diff --git "a/C014/Y01373.json" "b/C014/Y01373.json" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/C014/Y01373.json" @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +[ +{"source_document": "", "creation_year": 1373, "culture": " English\n", "content": "Produced by Clare Graham & Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature\n(online soon in an extended version, alo linking to free\nsources for education worldwide ... MOOC's, educational\nmaterials,...) Images generously made available by the\nInternet Archive.\n _In lumine tuo videbimus lumen_\n DOMINI, REFUGIUM FACTUS ES NOBIS, A GENERATIONE IN GENERATIONEM.\n RESPICE IN SERVOS TUOS, ET IN OPERA TUA: ET DIRIGE FILIOS EORUM.\n ET SIT SPLENDOR DOMINI DEI NOSTRI SUPER NOS, ET OPERA MANUUM\n NOSTRARUM DIRIGE SUPER NOS: ET OPUS MANUUM NOSTRARUM DIRIGE.\n\"Truth seeth God, and Wisdom beholdeth God, and of these two cometh the\nthird: that is a holy, marvelling delight in God; which is Love.\"\n NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITIONS OF THIS BOOK. xi\n II.\n III.\n INTRODUCTION:--\n Part II. The Manner of the Book. xxxiii\n Part III. The Theme of the Book. lv\n IV.\n \"REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE\":--\n (_editorial account_)\n A List of Contents, called \"A Particular of the\n ii.-iii.\n iv.-ix.\n _The First Revelation_: The Trinity is shewn,\n through the Suffering of Christ, as Goodness,\n _The Second Revelation_: Man's Sight of God's\n Love is but partial because of sin's darkness. 21\n xi.\n _The Third Revelation_: All Being is Being of\n God and is good: Sin is no Being. 26\n xii.\n _The Fourth Revelation_: The stain of sin through\n lacking of human love is cleared away by the\n xiii.\n _The Fifth Revelation_: By Love's Sacrifice,\n in Christ, the evil suffered, for Love's\n Increase, to rise, is overcome for ever. 30\n xiv.\n _The Sixth Revelation_: The travail of Man\n against evil on earth is a glory accepted\n xv.\n _The Seventh Revelation:_ It is of God's Will,\n for our learning, that on earth we change between\n joy of light and pain of darkness. 34\n xvi.-xxi.\n _The Eighth Revelation:_ Of the oneness\n of God and Man in the Passion of Christ, through\n Compassion of the Creature with Christ and of\n Christ with the Creature. All compassion in men\n xxii.-xxiii.\n _The Ninth Revelation_: Of the worshipful entering\n of Man's soul into the Joy of Love Divine in the\n xxiv.\n _The Tenth Revelation_: Of the thankful entering\n of the soul into the Peace of _the Endless Love_\n opened up for Man in the time of the Passion. 51\n xxv.\n _The Eleventh Revelation:_ Of Christ's Raising,\n Fulfilling Love to the souls of men, as beheld\n in the love between Him and His Mother. 52\n xxvi.\n _The Twelfth Revelation:_ All that the soul\n lives by and loves is God, through Christ. 54\n xxvii.-xl.\n _The Thirteenth Revelation:_ Man's finite love\n was suffered by Infinite Love to fail, that\n falling thus through sin into pain and death\n of darkness, the creature therein might more\n deeply know his need and more highly know, in\n its succouring strength, the Creator's Love,\n as the Saviour's; that so being raised, and for\n ever held clinging to that through the grace of\n the Holy Ghost, he might rise to fuller and\n higher and endless oneness with God. 55\n xli.-xliii.\n _The Fourteenth Revelation:_ Beginning on\n earth, Prayer makes the soul one with God. 84\n xliv.-lxiii.\n Regarding these Revelations and the Christian\n Life of Love's travail on earth against sin. 93\n lxiv.-lxv.\n _The Fifteenth Revelation_ (Closing): Of\n lxvi.\n Autobiographical: The fall through frailty of\n nature, by self-regarding, into doubt of the\n Shewing of Love; the rescue by mercy; the\n assaying of faith and the overcoming by grace. 164\n lxvii.-lxviii.\n _The Sixteenth Revelation_ (Confirming): The\n Indwelling of God In the Soul, now and for ever.\n lxix.\n Autobiographical: The second assaying of faith,\n through the horror of spiritual darkness; the\n overcoming by virtue of the Passion of Christ,\n with help from the Common Belief of the\n lxx.-lxxxv.\n The Life of Faith is kept by Charity,\n lxxvi.\n The Meaning of the Whole. Of learning more on\n earth and In Heaven of the One thing taught\n in the Revelation: _the Endless Love_; in\n POSTSCRIPT\n BY AN EARLY TRANSCRIBER OF THE MANUSCRIPT. 204\n VI.\n_The Title-page is from a design by Phoebe Anna Traquair._\n NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITIONS\nThis English book exists in two Manuscripts: No. 30 of the Biblioth\u00e8que\nNationale, Paris (_Bibliotheca Bigotiana_, 388), and No. 2499 _Sloane_,\nin the British Museum.\nThe Paris Manuscript is of the Sixteenth Century, the Sloane is in a\nSeventeenth Century handwriting; the English of the Fourteenth Century\nseems to be on the whole well preserved in both, especially perhaps in\nthe later Manuscript, which must have been copied from one of mixed\nEast Anglian and northern dialects. This manuscript has no title-page,\nand nothing is known as to its history. Delisle's catalogue of the\n_Biblioth. Bigot._ (1877) gives no particulars as to the acquisition of\nNo. 388. The two versions may be compared in these sentences:--\nChap. II., _Paris_ MS.: \"This revelation was made to a Symple creature\nunlettyrde leving in deadly flesh the yer of our Lord a thousande and\nthre hundered and lxxiii the xiii Daie of May.\"\n_Sloane_: \"These Revelations were shewed to a simple creature that\ncowde no letter the yeere of our Lord 1373 the xiij day of may.\"\nChap. LI., _Paris_ MS.: \"The colour of his face was feyer brown whygt\nwith full semely countenaunce. his eyen were blakke most feyer and\nsemely shewyng full of lovely pytte and within hym an heyward long\nand brode all full of endlesse hevynlynes. And the lovely lokyng that\nhe lokyd on his servant contynually. And namely in his fallyng \u00f7 me\nthought it myght melt oure hartys for love. and brek them on twoo for\nJoy.\"\n_Sloane_: \"The color of his face was faire browne, with ful semely\nfeatures, his eyen were blak most faire and semely shewand ful of\nlovely pety and within him an heyward long and brode all full of endles\nhevyns, and the lovely lokeing that he loked upon his servant continuly\nand namely in his fallyng me thowte it myte molten our herts for love &\nbresten hem on to for joy.\"\nThe Sloane MS. does not mention the writer of the book, but the copyist\nof the Paris version has, after the _Deo Gratias_ with which it ends,\nadded or transcribed these words: _Explicit liber Revelationem Julyane\nanatorite_ [sic] _Norwyche cujus anime propicietur Deus_.\nBlomefield, in his _History of Norfolk_ (iv. p. 81), speaks of \"an\nold vellum Manuscript, 36 pages of which contained an account of\nthe visions, etc.,\" of the Lady Julian, anchoress at St. Julian's,\nNorwich, and quotes the title written by a contemporary: \"Here es a\nVision shewed by the godenes of God to a devoute Woman: and her name\nis Julian, that is recluse at Noryche, and yett is on life, Anno\nDomini mccccxlii. In the whilke Vision er fulle many comfortabyll\nwords, and greatly styrrande to alle they that desyres to be Crystes\nLooverse\"--greatly stirring to all that desire to be lovers of Christ.\nThis Manuscript, possibly containing the writing of Julian herself,\nwas in the possession of the Rev. Francis Peck (1692-1743). The\noriginal MSS. of that antiquarian writer went to Sir Thomas Cave, and\nultimately to the British Museum, but his general library was sold in\n1758 to Mr T. Payne (of Payne & Foss), bookseller, Strand, and this old\nManuscript of the \"Revelations,\" which has been sought for in vain in\nthe catalogues of public collections, may perhaps have been bought and\nsold by him.[1] It may be extant in some private library.\nTersteegen, who, in his _Auserlesene Beschreibungen Heiliger Seelen_,\ngives a long extract from Julian's book (vol. iii. p. 252, 3rd ed.\n1784), mentions in his preface that he had seen \"in the Library of the\nlate Poiret\" an old Manuscript of these Revelations. Pierre Poiret,\nauthor of several works on mystical theology, died in 1719 near Leyden,\nbut the Manuscript has not found its way to the University there.\nPoiret himself refers thus to Julian and her book in his _Catalogus\nAuctorum Mysticorum_, giving to her name the asterisk denoting\ngreatness: \"_Julianae Matris Anachoretae, Revelationes de Amore Dei.\nAnglice. Theodidactae, profundae, ecstaticae._\" (_Theologiae Pacificae\nitemque Mysticae_, p. 336. Amsterdam, 1702.)\nThe earliest printed edition of Julian's book was prepared by the\nBenedictine Serenus de Cressy, and published in 1670 by permission of\nhis ecclesiastical Superior, the Abbot of Lambspring, under the title\nof _Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love_. It agrees with the Manuscript\nnow in Paris, but the readings that differ from the Sloane Manuscript\nare very few and are quite unimportant. This version of de Cressy's\nis in Seventeenth Century English with some archaic words, which are\nexplained on the side margins; it was re-printed in 1843. A modernised\nversion taken from the Sloane MS. was published, with a preface, by\nHenry Collins in 1877 (T. Richardson & Sons).\nThese three, the only printed editions, are now all of great rarity.\nFor the following version, the editor having transcribed the Sloane\nMS., divided its continuous lines into paragraphs, supplied to many\nwords capital letters, and while following as far as possible the\nsignificance of the commas and occasional full stops of the original,\nendeavoured to make the meaning clearer by a more varied punctuation.\nAs the book is designed for general use, modern spelling has been\nadopted, and most words entirely obsolete in speech have been rendered\nin modern English, though a few that seemed of special significance\nor charm have been retained. Archaic forms of construction have\nbeen almost invariably left as they are, without regard to modern\ngrammatical usage. Occasionally a word has been underlined for the sake\nof clearness or as a help in preserving the measure of the original\nlanguage, which in a modern version must lose a little in rhythm, by\naltered pronunciation and by the dropping of the termination \"en\" from\nverbs in the infinitive. Here and there a clause has been put within\nparentheses. The very few changes made in words that might have any\nbearing on theological or philosophical questions, any historical or\npersonal significance in the presentment of Julian's view, are noted on\nthe margin and in the Glossary. Where prepositions are used in a sense\nnow obscure they have generally been left as they are (_e.g., of_ for\n_by_ or _with_), or have been added to rather than altered (_e.g., for_\nis rendered by the archaic but intelligible _for that_, rather than\nby _because_, and _of_ is amplified by words in square brackets, as\n[_by virtue_] _of_, [_out_] _of_ rather than changed into _through_ or\n_from_). The editor has desired to follow the rule of never omitting\na word from the Manuscript, and of enclosing within square brackets\nthe very few words added. It may be seen that these words do not alter\nthe sense of the passage, but are interpolated with a view to bringing\nit out more clearly, in insignificant references (_e.g._ \"in this\n[Shewing]\"), and once or twice in a passage of special obscurity (see\nchap. xlv).\n[1] v. Nichol's _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. iii. p. 653.\n NOTE AS TO THE LADY JULIAN, ANCHORESS AT ST JULIAN'S, AND THE LADY\n JULIAN LAMPET, ANCHORESS AT CARROW\nIn _Carrow Abbey_, by Walter Rye (privately printed, 1889), is given a\nlist of Wills, in which the name of the Lady Julian Lampet frequently\noccurs as a legatee between the years 1427 (Will of Sir John Erpingham)\nand 1478 (Will of William Hallys). Comparing the Will of Hallys with\nthat of Margaret Purdance, which was made in 1471 but not proved till\n1483, and from which the name of Lady Julian Lampet as a legatee is\nstroked out, no doubt because of her death, we find evidence that this\nanchoress died between 1478 and 1483. As even the earlier of these\ndates was a hundred and thirty-six years after the birth of the writer\nof the \"Revelations,\" who in May 1373 was over thirty years of age,\nthe identity of the \"Lady Julian, recluse at Norwich,\" with the Lady\nJulian Lampet, though it has naturally been suggested, is surely an\nimpossibility. There were anchorages in the churchyards both of St\nJulian's, Conisford (which belonged to the nuns of Carrow in the sense\nof its revenues having been made over to them by King Stephen for the\nsupport of that Priory or \"Abbey\"), and of St Mary's, the Convent\nChurch of the nuns. See the Will of Robert Pert--proved 1445--which\nleft \"to the anchoress of Carhowe 1s., to ditto at St Julian's 1s.,\"\nand that of the Lady Isobel Morley, who in 1466 left bequests to \"Dame\nJulian, anchoress at Carrow, and Dame Agnes, anchoress at St Julian's\nin Cunisford\"--no doubt the same Dame Agnes that is mentioned by\nBlomefield as being at St Julian's in 1472. This Agnes may have been\nthe immediate successor of Julian the writer of the \"Revelations,\" who\nis spoken of as \"yet in life\"--as if in great age--in 1442, when she\nwould be a hundred years old.