with the Love and the Goodness of the Holy Ghost which is all one God one Lord. And in the knitting and in the oning he is our very true Spouse and we his loved Wife and his fair Maiden with which Wife he was never displeased for he saith I love thee and thou lovest me and our love shall never part in two I beheld the working of all the blessed Trinity In which beholding I saw and understood these three properties the property of the Father-head and the property of the Mother-head and the property of the Lordship in one God In our Father Almighty we have our keeping and our bliss And aneynst our kindly substance which is to us by our making fro without beginning And in the second Person in Wit and Wisdom we have our keeping And aneynst our sensuality our restoring and our saving for he is our Mother Brother and Saviour And in our good Lord the Holy Ghost we have our rewarding and our yielding for our living and our travel and endlesly over-passing all that we desire in his marvellous courtesie of his high plentuous Grace for all our Life is in three In the first our being And in the second we have our encreasing And in the third we have our fulfilling The first is kind the second is Mercy the third is Grace For the first I saw and understood that the high might of the Trinity is our Father and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother and the great Love of the Trinity is our Lord. And all these have we in kind and in our substantial making And furthermore I saw that the second Person which is our Mother substancially the same deer worthy Person is now become our Mother sensual for we be double of Gods making that is to say substancial and sensual Our substance is the higher party which we have in our Father God Almighty And the second Person of the Trinity is our Mother in kind in our substancial making in whom we be grounded and rooted And he is our Mother of Mercy in our sensuality taking And thus our Mother is to us diverse manner working in whom our parts be kept undeparted For in our Mother Christ we profit and encrease and in Mercy he reformeth us and restoreth And by the vertue of his Passion his Death and his Uprising oned us to our substance This worketh our Mother in mercy to all his beloved Children which be to him buxom and obedient And grace worketh with mercy and namely in two properties as it was shewed Which working longeth to the third Person the Holy Ghost he worketh rewarding and giving Rewarding is a gift of trust that the Lord doth to them that hath traveled And giving is a courteous Working which he doth freely of grace fulfilling and over-passing all that is deserved of Creatures Thus in our Father God Almighty we have our being And in our Mother of mercy Jesu Christ we have our reforming and our restoring in whom our parts be oned and all made perfect man And by yielding and giving in grace of the Holy Ghost we be fulfilled and our substance is in our Father God Almighty And our substance is in our Mother God all Wisdom And our substance is in our Lord God the Holy Ghost all goodness for our substance is whole in each person of the Trinity which is one God And our sensuality is only in the second Person Christ Jesu in whom is the Father and the Holy Ghost And in him and by him we be mightily taken out of Hell and out of the wretchedness in Earth and worshipfully brought up into Heaven and blessedfully oned to our substance encreased in Riches and Nobly by all the vertue of Christ and by the grace and working of the Holy Ghost The Ljx. Chapter ANd all this bliss we have by mercy and grace Which manner bliss we might never have had and known but if that property and goodness which is in God had been contraried whereby we have this bliss For wickedness hath been suffered to rise contrary to that goodness and the goodness of mercy and grace contraried against that wickedness and turned all to goodness and worship to all that shall be saved For it is that property in God which doth good against evil Thus Jesu Christ that doth good against evil is our very Mother We have our being of him where the ground of Mother-head beginneth with all the sweet keeping of Love that endlesly followeth As verily as God is our Father as verily is God our Mother and that shewed he in all and namely in these sweet words there he saith I it am that is to say I it am the Might and the Goodness of the Father-head I it am the Wisdom and the Kindness of the Mother-head I it am the Light and the Grace that is all blessed Love I it am the Trinity I it am the Vnity I it am the high Sovereign Goodness of all manner thing I it am that maketh thee to long I it am the endless fulfilling of all true desires For there the Soul is highest noblest and worshipfullest yet it is lowest meekest and mildest And of this substancioal ground we have all our Vertues in our sensuality by gift of kind and by helping and speeding of mercy and grace without which we may not profit Our high Father Almighty God which is being he knoweth us and loved us fro before any time Of which knowing in his full marvellous deep Charity by the fore-seeing endless counsel of all the blessed Trinity he would that the second Person should become our Mother our Brother and our Saviour Whereof it followeth that as verily as God is our Father verily God is our Mother Our Father willeth our Mother worketh Our good Lord the Holy Ghost confirmeth and therefore it longeth to us to love our God in whom we have our being him reverently thanking and praising of our making mightily praying to our Mother of mercy and pity and to our Lord the Holy Ghost of help and grace for in these three is all our Life Kind Mercy and grace Whereof we have mild-head patience and pity and hating of
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
