IN this same time that I sawe this sight of the head bleeding our good Lord shewed a Ghostlie sight of his * i. e friendly homelie loving I saw that he is to us all thing that is good and comfortable to our help He is our Clothing that for Love wrappeth us and windeth us †i. e. embraceth halseth us and all becloseth us hangeth about us for tender Love that he maie never leave us And so in this sight I saw that he is all thing that is good as to my understanding And in this he shewed a litle thing the quantitie of a Hasel-Nutt lying in the palme of my hand as me seemed and it was as round as a Ball. I looked theron with the eie of my understanding and thought What may this be and it was answered generallie thus It is all that is made I marvelled how it might last For me thought it might sodenlie have fallen to naught for litlenes And I was answered in my Understanding It lasteth and ever shall For God loveth it And so hath all thing being by the Love of God In this litle thing I sawe three Propeties The first is that God made it The second is that God loveth it The third is that God keepeth it But What beheld I therein verilie the Maker the Keeper the Lover For till I am substanciallie united to him I maie never have full rest ne verie blisse that is to saie that I be so fastned to him that there be right nought that is made betweene my God and mee This litle thing that is made me thought it might have fallen to nought for litleness Of this needeth us to have knowledge that us liketh naught all thing that is made for to love God and have God that is unmade For this is the cause which we be not all in ease of Heart and Soule For we seeke here rest in this thing that is so litle where no rest is in and we know not our God that is all Mightie all Wise and all Good for he is verie rest God will be known and him liketh that we rest us in him For all that is beneath him sufficeth not us And this is the Cause why that no Soule is in Rest till it is * i. e emptied naughted of all things that are made When she is wilfullie naughted for love to have him that is all then is she able to receave Ghostlie rest And also our good Lord shewed that it is full great pleasure to him that a seelie Soule come to him naked plainlie and homelie For this is the kind dwelling of the Soule by the touching of the Holie Ghost as by the understanding that I have in this shewing God of thy goodnes give me thy self for thou art enough to me And I may aske nothing that is lesse that may be fullie Worship to thee and if I aske any thing that is lesse ever me wanteth But onlie in thee I have all And these wordes of the Goodnes of God be full love-some to the Soule and full nere touching the Will of our Lord for his Goodnes fulfilleth all his Creatures and all his blessed Works without end For he is the endlesse head and he made us onlie to himselfe and restored us by his precious Passion and ever keepeth us in his blessed Love and all this is of his Goodnes The vj. Chapter THis shewing was given to my understanding to learne our Soule wisely to cleave to the Goodnes of God and in that same time the custome of our Praier was brought to my mind how that we use for unknowing of Love to make many meanes Then sawe I verilie that it is more worship to God and more verie delight that we faithfullie pray to himself of his Goodnes and cleave therto by his Grace with true understanding and stedfast beleif then if we made all the meanes that heart may think For if we make all these meanes it is too litle and not full Worship to God But in his Goodnes is all the whole and there faileth right nought For thus as I shall saie came to my minde in the same time We Pray to God for his Holie flesh and for his precious Blood his Holie Passion his deare worthie Death and worshipfull Wounds for all the blessed kindenes and the endles Life that we have of all this it is of the Goodnes of God and we Praie him for his sweet Mothers Love that bare him and all the helpe that we have of her it is of his Goodnes And we Praie for his Holie Crosse that he died on and all the helpe and all the vertue of that we have of that Crosse it is of his Goodnes And on the same wise all the helpe that we have to special Saints and of all the blessed Companie of Heaven the deare worthie Love and the Holy endles Friendship that we have of them it is of his Goodnes For the meanes that the Goodnes of God hath ordeined for to helpe us be full faire and many Of which the chiefe and principall meane is the blessed * i. e. humanity kind that he took of the Maiden with all the meanes that went before and come after which be longing to our Redemption and to our endless Salvation Wherefore it pleaseth him that we seeke him and Worship him by Meanes Understanding and knowing that he is the Goodnes of all For to the Goodnes of God is the highest Praier and it cometh down to us to the lowest partie of our neede it quickneth our Soule and maketh it live and makes it to waxe in Grace and Vertue it is nearest in kind and readiest in Grace For it is the same Grace that the Soule seeketh and ever shall till we know our God verilie that hath us all in himself beclosed A man goeth upright and the Soule of his body is * i. e. Enclosed sparred as a purse full faire and when it is time of his necessity it is opened and sparred againe full | i e. seemly honestlie And that it is he that doth this it is shewed there where he saith He cometh downe to us to the lowest part of our need For he hath no despite of that he made ne hath he no disdaine to serve us at the simplest office that to our bodie longeth in kind for love of the Soule that he made to his own likenes For as the Bodie is cladd in the Cloath and the Flesh in the Skinn and the Bones in the Flesh and the Heart in the bulke so are we Soule and Bodie cladd and enclosed in the Goodnes of God Yea and more * i. e. truely homelie for all they vanish and wast away the Goodnes of God is ever whole and more nere to us without any comparison For truelie our Lover desireth that the Soule cleave to him with all the mightes and that we be evermore cleaving to his Goodnes for of all thing that heart can thinke it pleaseth
please him and solace him to whom he giveth it And if the Receiver take the Gift gladly and thankfully than the courteous Giver setteth at naught all his Cost and all his Travel for joy and delight he hath for he hath pleased and solaced him that he loved Plentuously and fully was this shewed Think as Wisely of the greatness of this Word Ever For in that was shewed an high knowing of Love that he hath in our Salvation with manifold joys that followen of the Passion of Christ One is that he joyeth that he hath done it in deed and he shall no more suffer That other is that he hath therewith bought us from endless Pains of Hell An other is that he brought us up into Heaven and made us for to be his Crown and his endless Bliss The Tenth Revelation The xxjv Chapter WIth a good chear our good Lord looked into his side and beheld with joy and with his sweet looking he led forth the understanding of his Creature by the same Wound into his side within And there he shewed a fair and delectable place and large enough for all Mankind that shall be saved and rest in Peace and in Love And therewith he brought to mind his dear Worthy Blood and his precious Water which he let pour out for Love And with the sweet beholding he shewed his blessed Heart cloven in two and with his enjoying he shewed to my understanding in part the blessedful Godhead as far forth as he would at that time strengthen the poor Soul for to understand as it may be said that is to mean the endless Love that was without beginning and is and shall be ever And with this our good Lord said well blessedfully Low how I love thee as if he had said My Darling behold and see thy Lord thy God that is thy Maker and thy endless joy See thine own Brother thy Saviour my Child behold and see what liking and bliss I have in thy Salvation And for my love | i e. rejoyce enjoy with me And also to more understanding this blessed Word was said Loe how I love thee as if he had said Behold and see that I loved thee so much or that I died for thee that I would die for thee And now I have died for thee and suffered willingfully that I may And now is all my bitter Pain and all my hard Travel turned to everlasting joy and bliss to me and to thee How should it now be that thou shouldest any thing pray me that liked me but if I should full gladly grant it thee for my liking is thy Holiness and the endless joy and bliss with me This is the understanding simply as I can say of this blessed Word Loe how I loved thee This shewed our good Lord to make us glad and merry The Eleventh Revelation And the xxv Chapter ANd with this chear of mirth and joy our good Lord looked down on the right side and brought to my mind where our Lady stood in the time of his passion and said Wilt thou see her And in this sweet Word as if he had said I wot well that thou wilt see my blessed Mother for after my self she is the highest Joy that I might shew thee and most liking and worship to me and most she is desired to be seen of all my blessed Creatures And for the marvellous high and singular Love that he hath to this sweet Maiden His blessed Mother our Lady Saint Mary he sheweth her bliss and joy as by the meaning of this sweet Word as if he said Wilt thou see how that I love her that thou might joy with me in the Love that I have in her and she in me And also to more understanding this sweet Word our good Lord speaketh in Love to all Mankind that shall be saved as it were all to one Person as if he said Wilt thou see in her how thou art loved for thy Love I have made her so High so Noble so Worthy And this liketh me And so will I that it do thee For after himself she is the most blessedful sight But hereof am I not learned to long to see her bodily Presence while I am here but the vertues of her blessedful Soul her Truth her Wisdom her Charity whereby I am learned to know my self and reverently dread my God And when our good Lord had shewed this and said this Word Wilt thou see her I answered and said Yea good Lord grant Mercy Yea good Lord if it be thy Will Oftentimes I Prayed this and I * i e. thought went to have seen her in bodily liking but I saw her not so And Jesu in that Word shewed me a Ghostly sight of her right as I had seen her before litle and simple right so he shewed her then High and Noble and Glorious and pleasing to him above all Creatures And so he will that it be known that all those that like in him should also like in her And to more understanding he shewed this example as if a man love a Creature singularly above all Creatures he will make all other Creatures to love and to like that Creature that he loveth so much And in this Word that Jesu said Wilt thou see her methought it it was the most liking Word that he might give me of her with the Ghostly shewing that he gave me of her For our Lord shewed me nothing in special but our Lady Saint Mary and her shewed three times The first was as she conceived The second as she was in her Sorrow under the Cross And the third was as she is now in Liking Worship and Joy The Twelfth Revelation The xxvj Chapter ANd after this our Lord shewed him more glorified as to my sight than I saw him before wherein I was learned that our Soul shall never have rest till it come into him knowing that he is full of joy homely and courteous and blessedful and very Life Oftentimes our Lord Jesu said I it am I it am I it am That is highest I it am that thou lovest I it am that thou likest I it am that thou servest I it am that thou longest I it am that thou desirest I it am that thou meanest I it am that is all I it am that Holy Church Preacheth thee and Teacheth thee I it am that shewed me before to thee The Number of thy Words passeth my Wits and understanding and all my Mights for they were in the highest as to my sight For therein is comprehended I cannot tell what but the joy that I saw in the shewing of them passeth all that Heart can think or Soul may desire And therefore these Words be not declared here but every man after the Grace that God giveth him in understanding and longing receive them in our Lords meaning The Thirteenth Revelation The xxvij Chapter ANd after this our Lord brought to my mind the longing that I had to him before and I saw nothing
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
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
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
