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
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
thou seekest it How should it then be that thou shouldest not have thy seeking And thus in the first Reason with the three that follow our good Lord sheweth a mighty Comfort as it may be seen in the same Words and in the first Reason there he saith And thou beseek it There he sheweth full great pleasance and endless meed that he will give us for our beseeking And in the sixth Reason there he saith How should it then be This was said for an unpossible thing for it is the most unpossible that may that we should seek Mercy and Grace and not have it For of all thing that our good Lord maketh us to beseek himself he hath ordained it to us from without beginning Here may we then see that our beseeking is not the cause of the Goodness and Grace that he doth to us but his proper Goodness And that shewed he verily in all these sweet Words there he saith I am Ground And our good Lord will that this be known of his Lovers in Earth and the more that we know the more shall we beseech if it be wisely take and so is our Lords meaning Beseeching is a true and gracious lasting will of the Soul owned and fastened into the Will of our Lord by the sweet privy Working of the Holy Ghost Our Lord himself he is the first Receiver of our Prayer as to my sight and he taketh it full thankfully and highly enjoying he sendeth it up above and setteth it in Treasure where it shall never perish It is there before God with all his Holy Saints continually received ever speeding our needs And when we shall undertake our bliss it shall be given us for a degree of Joy with endless Worshipful thanking of him full glad and merry is our Lord of our Prayer and he looketh thereafter and he will have it for with his Grace it maketh us like to himself in condition as we be in kind and so is his blessed Will For he saith thus Pray intirely inwardly though thee think it savour thee not yet it is profitable enough though thou feel it nought Pray intirely inwardly though thou feel nought though thou see nought yea though thou think thou might not for in Dryness and Barrenness in Sickness and in Feebleness then is thy Prayer full pleasant to mee though thou think at savor thee not but litle and so is all thy Living Prayer in my sight For the meed and the endless thank that he will give us therefore he is covetuous to have us Praying continually in his sight God accepteth the good Will and the Travel of his Servants howsoever we feel Wherefore it pleaseth him that we work in Prayer and in good Living by his Help and his Grace reasonably with Discretion keeping our Mights to him till when we have him that we seek in fulhead of joy that is Jesu And that shewed he in the xvth Revelation where he saith Thou shalt have me to thy meed Also to Prayer longeth thanking Thanking is a true inward knowing with great Reverence and lovely Dreed turning our self with all our Mights into the Working that our Lord stirred us to enjoying and thanking inwardly and sometime for plentuousness it breaketh out with Voyce and saith Good Lord grant Mercy Blessed mote thou be And sometime when the Earth is dry and feeleth naught or else by Temptation of our Enemy then it is driven by Reason and by Grace to cry upon our Lord with Voyce rehearsing his blessed Passion and his great Goodness And so the vertue of our Lords Word turneth into the Soul and quickeneth the heart and entreth by his Grace into true Working and maketh it to Pray full blessed fully and truly to enjoy in our Lord is a full lovely thanking in his sight The xlij Chapter OUr Lord will that we have true understanding and namely in three things that longeth to our Prayer The first is by whom and how that our Prayer Springeth by whom he sheweth when he saith I am Ground and how by his Goodness For he saith First it is my Will For the second in what manner and how that we should use our Prayers and that is that our Will be turned into the Will of our Lord enjoying And so he meaneth when he saith I make thee to will it For the third that we know the Fruit and end of our Prayer that is to be oned and like to our Lord in all thing and to this meaning and for this end was all this lovely Lesson shewed And he will help us and he shall make it so as he seeth himself blessed mote he be For this is our Lords Will that our Prayer and our trust be both alike large for if we trust not as * much mickle as we Pray we do not full Worship to our Lord in our Prayer And also we tarry and Pain our self and the cause is as I believe for we know not truly that our Lord is Ground in whom that our Prayer springeth And also that we know not that it is given us by Grace of his Love for if we knew this it would make us to trust to have of our Lords gift all that we desire for I am sure that no man asketh Mercy and Grace with true meaning but if Mercy and Grace be first given to him But sometime it cometh to our mind that we have prayed long time and yet it thinketh us that we have not our asking but herefore should we not be heavy for I am sure by our Lords meaning that either we abide a better time or more Grace or a better Gift He will that we have true knowing in himself that he is being And in this knowing he will that our understanding be grounded with all our Mights and all our Intents and all our Meanings And in this Ground he will that we take our * i e. resting place steeds and our dwelling And by the gracious Light of himself he will that we have understanding of three things that follow The first is our Noble and Excellent making The second our precious and dear worthy * i e redemption again being The third all thing that he hath made beneath us to serve us and for our Love keepeth it Then meaneth he thus as if he said Behold and see that I have done all this before thy Prayer and now thou art and prayest me And thus he meaneth that it longeth to us to wit that the greatest Deeds be done as Holy Church teacheth And in the beholding of this with thanking we owe to Pray for the Deed that is now in doing and that is that he rule us and guide us to his Worship in this Life and bring us to his Bliss and therefore he hath done all Then meaneth he thus that we see that he doth it and we pray therefore for that one is not enough for if we pray and see not that he doth it it maketh us heavy and doubtful and that