seek God All this that I have now said and more as I shall say hereafter is comforting against sin For in the third shewing when I saw that God doth all that is done I saw not sin and then I saw that all is well but when God shewed me for sin then said he All shall be well The xxxv Chapter ANd when God Almighty had shewed so plenteously and so fully of his Goodness I desired to wit of a certain Creature that I loved if it should continue in good Living which I hoped by the Grace of God was begun And in this singular desire it seemed that I letted my self for I was not taught in this time And then was I answered in my Reason as it were by a friendful mean Take it generally and behold the courtesie of thy Lord God as he shewed to thee for it is more Worship to God to behold him in all than in any special thing I assented and therewith I learned that it is more Worship to God to know all thing in general than to like in any thing in special and if I should do wisely after this Teaching I hold not be glad for any thing in special ne greatly diseased for any manner thing for All shall be well For the full-head of joy is to behold God in all for by the same blessed Might Wisdom and Love that he made all thing to the same end our good Lord leadeth it continually and there to himself shall bring it and when it is time we shall see it And the ground of this was shewed in the first and more openly in the third where it saith I saw God in a Point All that our Lord doth is rightfully and all that he suffereth is Worshipful And in these two is comprehended Good and Evil for all that is Good our Lord doth and that is Evil our Lord suffereth I say not that Evil is Worshipful but I say the sufferance of our Lord God is Worshipful whereby his Goodness shall be known without end and his marvellous Meekness and Mild-head by this working of Mercy and Grace Right | i e Plenitude full-head is that thing that is so good that it may not be better than it is For God himself is very rightful head and all his Works be done rightfully as they be ordained fro without beginning by his high Might his high Wisdom his high Goodness And right as he hath ordained it to the best right so he worketh continually and leadeth it to the same end And he is ever full pleased with himself and with all his Works And the beholding of this blessed Accord is full sweet to the Soul that seeth it by Grace All the Souls that shall be saved in Heaven without end be made rightful in the sight of God and by his own Goodness In which rightfullness we be endlesly kept and marvellously above all Creatures And Mercy is a Working that cometh of the Goodness of God And it shall last working as long as sin is suffered to pursue rightful Souls And when sin hath no longer leave to pursue then shall the Working of Mercy cease And then shall all be brought into rightfulness and therein stand without end By his sufferance we fall and in his blessed Love with his Might and his Wisdom we are kept and by Mercy and Grace we be raised to manifold more Joy And thus in Rightfulness and in Mercy he will be known and Loved now and without end And the Soul that wisely beholdeth in Grace is | i e. wel contented well paid with both and endlesly enjoyeth The xxxvj Chapter OUr Lord God shewed that a deed shall be done and himself shall do it and it shall be Worshipful and marvellous and plentuous and by him it shall be done and himself shall do it And this is the highest joy that the Soul understood that God himself shall do it And I shall do right nought but sin and my sin shall not | i e. hinder let his Goodness Working And I saw that the beholding of this is a Heavenly Joy in a * i e. fearful dreadful Soul which evermore Godly by Grace desireth Gods Will This deed shall by begun here and it shall be Worshipful to God and plentuously profitable to all his Lovers in Earth And ever as we come to Heaven we shall see it in marvellous Joy And it shall last thus in Working to the last Day and the Worship and the Bliss of that shall last in Heaven before God and all his Holy Saints without end Thus was this deed seen and understand in our Lords meaning and the cause why he shewed it is to make us to enjoy in him and in all his Works When I saw the shewing continued I understood it was shewed for a great thing that was then for to come Which thing God shewed that himself should do it Which deed hath the Properties before said And this shewed he full blessedfully meaning that I should take it wistly faithfully and trustfully but what the Deed should be it was kept privy to me And in this I saw he will not we dread to know the things that he sheweth He sheweth them for he will we know them By which knowing he will we Love him and like in him and endlesly enjoy in him And for the great Love that he hath to us he sheweth us all that is Worshipful and Profitable for the time And those things that he will now have privy yet of his great Goodness he shewed them * i e. secretly close In which shewing he will we believe and understand that we should see it verily in his endless Bliss Then ought we to enjoy in him for all that he sheweth and all that he hideth And if we | i e. willingly wilfully and meekly do this we shall find therein great ease and endless thanking we shall have of him therefore And this is the understanding of this Word That it shall be done by me that is to say the general Man that is to say all that shall be safe it shall be Worshipful Marvellous and Plentuous and By me it shall be done and God himself shall do it And this shall be highest Joy that may be beholden of the Deed that God himself shall do it and Man shall do right nought but sin Then meaneth our Lord God thus as if he said Behold and see here hast thou matter of Meekness Here hast thou matter of Love Here hast thou matter of Knowing thy self Here hast thou matter of Enjoying in me And for my Love enjoy in me for of all thing therewith might thou most please mee And as long as we be in this Life what time that we by our Folly turn us to the beholding of the reproved tenderly our Lord toucheth us and blissedfully calleth us saying in our Soul Let me alone my dear worthy Child intend to me I am enough to thee and enjoy in thy Saviour and in thy
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