thing that is good as to my sight and the goodness that all thing hath it is he And all this our Lord shewed in the first sight And gave me space and time to behold it and the Bodily sight stinted and the Ghostly sight dwelleth in my understanding And I abode with reverent dread joying in that I saw and desiring as I durst to see more if it were his will or longer time the same sight In all this I was much stirred in Charity to mine even Christian that they might all see and know the same that I saw for I would that it were comfort to them for all this sight was shewed in general Then said I to them that were with me It is this Day Dooms-day with me And this I said for I went to have died for that day that Man or Woman dieth is he deemed particularly as he shall be without end as to my understanding This I said for I would they should love God the better for to make them to have mind that this Life is short as they might see in example for in all this time I weened to have dyed and that was marvaile to me and wonder in party for methought this vision was shewed for them that should live All that I say of me I mean in person of all my even Christian for I am learned in the Ghostly shewing of our Lord God that he meaneth so And therefore I pray you all for God's sake and counsel you for your own profit that you leave the beholding of a Wretch that it was shewed to and mightily wisely and meekly behold in God that of his courtesie love and endless Goodness would shew it generally in Comfort of us all for it is Gods will that ye take it with a great joy and liking as Jesu Christ hath shewed it to you The ix Chapter FOr the shewing I am not good but if I love God the better and in asmuch as ye love God the better it is more to you than to me I say not this to them that be wise for they | i e. know wit it well but I say it to you that be simple for ease and comfort for we be all one in Love for verily it was not shewed to me for that God loveth me better than the least Soul that is in Grace for I am sure there be many that never hath shewing ne sight but of the common teaching of Holy Church that love God better than I for if I look singularly to my self I am right nought but in general I am I hope in | i e. unity one-head of Charity with all my even Christian for in this one head standeth the life of all mankind that shall be saved for God is all that is good as to my sight And God hath made all that is made and God loveth all that he hath made and he that generally loveth all his even Christen for God he loveth all that is For in mankind that shall be saved is comprehended all that is to say all that is made and the Maker of all for in Man is God and in God is all and he that loveth thus he loveth all And I hope by the Grace of God he that beholdeth it thus shall be truly taught and mightily comforted if him needeth comfort I speak of them that shall be saved for in this time God shewed me none other But in all thing I believe as Holy Church Preacheth and Teacheth for the Faith of Holy Church which I had before hand understanding and as I hope by the Grace of God will fully keep it in use and custome stood continually in my sight willing and meaning never to receive any thing that might be contrary thereto And with this intent and with this meaning I beheld the shewing with all my diligence for in all this blessed shewing I beheld it as in Gods meaning All this was shewed by three parts that is to say by bodily sight and by words formed in my understanding and by Ghostly sight but the Ghostly sight I cannot ne may shew it as openly ne as fully as I would but I trust in our Lord God Almighty that he shall of his Goodness and for your Love make you to take it more Ghostly and more sweetly than I can or may tell it The Second Revelation The x. Chapter ANd after this I saw with bodily sight in the face of the Crucifix that hung before me In the which I beheld continually a part of his Passion despite spitting sulloing and buffeting and many languring Pains more than I can tell and often changing of Colour and one time I saw how half the face beginning at the Ear over | i e. covered yede with dry Blood till it closed into the mid-face And after that the other half be closed in the same wise And the whiles it vanished in this party even as it came This saw I bodily | i e. obscurely sweinly and darkly and I desired more bodily light to have seen more clearly and I was answered in my reason If God will shew thee more he shall be thy light thou need none but him For I saw him and sought him for we be now so blind and so unwise that we can never seek God till what time that he of his Goodness sheweth him to us And when we see ought of him graciously then are we stirred by the same Grace to seek with great desire to see him more blessedfully And thus I saw him and sought him and I had him and wanted him And this is and should be our common working in this life as to my sight One time my Understanding was litle down into the Sea-ground and there saw I Hills and Dales green seeming as it were most begrowing with Wrake and Gravel Then I understood thus that if a Man or Woman were there under the broad Water and he might have sight of God so as God is with a man continually he should be safe in Soul and Body and take no harm and | i e. exceedingly over-passing he should have more solace and comfort than all this World may or can tell For he will that we believe that we see him continually though that us think that it be but litle and in the belief he maketh us evermore to get Grace for he will be seen and he will be sought and he will be abiden and he will be trusted This second shewing was so low and so litle and so simple that my Spirits were in great Travail in the beholding mourning dreadful and longing for I was sometime in a fear whether it was a shewing or none and then divers times our Lord gave me more sight whereby that I understood truly that it was a shewing It was a Figure and a Likeness of our foul black deeds which our fair bright blessed Lord bare for our sin It made me to think of the Holy †i e. Veronica Vernacle of Rome
understand that the best deed is well done and so well as the best deed that is done and the highest so well is the least deed done And all in the Property and in the Order that our Lord hath it ordeined tofore without beginning For there is no Door but he I saw full truly that he changed never his purpose in no manner of thing ne never shall without end For there was nothing unknown to him in his rightful Ordinance fro without beginning And therefore all thing were set in order ere any thing was made as it should stand without end and no manner of thing shall fail of that Point for he hath made all thing in fulhead of Goodness And therefore the blessed Trinity is ever full pleased in all his Works And all this shewed he full blessedly meaning thus See I am God See I am in all things See I do all things See I never left my hands of my Works ne never shall without end See I lead all thing to the end that I ordaine it to for without beginning by the same Might Wisdom and Love that I made it with How should any thing be amiss Thus mightily wisely and lovingly was the Soul examined in this Vision Then saw I verily that me behoveth needs to assent with great Reverence and Joy in God The Fourth Revelation The xij Chapter ANd after this I saw beholding the body plentuously bleeding in seeming of the scourging as thus The fair Skin was broken full deep into the tender flesh with sharp smitings all about the sweet Body The hot blood ran out so plenteously that there was neither seen Skin ne Wound but as it were all blood And when it came where it should have fallen down there it vanished Notwithstanding the bleeding continued a while till it might be seen with advisement And this was so plentuous to my sight that me thought if it had been so in kind and in substance for that time it should have made the Bed all on blood and have passed over all about Then came to my mind that God hath made Waters plentuous in Earth to our service and to our bodily ease for tender Love that he hath to us But yet liketh him better that we take full holsomely his blessed Blood to wash us from sin for there is no Liquor that is made that liketh him so well to give us For it is most plentuous as it is most precious and that by the vertue of the blessed Godhead and it is our own kind and blessedfully overfloweth us by the vertue of his precious Love The dear worthy blood of our Lord Jesu Christ also verily as it is most precious as verily it is most plentuous Behold and see the vertue of this precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood It descended down into Hell and brake her Bonds and delivered them all that were there which belongeth to the Court of Heaven The precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood overfloweth all Earth and is ready to wash all Creatures of sin which be of Good-will have been or shall be The precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood ascendeth up into Heaven in the blessed Body of our Lord Jesu Christ And there is in him Bleeding Praying for us to the Father and is and shall be as long as us needeth And evermore it floweth in all Heaven enjoying the Salvation of all Mankind that be there and shall be fulfilling the number that faileth The Fifth Revelation The xiij Chapter ANd after or that God shewed any words he suffered me to behold him a conveniable time And all that I had seen and all the understanding that was therein as the simpleness of the Soul might take it Then he without voyce and opening of Lips formed in my Soul these Words Herewith is the fiend overcome This Word said our Lord meaning his blessed Passion as he shewed before In this our Lord shewed a part of the fiends malice and fully his unmight for he shewed that the Passion of him is the overcoming of the fiend God shewed that the fiend hath now the same malice that he had before the Incarnation and also sore he travelleth And as continually he seeth that all Souls of Salvation escape him Worshipfully by the vertue of his precious Passion and that is his sorrow and full evil is he ashamed For all that God suffereth him to do turneth us to joy and him to shame and pain And he hath as much sorrow when God giveth him leave to Work as when he worketh not And that is for he may never do as ill as he would for his might is all locked in God's hand but in God may be no wrath as to my fight For our good Lord endlesly having regard to his own Worship and to the profit of all them that shall be saved with Might and Right he withstandeth the reproved the which of malice and of shrewdness busie them to contrary and do against God's will Also I saw our Lord scorning his malice and naughting his unmight And he will that we do so For this fight I laught mightly and that made them to laugh that were about me and their laughing was a liking to me I thought that I would that all my even Christen had seen as I saw then should all they have laughed with me but I saw not Christ laughing But well I wot that sight that he shewed me made me to laugh For I understood that we may laugh in comforting of our self and joying in God for the fiend is overcome And there I saw him scorn his malice it was beholding to my understanding into our Lord that is to say an inward shewing of * i. e. truth sooth fastness without changing of cheere For as to my sight it is a worshipful property that is in God which is durable And after this I fell into a sadness and said I see three things Game Scorn and Earnest I see Game that the fiend is overcome And I see Scorne that God scorneth him and he shall be scorned And I see Earnest that he is overcome by the blessedful Passion and Death of our Lord Jesu Christ that was done in full great earnest and with sad Travel And there I said that he is scorned I meant that God scorneth him that is to say for he seeth him now as he shall do without end for in this God shewed that the fiend is damned And this meant I there I said he should be scorned For I saw he shall be scorned at Doomes-day generally of all that shall be saved to whose Salvation he hath had great envy for then he shall see that all the Woe and Tribulation that he hath done them shall be turned into encrease of their joy without end And all the Pain and the Sorrow that he would have brought them to shall for ever go with him to Hell The Sixth Revelation The xiv Chapter ANd after this our Lord said I thank thee of thy Service