\nPerhaps the almost invariable use of the surname of the Carrow\nDame Julian (who was, no doubt, of the family of Sir Ralph\nLampet--frequently mentioned by Blomefield and in the _Paston Letters_)\nmay go to establish proof that there had been before her and in her\nearlier years of recluse life another anchoress Julian, who most likely\nhad been educated at Carrow, but who lived as an anchoress at St\nJulian's, and was known simply as Dame or \"the Lady\" Julian.\nFrom Blomefield's _History of Norfolk_, vol. iv. p. 524: \"Carhoe or\nCarrow stands on a hill by the side of the river, about a furlong from\nConisford or Southgates, and was always in the liberty of the City\n[of Norwich].... Here was an ancient Hospital or Nunnery, dedicated\nto Saint Mary and Saint John, to which King Stephen having given\nlands and meadows without the South-gate, Seyna and Lescelina, two of\nthe sisters, in 1146 began the foundations of a new monastery called\nKairo, Carrow, Car-hou, and sometimes Car-Dieu, which was dedicated to\nthe Virgin Mary and Saint John, and consisted of a prioress and nine\n(afterwards twelve) Benedictine black nuns.... Their church was founded\nby King Stephen and was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and had a\nchapel of St John Baptist joined to its south side, and another of St\nCatherine to its north; there was also an anchorage by it, and in 1428\nLady Julian Lampet was anchoress there.\" ... \"This nunnery for many\nyears had been a school or place of education for the young ladies of\nthe chief families of the diocese, who boarded with and were educated\nby the nuns.\"\nFrom Dr Jessopp's _Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich_, 1492-1532,\nIntroduction, p. xliv.: \"The priory of Carrow had always enjoyed a good\nreputation, and the house had for long been a favourite retreat for the\ndaughters of the Norwich citizens who desired to give themselves to a\nlife of religious retirement.\"\n _Beati pauperes spiritu: quoniam ipsorum est regnum coelorum_\nVery little is known of the outer life of the woman that nearly five\nhundred years ago left us this book.\nIt is in connection with the old Church of St Julian in the parish of\nConisford, outlying Norwich, that Julian is mentioned in Blomefield's\n_History of Norfolk_ (vol. iv. p. 81): \"In the east part of the\nchurchyard stood an anchorage in which an ankeress or recluse dwelt\ntill the Dissolution, when the house was demolished, though the\nfoundations may still be seen (1768). In 1393 Lady Julian, the ankeress\nhere was a strict recluse, and had two servants to attend her in her\nold age. This woman was in these days esteemed one of the greatest\nholiness. In 1472 Dame Agnes was recluse here; in 1481, Dame Elizabeth\nScott; in 1510, Lady Elizabeth; in 1524, Dame Agnes Edrygge.\"\nThe little Church of St Julian (in use at this day) still keeps from\nNorman times its dark round tower of flint rubble, and still there\nare traces about its foundation of the anchorage built against its\nsouth-eastern wall. \"This Church was founded,\" says the History of\nthe County, \"before the Conquest, and was given to the nuns of Carhoe\n(Carrow) by King Stephen, their founder; it hath a round tower and\nbut one bell; the north porch and nave are tiled, and the chancel is\nthatched. There was an image of St Julian in a niche of the wall of\nthe Church, in the Churchyard.\" Citing the record of a burial in \"the\nchurchyard of St Julian, the King and Confessor,\" Blomefield observes:\n\"which shews that it was not dedicated to St Julian, the Bishop, nor St\nJulian, the Virgin.\"\nThe only knowledge that we have directly from Julian as to any part\nof her history is given in her account of the time and manner in\nwhich the Revelation came, and of her condition before and during and\nafter this special experience. She tells how on the 13th day of May,\n1373,[1] the Revelation of Love was shewed to her, \"a simple creature,\nunlettered,\" who had before this time made certain special prayers from\nout of her longing after more love to God and her trouble over the\nsight of man's sin and sorrow. She had come now, she mentions, to the\nage of thirty, for which she had in one of these prayers, desired to\nreceive a greater consecration,--thinking, perhaps, of the year when\nthe Carpenter's workshop was left by the Lord for wider ministry,--she\nwas \"thirty years old and an half.\" This would make her birth-date\nabout the end of 1342, and the old Manuscript says that she \"was yet in\nlife\" in 1442. Julian relates that the Fifteen consecutive \"Shewings\"\nlasted from about four o'clock till after nine of that same morning,\nthat they were followed by only one other Shewing (given on the night\nof the next day), but that through later years the teaching of these\nSixteen Shewings had been renewed and explained and enlarged by the\nmore ordinary enlightenment and influences of \"the same Spirit that\nshewed them.\" In this connection she speaks, in different chapters, of\n\"fifteen years after and more,\" and of twenty years after, \"save three\nmonths\"; thus her book cannot have been finished before 1393.\nOf the circumstances in which the Revelations came, and of all matters\nconnected with them, Julian gives a careful account, suggestive of\ngreat calmness and power of observation and reflection at the time,\nas well as of discriminating judgment and certitude afterwards. She\ndescribes the preliminary seven days' sickness, the cessation of all\nits pain during the earlier visions, in which she had spiritual\nsight of the Passion of Christ, and indeed during all the five hours'\n\"special Shewing\"; the return of her physical pain and mental distress\nand \"dryness\" of feeling when the vision closed; her falling into\ndoubt as to whether she had not simply been delirious, her terrifying\ndream on the Friday night,--noting carefully that \"this horrible\nShewing\" came in her sleep, \"and so did none other\"--none of the\nSixteen Revelations of Love came thus. Then she tells how she was\nhelped to overcome the dream-temptation to despair, and how on the\nfollowing night another Revelation, conclusion and confirmation of\nall, was granted to strengthen her faith. Again her faith was assayed\nby a similar dream-appearance of fiends that seemed as it were to be\nmocking at all religion, and again she was delivered, overcoming by\nsetting her eyes on the Cross and fastening her heart on God, and\ncomforting her soul with speech of Christ's Passion (as she would have\ncomforted another in like distress) and rehearsing the Faith of all\nthe Church. It may be noted here that Julian when telling how she was\ngiven grace to awaken from the former of these troubled dreams, says,\n\"anon all vanished away and I was brought to great rest and peace,\nwithout sickness of body or dread of conscience,\" and that nothing in\nthe book gives any ground for supposing that she had less than ordinary\nhealth during the long and peaceful life wherein God \"lengthened her\npatience.\" Rather it would seem that one so wholesome in mind, so\nhappy in spirit, so wisely moderate, no doubt, in self-guidance, must\nhave kept that general health that _she_ could not despise who speaks\nof God having \"no disdain\" to serve the body, for love of the soul, of\nhow we are \"soul and body clad in the Goodness of God,\" of how \"God\nhath made waters plenteous in earth to our service and to our bodily\nease,\"[2] and of how Christ waiteth to minister to us His gifts of\ngrace \"unto the time that we be waxen and grown, our soul with our body\nand our body with our soul, either of them taking help of other, till\nwe be brought unto stature, as nature worketh.\"[3]\nJulian mentions neither her name not her state in life; she is \"the\nsoul,\" the \"poor\" or \"simple\" soul that the Revelation was shewed\nto--\"a simple creature,\" in herself, a mere \"wretch,\" frail and of no\naccount.\nOf her parentage and early home we know nothing: but perhaps her own\nexquisite picture of Motherhood--of its natural (its \"kind\") love and\nwisdom and knowledge--is taken partly from memory, with that of the\nkindly nurse, and the child, which by nature loveth the Mother and\neach of the other children, and of the training by Mother and Teacher\nuntil the child is brought up to \"the Father's bliss\" (lxi.-lxiii.).\nThe title \"Lady,\" \"Dame\" or \"Madame\" was commonly accorded to\nanchoresses, nuns, and others that had had education in a Convent.[4]\nJulian, no doubt, was of gentle birth, and she would probably be sent\nto the Convent of Carrow for her education. There she would receive\nfrom the Benedictine nuns the usual instruction in reading, writing,\nLatin, French, and fine needlework, and especially in that Common\nChristian Belief to which she was always in her faithful heart and\nsteadfast will so loyal,--\"the Common Teaching of Holy Church in which\nI was afore informed and grounded, and with all my will having in use\nand understanding\" (xlvi.).\nIt is most likely that Julian received at Carrow the consecration\nof a Benedictine nun; for it was usual, though not necessary, for\nanchoresses to belong to one or other of the Religious Orders.\nThe more or less solitary life of the anchorite or hermit, the\nanchoress or recluse, had at this time, as earlier, many followers in\nthe country parts and large towns of England. Few of the \"reclusoria\"\nor women's anchorholds were in the open country or forest-lands\nlike those that we come upon in Medieval romances, but many churches\nof the villages and towns had attached to them a timber or stone\n\"cell\"--a little house of two or three rooms inhabited by a recluse who\nnever left it, and one servant, or two, for errands and protection.\nOccasionally a little group of recluses lived together like those three\nyoung sisters of the Thirteenth Century for whom the _Ancren Riwle_,\na Rule or Counsel for \"Ancres,\" was at their own request composed.\nThe recluse's chamber seems to have generally had three windows: one\nlooking into the adjoining Church, so that she could take part in the\nServices there; another communicating with one of those rooms under\nthe keeping of her \"maidens,\" in which occasionally a guest might be\nentertained; and a third--the \"parlour\" window--opening to the outside,\nto which all might come that desired to speak with her. According to\nthe _Ancren Riwle_ the covering-screen for this audience-window was\na curtain of double cloth, black with a cross of white through which\nthe sunshine would penetrate--sign of the Dayspring from on high.\nThis screen could of course be drawn back when the recluse 'held a\nparliament' with any that came to her.[5]\nBefore Julian passed from the sunny lawns and meadows of Carrow, along\nthe road by the river and up the lane to the left by the gardens and\norchards of the Coniston of that day, to the little Churchyard house\nthat would hide so much from her eyes of outward beauty, and yet leave\nso much in its changeful perpetual quietude around her (great skies\noverhead like the ample heavenly garments of her vision \"blue as azure\nmost deep and fair\"; little Speedwell's blue by the crannied wall of\nthe Churchyard--_Veronika_, true Image, like the Saint's \"Holy Vernacle\nat Rome\") her vow[6] might be: \"I offering yield myself to the divine\nGoodness[7] for service, in the order of anchorites: and I promise to\ncontinue in the service of God after the rule of that order, by divine\ngrace and the counsel of the Church: and to shew canonical obedience to\nmy ghostly fathers.\"\nThe only reference that Julian makes to the life dedicated more\nespecially to Contemplation is where she is speaking, as if from\nexperience, of the temptation to despair because of falling oftentimes\ninto the same sins, \"especially into sloth and losing of time. For\nthat is the beginning of sin, as to my sight,--and especially to the\ncreatures that have given themselves to serve our Lord with inward\nbeholding of His blessed Goodness.