* i e. perfect fulness fulsomness in the bliss in Heaven by his plentuous Grace And this was a beginning of teaching which I saw in the same time whereby I might come to knowing in what manner he beholdeth us in our sin And then I saw that only pain blameth and punisheth And our courteous Lord comforteth and succoureth And ever he is to the Soul in glad chear longing and loving to bring us to his bliss The place that the Lord sat on was simple on the Earth barren and desert alone in Wilderness his Cloathing was wide and side and full seemly as falleth to a Lord The colour of the cloathing was Blew as Azure most sad and fair his chear was merciful The colour of his Face was fair brown white with full seemly Countenance his eyen were black most fair and seemly shewing full of lovely pity And within him an heyward long and broad all full of endless Heavenliness And the lovely looking that he looked on his Servant continually and namely in his falling methought it might melt our Hearts for love and burst them in two for joy This fair looking shewed of a seemly * i e. mixture medelur which was marvellous to behold That one was rewth and pity That other joy and bliss The joy and bliss passeth as far the ruth and the pity as Heaven is above Earth the pity was Earthly and the bliss Heavenly The rewth and the pity of the Father was of the falling of Adam which is his most loved Creature The joy and the bliss was of the falling of his dear worthy Son which is * i e. equal even with the Father The merciful beholding of his lovely chear fufilled all Earth and descended down with Adam into Hell with which continuant pity Adam was kept fro endless Death And this Mercy and Pity dwelleth with mankind into the time that we come up into Heaven But man is blinded in this Life and therefore we may not see our Father God as he is And what time that he of his Goodness will shew him to man he sheweth him | i e. friendly homely as may notwithstanding that I saw verily we ought to know and believe that the Father is not man But his sitting on the Earth barren and desert is this to mean He made mans Soul to be his own City and his dwelling Place which is most pleasing to him of all his Works And what time Man was fallen into sorrow and pain he was not all seemly to serve of that Noble Office And therefore our kind Father would have * i e. adorned for him dight him none other place but to sit upon the Earth abiding mankind which is | i e. mingled medled with Earth Till what time by his Grace his dear worthy Son had brought again his City into the noble fairness with his hard travel The | i e. blewness blewhead of that cloathing betokeneth his stedfastness The * i e. brownness brown-head of his fair face with the seemly | i e. blackness black-head of the eyen was most according to shew his holy Soberness The largeness of his cloathing which was fair flaming about betokeneth that he hath beclosed in him all heaviness and all endless joy and bliss And this was shewed in a touch where I saw that my understanding was led into the Lord in which I saw him highly | i e. rejoyce enjoy for the worshipful restoring that he will and shall bring his Servant to by his plentious Grace And yet I marvelled beholding the Lord and the Servant before said I saw the Lord sit solemnly and the Servant standing reverently before his Lord In which Servant is double understanding one without an other within outward he was clad simple as a Labourer which was disposed to travel and he stood full near the Lord not even fore anenst him but in party aside and that on the left side His cloathing was a white Kirtle single old and all defaulted dyed with sweat of his body streit sitting to him and short as it were an handful beneath the knee bare seeming as it should soon be worn up ready to be ragged and rent And in this I marvelled greatly thinking this is now an unseemly cloathing for the Servant that is so highly loved to stand in before so Worshipful a Lord. And inward in him was shewed a ground of Love which Love he had to the Lord that was even like to the Love that the Lord had to him The Wisdom of the Servant saw inwardly that there was one thing to do which should be Worship to the Lord. And the Servant for Love having no regard to himself nor to nothing that might fall off him hastily did start and run at the sending of his Lord to do that thing which was his Will and his Worship For it seemed by his outward cloathing as if he had been a continuant Labourer and an hard traveller of long time And by the inward sight that I had both in the Lord and in the Servant it seemed that he was anaved that is to say new beginning for to travel which Servant was never sent out before There was a Treasure in the Earth which the Lord loved I marvelled and thought what it might be And I was answered in my understanding it is a meat which is lovesome and pleasing unto the Lord For I saw the Lord sit as a man and I saw neither meat nor drink wherewith to serve him this was one marvel Another marvel was that this solemn Lord had no Servant but one and him he sent out I beheld thinking what Labour it may be that the Servant should do and then I understood that he should do the greatest Labour and the hardest Travel that is he should be a Gardner delving and | i e. ditching diking and sweating and turning the Earth up and down and seek the deepness and water the Plants in time And in this he should continue his Travel and make sweat-floods to run and noble plentuousness Fruit to spring which he should bring before the Lord and serve him therewith to his liking and he should never turn again till he had dight this meat all ready as he knew that it liked to the Lord And then he should take this meat with the drink and bear it full Worfully before the Lord. And all this time the Lord should sit right on the same place abiding the Servant whom he sent out And yet I marvelled fro whence the Servant came For I saw in the Lord that he hath within himself endless Life and all manner of Goodness save the treasure that was in the Earth And that was grounded within the Lord in marvellous deepness of endless Love But it was not all to his Worship till his Servant hath thus nobly | i e. drest dight it and brought it before him in himself present And without the Lord was right nought but
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
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
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