and of thy Travel of thy Youth And in this my understanding was lift up into Heaven where I saw our Lord God as a Lord in his own House which Lord hath called all his dear Worthy Friends to a solemn Feast Then I saw the Lord taking no place in his own House but I saw him royally Reign in his House and all fulfilleth it with Joy and Mirth endlesly to glad and solace his dear worthy Friends full homely and full curteously with marvelous Melody in endless love in his own fair blessedful Cheer Which glorious Cheer of the Godhead fulfilleth all Heaven of joy and bliss God shewed three degrees of bliss that each Soul shall have in Heaven that willingfully hath served God in any degree in Earth The first is the Worship and Thanks that he shall receive of our Lord God when he is delivered of Paine This Thanks is so high and so worshipful that him thinketh that it filleth him though there were no more for methought all the Pain and Travel that might be suffered of all living men might not have deserved the worshipful thank that one man shall have that wilfully hath served God For the second that all the blessed Creatures that be in Heaven shall see the worshipful thanking And he maketh his Service known to all that be in Heaven and in this time this Example was shewed A King if he thank his Subjects it is a great worship to them and if he make it known to all the Realm then their worship is much encreased And for the third that as new and as liking as it is undertaken that time right so shall it last without end And I saw that * i e. friendly homely and sweetly was this shewed that the Age of every man shall be known in Heaven and be rewarded for his wilful Service and for his time and namely the Age of them that wilfully and freely offer their Youth to God passingly is rewarded and wonderfully thanked for I saw that when or what time that a man or woman be truly turned to God for one dayes service and for his endless will he shall have all these three degrees of bliss And the more that the loving Soul seeth this courtesie of God the * i e. more willingly levir she is to serve him all her life The Seventh Revelation The xv Chapter ANd after this he shewed a sovereign Ghostly liking in my Soul In this likeing I was fulfilled of everlasting sureness mightily fastned without any painful dread This feeling was so glad and so Ghostly that I was all in peace in ease and in rest that there was nothing in Earth that should have grieved me This lasted but a while and I was turned and left to my self in heaviness and weariness of my life and irkeness of my self that * ie scarce unueth I could have patience to live There was no comfort ne none to ease my feeling but Faith Hope and Charity and these I had in truth but full litle in feeling And none after this our blessed Lord gave me again of the Comfort and the Rest in Soul likeing and sureness so blessedfully and so mightifully that no dread ne sorrow ne no pain bodily ne Ghostly that might be suffered should have diseased me And then the pain sheweth again to my feeling and then the joy and the liking And now that one and now that other divers times I suppose about twenty times And in the time of joy I might have said with Saint Paul Nothing shall depart me fro the Charity of Christ And in the pain I might have said with Saint Peter Lord save me I perish This Vision was shewed to learn me at my understanding that it is speedful to some Souls to feel on this wise Sometime to be in Comfort and sometime to fail and to be left to themself God will that we know that he keepeth us ever in like sure in woe and in weale And for profit of mans Soul a man is sometimes left to himself although his sin is not ever the Cause for in this time I sinned not Wherefore I should be left to my self for it was so sudden Also I deserved not to have had this blessedful Feeling but freely our Lord giveth it when he will and suffereth us in Woe sometime and both is one Love For it is Gods Will that we hold us in Comfort with all our Might for Bliss is lasting without End and Pain is passing and shall be brought to naught to them that shall be saved Therefore it is not Gods Will that we follow the Feeling of Pains in Sorrow and Mourning for them but suddenly pass over and hold us in the endless liking that is God The Eighth Revelation And the xvj Chapter AFter this Christ shewed a part of his Passion near his Dying I saw the sweet face as it were dry and bloodless with pale dying and dead pale Languring and then turned more dead into blew and after in brownblew as the flesh turned more deep dead For his Passion shewed to me most properly in his blessed Face and namely in his Lips Therein I saw these four Colours those that were before fresh and ruddy lively and liking to my sight This was a pittiful Changing to see this deep dying and also his most * cloggering together and dried to my sight And the sweet Body waxed brown and black all changed and turned out of the fair fresh and lively Colour of himself into dry dying for that same time that our Blessed Saviour dyed upon the Roode it was a dry sharp Wind wonder could as to my sight And what time that the precious Blood was bled out of the sweet Body that might pass therefro yet there was a moisture in the sweet flesh of Christ as it was shewed Bloodshed and pain dried within and blowing of the Wind and Cold coming from without met together in the sweet Body of Christ And these four dryed the flesh of Christ by process of time And though this pain were bitter and sharp yet it was full long lasting as to my sight And the pain dried up all the lively Spirits of Christs flesh Thus I saw the sweet flesh dry in my sight part after part drying with marvellous pain and as long as any Spirit had life in Christs flesh so long suffered he This long Pain seemed to me as if he had been a sennet dead dying at the point of out-passing always suffering the great Pain And there I saw it seemed as he had been a sennet dead It specifieth that the sweet Body was so discoloured so dry so clongen so deadly and so piteous as he had been sevenight dead continually dying And methought the drying of Christs flesh was the most Pain and the last of his Passion The Ninth Revelation And the xvij Chapter ANd in this drying was brought to my mind this word that Christ said I thirst For I saw in Christ a double Thirst one Bodily
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
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
deed the which the blissedful Trinity shall do in the last day as to my sight And what the deed shall be and how it shall be done it is unknown of all Creatures which are beneath Christ and shall be till when it shall be done The Goodness and the Love of our Lord God will that we | i e. know wit that it shall be And the Might and the Wisdom of him by the same Love will * i e. conceal hill it and hide it from us what it shall be and how it shall be done And the cause why he will we wit it thus is for he will we be the more eased in our Soul and peaceable in Love leaving the beholding of all Tempests that might | i e. hinder let us of true enjoying in him This is the great deed ordeined of our Lord God fro without beginning treasured and hid in his blessed Breast only known to himself by which deed he shall make all thing well for right as the blessed Trinity made all thing of naught right so the same blessed Trinity shall make well all that is not well And in this sight I marvelled greatly and beheld our Faith meaning thus Our Faith is grounded in Gods Word and it longeth to our Faith that we believe that Gods Word shall be saved in all thing And one point of our Faith is that many Creatures shall be damned as Angels that fell out of Heaven for Pride which be now Fiends and many in Earth that dyeth out of the Faith of Holy Church that is to say tho that be Heathen And also many that hath received Christendome and liveth unchristen Life and so dyeth out of Charity all these shall be damned to Hell without end as Holy Church teacheth me to believe And standing all this methought it was unpossible that all manner of thing should be well as our Lord shewed in this time And as to this I had no other answer in shewing of our Lord but this That that is unpossible to thee is not unpossible to mee I shall save my Word in all thing and I shall make all thing well And in this I was taught by the Grace of God that I should stedfastly hold me in the Faith as I had before understood And therewith that I should stand and | i e firmly sadly believe that all manner thing shall be well as our Lord shewed in the same time for this is the great deed that our Lord God shall do In which deed he shall save his Word in all thing and he shall make well all that is not well But what the deed shall be and how it shall be done there is no Creature beneath Christ that wot it ne shall wit it till it is done as to the understanding that I took of our Lords meaning in this time The xxxiij Chapter ANd yet in this I desired as I durst that I might have some fight of Hell and of Purgatory But it was not my meaning to take proof of any thing that longeth to our Faith for I believed | i e. assuredly sothfastlie that Hell and Purgatory is for the same end that Holy Church teacheth for but my meaning was that I might have seen for Learning in all thing that longeth to my Faith whereby I might live the more to Gods Worship and to my Profit And for ought that I could desire I ne could see of this right nought but as it is before said in the first shewing where that I saw the Devil is reproved of God and endless by damned In which sight I understand that all the Creatures that be of the Devils condition in this Life and therein ending there is no more mention made of them before God and all his Holy Ones then of the Devil notwithstanding that they be of Mankind whether they have be-Christened or not For though the Revelation was shewed of Goodness in which was made litle mention of Evil Yet I was not drawn thereby from any point of the Faith that Holy Church teacheth me to believe For I had sight of the Passion of Christ in divers shewing In the first in the second in the fourth in the eighth as it is before said wherein I had in part feeling of the sorrow of our Lady and of his true Friends that saw his Pains but I saw not so properly specified the Jews that did him to Death but notwithstanding I knew in my Faith that they were Accursed and Damned without end saving those that were Converted by Grace And I was strengthed and learned generally to keep me in the Faith in every Point and in all as I had before understood hoping that I was therein with Mercy and the Grace of God desiring and praying in my meaning that I might continue therein unto my lives end It is Gods will that we have great regard to all the deeds that he hath done for he will thereby that we know trust and believe all that he shall doe But evermore us needeth leave the beholding what the deed shall be and desire we to be like to our Brethren which be the Saints in Heaven that will right nought but Gods will Then shall we only enjoy in God and be well apaid both with hiding and shewing For I saw verily in our Lords meaning the more we busie us to know his privities in that or in any other thing the farther more shall we be from the knowing The xxxjv Chapter OUr Lord shewed two manner of | i e. secrets privities One is this great privity with all the privy Points thereto belonging And these privities he will we know thus hid into the time that he will clearly shew them to us That other are the privities which himself shewed openly in this Revelation for those are privities which he will make open and known to us for he will that we wit that it is his will that we know them They are privities to us but not only for that he will they be privities to us but they are privities to us for our blind-head and our unknowing And therefore hath he great ruth and therefore he will make them open to us himself whereby we may know him and love him and cleave to him For all that is | i e. profitable speedeful for us to wit and for to know full courteously our good Lord will shew us what it is with all the Preaching and Teaching of Holy Church God shewed full great pleasaunce that he hath in all men and women that mightily and wisely take the Preaching and Teaching of Holy Church for he it is Holy Church He is the Ground He is the Substance He is the Teaching He is the Teacher He is the End and He is the Meed Wherefore every kind Soul Traveleth And this is known and shall be known to each Soul to which the Holy Ghost declareth it And I hope truly all those that seek thus they shall speed for they
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
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