\"[8]\n\"_One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I\nmay dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold\nthe beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple_\"--His Sanctuary\nof the Church or of the soul. _That_ was her calling. She had heard the\nVoice that comes to the soul in Spring-time and calls to the Garden of\nlilies, and calls to the Garden of Olive-trees (where all the spices\noffered are in one Cup of Heavenly Wine): _\"Surge, propera amica mea:\njam enim Hyems transiit, imber ambiit et recessit. Surge, propera amica\nmea, speciosa mea, et veni.\" \"Arise: let us go hence.\"[9] \"For this is\nthe natural yearnings of the soul by the touching of the Holy Ghost:\nGod of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself, for Thou art enough to me; ...\nand if I ask anything that is less, ever me wanteth; but only in Thee I\nhave all\"_ (v.).\n\"A soul that only fasteneth itself on to God with very trust, either\nby seeking or in beholding, it is the most worship that it may do to\nHim, as to my sight\" (x.). \"To enquire\" and \"to behold\"--no doubt it\nwas for these that Julian sought time and quiet. For she had urgent\nquestionings and \"stirrings\" in her mind over \"the great hurt that is\ncome by sin to the creature\"--\"afore this time often I wondered why by\nthe great foreseeing wisdom of God the beginning of sin was not letted\"\n(\"mourning and sorrow I made over it without reason and discretion\");\nand also she was filled with desire for God: \"the longing that I had to\nHim afore\" (xxvii.).\nMoreover, this life to which Julian gave herself was to be a life of\n\"meek continuant prayers\" \"for enabling\" of herself in her weakness,\nand for help to others in all their needs. For thought and worship\ncould only be held together by active prayer: the pitiful beholding\nof evil and pain and the joyful beholding of Goodness and Love would\nbe at war, as it were, with each other, unless they were set at peace\nfor the time by the prayer of intercession. And _that_ is the call of\nthe loving soul, strong in its infant feebleness to wake the answering\nRevelation of Love to faith that \"all shall be well,\" and that \"all is\nwell\" and that when all are come up above and the whole is known, all\nshall be seen to be well, and to have been well through the time of\ntribulation and travail.\n\"At some time in the day or night,\" says the _Ancren Riwle_,\nwhich Julian perhaps may have read, though as to such prayers her\ncompassionate heart was its own director--\"At some time in the day\nor night think upon and call to mind all who are sick and sorrowful,\nwho suffer affliction and poverty, the pain which prisoners endure who\nlie heavily fettered with iron; think especially of the Christians who\nare amongst the heathen, some in prison, some in so great thralldom\nas is an ox or an ass; compassionate those who are under strong\ntemptations; take thought of all men's sorrows, and sigh to our Lord\nthat He may take care of them and have compassion and look upon them\nwith a gracious eye; and if you have leisure, repeat this Psalm, _I\nhave lifted up mine eyes. Paternoster. Return, O Lord, how long, and\nbe intreated in favour of Thy servants: Let us pray._ 'Stretch forth,\nO Lord, to thy servants and to thy handmaids the right hand of thy\nheavenly aid, that they may seek thee with all their heart, and obtain\nwhat they worthily ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.'\" Julian tells\nhow in her thinking of sin and its hurt there passed before her sight\nall that Christ bore for us, \"and His dying; and all the pains and\npassions of all His creatures, ghostly and bodily; _and the beholding\nof this_--with all pains that ever were or ever shall be\" (xxvii).\nFrom sin, except as a general conception, Julian's natural instinct\nwas to turn her eyes; but with this Christly compassion in her heart\nin looking on the sorrows of the world she could not but take account\nof its sin. As she came to be convinced that \"though we be highly\nlifted up into contemplation, it is needful for us to see our own\nsin,\"--albeit we should not accuse ourselves \"overdone much\" or \"be\nheavy or sorrowful indiscreetly\"--so when sins of others were brought\nbefore her she would seek with compassion to take the sinner's part of\ncontrition and prayer. \"The beholding of other man's sins, it maketh\nas it were a thick mist afore the eyes of the soul, and we cannot,\nfor the time, see the fairness of God, but if we can behold them with\ncontrition with him, with compassion on him, and with holy desire to\nGod for him\" (lxxvi.).\nAnd notwithstanding all the stir and eager revival of the Fourteenth\nCentury in religion, politics, literature and general life, there\nwas much both of sin and of sorrow then to exercise the pitiful\nsoul--troubles enough in Norwich itself, of oppression and riot and\ndesolating pestilence--troubles enough in Europe, West and East,--wars\nand enslaving and many cruelties in distant lands, and harried Armenian\nChristians coming to the Court of Edward to plead for succour in\ntheir long-enduring patience. There was trouble wherever one looked;\nbut to prayer, and to that compassion which is in itself a prayer,\nthe answer came. Indeed the compassion was its own first immediate\nanswer: for \"then I saw that each kind compassion that man hath on his\n_even-Cristen_ (his fellow-Christians) with charity, _it is Christ in\nhim_.\" This is the comfort that both comforts in waiting and calls to\ndeeds of help. And such \"charity\" of social service was not beyond the\nscope of the life \"enclosed,\"--whether it might be by deed or, as more\noften, by speech.[10]\nIt is in her seeking for truth and her beholding of Love that we best\nknow Julian. Of the opening of the Revelation she says: \"In all this\nI was greatly stirred in charity to mine even-Christians, that they\nmight see and know the same that I saw: for I would it were comfort to\nthem,\" and again and again throughout the book she declares that the\n\"special Shewing\" is given not for her in special, but for all--for all\nare meant to be one in comfort as all are one in need. \"Because of the\nShewing I am not good, but if I love God the better: and in as much as\nye love God the better it is more to you than to me.... For we are all\none in comfort. For truly it was not shewed me that God loved me better\nthan the least soul that is in grace; for I am certain that there be\nmany that never had any Shewing nor sight but of the common teaching of\nHoly Church that love God better than I. For if I look singularly to\nmyself I am right nought; but in general [manner of regarding] I am, I\nhope, in oneness of charity with all mine even-Christians. For in this\noneness standeth the life of all mankind that shall be saved, and that\nwhich I say of me, I say in the person of all mine even-Christians: for\nI am taught in the Spiritual Shewing of our Lord God that He meaneth\nit so. And therefore I pray you for God's sake, and counsel you for\nyour own profit that ye leave the beholding of a worthless creature [a\n\"wretch\"] it was shewed to and mightily, wisely and meekly behold God\nthat of His special goodness would shew it generally, in comfort of us\nall\" (ix.).\nThus Julian turns our eyes from looking _on_ her to looking _with_ her\non the Revelation of Divine Love.\nYet surely in her we have also \"a shewing\"--a shewing of the same.\nShe tells us little of her own story, and little is told us of her\nby any one else, but all through her recording of the Revelation the\nsimple creature to whom it was made unconsciously shews herself, so\nthat soon we come to know her with a pleasure that surely she would\nnot think too \"special\" in its regard. (For she herself in speaking\nof Love makes note that the general does not exclude the special).\nPerhaps we are helped in this friendly acquaintanceship by those\nendearingly characteristic little formulas of speech disavowing any\nclaim to dogmatic authority in the statements of her views of truth:\nthose modest parentheses \"as to my sight,\" \"as to mine understanding.\"\n\"Wisdom and truth and love,\" the dower that she saw in the Gracious\nsoul, were surely in the soul of this meek woman; but enclosing\nthese gifts of nature and grace are qualities special to Julian:\ndepth of passion, with quietness, order, and moderation; loyalty in\nfaith, with clearest candour--\"I believe ... but this was not shewed\nme\"--(xxxiii., lxxvii., lxxx.) pitifulness and sympathy, with hope and\na blithe serenity; sound good sense with a little sparkle upon it--as\nof delicate humour (that crowning virtue of saints); and beneath all,\nabove all, an exquisite tenderness that turns her speech to music. \"_I\nwill lay thy Stones with fair Colours._\"\n\"Thou hast the dews of thy youth.\" Hundreds of years have gone since\nthat early morning in May when Julian thought she was dying and was\n\"partly troubled\" for she felt she was yet in youth and would gladly\nhave served God more on earth with the gift of her days--hundreds\nof years since the time that her heart would fain have been told by\nspecial Shewing that \"a certain creature I loved should continue in\ngood living\"--but still we have \"mind\" of her as \"a gentle neighbour\nand of our knowing.\" For those that love in simplicity are always\nyoung; and those that have had with the larger Vision of Love the gift\nof love's passionate speech, to God or man, in word or form or deed, as\ntreasure held--live yet on the earth, untouched by time, though their\nlight is shining elsewhere for other sight.\n\"From that time that the Revelation was shewed I desired oftentimes to\nlearn what was our Lord's meaning. And fifteen years afterwards and\nmore, I was answered in ghostly understanding, saying thus: _Wouldst\nthou learn thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was\nHis meaning. Who shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love.\nWherefore shewed it He? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt\nlearn and know more in the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn\nother thing without end._\"\nAnd if we, with no special shewing, might ask and, in trust of\n\"spiritual understanding,\" might answer more--asking _to whom_, and\n_for whom_ was the Revelation shewed, we might answer: _To one that\nloved_; for all that would learn in love.\n \"_Ecco chi crescer\u00e0 li nostri amori_\"[11]\n \"Here is one who shall increase our love.\"\n Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.\n Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.\n Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.\n[1] This must have been a Friday--sacred Day of the Passion of\nChrist--for Easter Sunday of 1373 was on the 17th of April (O.S.). So\nwhen the Revelation finally closed and Julian was left to \"keep it in\nthe Faith\"--the Common Christian Faith--it was Sunday morning, and\nthe words and voices she would hear through her window opening into\nthe Church would be from the early worship of \"the Blessed Common\"\nassembled there.\n[2] See the _Ancren Riwle_, Part viii. _Of Domestic Matters_, for\ncounsels to anchoresses as to judicious care of the body: diet,\nwashing, needful rest, avoidance of idleness and gloom, reading, sewing\nfor Church and Poor, making and mending and washing of clothes by the\nanchoress or her servant. \"Ye may be well content with your clothes, be\nthey white, be they black; only see that they be plain, and warm, and\nwell made--skins well tanned; and have as many as you need.... Let your\nshoes be thick and warm.\"\n[3] _cf._ Robert Browning, _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, xii.\n[4] S. de Cressy was probably the originator of the designation \"Mother\nJuliana.\" The old name was _Julian_. The Virgin-Martyr of the Legend\nentitled \"The Life of St Juliana\" (Early English Text Society) is\ncalled in the Manuscripts, Iulane, Juliene, and Juliane and Julian.\nSo also _Lady Julian Berners_ is a name in the history of Fifteenth\nCentury books.\n[5] \"So he kneeled at her window and anon the recluse opened it, and\nasked Sir Percival what he would. 'Madam,' said he, 'I am a knight of\nKing Arthur's Court and my name is Sir Percival de Galis.' So when the\nrecluse heard his name, she had passing great joy of him, for greatly\nshe loved him before all other knights of the world; and so of right\nshe ought to do, for she was his aunt.\"--Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_,\nxiv. i.\n[6] _Manuale ad usum insignis ecclesie Sarisburiensis_ (ed. of 1555),\nfo. lxix. _Servitium includendorum._\n[7] \"_pietatis_.