is not his Worship And if we see that doth it and we pray not we do not our duty And so it may not be that is to say so is it not in his beholding But to see that he doth it and to Pray forthwithall So is he Worshipped and we speed All thing that our Lord hath ordained to doe it is his Will that we pray therefore either in special or in general And the joy and the bliss that is to him and the Thank and the Worship that we shall have therefore it passeth the understanding of all Creatures in this Life as to my sight For Prayer is a rightwise understanding of that full-head of joy that is for to come with true longing and very trust savouring or seeing our bliss that we be ordained to kindly maketh us to long True understanding and Love with sweet meaning in our Saviour graciously maketh us to trust And thus have we of kind to long and of Grace to trust And in these two Workings our Lord beholdeth us continually for it is our duty And his Goodness may no less assigne in us that longeth to us to doe our diligence thereto And when we do it yet shall us think that it is naught And true it is but doe we as we may and meekly ask Mercy and Grace and all that us faileth we shall it find in him And thus meaneth he there he saith I am the Ground of thy beseeching And thus in those blessedful Words with the shewing I saw a full overcoming against all our Wickedness and all our doubtful dreeds The xliij Chapter PRayer owneth the Soul to God which is ever like to God in kind and in substance restored by Grace but it is oft unlike in condition by sin of mans party Then is Prayer a Witness that the Soul will as God will and comforteth the Conscience and ableth Man to Grace And thus he teacheth us to Pray and mightily to trust that we shall have it for he beholdeth us in Love and will make us Partner of his good Will and Deed And therefore he stirreth us to Pray that that liketh him to do For which Prayer and good Will that we have of his gift he will reward us and give us endless meed And this was shewed in this Word And thou beseekest it In this Word God shewed so great pleasance and so great liking as he were much beholding to us for each good Deed that we do and yet it is he that doth it And for that we beseech him mightily to do that thing that him liketh as if he said What might thou please mee more than to beseech mightily wisely and wilfully to do that thing that I will have done And thus the Soul by Prayer is accorded with God But when our courteous Lord of his special Grace sheweth himself to our Soul we have that we desire And then we see not for the time what we should more Pray but all our intent with all our Mights is set whole into the beholding of him And this is an high unperceiveable Prayer as to my sight for all the cause wherefore we Prayer is to be oned in to the sight and beholding of him to whom we Pray marvellously enjoying with reverent dreed and so great sweetness and delight in him that we can pray right naught but as he stirreth us for the time And well I wot the more the Soul seeth of God the more she desireth him by Grace but when we see him not so then feel we need and cause to pray for feeling and for unableness of our self to Jesu For when a Soul is tempted troubled and left to her self by her unrest then it is time to pray to make her self supple and * buxom to God but she by no manner of Prayer maketh God supple to him for he is ever one like in Love And thus I saw that what time we see need wherefore we pray then our Lord God followeth us helping our desire And when we of his special Grace plainly behold him seeing none of other needs then we follow him And he draweth us to him by Love for I saw and and felt that his marvellous and his * i e. plentiful fulsome Goodness fulfilleth all our Mights And therewith I saw that his continual Working in all manner of things is done so godly so wisely and so mightily that it over-passeth all our Imagining and all that we can mean or think And then we can do no more but behold him and enjoy with a high mighty desire to be all oned into him and | i e. attend entend to his motion and enjoy in his loving and delight in his Goodness And thus shall we with his sweet Grace in our own meek continual Prayer come into him now in this Life by many privy touchings of sweet Ghostly sights and feelings measured to us as our | i e. simplicity simplehead may bare it And this is wrought and shall be by the Grace of the Holy Ghost so long till we shall die in longing for Love and then shall we all come into our Lord our self clearly knowing and God | i e. plentifully fulsomely having And we endlesly be all hid in God verily seeing and fulsomely feeling him Ghostly hearing and him delectably smelling and him sweetly smelling And there shall we see God face to face homely and fulsomely The Creature which is made shall see and endlesly behold God which is the Maker for thus may no man see God and live after that is to say in this deadly Life But when he of his special Grace will shew him here he strengtheneth the Creature above himself and he measureth the shewing after his own Will and it is profitable for the time The xljv Chapter GOD shewed in all the Revelations oft-times that a Holy man worketh evermore his Will and his Worship duringly without stinting And what this Working is was shewed in the first and that in a marvellous Ground For it was shewed in the Working of the blissedful Soul of our Lady Saint Mary by Truth and Wisdom And how I hope by the Grace of the Holy Ghost I shall say as I saw Truth seeth God and Wisdom beholdeth God and of these two cometh the third and that is a marvellous delight in God which is Love Where Truth and Wisdom is verily there is Love verily coming of them both and all of Gods making For God is endless soveraign Truth endless soveraign Wisdom endless soveraign Love unmade And a mans Soul is a Creature in God which hath the same properties made and evermore it doth that it was made for that seeth God it beholdeth God and it loveth God Wherefore God enjoyeth in the Creature and the Creature in God endlesly marvelling In which marvelling he seeth his God his Lord his Maker so high so great and so good in regard of him that is made that unneth the Creature seemeth ought to the self but the brightness and
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
slade and taketh full great sorrow and then he groneth and moneth and walloweth and wrieth but he may not rise nor help himself by no manner of way And of all this the most mischief that I saw him in was failing of Comfort for he could not turn his face to look up on his loving Lord which was to him full near in whom is full Comfort But as a man that was full feeble and unwise for the time he entended to his feeling and enduring in Woe In which Woe he suffered seven great Pains The first was the sore brusing that he took in his falling which was to him much pain The second was the heaviness of his body The third was feebleness that followed of these two The fourth was that hew as blinded in his Reason * i e. astonished stonnyed in his mind so farth forth that almost he had forgotten his own Love The fifth was that he might not rise The sixth was pain most marvellous to me and that was that he lay alone I looked all about and beheld and far ne near ne high ne low I saw to him no help The seventh was that the place that he lay in was long hard and grievous I marvelled how this Servant might thus meekly suffer all this Woe And I beheld with avisement to wit if I could perceive in him any default or if the Lord should assign him any manner of blame And verily there was none seen for only his good will and his great desire was the cause of his falling And he was as unlothful and as good inwardly as he was when he stood before his Lord ready to do his Will And right thus continually his loving Lord full tenderly beholdeth him and now with a double chear One outward full meekly and mildly with great rewth and pity and this was of the first Another inward more Ghostly And this was shewed with a leading of my understanding into the Lord in restoring which I saw him highly enjoy for the worshipful resting and noble that he will and shall bring his Servant to by his plentuous Grace and this was of the other shewing And now was my understanding led again into the first both keeping in mind Then said this courteous Lord in his meaning To my beloved Servant what harm and disease he hath had and taken in my service for my love yea and for his good will It is not reason that I reward him his | ie fright frey and his dreed his hurt and his maym and all his Woe and not only this but falleth it not to me to give him a gift that be better to him and more worshipful than his own heal should have been or else methinketh I did him no Grace And in this an inward Ghostly shewing of the Lords meaning descended into my Soul in which I saw that it behooved needs to be standing his great goodness and his own worship that his dear worthy Servant which he loved so much should be highly and worshipfully rewarded without end above that he should have been if he had not fallen yea and so far forth that his falling and all his Woe that he hath taken thereby shall be turned into the high over-passing Worship and endless Bliss And at this Point the shewing of the example vanished and our good Lord led forth my understanding in sight and in shewing of the Revelation to the end But notwithstanding all this forth leading the marvelling of the example went never from me for methought it was given me for answer to my desire And yet could I not take therein full understanding to my ease in that time for in the servant that was shewed for Adam as I shall say I saw many divers properties that might by no manner be direct to single Adam And thus in that time I stood mickle in three Knowings for the full understanding of this marvellous Example was not given me in that time In which misty Example the privities of the Revelation be yet much hid And notwithstanding this I saw and understood that every shewing is full of privities And therefore me behooveth now to tell three properties in which I am * i e somewhat somedeal eased The first is the beginning of teaching that I understood there in the same time The second is the inward Learning that I have understood therein sithens The third is all the holy Revelation from the beginning to the end which our Lord God of his Goodness bringeth oft-times freely to the sight of my understanding And these three be so oned as to my understanding that I cannot nor may depart them And by these three as one I have teaching whereby I * i e. ought owe to believe and trust in our Lord God that of the same Goodness that he shewed it and for the same end right so of the same goodness and of the same end he shall declare it to us when it is his Will for twenty years after the time of the shewing save three months I had teaching inwardly as I shall say It longeth to thee to take heed to all the properties and the conditions that were shewed in the Example though thee think that it be misty and indifferent to thy sight I assented wilfully with great desire seeing inwardly with avisement all the points and the properties that were shewed in the same time as far forth as my Wit and my understanding will serve beginning at my beholding at the Lord and at the Servant At the manner of sitting of the Lord and the place he sat on and the colour of his Cloathing and the manner of shape and his chear without and his nobley and his goodness within And the manner of standing of the Servant and the place where and how and his manner of Cloathing the Colour and the shape at his outward behaviour and at his inward goodness and his unlothfulness The Lord that sat solemnly in rest and in peace I understand that he is God The Servant that stood before him I understood that he was shewed for Adam that is to say one man was shewed that time and his falling to make thereby to be understood how God beholdeth all man and his falling For in the sight of God all man is one man and one man is all man This man was hurt in his Might and made full feeble And he was stonnyed in his understanding for he was turned from the beholding of his Lord but his Will was kept in Gods sight for his Will I saw our Lord commend and approve but himself was letted and blinded of the knowing of this Will And this is to him great sorrow and grievous disease for neither he seeth clearly his loving Lord which is to him full meek and mild nor he seeth truly what himself is in the sight of his loving Lord. And well I wot that when these two be wisely and truly seen we shall get rest and peace here in party And the