\"\n[8] The sins that Julian mentions, \"despair or doubtful dread,\" \"sloth\nand losing of time,\" \"unskilful [unpractical, unreasoning] heaviness\nand vain sorrow,\" seem to be all akin to that dreaded sin, besetting\nparticularly the Contemplative life, _Accidia_. See _Ancren Riwle_ p.\n287. \"_Accidies salue is gestlich gledshipe._ The remedy for indolence\nis spiritual joy, and the consolation of joyful hope from reading and\nfrom holy meditation, or when spoken by the mouth of man. Often, dear\nsisters, ye ought to pray less, that ye may read more. Reading is\ngood prayer. Reading teacheth how, and for what ye ought to pray. In\nreading, when the heart feels delight, devotion ariseth, and that is\nworth many prayers. Everything, however, may be overdone. Moderation is\nalways best.\"--(Pub. by the Camden Society).\n[9] Canticles ii. 10. St John xiv. 31.\n[10] See the chapter \"How an Anchoress shall behave herself to them\nthat come to her,\" in \"The Scale of Perfection,\" by Walter Hilton (died\n1396), edition of 1659, p. 106. \"Since it is so that thou oughtest not\nto goe out of thy house to seek occasion how thou mightest profit thy\nNeighbour by deeds of Charity, because thou art enclosed; ... therefore\nwho so will speake with thee ... be thou soon ready with a good will to\naske what his will is ... for thou knowest not what he is, nor why he\ncometh, nor what need he hath of thee, or thou of him, till thou hast\ntryed. And though thou be at prayer, or at thy devotions, that thou\nthinkest loth to break off, for that thou thinkest that thou oughtest\nnot leave God for to speake with any one, I think not so in this case,\nfor if thou be wise, thou shalt not leave God, but thou shalt find him,\nand have him, and see him in thy Neighbour as well as in prayer, onely\nin another manner. If thou canst love thy Neighbour well, to speake\nwith thy Neighbour with discretion shall be no hindrance to thee....\nIf he come to tell thee his disease [distress] or trouble, and to be\ncomforted by thy speech, heare him gladly, and suffer him to say what\nhe will for ease of his own heart; And when he hath done, comfort him\nif thou canst, gladly, gently, and charitably, and soon break off. And\nthen, after that, if he will fall into idle tales, or vanities of the\nWorld, or of other men's actions, answer him but little, and feed not\nhis speech, and he will soon be weary, and quickly take his leave,\" etc.\n[11] Dante, _Paradiso_, v. 105.\n As an hert desirith to the wellis of watris:\n so thou God, my soule desirith to thee....\n The Lord sent his merci in the day:\n and his song in the nyght.\n Ps. '_Quemadmodum_'; from the _Prymer_.\nWithout any special study of the literature of Mysticism for purposes\nof comparison, in reading Julian's book one is struck by a few\ncharacteristics wherein it differs from many other Mystical writings\nas well as by qualities that belong to most or all of that general\ndesignation.\nThe silence of this book both as to preliminary ascetic exercises and\nas to ultimate visions of the Absolute, might be attributed to Julian's\nbeing wholly concerned with giving, for comfort to all, that special\nsight of truth that came to her as the answer to her own need. She sets\nout not to teach methods of any kind for the gradual drawing near of\nman to God, but to record and shew forth a Revelation, granted once, of\nGod's actual nearness to the soul, and for this Revelation she herself\nhad been prepared by the \"stirring\" of her conscience, her love and\nher understanding, in a word of her _faith_, even as she was in short\ntime to be left \"neither sign nor token,\" but only the Revelation to\nhold \"in faith.\" Moreover, the means that in general she looks to for\nrealising God's nearness, in whatever measure or manner the revelation\nof it may come to any soul, is the immediate one of faith as a gift\nof nature and a grace from the Holy Ghost: faith leading by prayer,\nand effort of obedience, and teachableness of spirit, into actual\nexperience of oneness with God. The natural and common heritage of\nlove and faith is a theme that is dear to Julian: in her view, longing\ntoward God is grounded in the love to Him that is native to the human\nheart, and this longing (painful through sin) as it is stirred by the\nHoly Spirit, who comes with Christ, is, in each naturally developed\nChristian, spontaneous and increasing;--\"for the nearer we be to our\nbliss, the more we long after it\" (xlvi., lxxii., lxxxi.). \"This is\nthe kinde [the natural] yernings of the soule by the touching of the\nHoly Ghost: _God of Thy goodness give me Thyself: for Thou art enow\nto me, and I may nothing ask that is less that may be full worshippe\nto Thee_.\" God is the first as well as the last: the soul begins as\nwell as ends with God: begins by Nature, begins again by Mercy, and\nends--yet \"without end\"--by Grace. Certainly on the way--the way of\nthese three, by falling, by succour, by upraising--to the more perfect\nknowing of God that is the soul's Fulfilment in Heaven, there is a less\nimmediate knowledge to be gained through experience: \"_And if I aske\nanything that is lesse, ever me wantith_,\" for \"It needyth us to have\nknoweing of the littlehede of creatures and to nowtyn all thing that\nis made, for to love and have God that is onmade.\" But this knowing\nof the littleness of creatures comes to Julian first of all in a sight\nof _the Goodness of God_; \"For [to] a soule that seith the Maker of\nall, all that is made semith full litil.\" By the further beholding,\nindeed, of God as Maker and Preserver, that which has been rightly\n\"noughted\" as of no account, is seen to be also truly of much account.\nFor that which was seen by the soul as so little that it seemed to be\nabout to fall to nothing for littleness, is seen by the understanding\nto have \"three properties\":--God made it, God loveth it, God keepeth\nit. Thus it is known as \"great and large, fair and good\"; \"it lasteth,\nand ever shall, for God loveth it.\"--Yet again the soul breaks away\nto its own, with the natural flight of a bird from its Autumn nest at\nthe call of an unseen Spring to the far-off land that is nearer still\nthan its nest, because it is in its heart. \"But what is to _me_ sothly\n[in verity] the Maker, the Keper and the Lover,--I cannot tell, for\ntill I am Substantially oned [deeply united] to Him, I may never have\nfull rest ne very blisse; that is to sey, that I be so festined to\nHim, that there is right nowte that is made betwix my God and me\" (v.,\nviii.). This \"fastening\" is all that in Julian's book represents that\nneedful process wherein the truth of asceticism has a part. It is not\nessentially a process of detaching the thought from created things of\ntime--still less one of detaching the heart from created beings of\neternity--but a process of more and more allowing and presenting the\nman to be fastened closely to God by means of the original longing\nof the soul, the influence of the Holy Ghost, and the discipline of\nlife with its natural tribulations, which by their purifying serve to\nstrengthen the affections that remaining pass through them. \"_But only\nin Thee I have all._\" On the way this discovery of the soul at peace\nmust needs be sometimes a word for exclusion, in parting and pressing\nonward from things that are made: in the end it is the welcome,\nall-inclusive. And Julian, notwithstanding her enclosure as a recluse,\nis one of those that, happy in nature and not too much hindered by\nconditions of life, possess for large use _by the way_ the mystical\npeace of fulfilled possession through virtue of freedom from bondage\nto self. For it is by means of the tyranny of the \"self,\" regarding\nchiefly itself in its claims and enjoyments, that creature things can\nbe intruded between the soul and God; and always, in some way, the meek\ninherit the earth. \"All things are yours; and ye are Christ's.\"\nThe life of a recluse demanded, no doubt, as other lives do, a daily\nself-denial as well as an initiatory self-devotion, and from Julian's\nsilence as to \"bodily exercises\" it cannot of course be assumed that\nshe did not give them, even beyond the incumbent rule of the Church,\nthough not in excess of her usual moderation, some part in her\nChristian striving for mastery over self. Nor could this silence in\nitself be taken as a proof that ascetic practices had not in her view a\npreparatory function such as has by many of the Mystics been assigned\nto them during a process of self-training in the earlier stages of\nthe soul's ascent to aptitude for mystical vision. It is, however, to\nbe noted that neither in regard to herself nor others do we hear from\nJulian anything about an undertaking of this kind. To her the \"special\nShewing\" came as a gift, unearned, and unexpected: it came in an\nabundant answer to a prayer for other things needed by every soul.[1]\nJulian's desires for herself were for three \"wounds\" to be made more\ndeep in her life: contrition (in sight of sin), compassion (in sight\nof sorrow) and longing after God: she prayed and sought diligently for\nthese graces, comprehensive as she felt they were of the Christian life\nand meant for all; and with them she sought to have for herself, in\nparticular regard to her own difficulties, a sight of such truth as it\nmight \"behove\" her to know for the glory of God and the comfort of men.\nAccording to Julian the \"special Shewing\" is a gift of comfort for all,\nsent by God in a time to some soul that is chosen in order that it may\nhave, and so may minister, the comfort needed by itself and by others\n(ix.). In her experience this Revelation, soon closed, is renewed by\ninfluence and enlightenment in the more ordinary grace of its giver,\nthe Holy Ghost. But a still fuller sight of God shall be given, she\nrejoices to think, in Heaven, to _all_ that shall reach that Fulfilment\nof blessed life--the only mount of the soul set forth in this book.\nThither, by the high-road of Christ, all souls may go, making the steep\nascent through \"longing and desire,\"--longing that embodies itself in\ndesire towards God, that is, in Prayer.\nNothing is said by Julian as to successive stages of Prayer, though\nshe speaks of different _kinds_ of prayer as the natural action of the\nsoul under different experiences or in different states of feeling\nor \"dryness.\" Prayer is _asking_ (\"beseeching\"), with submission\nand acquiescence; or _beholding_, with the _self_ forgotten, yet\noffered-up; it is a thanking and a praising in the heart that sometimes\nbreaks forth into voice; or a silent joy in the sight of God as\nall-sufficient. And in all these ways \"Prayer oneth the soul to God.\"\nTo Julian's understanding the only Shewing of God that could ever be,\nthe highest and lowest, the first and the last, was the Vision of Him\nas Love. \"Hold thee therin and thou shalt witten and knowen more in the\nsame. But thou shalt never knowen ne witten other thing without end.\nThus was I lerid that Love was our Lord's menyng\" (lxxxvi.). Alien to\nthe \"simple creature\" was that desert region where some of the lovers\nof God have endeavoured to find Him,--desiring an extreme penetration\nof thought (human thought, after all, since for men there is none\nbeyond it) or an utmost reach of worship (worship from fire and ice) in\nproclaiming the Absolute One not only as All that _is_, but as All that\nis _not_. Julian's desire was truly for God in Himself, through Christ\nby the Holy Spirit of Love: for God in \"His homeliest home,\" the soul,\nfor God in His City. Therefore she follows only the upward way of the\nlight attempered by grace, not turning back to the _Via Negativa_, that\ndownward road that starting from a conception of the Infinite \"as the\nantithesis of the finite,\"[2] rather than as including and transcending\nthe finite, leads man to deny to his words of God all qualities known\nor had by human, finite beings. Julian keeps on the way that is natural\nto her spirit and to all her habits of thought as these may have been\ndirected by reading and conversation: it does not take her towards\nthat Divine Darkness of which some seers have brought report. Hers was\nnot one of those souls that would, and must, go silent and alone and\nstrenuous through strange places: \"homely and courteous\" she ever found\nAlmighty God in Jesus Christ our Lord.