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
and understood more in the xvjth Shewing as I shall say And as aneinst our substance it may rightly be called our Soul And aneinst our sensuality it may rightly be called our Soul and that is by the oning that it hath in God That worshipful City that our Lord Jesu sitteth in it is our sensuality in which he is enclosed And our kindly substance is beclosed in Jesu with the blessed Soul of Christ sitting in rest in the God-head And I saw full surely that it behooveth needs to be that we should be in longing and in Penance into the time that we be led so deep into God that we verily and truly know our own Soul And surely I saw that into this high deepness our good Lord himself leadeth us in the same Love that he made us and in the same Love he bought us by Mercy and Grace through vertue of his blessed Passion and notwithstanding all this we may never come to the full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul for into the time that it is in the full mights we may not be all holy and that is that our sensuality by the vertue of Christs Passion be brought up into the substance with all the profits of our tribulation that our Lord shall make us to get by Mercy and Grace I had in party touching and it is grounded in kind that is to say our reason is grounded in God which is substancially kindness Of this substancial kindness Mercy and Grace springeth and spreadeth into us working all things in fulfilling of our joy These be our grounds in which we have our being our encrease and our fulfilling for in kind we have our Life and our Being and in Mercy and Grace we have our encrease and our fulfilling It be three properties in one goodness And where that one worketh all worken in the thing that belongen to us God will we understand desiring with all our heart and with all our strength to have knowing of them ever more and more into the time that we be fulfilled For fully to know them and clearly to see them is * i e. naught not else but endless joy and bliss that we shall have in Heaven which God will we begin here in knowing of his Love for only by our reason we may not profit But if we have evenly therewith mind and Love ne only in our kindly ground that we have in God we may not be saved but if we have coming of the same ground Mercy and Grace For of these three Workings altogether we receive all our goods of which the first be goods of kind For in our first making God gave us as much good and as great good as we might receive only in our spirit But his fore-seeing purpose in his endless Wisdom would that we were double The Lvij. Chapter ANd against our substance he made us so noble and so rich that evermore we work his Will and his Worship there I say We it meaneth man that shall be saved For truly I saw that we be that he loveth and do that him liketh lastingly without any stinting And of this great riches and of this high noble vertues by measure come to our Soul what time that it is knit to our body In which knitting we be made sensual And thus in our substance we be full and in our sensuality we fail which failing God will restore and fulfill by working of Mercy and Grace plenteously flowing into us of his own kind goodness And thus this kind goodness maketh that Mercy and Grace worketh in us And the kind goodness that we have of him ableth us to receive the working of Mercy and Grace I saw that our kind is in God whole in which he maketh diversities flowing out of him to work his will whose kind keepeth and Mercy and Grace restoreth and fulfilleth And of these none shall be perished for our kind which is the higher party is knit to God in the making and God is knit to our kind which is the lower party in our flesh taking And thus in Christ our two kinds be oned For the Trinity is comprehended in Christ in whom our higher party is grounded and rooted and our lower party the second person hath taken which kind first to him was a dight For I saw full truly that all the Works that God hath done or ever shall were full known to him and before seen fro without beginning And for Love he made mankind and for the same Love himself would become Man The next good that we receive is our Faith in which our profiting beginneth and it becometh of the high riches of our kind substance into our sensual Soul and it is grounded in us and we in that through the kind goodness of God by the working of Mercy and Grace And thereof come all our goods by which we be led and saved for the Commandements of God come therein In which we owe to have two manner of understanding That one is that we owe to understand and know which be his bidings to love them and to keep them That other is that we owe to know his forbiddings to hate them and to refuse them for in these two is all our working comprehended Also in our Faith come the Seven Sacraments each following other in order as God hath ordained them to us and all manner vertues for the same vertues that we have received of our substance given to us in kind of the Goodness of God the same vertues by the working of Mercy be given to us in Grace through the Holy Ghost renewed Which vertues and gifts are treasured to us in Jesu Christ for in that same time that God knit him to our body in the Maidens Womb he took our sensual Soul In which taking he us all having beclosed in him he oned it to our substance In which oning he was perfect man for Christ having knit in him all man that shall be saved is perfect man Thus our Lady is our Mother in whom we be all beclosed and of her born in Christ for she that is Mother of our Saviour is Mother of all that be saved in our Saviour And our Saviour is our very Mother in whom we be endlesly born and never shall come out of him Plentuously fully and sweetly was this shewed And it is spoken of in the first where it is said We be all in him beclosed and he is beclosed in us And that is spoken of in the xvjth Shewing where he he saith He sitteth in our Soul for it is his liking to reign in our understanding blessedfully and sitteth in our Soul restfully and to dwell in our Soul endlesly us all working into him In which working he will we be his helpers giving to him all our intent learning his Laws keeping his lore desiring that all bedone that he doth truly trusting in him for verily I saw that all our substance is in God The Lviij Chapter GOD the
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
Sin and Wickedness for it longeth properly to vertues to hate Sin and Wickedness And thus is Jesu our very Mother in kind of our first making And he is our very first Mother in Grace by taking of our kind made all the fair Working and all the sweet kindly Offices of dear worthy Mother-head is * i e. appropriated impropred to the second Person For in him we have this goodly Will whole and safe without end both in Kind and in Grace of his own proper goodness I understood three manner of beholdings of Mother-head in God The first is ground of our kind Making The second is taking of our kind and there beginneth the Mother-head of Grace The third is Mother-head in Working And therein is a forth-speeding by the same Grace of length and bredth of height and of deepness without end and all is one Love The Lx. Chapter BUt now me behooveth to see a little more of this forth-spreading as I understood in the meaning of our Lord how that we be brought again by the Mother-head of Mercy and Grace into our kindly steed where that we were in made by the Mother-head of kind Love which kind Love never leaveth us Our kind Mother our gracious Mother for he would all whole become our Mother in all thing he took the ground of his Work full low and full mildly in the Maidens Womb. And that shewed he in the first where he brought the meek Maiden before the eye of my understanding in the simple stature as she was when he conceived that is to say our high God the severeign Wisdom of all In this low place he arraid him and dight him all ready in our poor flesh himself to do the service and the office of Mother-hood in all thing The Mothers service is nearest readiest and surest Nearest for it is most of kind readiest for it is most of Love and sikerest for it is most of Truth This Office ne might nor could never none done to the full but he alone We wit that all our Mothers bear us to Pain and to dying What is that but our very Mother Jesu He alone beareth us to joy and to endless living blessed mote he be Thus he sustained us within him in Love and Travel into the full time that he would suffer the sharpest Thornes and grievous Pains that ever were or ever shall be and died at the last And when he had done and so borne us to Bliss yet might not all this * i e. give satisfaction make asseeth to his marvellous Love And that he shewed in these high over-passing Words of Love If I might suffer more I would suffer more He might no more die but he would not stint working Wherefore him behooveth to find us for the dear worthy Love of Motherhood hath made him debtor to us The Mother may give her Child to suck her milk but our precious Mother Jesu he may feed us with himself and doth full courteously and full tenderly with the Blessed Sacrament that is precious food of very Life and with all the sweet Sacraments he sustaineth us full mercifully and graciously And so meant he in these blessed Words where he said I it am that Holy Church preacheth thee and teacheth thee that is to say all the Health and the Life of the Sacraments all the Vertue and the Grace of my Word all the goodness that is ordained in Holy Church to thee I it am The Mother may lay her Child tenderly to her Breast but our tender Mother Jesu he may homely lead us into his blessed Breast by his sweet open side and shew us there in party of the God-head and the joyes of Heaven with Ghostly sureness of endless bliss And that shewed he in the jxth Revelation giving the same understanding in this sweet Word where he saith Loe how I love thee behold into his blessed side enjoying This fair lovely Word Mother it is so sweet and so kind in it self that it may not verily be said of none ne to none but of him and to him that is very Mother of Life and of all To the property of Mother-head longeth kind Love Wisdom and Knowing and it is God For though it be so that our bodily forth-bringing be but little low and simple in regard of our Ghostly forth-bringing yet it is he that doth it in the Creatures by whom that it is done The kind loving Mother that wotteth and knoweth the need of her Child she keepeth it full tenderly as the kind and condition of Mother-head will and ever as it waxeth in Age and in Stature she changeth the Works but not her Love And when it is waxed of more Age she suffereth that it be chastised in breaking down of Vices to make the Child receive Vertues and Grace This Working with all that be fair and good our Lord doth it in him by whom it is done Thus he is our Mother in kind by the working of Grace in the lower party for love of the higher And he will that we know it for he will have all our Love fastned to him And in this I saw that all debt that we owe by Gods bidding to Father-head and Mother-head is fulfilled in true loving of God Which blessed Love Christ worketh in us And this was shewed in all And Namely in the High plentuous Words where he saith I it am that thou Lovest The Lxj. Chapter ANd in our Ghostly forth-bringing he useth more tenderness in keeping without any comparison by as much as our Soul is of more price in his sight He kindleth our understanding he prepareth our wayes he easeth our Conscience he comforteth our Soul he lighteth our Heart and giveth us in party knowing and loving in his blessedful God-head with gracious mind in his sweet Man-hood and his blessed Passion with courteous marvelling in his high over-passing goodness and maketh us to love all that he loveth for his Love and to be well apaid with him and with all his Works And when we fall hastily he raiseth us by his lovely * i e. embracing beclipping and his gracious Touching And when we be strengthened by his sweet working then we wilfully choose him by his Grace to be his Servants and his Lovers lastingly without end And yet after this he suffereth some of us to fall more hard and more grievous than ever we did before as us thinketh And then * i e. judge wene we that we be not all wise that all were naught that we have begun but it is not so For it needeth us to fall and it needeth us to see it for if we fell not we should not know how feeble and how wretched we be of our self nor also we should not so | i e. fully fulsomely know the marvellous Love of our Maker for we shall verily see in Heaven without end that we have grievously sinned in this Life And notwithstanding this we shall verily see that we were never hurt in
we may take them And also he will that we take our abidings and our diseases as lightly as we may take them and set them at naught For the lightlier that we take them and the less price that we set at them for love less pain shall we have in the feeling of them and the more thank and meed shall we have for them The Lxv. Chapter ANd thus I understood that what man or woman wilfully choseth God in this Life for Love he may be sure that he is loved without end with endless Love that worketh in him that grace for he will we keep this trustily that we be as sicker in hope of the bliss of Heaven whiles we are here as we shall be in surety when we are there And ever the more liking and joy that we take in this sickerness with reverence and meekness the better liketh him For as it was shewed this reverence that I mean is a holy courteous dread of our Lord to which meekness is knit and that is that a creature see the Lord marvellous great and her self marvellous litle For these vertues are had endlesly to the Loved of God And it may now be seen and felt in measure by the gracious presence of our Lord when it is Which presence in all thing is most desired for it worketh that marvellous sickerness in true Faith and siker hope by greatness of Charity in dread that is sweet and delectable It is Gods will that I see my self as much bound to him in Love as if he had done for me all that he hath done And thus should every Soul think in regard of his Love that is to say the Charity of God maketh in us such a unity that when it is truly seen no man can part them self from other And thus ought each Soul to think that God hath done for him all that he hath done And this sheweth he to make us to love him and liken him and nothing dread but him for it is his will we know that all the might of our enemies is locked in our Friends hands And therefore the Soul that knoweth this sickerly he shall not dread but him that she loveth All other dreads she set them among passions and bodily sickness and imaginations And therefore though we been in so much pain woe and disease that us thinketh we can think right naught but that we are in or that we feel assoon as we may we pass it lightly over and set we it at naught And why for God will be known for if we know him and Love him and reverently dread him we shall have patience and be in great rest And it should been great liking to us all that he doth And this shewed our Lord in these words What should it then agrieve thee to suffer a while seeing it is my Will and my Worship Now have I told you of xv Shewings as God witsafe to minister them to my mind renewed by Lightnings and Touchings I hope of the same Spirit that sheweth them all Of which xv Shewings the first began early in the morning about the hour of four and it lasted shewing by process full fair and soberly each following other till it was noon of the day or past The Sixteenth Revelation The Lxvj. Chapter ANd after this the good Lord shewed the xvjth Revelation on the night following as I shall say after Which xvjth was conclusion and confirmation to all the xv But first me behooveth to tell you as anenst my feebleness wretchedness and blindness I have said at the beginning where it saith And in this suddenly all my pain was taken from me Of which pain I had no grief ne no disease as long as the xv Shewings lasted in shewing And at the end all was close and I saw no more and soon I felt that I should live longer And anon my sickness came again first in my head with a sound and a noise And suddenly all my body was fulfilled with sickness like as it was before And I was as barren and as dry as I had never had comfort but litle and as a wretch mourned heavily for feeling of my bodily pains and for faulting of comfort Ghostly and Bodily Then came a Religious person unto me and asked me how I fared and I said I had raved to day and he laught lowd and inwardly And I said The Cross that stood before my face methought it bled fast And with this word the Person that I spake to waxed all sad and marvelled And anon I was sore ashamed and astonished for my retchlesness And I thought this man taketh sadly the least word that I may say that saw no more thereof And when I saw that he took it so sadly and with so great reverence I waxed full greatly ashamed and would have been * i e. confessed and absolved shriven but I could tell it to no Priest for I thought How should a Priest believe me when I by saying I raved I shewed my self not to believe our Lord God Notwithstanding I believed him truly for the time that I saw him And so was then my will and my meaning ever for to doe without end But as a Fool I let it pass out of my mind Ah Loe how wretched I was this was a great sin and a great unkindness that I for folly of feeling of a litle bodily pain so unwisely left for the time the comfort of all this blessed shewing of our Lord God Here may you see what I am of my self But herein would our courteous Lord not leave me And I lay still till night trusting in his mercy and then I began to sleep The Lxvij. Chapter ANd in my sleep at the beginning methought the fiend set him in my throat putting forth a visage full near my face like a young man And it was long and wonder lean I saw never none such The colour was red like the Tile stone when it is new brent with black spots therein like frackles fouler than the Tile-stone his hair was red as rust not scoured afore with side Locks hanging down in flakes he grinned upon me with a shrowd look and shewed me white teeth And so | i e. much my kill me thought it the more ugly body ne hands had he none shapely but with his paws he held me in the throat and would have stopped my breath and kild me but he might not This ugly shewing was made sleeping and so was none other And in all this time I trusted to be saved and kept by the mercy of God And our courteous Lord gave me grace to wake and | i e. scarcely unnethes had any Life The persons that were with me beheld me and wet my temples and my heart began to comfort And anon a litle smoke came in at the door with a great heat and a foul stinch and then I said Benedicite dominus Is it all on fire that is here And I went it had been a bodily fire
that should burn us all to death I asked them that were with me if they felt any stench they said nay they felt none I said Blessed be God for then wist I well it was the fiend that was come only to tempt me And anon I took me to that our Lord had shewed me on the same day with all the Faith of Holy Church for I beheld it as both in one and fled thereto as to my Comfort And anon all vanished away and I was brought to great rest and peace without Sickness of body or dread of Conscience The Lxviij Chapter ANd then our good Lord opened my Ghostly eye and shewed me my Soul in the midst of my heart I saw the Soul so large as it were and endless World and also as it were a blessed Kingdom And by the conditions that I saw therein I understood that it is a worshipful City In mids of that City our Lord Jesu very God and very Man a fair Person and of large stature Highest Bishop most Solemne King Worshipful Lord. And I saw him clothed solemnly in Worship he sitteth in the Soul even right in Peace and rest And he ruleth and giveth Heaven and Earth and all that is The Man-hood with the God-head sitteth in rest The God-head ruleth and giveth without any instrument or business And the Soul is all occupied with the blessed God-head that is sovereign Might sovereign Wisdom and severeign Goodness The place that Jesu taketh in our Soul he shall never remove without end as to my sight for in us is his homliest home and his endless dwelling And in this he sheweth the Liking that he hath of the making of mans Soul for as well as the Father might make a Creature and as well as the Son might make a Creature So well would the Holy Ghost that mans Soul were made and so it was done And therefore the blessedful Trinity enjoyeth without end in the making of mans Soul For he saw without beginning what should like him without end All thing that he hath made sheweth his Lordship as understanding was given in the same time by example of a Creature that is led to see great Nobleness and Kingdoms longing to a Lord. And when it had seen all the Nobleness beneath then marvelling it was stirred to seek up above to that high place where the Lord dwelleth knowing by reason that his dwelling is in the worthiest place And thus I understand truly that our Soul may never have rest in things that is beneath it self And when it cometh above all Creatures into it self yet may it not abide in the beholding of it self but all the beholding is blessedfully set in God that is the Maker dwelling therein for in mans Soul is his very dwelling And the highest Light and the brightest Shining of the City is the glorious Love of our Lord God as to my sight And what may make us more enjoy in God than to see in him that he enjoyeth in us highest of all his Works For I saw in the same shewing that if the blessed Trinity might have made mans Soul any better any fairer any nobler than it was made he should not have been full pleased with making of mans Soul But for he made mans Soul as fair as good as precious as he might make it a Creature therefore the blessed Trinity is full pleased without end in the making of mans Soul And he will that our hearts be mightily raised above the deepness of the earth and all vain sorrowes and enjoy in him This was a delectable sight and a restful shewing that is without end And the beholding of this whiles we are here it is full pleasant to God and full great speed to us And the Soul that thus beholdeth it maketh him like to him that is beholden and oned it in rest and in peace by his grace And this was a singular joy and bliss to me that I saw him sitting for the truth of sitting shewed endless dwelling And he gave me knowing truly that it was he that shewed me all before and when I had beholden all this with advisement then shewed our good Lords words full meekly without voice and without opening of lips right as he had done afore and said full sweetly Wit it now well it was no raving that thou sawest to day but take it and believe it and keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith and trust thereto and thou shalt not be overcome These last words were said for learning of full true | i e. assurance sikerness that is our Lord Jesu that shewed me all And right as in the first word that our good Lord shewed meaning his blessed Passion herewith is the fiend overcome right so he said in the last word with full true faithfulness meaning us all Thou shalt not be overcome And all this Learning and this true Comfort is general to all mine even Christen as it is aforesaid and so is Gods will And this word Thou shalt not be overcome was said full sharply and full mightily for sickness and comfort against all Tribulations that may come He said not thou shalt not be troubled thou shalt not be travelled thou shalt not be diseased but he said Thou shalt not be overcome God will that we take heed at this word and that we be ever mighty in faithful trusting in weal and woe for he loveth us and liketh us and so will he that we Love him and Like him and mightily trust in him and all shall be well and soon all was close and I saw no more after this The Lxjx. Chapter THe fiende came again with his heat and with his stench and made me full busie The stench was so vile and so painful and bodily heat also dreadful and travellous Also I heard a bodily talking as it had been of two bodies and both to my thinking talked at one time as they had held a Parliament with great business And all was soft whistering And I understood not what they said And all this was to stir me to dispair as methought seeming to me as they scorned | i e. praying bidding of Beads which are said * i e. hastily boystously with much failing of devout intending and wise diligence the which we owe to God in our prayer And our good Lord God gave me grace mightily to trust in him and to comfort my Soul with bodily speech as I should have done to another Person that had been travelled methought that business might not be likened to no bodily likeness The Lxx. Chapter MY bodily eye I set in the same Cross there I had seen in comfort afore that time My tongue with speech of Christs Passion and rehersing the Faith of Holy Church and my heart to fasten on God with all the trust and the might that I thought to my self meaning Thou hast now great business to keep thee in the Faith for that thou shouldest not be taken of thine enemies Wouldest thou