\nJulian's mystical sight was not a negation of human modes of thought:\nneither was it a torture to human powers of speech nor a death-sentence\nto human activities of feeling. \"He hath no despite of that which He\nhath made\" (vi.). This seer of the littleness of all that is made saw\nthe Divine as containing, not as engulfing, all things that truly are,\nso that in some way \"all things that are made\" because of His love last\never. Certainly she passes sometimes beyond the language of earth,\nseeing a love and a Goodness \"more than tongue can tell,\" but she is\nnever inarticulate in any painful, struggling way--when words are\nnot to be found that can tell all the truth revealed, she leaves her\nLord's \"meaning\" to be taken directly from Him by the understanding of\neach desirous soul. So is it with the Shewing of God as the Goodness\nof everything that is good: \"It is I--it is I\" (xxvi.). Certainly\nJulian looks both downward and upward, sees Love in the lowest depth,\nfar below sin, below even Mercy; sees Love as the highest that can\nbe, rising higher and higher far above sight, in skies that as yet\nshe is not called to enter: \"abysses\" there are, below and above,\nlike Angela di Foligno's \"double abyss\"; but here is no desert region\nlike that where Angela seems as \"an eagle descending\"[3] from heights\nof unbreathable air, baffled and blinded in its assault on the Sun,\nproclaiming the Light Unspeakable in anguished, hoarse, inarticulate\ncries; here is a mountain-path between the abysses and the sound as of\na chorus from pilgrims singing:\n \"Praise to the Holiest in the height\n And in the depth be praise\";--\n 'ALL IS WELL: ALL IS WELL: ALL SHALL BE WELL.'\nMoreover, Julian while guided by Reason is _led_ by the \"Mind\" of her\nsoul--pioneer of the path through the wood of darkness though Reason\nis ready to disentangle the lower hindrances of the way; and where\nher instructed soul \"finds rest,\" those things that are hid from the\nwisdom and prudence of Reason only are to its simplicity of obedience\nrevealed. Even as her Way is Christ-Jesus, and her walk by \"longing\nand desire\" is of faith and effort, so the End and the Rest that she\nseeks is the _fulness_ of God, in measure as the soul can enter upon\nHis fulness here and in that heavenly \"oneing\" with Him which shall\nbe by grace the \"fulfilling\" and \"overpassing\" of \"Mankind.\" \"The\nMid-Person willed to be Ground and Head of this fair End,\" \"out of\nWhom we ben al cum, in Whom we be all inclosid, into Whom we shall all\nwyndyn, in Him fynding our full Hevyn in everlestand joye\" (liii.).[4]\nThe soul that participates in God cannot be lost in God, the soul\nthat wends into oneness with God finds there at last its Self. Words\nof the Spirit-nature fail to describe to man, as he is, this fulness\nof personal life, and Julian falls back in one effort, daring in its\ninfantine concreteness of language, on acts of all the five senses to\nsymbolise the perfection of spiritual life that is in oneness with God\n(xliii.).\nIt may be noted that in these \"Revelations\" there is absolutely no\nregarding of Christ as the \"Bridegroom\" of the individual soul: once\nor twice Julian in passing uses the symbol of \"the Spouse,\" \"the Fair\nMaiden,\" \"His loved Wife,\" but this she applies only to the Church. In\nher usual speech Christ when unnamed is our \"Good\" or our \"Courteous\"\nLord, or sometimes simply \"God,\" and when she seeks to express\npictorially His union with men and His work for men, then the soul is\nthe Child and Christ is the Mother. In this symbolic language the love\nof the Christian soul is the love of the Child to its Mother and to\neach of the other children.\nJulian's Mystical views seem in parts to be cognate with those of\nearlier and later systems based on Plato's philosophy, and especially\nperhaps on his doctrine of Love as reaching through the beauties of\ncreated things higher and higher to union with the Absolute Beauty\nabove, Which is God--schemes of thought developed before her and in\nher time by Plotinus, Clement, Augustine, Dionysius \"the Areopagite,\"\nJohn the Scot, Eckhart, the Victorines,[5] Ruysbroeck, and others.\nOne does not know what her reading may have been, or with what people\nshe may have conversed. Possibly the learned Austin Friars that were\nsettled close to St Julian's in Conisford may have lent her books by\nsome of these writers, or she may have been influenced through talks\nwith a Confessor, or with some of the Flemish weavers of Norwich,\nwith whom Mystical views were not uncommon. Yet the Mysticism of the\n\"Revelations\" is peculiarly of the English type. Less exuberant in\nlanguage than Richard Rolle, the Hermit of Hampole, Julian resembles\nhim a little in her blending of practical sense with devotional\nfervour; but the writer to whom she seems, at any rate in some of\nher phrases, most akin is Walter Hilton, her contemporary.[6] Hilton,\nhowever, is very rich in quotations from the Bible, while Julian's\nonly direct quotations from any book--beyond her reference to the\nlegend of St Dionysius--are one that belongs to Christ: \"I thirst\"\n(xvii.), and two that belong to the soul: \"Lord, save me: I perish!\"\n\"Nothing shal depart me from the charite of Criste\" (xv.). (And indeed\nthese three are a fit embodiment of the Christian Faith as seen in\nher \"Revelations.\") But Julian, while perhaps more speculative than\neither of these typical English Mystics, is thoroughly a woman. Lacking\ntheir literary method of procedure, she has a high and tender beauty\nof thought and a delicate bloom of expression that are her own rare\ngifts--the beauty of the hills against skies in summer evenings, of an\norchard in mornings of April. Again and again she stirs in the reader\na kind of surprised gladness of the simple perfection wherewith she\nutters, by few and adequate words, a thought that in its quietness\nconvinces of truth, or an emotion deep in life. Of a little child\nit has been said: \"He thought great thoughts simply,\" and Julian's\ndeepness of insight and simplicity of speech are like the Child's.[7]\n\"For ere that He made us He loved us, and when we were made we loved\nHim\" (liii.). \"I love thee, and thou lovest me, and our love shall\nnot be disparted in two\" (lxxxii.). \"_Thou art my Heaven._\" \"I had\nliefer have been in that pain till Doomsday than have come to Heaven\notherwise than by Him.\" \"Human is the vehemence,\" says a writer on\nJulian's \"Revelations,\" of that reiterated exclusion of all other\npaths to joy. 'Me liked,' she says, 'none other heaven.' Once again\nshe touches the same octave, condensing in a single phrase which has\nseldom been transcended in its brief expression of the possession that\nleaves the infinity of love's desire still unsatiated: '_I saw Him\nand sought Him, I had Him, and I wanted Him._' Fletcher's tenderness,\nFord's passion lose colour placed side by side with the utterances\nof this worn recluse whose hands are empty of every treasure.\"[8]\nSometimes with her subject her language assumes a majestic solemnity:\n\"The pillars of Heaven shall tremble and quake\" (lxxv.); sometimes it\nseems to march to its goal in an ascent of triumphal measure as with\nbeating of drums: \"The body was in the grave till Easter-morrow and\nfrom that time He lay nevermore. For then was rightfully ended\" ...\n(close of Chap. li.). Generally, perhaps, the style in its movement\nrecalls the rippling yet even flow of a brook, cheerfully, sweetly\nmonotonous: \"If any such lover be in earth which is continually kept\nfrom falling, I know it not: for it was not shewed me. But this was\nshewed: that in falling and in rising we are ever preciously kept in\none love\" (lxxxii.). But now and again the listener seems to be caught\nup to Heaven with song, as in that time when her \"marvelling\" joy in\nbeholding love \"breaks out with voice\":--\"Behold and see! the precious\nplenty of His dearworthy blood descended down into Hell, and braste her\nbands, and delivered all that were there that belonged to the Court of\nHeaven. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood overfloweth all\nEarth and is ready to wash all creatures of sin which be of goodwill,\n_have_ been and _shall_ be. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood\nascended up into Heaven to the blessed body of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nand there is in Him, bleeding and praying for us to the Father, and is\nand shall be as long as it needeth; and ever shall be as long as it\nneedeth; and evermore it floweth in all Heavens, enjoying the salvation\nof all mankind that _are_ there, and _shall_ be--fulfilling the Number\nthat faileth\" (xii.).\nThe Early English Mystics make good reading,--even as to the mere\nmanner of their writings we might say, if it were possible to separate\nthe style from the freshness of feeling and the pointedness of thought\nthat inform it; and though we do not, of course, have from Julian,--a\nwoman writing of the _Revelations of Love_,--the delightfully\ntrenchant, easy address of Hilton in his counsels as to how to scale\nthe _Ladder of Perfection_--counsels both wise and witty--yet Julian,\ntoo, with all her sweetness, is full of this every day vigour and\ncommon sense. And sometimes she puts things in a na\u00efve, engaging way\nof her own, grave and yet light--as if with a little understanding\nsmile to those to whom she is speaking:--\"Then ween we, who _be_ not\nall wise\"; \"That the outward part should draw the inward to assent _was\nnot shewed to me_, but that the inward draweth the outward by grace and\nboth shall be oned in bliss without end by the virtue of Christ, _this_\nwas shewed\" (lxi., xix.).\nRolle, Hilton, and more especially the _Ancren Riwle_, give examples\nof that custom of allegorical interpretation of Sacred Scriptures that\nhas fascinated many mystical authors, but one can scarcely suppose\nthat this method would ever have been a favourite one with Julian\neven if she had been in the way of dealing with literary parallels\nand references. For though she uses \"examples,\" or illustrations\n(sometimes calling them \"shewings,\" or \"bodily examples\") and also\nmetaphorically figurative speech, she does not shew any interest in\nelaborate, arbitrary symbolism. At any rate she is too directly simple,\nit seems, and too much in the centre of realities, to be a writer that\n(without constraint of following the lines of others) would take as\nfoundation for an argument or an exposition outward resemblances or\nverbal connections, fit perhaps to illustrate or enforce the truth\nin question, but lacking in relation to it that inward vital oneness\nwhereby certain things that to man seem below him may become symbolic\nto him of others that he beholds as within or above him.\nExposition by analysis has been reckoned to be characteristic of the\nSchoolmen rather than of the Mystics,[9] though surely a mystical sight\nmay be served by an analytical process, and to see God in a part before\nor while He is seen in the whole is effected not without analysis of\nthe subtlest kind. So we find analysis in Julian's sight (Rev. iii.):\n\"_I saw God in a point_\"; and in her conclusions from this: \"_By\nwhich sight I saw that He is in all things_\"; and in her immediate\nraising, from this conclusion, of the question: \"_What is sin?_\" and\nthroughout her treatment of the problem in the scheme of her book.\nEven for the merely formal task of distinguishing by number, Julian,\nwe see, will set briskly forward (though we may not feel much inclined\nto follow) and often she begins her careful dissections with: \"In this\nI see\"--four, five, or six things, as the case may be. Her speech of\nspiritual Revelations is, however, helped out less by numbers than by\nliving and homely things of sight: the mother and the children and the\nnurse; lords and servants, kings and their subjects (with echoes of\nthe language of Court and chivalry); the deep sea-ground, waters for\nour service; clothing, in its warmth, grace and colour; the light that\nstands in the night, the hazel-nut, the scales of herrings.[10]\nAs one grows familiar with the \"Revelations\" one finds oneself in the\nmidst of a great scheme: a network of ideas that cross and re-cross\neach other in a way not very clear at first, perhaps, but not really in\nconfusion. All through this treatise from its beginning, the Revelation\nas a whole is in the mind of Julian; interpolation by another writer is\nout of the question: the book is all of a piece, both as the expression\nof one person, in mind and character, and as the setting forth of\na theological system. From the first we find Julian holding her\ndiverse threads of nature and mercy and grace for the fabric of love\nshe is weaving, and all through she guides them in and out, with no\nhesitation, till at last the whole design lies fair before her, shewing\nthe _Goodness of God_.\nWith regard to this scheme it may be noted that apart from her merely\nintellectual pleasure in arithmetical methods of statement, Julian\nshews throughout a mystical sense of numerical correspondences. Life,\nboth as being and action, is, to her sight, in its perfection full of\n_trinities_; while there are _doubles_,--incident to its imperfection,\nas we may put it, perhaps, though the book itself does not mark this\ndistinction in so many words--there are doubles wherein two things are\npartially opposed and require for their reconciling a third that will\ncomplete them into trinity. First, as the Centre of all, there is the\nBLESSED TRINITY: All-Might, All-Wisdom, All-Love: one Goodness: FATHER\nand SON and HOLY GHOST: one Truth. To the First, Second, and Third\nPersons correspond the verbs MAY, for all-powerful freedom to do; CAN,\nfor all-skilful ability to do; WILL, for all-loving will to do. So also\n\"the Father _willeth_, the Son _worketh_, the Holy Ghost _confirmeth_.\"\nAnother nomenclature of the Holy Trinity is, Might, Wisdom, Goodness:\none Love; but that of Might, Wisdom, Love (employed by Abelard,\nAquinas, and the Schoolmen generally) is the usual one, while _Truth,\nWisdom, Love,_ is employed in reference to that Image of God wherein\nMan is made: for man has not _created might_: his might is all in the\nuncreated might of God. Man in his essential Nature is \"made-trinity,\"\n\"like to the unmade Blessed Trinity\"--a human trinity of truth, wisdom,\nlove; and these respectively _see, behold, and delight in_ the Divine\nTrinity of Truth, Wisdom, Love.\nMan possesses _Reason,_ which _knows, Mind,_ or a feeling wisdom, which\n_wits,_ and _Love,_ which _loves_. The making of Man by the Son of\nGod as Eternal Christ, is the work of _Nature_; the falling of Man is\n\"suffered\" (allowed), and afterwards healed, by _Mercy_; the raising\nof Man to a higher than his first state is the work of _Grace_. \"In\nNature we have our Being; in Mercy we have our Increasing; in Grace\nwe have our Fulfilling.\" The work of grace by means of our natural\nReason enlightened by the Holy Ghost to see our sins, is _Contrition_;\nby means of our naturally-feeling Mind, touched by the Holy Ghost\nto behold the pain of the world, is _Compassion_; by means of our\nnature-and grace-inspired Love, which loves our Maker and Saviour\n(still by the separation of sin partially, painfully, hid from our\nsight) is greater _Longing toward God_. This longing must become an\nactive \"desire\": for the chief work that we can do as fellow-workers\nwith God in achieving full oneness with Him is _Prayer_; of which there\nare three things to understand: its _Ground_ is God by whose Goodness\nit springeth in us; its _use_ is \"to turn our will to the will of our\nLord\"; its _end_ is \"that we should be made one with and like to our\nLord in all things.\" And lastly we have for this life, both by nature\nand grace, the comprehensive virtue of _Faith_, \"in which all our\nvirtues come to us\" and which has in its own nature three elements:\n_understanding, belief,_ and _trust_. With Faith, which belongs perhaps\nchiefly to Reason,--Faith is \"nought else but a right understanding,\nwith true belief and sure trust, of our Being: that we are in God, and\nGod in us, Whom we see not,\" \"A light by nature coming from our endless\nDay, that is our Father, God\" (liv., lxxxiii.)--is also _Hope_, which\nbelongs to our feeling Mind (our Remembrance) and to the work of Mercy\nin this our fallen state: \"Hope that we shall come to our Substance\n(our high and heavenly nature) again.\" Moreover, \"Charity keepeth us\nin Hope and Hope leadeth us in Charity; and in the end all shall be\n_Charity_\" (lxxxv.).\nWith these trinities and groups of threes are others, belonging to God\nand man, mentioned successively in the closing chapters of the book:\nthree manners of God's Beholding (or Regard of Countenance): that of\nthe Passion, that of Compassion, and that of Bliss; three kinds of\nlonging God has: to teach us, to have us, to fulfil us; three things\nthat man needs in this life from God: Love, Longing, and Pity--\"pity in\nlove,\" to keep him now, and \"longing in the same love\" to draw him to\nheaven; three things by which man standeth in this life and by which\nGod is worshipped: \"use of man's reason natural; common teaching of\nHoly Church; inward gracious working of the Holy Ghost\";--and last of\nall, \"three properties of God, in which the strength and effect of all\nthe Revelation standeth,\" \"_Life, Love and Light_.\"\nAgain, Julian speaks of things that are _double_, and this double state\nseems to be one of imperfection, though she does not explicitly say\nso. Man's nature, she says, was created \"double\": \"_Substance_\" or\nSpirit essential from out of the Spirit Divine, and \"_Sensuality_\" or\nspirit related to human senses and making human faculties, intellectual\nand physical. These two, the Substance and Sense-soul, in their\nimperfection of union through the frailty of created love (which needs\nthe divine in its might to support it), became partially sundered\nby the failing of love. \"For failing of love on our part, therefore,\nis all our travail\"--from that comes the falling, the dying, and the\npainful travail between death from sin and life from God--both in the\nrace and the individual. But Christ makes the double into trinity:\nfor Christ is \"the Mean [the medium] that keepeth the Substance and\nSense-soul together\" in his Eternal, Divine-Human Nature, because of\nHis perfect love; and Christ-Incarnate in His Mercy, by this same\nperfect love brings these two parts anew and more closely together;\nand Christ uprisen, indwelling in the soul thus united, will keep them\nforever together, in oneness growing with oneness to Him. Moreover, Man\nbeing double also as \"soul and body,\" needs to be \"saved from double\ndeath,\" and this salvation, given, is Jesus-Christ, who joined Himself\nto us in the Incarnation and \"yielded us up from the Cross with His\nSoul and Body into His Father's hands.\"\nIn a mere reading of the Book these repeated correspondences may be\nfelt as wearisome, formal, fantastic,--or rather they may seem so when,\nas here, they are brought together and noted, for Julian herself simply\nspeaks of these different groups as they come in her theme. But when\none tries to follow the _thought_ of this book amongst the heights\nand depths of the things that are seen and temporal and the things\nunseen and eternal, these likenesses, found in all, seem to afford\none guidance and surety of footing, like steps cut out in a steep\nand difficult path. And as one goes on, and the whole of the meaning\ntakes form, these significations of something all-prevailing give one a\npartial understanding such as Julian perhaps may have had: the feeling,\nthe \"Mind,\" of a certain half-caught measure in \"all things that are,\"\na proportion, a oneness. We are amongst free nature's mountains, but\nthey do not rise haphazard: they shew a strange, a balanced beauty\nof line and light and shade, as convincing, if not as clear in its\nintention as the sunrise-lines and colouring of the euphrasy flower\nat our feet. We hear as we walk the wandering sound of \"the vagrant,\ncasual wind,\" but there is something in its rise and fall, and rising\nagain, that has kinship with the flow and ebb and onrush of the\nlingering, punctual waves on the shore. _Sursum Corda._\n[1] The soon-forgotten petition of Julian's youth for a \"bodily\nsickness\" does not seem to have had any connection in her mind with\nspecial Revelation: it was desired neither as in any way a sign\nof invisible things nor as a direct means of beholding them. And\nprobably, as a matter of fact, the sickness that was granted helped\nher in the way that she had desired, helped her to the sight of the\nRevelation, not directly, but by drawing her spirit to that utter\ndependence on and trust in God that is death's first lesson for all,\nthat uttermost self-devotion to God that is life's last exercise.\nThis spiritual state, with all that through years had gone before\nof feeling and thought and life's experience, made her ready to\nbe shewn with special largeness and clearness God's love: how it\nfilled the empty place of sin and pain and sorrow with its divine\nfulness. As to the \"bodily sight\" introducing the Revelation, a\nsight of \"parts of the Passion,\" which may be compared with \"The XV.\nOos\"--'_Orationes_'--Passion-prayers each beginning with '_O_' (_v.\nHora_ of Sarum), it was recognised by Julian herself, even at the\ntime of her seeing it, as being a sight of things \"not in substance\nor nature.\" In this recognition it was proved to be neither _mental\ndelusion_ nor mere \"raving\" delirium. But it would, it seems, be\nnatural that in her weakness of body and her exaltation of spirit (so\ntense that the strength of her self-surrender to death seemed to cast\nher back upon bodily life in the painless world between the two) some\nsort of _physical illusion_ should be brought about by her prolonged\ngaze upon the Face of the Crucifix, and that in her desire to enter\ninto the sufferings of the Passion as fully as those friends of her\nLord's that beheld it, Julian thus gazing in the midst of night's\nshadows and the dim light of dawn should seem to herself to behold\nthe sacred drops, depicted beneath the painted or sculptured Crown of\nThorns, flow down \"right plenteously.\" Julian gave thanks for this\nand all the \"bodily sight\" as a gift from God. By Him sickness and\nillusion, as well as things evil, are \"suffered\" to come, and by Him\nRevelation is given according to sundry times in diverse manners. Gain\nof the spirit through failure of the body--and no less by illusions of\nfever than by trance-state visions their seers speak of, when Death\npasses the Spirit half through the gates--would indeed be accordant\nwith the truth of the Shewing that came to Julian, how man is raised\nthrough shame and death into glory and life, since in the weakness of\nfailing men the strength of Christ is made perfect.\n[2] See the Bampton Lectures on _Christian Mysticism_. W. R. Inge. (p.\n[3] See the Introduction to _Le Livre des Visions et Instructions de la\nBienheureuse Ang\u00e8le de Foligno_, traduit par Ernest Hello. Paris, 1895.\n \"When that which drew from out the boundless deep\n Turns again home.\"\nNames._\" Cap. iv. (tr. by Parker). S. Aug. _Conf._: b. i. ch. 2; iii.\n[6] See the extract from Hilton given as a note to chapter lvii.\n[7] _Little Flowers of a Childhood_ (in Mem. J. D. W., Oct. 1894--March\n1899). Some of the thoughts of children,--some of the rising thoughts\nof a very little child who, like Julian, faced the darkness of time\n(steadfast as D\u00fcrer's pilgrim Knight, gentle as Chaucer's,) and\nbeheld on his journey the shining of the Eternal City,--might be set\nbeside words of the Mystics as shewing, perhaps, through their very\nsimplicity, the oneness of truth that there is to see, and the oneness\nof souls that see it. Here are convictions that the Cause of love,\nfelt within, \"must be Jesus' Good Spirit\"; comfort in discovering of\ndeath's unreality (for if only the body, not the spirit, dies, \"Oh,\nthen it is only _pretending-dying_!\"); a flash of discernment, perhaps,\nas to the passing away of lifeless evil since although, to the child,\nindeed \"it is a pity that some one did not come and kill the devil;\nand then he would be dead,\" yet he has his own eschatology: \"Well,\nwhen _we_ are all dead, the devil will be dead too.\" More significant\nis a sudden overawed realisation of the great universe (setting pause\nto his own run round in play), one door to a quick perception in the\nchild's devout spirit of analogy binding truths unseen by sense: \"Is\nthis world always going round, _now_?\" ('Yes.') \"It stays still!\nstill!--Jesus is looking down now: we don't see Him.\"--Here, too, are\nhabitual references to the things that are _meant to be_,--musings\nover the goodness and knowledge, the braveness and courtesy \"meant to\nbe\" in a _man_; and here is a grateful, trusting sense of the real\n'kindness' of 'wild' creatures and of hurting remedies. Many of those\nsimple utterances, careless yet arresting like a blackbird's song, and\npersonal with the ardent love and clear reason of a child faithfully\nliving and bravely dying, seem to attest a kinship with seers of\ntruth to whom longer trial has offered a sterner strength of complex\nthinking, for wider service here, but who, although they may have\nlearnt thus '_more_' in the knowledge of love, \"shall never know nor\nlearn _other_ thing without end.\"--\"I understood none higher stature in\nthis life than childhood.\"\n \"It is not growing like a tree\n In bulk, doth make man better be.\n A lily of a day\n Is fairer far in May,\n Although it fall and die that night,\n It was the plant and flower of Light.