in fulhead that is to say in his own Likeness For notwithstanding that our Lord God dwelleth now in us and is here with us and * i e. embraceth colleth us and becloseth us for tender Love that he may never leave us and is more near to us than Tongue may tell or Heart may think Yet may we never stint of mourning ne of weeping nor of seeking nor of Longing till when we see him clear in his blessedful chear For in that precious sight there may no Woe abide nor Weal fail And in this I saw matter of Mirth and matter of Mourning Matter of Mirth that our Lordour Maker is so near to us and in us and we in him by faithfulness of keeping of his great goodness Matter of Mourning for our Ghostly eye is so blind and we so boarn down with Weight of our deadly flesh and Darkness of sin that we may not see our Lord God clearly in his blessedful chear No and because of this Darkness scarce we can believe or * i e. think trowe his great Love and our Faithfulness of keeping And therefore it is that I say we may never leave off Mourning ne Weeping This Weeping meaneth not all in pouring out of tears by our bodily eye but also to more Ghostly understanding for the | i e. natural kindly desire of our Soul is so great and so unmeasurable that if it were given us to our joy and our comfort all the * i e. nobleness nobly that ever God made in Heaven and in Earth and we saw not the fair blessedful chear of himself yet should we never leave mourning ne of Ghostly Weeping that is to say of painful Longing till when we see verily the fair blessedful chear of our Maker And if we were in all the pain that heart may think or tongue may tell and we might in that time see his blessedful chear all this pain should us not grieve Thus is that blessedful sight end of all manner of pain to Loving Souls and fulfilling of all manner of joy and bliss And that shewed he in the high marvellous Words where he saith I it am that is highest I it am that thou lovest I it am that is all It longeth to us to have three manner of knowings The first is that we know our Lord God The second is that we know our self what we are by him in kind and in grace The third is that we know meekly that our self is against our sin and against our feebleness And for these three was all this shewing made as to my understanding The Lxxij Chapter ALL this blessed teaching of our Lord God was shewed by three parts that is to say By bodily sight and by Word formed in my understanding and by Ghostly sight For the bodily sight I have said as I saw as truly as I can And for the Words I have said them right as our Lord shewed them me And for the Ghostly sight I have said some deal but I may never full tell it And therefore of this Ghostly sight I am stirred to say more as God will give me grace God shewed two manner of sickness that we have That one is unpatience or slouth for we bear our travel and our pain heavily That other is despair or doubtful dreed as I shall say after Generally he shewed sin wherein all is comprehended but in special he shewed none but these two And these two are it that most travelleth and troubleth us as by that our Lord shewed me Of which he will we be amended I speak of such men and women that for Gods Love hate sin and dispose them to do Gods Will Then by our Ghostly blind-head and bodily heaviness we are most enclining to this And therefore it is Gods will that they be known and then should we refuse them as we do other sins And for help against this full meekly our Lord shewed the patience that he had in this hard Passion And also the joy and the liking that he hath of that Passion for Love And this he shewed in Example that we should gladly and easily bear our pains for that is great pleasing to him and endless profit to us And the cause why we are travelled with them is for unknowing of Love Though the Three Persons of the blessed Trinity be all even in the self The Soul took most understanding in Love yea and he will in all thing that we have our beholding and our enjoying in Love And of this knowing are we most blind For some of us believe that God is All mighty and may do all and that he is All wisdom and can do all But that he is All Love and will do all there we fail And this unknowing it is that most letteth Gods Lovers as to my sight For when we begin to hate sin and amend us by the ordinance of Holy Church yet there dwelleth a dread that letteth us by the beholding of our self and of our sin afore done And some of us for our every day sins for we hold not our promise nor keep our cleanness that our Lord setteth us in but fall oft-times into so much wretchedness that shame it is to say it And the beholding of this maketh us so sorry and so heavy that unneths we can see any comfort And this dread we take sometime for a meekness but it is a foul blindness and a wickedness And we cannot despise it as we do another sin that we know which cometh through lack of true Judgment and it is again truth For of all the properties of the blissedful Trinity it is Gods will that we have most Faithfulness and Liking in Love for Love maketh Might and Wisdom full meek to us For right as by the courtesie of God he forgetteth our sin after the time that we repent us So will he that we forget our sin as against our unskillful heaviness and our doubtful dreads The Lxxiij Chapter FOr I understood four manner of Dreads One is dread of a | i e. fright fray that cometh to man suddenly by frailty This dread doth good for it helpeth to purge man as doth bodily sickness or such other pain that is not sin for all such pains help man if they be patiently taken The second is dread of pain whereby man is stirred and waked fro sleep of sin For man that is hard of sleep of sin he is not able for the time to receive the soft comfort of the Holy Ghost till he hath undertaken this dread of pain of bodily death and of Ghostly Enemies And this dread stirreth us to seek Comfort and Mercy of God And thus this dread helpeth us as an entry and ableth us to have contrition by the blissedful touching of the Holy Ghost The third is doubtful dread Doubtful dread is as much as it draweth to despair God will have it turned in us into Love by true knowing of Love that is to say that the bitterness of doubts
be turned into sweetness of kind Love by grace for it may never please our Lord that his Servants doubt in his goodness The fourth is Reverent Dread for there is no dread that fully pleaseth God in us but reverent dread and that is soft For the more it is had the less it is felt for sweetness of Love Love and Dread are Brethren and they are rooted in us by the goodness of our Maker and they shall never be taken from us without end We have of kind to Love and we have of grace to Love and have we of kind to dread and we have of grace to dread It longeth to the Lordship and to the Father-head to be dread as it longeth to the goodness to be Loved and it longeth to us that are his Servants and his Children to dread him for Lordship and Father-head as it longeth to us to Love him for God-head And though this reverent Dread and Love be not both in one but are two in property and in working and neither of them may be had without other And therefore I am sure he that Loveth he dreadeth though he feel it but little All dreads other than reverend dread that are proferred to us though they come under colour of Holiness they are not so true And hereby may they be known asunder That dread that maketh us hastily to flee fro all that is not good and fall into our Lords breast as the Child into the Mothers arme with all our intent and with all our mind knowing our feebleness and our great need knowing his everlasting Goodness and his blessed Love only seeking into him for Salvation cleaving to with faithful trust That dread that bringeth us into this Working it is kind and gracious and good and true And all that is contrarious to this either it is wrong or it is medled with wrong Then is this the remedy to know them both and refuse the wrong For the kind property of dread which we have in this Life by the gracious Working of the Holy Ghost the same shall be in Heaven afore God gentle courteous full sweet And thus we shall in Love be homely and near to God And we in dread be gentle and curteous to God and both in one manner like * i e. equal even Desire we then of our Lord God to dread him reverently and Love him meekly and to trust in him mightily For when we dread him reverently and love him meekly our trust is never in vain for the more that we trust and the mightilier that we trust the more we please and worship our Lord that we trust in And if us fail this reverent dread and meek Love as God forbid we should our trust shall soon be mis-ruled for that time And therefore us needeth much to pray our Lord of grace that we may have this reverent dread and make Love of his Gift in Heart and in Work for without this no man may please God The Lxxjv. Chapter I Saw that God may do all that us deedeth And these three that I shall say Need Love Longing Pitty and Love keepeth us in the time of our need And Longing in the some Love draweth us into Heaven for the thirst of God is to have the general man into him In which thirst he hath drawn his Holy Souls that be now in bliss And so * i e. taâ—â—ng getting his lively Members ever he draweth and drinketh and yet him Thirsteth and Longeth I saw three manner of Longings in God and all to one end The first is for that he Longeth to learn us to know him and to Love him ever more and more as it is convenient and speedful to us The second is that he longeth to have us up into bliss as Souls are when they be taken out of pain into Heaven The third is to fulfill us of bliss and that shall be on the last day fulfilled ever to last For I saw as it is known in our Faith that then pain and sorrow shall be ended to all that shall be saved And not only we shall receive the same bliss that Souls afore have had in Heaven but also we shall receive a new which plentuously shall flie out of God into us and fulfill us And those be the goods which he hath ordained to give us from without beginning These goods are treasured and hid in himself for into that time Creature is not mighty ne worthy to receive them In this we should see verily the cause of all the Deeds that God hath done And over-more we should see the cause of all thing that he hath suffered And the bliss and the fulfilling shall be so deep and so high that for Wonder and Marvel all Creatures should have to God so great reverent and dread over-passing that hath been seen and felt before that the Pillars of Heaven shall travel and quake But this manner of trembling and dread shall have no manner of pain but it longeth to the worthy majesty of God thus to be beholden of his Creatures dreadfully trembling and quaking For much more of joy endlesly marvelling of the greatness of God the Maker and of the least part of all that is made For the beholding of this maketh Creature marvellous meek and mild Wherefore God will and also it longeth to us both in kind and in grace to will to have knowing of this desiring the sight and the working For it leadeth us in right way and keepeth us in true Life and oneth us to God And as good as God is as great he is And as much as it longeth to his God-head to be Loved so much it longeth to his great highness to be dread For this reverent dread is the fairer courtesie that is in Heaven before Gods face And as much as he shall be known and Loved over-passing that he is now In so much he shall be dread over-passing that he is now Wherefore it behooveth needs to be that all Heaven all Earth shall tremble and quake when the Pillars shall tremble and quake The Lxxv. Chapter I Speak but little of this reverent dread For I hope it may be seen in this matter aforesaid But well I wote that our Lord shewed me no Souls but those that dread him for well I wote the Soul that truly taketh the teaching of the Holy Ghost it hateth more sin for the vileness and the horribility than it doth all the pain that is in Hell For the Soul that beholdeth the kindness of our Lord Jesu it hateth no Hell but Hell is sin as to my sight And therefore it is Gods will that we know sin and pray busily and travel wilfully and seek teaching meekly that we fall not blindly therein and if we fall that we rise readily for it is the most pain that the Soul may have to turn from God any time by sin The Soul that will be in rest when other mens sins come to mind he should flee it as the pain of Hell