\"\nFor all of the Company of saints have the sight of One Vision, and be\nit in the steadfast fulfilment of labour, or from out of the merriment\nof play,--through the strong, bright peace of endurance, or the silent\nacquiescence of the will, led along valleys of darkness,--or again in\nsome swift rush of prayer into the morning light,--_all_ of the saints,\nthe babe and the ancient, beholding \"the Blissful Countenance\" say\n\"with one voice\": \"IT IS WELL.\" \"_Amen. Amen._\"\n[8] \"Catholic Mystics of the Middle Ages.\" _Edinburgh Review_, October\n[9] In reference to introspection M. Maeterlinck speaks of Ruysbroeck\nas \"the one analytical mystic.\" _Ruysbroeck and the Mystics_, p. 19.\n[10] In ch. vii. de Cressy's \"the Seal of her Ring\" gives a misreading.\n\"The phase of thought or feeling which we call Mysticism has its\norigin in ... that dim consciousness of the _beyond_ which is part of\nour nature as human beings.... Mysticism arises when we try to bring\nthis higher consciousness into relation with the other contents of our\nminds. Religious Mysticism may be defined as the attempt to realise\nthe presence of the living God in the soul and in nature, or, more\ngenerally, as the attempt to realise in thought and feeling, the\nimmanence of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eternal in the\ntemporal.\"--W. R. Inge, _Christian Mysticism_. The Bampton Lectures for\n\"What is Paradise? All things that are; for all are goodly and\npleasant and therefore may fitly be called a Paradise. It is said\nalso that Paradise is an outer Court of Heaven. Even so this world\nis an outer court of the eternal, or of Eternity, and especially\nwhatever in time, or any temporal creature manifesteth or remindeth\nus of God or Eternity; for the creature is a guide and a path to God\nand Eternity.\"[1] \"God is althing that is gode, as to my sight,\" says\nJulian, \"and the godenes that althing hath, it is He\" (viii.).\n\"_Truth seeth God_,\" and every man exercising the human gift of\nReason may in the sight and in the seeing of truths, attain to some\nsight of God as Truth. But \"_Wisdom beholdeth God_,\" and although\nthe enlightenment of the Spirit of Wisdom for the discernment of\nvital truth is a grace that is granted in needful measure to him that\nseeks to be guided by it, it is perhaps those receivers of grace that\nare mystics by nature and habit that are the most ready in reaching\nforward while still on earth to Wisdom's fullest and most immediate\nbeholding of God as All in all. For theirs in the largest (and it\nmay be the highest) efficiency, and in the fullest accordance with\nman's first gift of \"Reason Natural,\" is the further gift that Julian\ncalls \"_Mind_\": the gift of a certain spiritual sensitiveness whereby\nthey are quick to take impression of eternal things unseen (seeing\nthem either within or beyond the things of time that are seen) with\nsurrender of self to partake of their life. For in this Beholding of\nWisdom, response of the heart in purity and insight of the imagination\nin faith enhance each other, while the vision of the soul through both\ntakes clearness.\nThe mystic, who sees the wide-ruling oneness of God with all that is\ngood--and thus, as the Mystics say, with all that _is_,--may begin at\nany point the beholding of Goodness and therein the beholding of God.\n\"He is in the mydde poynt of all thyng, and all He doeth\" (xi.). It is\nin the way of those thus fully endowed for the reaching to truth in its\nhighest wisdom here, while they walk amongst the many manifestations of\nearth, to take them as delicate partial signs instinct with a single\nmeaning. Here is mystical perception:--\n \"To see a world in a grain of sand,\n And a heaven in a wild flower;\n Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,\n And eternity in an hour\";[2]\nby a blackbird's sudden song overhear, \"in woodlands within,\" a joy\nout of the heart of the Life of life.[3] Speaking of the spiritual\nsight Julian relates: \"I saw God in a point.--by which sight I saw\nthat He is in all things.\" To the mystical soul, quiet to listen to\n\"the music of the spheres,\" all sweet accordant sounds are singing\n_Holy, Holy, Holy_; to the mystical soul, \"full of eyes within\"--like\nthose _Creatures of Life_ seen on the plain by the prophet of the Law\nof life as renewed for Hope, and seen in the heights by the herald\nof the Evangel of life as fulfilled in Love--all symmetrical sights\nare as doors that are opened in Heaven. But it is most of all in the\nmusic and the symmetry made of adverse life and death by the power of\nlove, as this is seen from highest to lowest, from lowest to highest,\nthat the Revelation of God as Love that is All in all is received. And\nlooking thereon in the highest manifestation, the manifestation of\nChrist, which is made for all men, the mystics meet other beholders,\nwho are not called \"mystics,\" yet who have not merely in greater or\nless degree, with them, the common gift of Reason, but, after their\ndifferent manner and in their own share, the gift of the feeling\n\"Mind.\" For both from the seeing of Truth and from the beholding of\nWisdom comes the \"holy wondering delight in God\" that is simply delight\nof love in Love. So they of the East and they of the West sit down\ntogether to partake of the Bread and the Wine of the Table of God in\nHis Kingdom.\nThere is no other than one Food of the Divine Life consecrated and\nmade ready and offered to man for his human spirit to feed on;\nbut the Christian mystic finds an offering of that Food, which is\nthe sanctified Life of the Christ of God, not only in its constant\npresentment to the spirit alone, by the Spirit of God through Christ.\nTo him, as to other Christians, the sight and the offering of the\nLife in God is given in that memorial, mediate, expectant Sacrament\nconsecrated for the spirit's nurture through those elected Symbols of\nsense that are the most perfect and sacred symbols because in their\nearlier, natural use they most immediately minister to the whole human\nlife on earth of the Giver and of the receivers. But along with this\nchosen Sacrament, and as one with it, there is shewn to the mystic the\nLife Divine in diverse manners of working: he sees God's Christ from\nafar, _fore-sees_ the Eucharistic Sacrament of His most sacred Death\nand Life, _now_ raised in the Bread and the Wine on high,--seeing its\npromise low in the ground in the earliest, ageless life of the wheat\nand the vine: seed cast away, bruised corn of wheat, and dying Body,\nand broken Bread, and daily obedience; a hidden root, crushed fruit of\nthe vine, and Blood poured forth, and uplifted Wine, and joy of Love\nover Death: one Life.\nSometimes there is for the mystics a partaking of these lesser\n\"wayside sacraments,\" sometimes a turning aside from their symbols;\nsometimes the old song of life in the lower creation awakens singing,\nsometimes it scarcely is heard. But always the _spirit_ of nature's\nsigns as interpreted in Man, above all in Christ, lays its claim on\nthe soul; always as sung by the chorus of human spirits that live on\nthe \"Righteousness, Peace, and Joy\" of the Will of God, the New Song\nof Life through Death has in it a summons and receives from one and\nanother here, passing through much tribulation, its fuller concord of\nhuman achievement, or at least the desirous _Amen_. So whether the\nmystic dwell much or little with the sights and sounds of sense, those\nthings that are seen and heard by the _soul_ bear to him the command\nof his home, and the merest doorway glimpses, the echoes most distant,\nmaking their proffer of more and more within and beyond, say _Come_.\n \"I give you the end of a golden string:\n Only wind it into a ball,\n It will lead you in at Heaven's Gate,\n Built in Jerusalem wall.\"[4]\n(Although this \"following on to know,\" this winding of the truth\ncaught hold of into a \"perfect round\" of thought and will and life, is\nprobably not more easy for the mystics than for other people.\n \"Amore, amor, tu sei cerchio rotondo!\"[5])\nGod is in all; but \"our soul may never have rest in things that are\nbeneath itself\" (lxvii.). \"Well I wot,\" says Julian, \"that heaven and\nearth and all that is made is great and large, fair and good,\" yet \"all\nthat is made\" is seen as a little thing, the size of a hazel nut, held\nin the palm of her hand, when along with it her spiritual sight beholds\nthe Maker. And though we may find the Maker in all things, we find\nHim, both as Maker and Restorer, first and best, First and Last, in\nthe soul. There He is _Alpha_, there _Omega_. \"It is readier to us to\ncome to the knowing of God than to know our own Soul\" (in its fullest\npowers). \"For our soul is so deep-grounded in God and so endlessly\ntreasured, that we may not come to the knowing thereof till we have\nfirst knowing of God, which is the Maker, to whom it is oned.\" And yet,\n\"we may never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly\nour own soul\" (lvi.). The knowledge begins with God, but it begins\nwith Him in the lowest place of the soul rescued from sin by mercy and\nentered by grace. \"For Himself is nearest and meekest, highest and\nlowest, and doeth all\" (lxxx.). To the soul that looks on Christ a\nremembrance rises of its own \"fair nature\" made in His image; yet \"our\nLord of His mercy sheweth us our sin and our feebleness by the sweet\ngracious light of Himself\" (lxxviii.). Thus in the working of grace\nthe soul comes to the knowledge both of its higher and lower parts.\nFor in finding in itself both a natural response to the working of\ngrace by its love and its longing after God, and a contrariness to the\ngoodness of grace by its often failing and falling, it experiences both\nthe action of the \"Godly Will\" (which is within it as a part of, and\na gift from, its higher nature, \"the Substance\") and the action of a\n\"beastly will\" (from the simple animal nature) which can will no moral\ngood and which, \"failing of love,\" falls into sin: whereby comes pain,\nwith all the \"travail\" of good and evil in conflict during the course\nof restoration. But it is only when the Sense-soul (wherein the higher\nwill must overcome the lower) is at last brought up to heaven, enriched\nby all the profits of tribulation, and is united to the Substance\nwaiting there, \"hid with Christ in God,\" that we come to the perfect\nknowledge of God. For that knowledge, perfect in kind though always\ngrowing, can only begin when, being in our \"full powers\" and \"all fully\nholy,\" we come to know clearly our own united perfected Soul. This\nseems to be Julian's view (lvi., etc.).\nJulian says elsewhere that we have in us here such a \"medley\" of good\nand evil that sometimes we hardly know of others or of ourselves\nwherein we stand, but that each \"holy assent\" that we make (by the\nGodly Will) to the grace and will of God, is a witness that we are of\nGod. A witness to our sonship, it might be said; and perhaps, taking\nJulian's view for the time, we might think that as the Lost Son \"came\nto himself,\" so the soul comes to the consciousness of the Godly Will;\nthat as he arose and came to his Father and found Him, or rather was\nfound by his Father, so the soul receives the healing of Christ in\nMercy and the leading of the Holy Ghost in Grace; and that as at last,\nthe son not only found his father but found his lost sonship--yet a\nbetter sonship than ever he had known before--so the soul comes at last\nto find, more and more fully, that new sonship which is of its nature,\nyet is more than its nature. For it finds the nature oneness which by\ncreation it had with the Son of God, enhanced and for ever sustained by\ngrace.\nSometimes, truly, the Mystical doctrine leads by tracks that are not\neasily followed, but it is perhaps only when her views are regarded in\nsingle parts, that any harm could be found in Julian's statements--all\nqualified as they are by her \"as to my sight.\" At first indeed it may\nstartle one to read of her saints that are known in the Church and in\nHeaven \"by their sins,\" to hear that the wounds left by sin are made\n\"medicines\" on earth and turned to \"worships\" in Heaven; but then\nwe remember the joy that shall be in Heaven over \"one sinner that\nrepenteth,\" the love that loves much because much is forgiven. And yet\nwe remember the little children in _their_ high faith and love and\ninnocent days; and of such is the Kingdom of God. But the Child, with\nmany \"fair virtues,\" albeit imperfect, was likewise Julian's type of\nthe Christian soul: \"I understood no higher stature in this life than\nChildhood.