stedfastly he abideth us and changeth no chear for he will that we be turned and unied to him in Love as he is to us And thus by gracious knowing we may see our sin profitable without despair For soothly us needeth to see it and by the sight we should be made ashamed of our self breaking down as against our Pride and our Presumption For us behooveth verily to see that of our self we are right naught but Sin and Wretchedness And thus by the sight of the Less part of sin that our Lord sheweth us the more is wasted which we see not For he of his courtesie measureth the sight to us For it is so foul and so horrible that we should not endure to see it as it is And thus by this meek knowing through Contrition and Grace we shall be broken from all thing that is not our Lord. And then shall our blessed Saviour perfectly cure us and one us to him This breaking and this curing our Lord meaneth by the general man for he that is highest and nearest with God he may see himself sinful and needy with me And I that am the least and the lowest of those that shall be saved I may be comforted with him that is highest So hath our Lord oned us in Charity when he shewed me that I should sin And for joy that I had in beholding him I entended not readily to that shewing And our courteous Lord rested there and would no further teach me till when that he gave me Grace and Will to entend And hereof was I Learned though that we be highly lifted into Contemplation by the special gift of our Lord yet us behooveth needs therewith to have sight and knowing of our sin and of our feebleness For without this knowing we may not have true meekness and without this we may not be safe And also I saw we may not have this knowing of our self nor of none of all our Ghostly Enemies for they will not us so much good For if it were by their Will we should never see it till our ending day Then are we much bound to God that he will himself for Love shew it us in time of mercy and grace The Lxxviij Chapter ALso I had in this more understanding in that he shewed me that I should sin I took it nakedly to my own singular Person for I was no otherwise stirred in that time But by the high gracious comfort that followed after I saw that his meaning was for the general man that is to say all man which is sinful and shall be into the Last day Of which man I am a Member as I hope by the mercy of God for the blessed comfort that I saw it is large enough for us all And there was I Learned that I should see mine own sin and not other mens but if it may be for comfort or help of my even Christen And also in the same shewing there I saw that I should sin There was I Learned to be dreadful for * i e. frailty unsikerness of my self For I wot not how I shall fall ne I know not the measure ne the greatness of my sin For that would * i e. I desired with fear to have known I a wist dreadful and thereto I had none answer Also our courteous Lord in that same time he shewed full sweetly and full mightily the endless-head and the unchange-ability of his Love and also his great goodness and his gracious inwardly keeping that the Love of him and of our Souls shall never be departed into without end And thus in the dread I have matter of meekness that saveth me fro Presumption And in the blessed shewing of Love I have matter of true Comfort and of Joy that saveth me from dispair All this homely shewing of our courteous Lord it is a Lovely Lesson and a sweet gracious Teaching of himself in comforting of our Soul For he will that we know by the sweetness of the homely Love of him that all that we see or feel within or without which is contrarious to this that it is of the Enemy and not of God as thus If that we be stirred to be the more retchlesser of our Living or of the keeping of our heart because that we have knowing of this plentuous Love than needeth us greatly to beware of this stirring if it come It is untrue and greatly we owe to hate it for it hath no likeness of Gods Will and when befallen by frailty or blindness Then our courteous Lord touching us stirreth us and keepeth And then will he that we see our wretchedness and meekly be it a known But he will not that we abide therewith ne he will not that we busie us greatly about our accusing ne he will not that we be too wretchedful on our self but he will that we hastily entend to him For he standeth all alone and abideth us continually moaning and mourning till when we come And he hath haste to have us to him For we are his joy and his delight and he is our Salve of our Life there I say he standeth all alone I leave the speaking of the blessed company in Heaven and speak only of his Office and his Working here in Earth upon the * i e manner condition of the Shewing The Lxxjx. Chapter BY three things man standeth in this Life By which three God is Worshipped â—nd we be speed kept and saved The first is use of mans kindly Reason The second is the common Teaching of Holy Church The third is the inward gracious Working of the Holy Ghost And these three be all of one God God is ground of our kindly Reason and God is teaching of Holy Church and God is the Holy Ghost And all be sundry gifts to which he will we have great regard and according us thereto For these work in us continually altogether and those be great things Of which greatness he will we have knowing here as it were in an A. B. C. that is to say that we may have a little knowing whereof we should have fulhead in Heaven and that is for to speed us We know in our Faith that God alone took our kind and none but hee And furthermore that Christ alone did all the great Works that longeth to our Salvation and none but he And right so he alone doth now in the last end that is to say he dwelleth here in us and ruleth us and giveth us in this Living and bringeth us to his bliss And thus shall he do as long as any Soul is in Earth that shall come to Heaven And so far forth that if there were none such Soul in Earth but one he should be with that all alone till he had brought it up to his bliss I believe and understand the ministration of Holy Angels as Clarkes tell but it was not shewed me For himself is nearest and meekest highest and lowest and doth all And not only all that us
needeth but also he doth all that is Worshipful to our joy in Heaven And there I say he abideth us moaning and mourning It meaneth all the true feeling that we have in our self in Contrition and in Compassion and all moaning and mourning for we are not oned with our Lord and such as is speedful it is Christ in us And though some of us feel it seldom it passeth never fro Christ till what time he have brought us out of all our Woe For Love suffereth him never to be without pity And what time that we fall into sin and leave the mind of him and the keeping of our own Soul then beareth Christ alone all the charge of us And thus standeth he moaning and mourning Then Longeth it to us for reverence and kindness to turn us hastily to our Lord and let him not all alone he is here alone with us all that is to say only for us he is here And what time I be strange to him by sin despair or slouth then I let my Lord stand alone in as much as he is in me And thus it fareth with us all which be sinners But though it be so that we do thus oftentimes his goodness suffereth us never to be alone but lastingly he is with us and tenderly he excuseth us and ever keepeth us from blame in his sight The Lxxx. Chapter OUr good Lord shewed him to his Creature in diverse manner both in Heaven and in Earth But I saw him take no place but in mans Soul He shewed him in Earth in the sweet Incarnation and his blessed Passion and in other manner he shewed him in Earth where I said I saw God in a point And in other manner he shewed him in Earth thus as it were a Pilgrimage that is to say he is here with us leading us and shall be till when he hath brought us all to his bliss in Heaven He shewed him diverse times raigning as it is aforesaid but principally in mans Soul He hath taken there his resting place and his Worshipful City out of which Worshipful * i e. scat See he shall never rise ne remove without end Marvellous and solemn is the place where the Lord dwelleth And therefore he will that we readily entend to his gracious touching more enjoying in his whole Love then sorrowing in our often fallings For it is the most worship to him of any thing that we may do that we live gladly and merrily for his Love in our Penance for he beholdeth us so tenderly that he seeth all our Living here to be Penance For kind Longing in us to him is a Lasting Penance in us which Penance he worketh in us and mercifully helpeth us to bear it for his Love maketh him to Long his Wisdom and his Truth with his rightful-head maketh him to suffer us here And in this manner he will see it in us for this is our kindly Penance and the highest to my sight For this Penance cometh never fro us till what time that we be fulfilled when we should have him to our meed And therefore he will that we set our hearts in the over-passing that is to say fro the pain that we feel into the bliss that we trust The Lxxxj. Chapter BUt here shewed our courteous Lord the moaning and the mourning of our Soul meaning thus I wot well thou wilt live for my Love merrily and gladly suffering all the Penance that may come to thee But forasmuch as thou livest not without sin therefore thou art heavy and sorrowful And if thou mightest live without sin thou wouldest suffer for my Love all the Woe that might come to thee and it is sooth But be not too much agrieved with sin that falleth to thee against thy will that is not maliciously And here I understood that the Lord beheld the Servant with Pity and not with blaim for this passing Life asketh not to Live all without sin He Loveth us endlesly and we sin customably and he sheweth it us full mildely and then we sorrow and mourn discreetly turning us into the beholding of his mercy cleaving to his Love and to his Goodness seeing that he is our Medicine witting that we do nothing but sin And thus by the meekness that we get in the sight of our sin faithfully knowing his everlasting Love him thanking and praising we please him I love thee and thou lovest me and our love shall never be departed on two and for thy profit I suffer And all this was shewed in Ghostly understanding saying this blessed word I keep thee full * i e. surely sikerly And by the great desire that I saw in our blessed Lord that we should Live in this manner that is to say in Longing and enjoying as all this Lesson of Love sheweth Thereby I understand that all that is contrarious to this it is not of him but it is of Enmity And he will that we know it by the sweet gracious Light of his kind Love If any such Liver be in Earth which is continually kept from falling I know it not for it was not shewed me But this was shewed that in falling and in rising we are ever preciously kept in one Love by which we were ehosen before others from all eternity For in the beholding of God we fall not And in the beholding of our self we stand not And both these be * i e. true sooth as to my sight But the beholding of our Lord God is the higher †i e truth soothness Then are we much bound to him that he will in this Living shew us this high soothness And I understood whiles we be in this Life it is full speedful to us that we see these both at once For the higher beholding keepeth us in Ghostly joy and true enjoying in God That other that is the lower beholding keepeth us in dread and maketh us ashamed of our self But our good Lord will ever that we hold us much more in the beholding of the higher and not leave the knowing of the Lower into the time that we be brought up above where we shall have our Lord Jesu to our meed and be fulfilled of joy and bliss without end The Lxxxij Chapter I Had in party touching sight and feeling in three properties of God in which the strength and the effect of all the Revelation standeth And it were seen in every shewing And most properly in the Twelfth where it saith oftentimes I it am The properties are these life love and light In life is marvellous homeli-head In love is gentle courtesie And in light is endless kindness These three properties were seen in one goodness into which goodness my reason would be oned and cleaving to with all the mights I beheld with reverent dread and highly marvelling in the sight and in feeling of the sweet accord that our reason is in God understanding that it is the highest gift that we have received and it is grounded in kind Our Faith is