\"\n\"To know our own soul\"--it behoveth us to know our own soul--our\nhigh-nature soul, which is enclosed in God, and also our soul on the\nearth which Christ-Jesus inhabits, which has in it the \"medley\": \"we\nhave in us our Lord Jesus uprisen, we have in us the wretchedness and\nthe mischief of Adam's falling, dying\" (lii.). But elsewhere Julian\ngives this name \"our own soul\" to the Church, seeing the Church\nlikewise as the dwelling and working-place of Christ (lxii.). She has\nbeen speaking of the Divine Wisdom being as it were the Mother of the\nsoul, and now she seems to lead us to the Church as to the Nursery\nwhere He tends His children. \"For one single person may oftentimes\nbe broken, but the whole Body of Holy Church was never broken, nor\never shall be, without end. And therefore a sure thing it is, a good\nand a gracious, to will meekly and mightily to be fastened to our\nMother, Holy Church, that is Christ Jesus. For the Food of Mercy that\nis His dearworthy blood and precious water is plenteous to make us\nfair and clean; the sweet gracious hands of our Mother be ready and\ndiligently about us. For He in all this working useth the office of a\nkind nurse that hath not else to do but to entend about the salvation\nof her child\" (lxi.). Each soul is indeed the soul of a person and\nmost intimately knows itself in its personal experience, through which\nindeed alone it can come to knowledge of others. Yet the single soul\nknows itself _best_ in the souls of all the saints, in the fellowship\nof the \"Blessed Common,\" where every virtue is found, not in each, at\nthis time, but in _all_--not now in the perfect height nor the fairest\nflowering, but at growth in that ground where each plant holds some\nlikeness to Christ.\nWith Julian the Christian Faith is not a thing added to the Mystical\nsight: these are, as again and again she says, seen both as one. It\nis the _inherent_ Christianity of her system that makes her teaching\nalways, in a large way, practical. For the system came at first to\nbe seen by prayerful searching made out of her practical need of an\nanswer to the problem of sin and sorrow; the Mystical Vision came with\n\"contrition, compassion, and longing after God,\" those wounds that\nher contrite, pitiful, longing heart had desired should be made more\ndeep in her life. It is through the work of grace that Julian reaches\nback to the gift of nature, its ground; and from the depths of this\nroot-ground she rises soon again to the \"springing and spreading\"\ngrace. So in the First of her Shewings the \"higher\" truth is seen:\n\"we are all in Him beclosed,\" but in the Last--the conclusion and\nconfirmation of all--the lower, yet nearer, truth, which _all_ may\nknow: \"and He is beclosed in us.\" And speaking of this dwelling within\nthe soul she speaks of His working us all into Him: \"in which working\nHe willeth that we be His helpers, giving to Him all our entending,\nlearning His lores, keeping His laws, desiring that all be done that He\ndoeth; truly trusting In Him\" (lvii.).\nJulian had prayed to feel Christ's dying pains, if it should be God's\nwill, in order that she might feel compassion, and the visionary sight\nof His pain in the Face of the Crucifix filled her with pain as it grew\nupon her. \"How might any pain be more to me than to see Him that is\nall my life, all my bliss, and all my joy suffer?\" Yet the Shewing of\nPain was but the introduction to, and for a time the accompaniment of,\nthe Revelation; the Revelation, itself, as a whole, was of Love--the\nGoodness or Active Love of God. So the First Shewing, as the Ground of\nall the rest, was a large view of this Goodness as the Ground of all\nBeing. Although through these earlier Shewings the Saviour's bodily\npain is felt by Julian so fully in \"mind\" that she feels it indeed\nas if it were bodily anguish she bore, it is in this very experience\nthat the shewing of Joy is made to her spirit. So when in the opening\nof the Revelation she tells of beholding the Passion of Christ, her\nfirst unexpected word is of sudden joy from the inner sight of the\nLove that God is: the sight of the Trinity:--\"And in the same Shewing\nsuddenly the Trinity fulfilled my heart most of joy. (For where JESUS\nappeareth, the blessed Trinity is understood, as to my sight.)\" And\neven as Julian finds afterwards that the Last Word of the Revelation is\nthe same as the First: \"_Thou shalt not be overcome_,\" so the opening\nSight already shews her that which shall be revealed all through, for\nlearning of \"more in the same,\" and uplifts her heart to the fulness\nof joy that is shewn at the close. For she feels that this shock, as\nit were, of Revelation--this sudden joy of seeing Love in the midst of\nearth's evil, beyond and beneath and in the pain that is passing, is\nthe entrance into the joy of the Lord. \"Suddenly the Trinity fulfilled\nmy heart with utmost joy.--And so I understood it shall be in heaven\nwithout end to all that shall come there\" (iv.). So at the close, when\nthe vision was not of the Love Divine in that bending Face beneath the\nCrown of Thorns, but of the human love that shall spring up to meet\nthe Divine out of the lowness of earth,--the vision of how from this\nbody of death, as from an unsightly, shapeless, and stagnant mass of\nquagmire, there \"sprang a full fair creature, a little Child, fully\nshapen and formed, agile and lively, whiter than lily; which swiftly\nglided up into heaven\"--the spiritual shewing to the soul is this:\n\"_Suddenly thou shalt be taken from all thy pain ... and thou shalt\ncome up above and thou shalt have me ... and thou shalt be fulfilled\nof love and of bliss_\" (lxiv.). And so in that early experience of\nJulian's when in her love, abandoned to pity and worship, she would\nnot look up to Heaven from the Cross, it was also the inward sight by\nthe higher part of her soul of the higher part of Christ's life, that\nHeavenly Love that could only rejoice, that overcame her frailty of\nflesh unwilling to suffer, and made her choose \"only Jesus in weal and\nin woe.\" \"Thou art my Heaven\" (xix.-lv.). \"All the Trinity wrought\nin the Passion of Jesus Christ,\" though only the Son of the Virgin\nsuffered, and in seeing this, Julian saw \"the Bliss of Christ's works,\"\n\"the joy that is in the blissful Trinity [by reason] of the Passion of\nChrist\"; \"the Father willing all, the Son working all, the Holy Ghost\nconfirming all.\"\nThis complexity of the Divine-Human life in the Son of God, this union\nin Christ Jesus of serene untouched blessedness in the heavenly regions\nof His spirit with His bearing, in the active joy of a \"glad giver,\"\nall the sin and sorrow of the world, is revealed as the comfort and\nconfidence of man, whose own deepest experience is love that suffers,\nwhose highest worship therefore must be of Love that is strong to\nsuffer.\nIt was a double joy that was shewn in Christ besides the bliss of the\nimpassible Godhead, which is the bliss of Love without all time and\nbeyond all deeds. For there was joy in the Passion itself: \"_If I\nmight suffer more, I would suffer more_,\" and joy in its fruits: \"_If\nthou art pleased, I am pleased_.\" Thus, too, we are told of three ways\nin which our Lord would have us behold His Passion: first, \"the hard\npains He suffered on earth\"; second, \"the love that made Him to suffer\npasseth as far all His pains as Heaven is above earth\"; third, \"the joy\nand the bliss that made Him to be well-satisfied in it.\"--\"With a glad\ncountenance He looked unto His wounded Side, rejoicing\" (xxii., xxiii.,\nxxiv.).\nFrom the sight of Love that is higher than pain comes the sight of\nLove that is deeper than sin. Julian had had the mystical shewing that\nGod is all that is good,[6] and is only good, is the life of all that\nis, and doeth all that is done, and she had reasoned, as others before\nher had reasoned, that therefore \"sin hath no substance\" and \"sin is\nno deed.\" But perhaps it is those that are most concerned with God in\ncreature things, that suffer most shaking from the sight of evil. Those\nthat seek God's Kingdom in this present world, finding \"the dark places\nof the earth\" full of the habitations of cruelty, have continually the\nenemy as with a sword in their bones saying within them: \"Where is now\nthy God?\" \"I saw,\" says Julian, \"that He is in all things. I beheld and\nconsidered, with a soft dread, and thought: _What is sin?_\" (xi.). So\nalso it is immediately after the coming of the mystical Shewing made\n\"yet more highly\": \"_It is I, it is I, it is I that am all_,\" that the\nmemory of her own experience is brought to her and she sees how in\nher longings after God, who is all the time so close about us, around\nus and within,--she had always been hindered from seeing and reaching\nHim fully by the darkening, disturbing power of sin. \"And so I looked\ngenerally upon us all, and methought: _If sin had not been, we should\nhave all been clean, and like to our Lord as He made us_\" (xxvii.).\nThus came again the stirring of that old question over which \"afore\nthis time often I wondered,\" with \"mourning and sorrow,\" \"why the\nbeginning of sin was not letted--for then, methought, all should have\nbeen well.\"\nTo this darkness, crying to God, the light came first as by a soft\ngeneral dawning of comfort for faith. \"_Sin is behoveable_ (it behoved\nthat sin should be suffered to rise) _but all shall be well, and all\nshall be well, and all manner of things shall be well._\" Yet Julian,\nunable to take comfort to her heart over that which was still so dark\nto her intellect, stands \"beholding things general, troublously and\nmourning,\" saying thus in her thoughts: \"_Ah good Lord, how might all\nbe_ well, for the great hurt that is come by sin to the creature?\"\n(xxix.).\nThe answer to this double question as to sin and pain is the central\ntheme of the Revelation, though much is still hidden and much is but\ndimly revealed as yet to faith. In brief account, the sight, enough\nfor us now, is this: \"Mercy, by love, suffereth us to fail [of love]\nin measure, and in as much as we fail, in so much we die: for it needs\nmust be that we die in so much as we fail of the sight and feeling of\nGod that is our life.... And grace worketh our dreadful failing into\nplenteous, endless solace, and grace worketh our shameful falling\ninto high, worshipful rising; and grace worketh our sorrowful dying\ninto holy, blissful life\" (xlviii.). \"By the assay of this falling we\nshall have an high marvellous knowing of love in God, without end. For\nstrong and marvellous is that love that may not and will not be broken\nfor trespass. And this is one understanding of our profit. Another\nis the lowness and meekness that we shall get by the sight of our\nfalling\" (lxi.). \"And by this meek knowing after this manner, through\ncontrition and grace, we shall be broken from all that is not our Lord.\nAnd then shall our blessed Saviour perfectly heal us and one us to Him\"\n(lxxviii.).\n_Theodidacta, Profunda, Ecstatica_--so Julian has been designated;\nperhaps she might in fuller truth be called _Theodidacta, Profunda,\nEvangelica_. She is indeed a mystic, evangelical, practical. With all\nher fellow-Christians and in the most deeply personal concern she\nlooks with a tender mind on the redeeming work of God by Christ in the\n\"glorious satisfaction\" (\"_Asseth_\"), and in fervent response of love\nand thankfulness trusts in the blessed Passion of Christ, and in His\nsure keeping, and in all the restoring, fulfilling work by the Holy\nGhost. But after the Mystical manner she seeks \"the beyond\": that is,\nwhile in no way leaving the works of mercy and grace she seeks to go\nback to the ground or source of them, the Goodness of God,--yes, to God\nHimself. \"I could not have perceived of the part of Mercy but as it\nwere alone in Love.\" \"The Passion was a noble worshipful deed done in a\ntime, but Love was without beginning, is, and shall be without ending.\"\nThe Mystical Vision is that which in outward nature sees the unseen\nwithin the seen, but it is also that which in spiritual things sees\nbehind and beyond the temporal means, the eternal causes and ends\n(vi.). And it is surely here in the spiritual things, in the heart\nand centre of human existence, in the stress of sin and suffering,\nrather than amongst the gentle growing things, and flaming lights,\nand songs, and blameless creatures of Nature that the Beatific Vision\non earth is at its highest. For here are found united the _Evangel_\nand the _Vision_ and the _Life_ of love. \"There the soul is highest,\nnoblest, and worthiest, where it is lowest, meekest, and mildest\":\nit is not in nature's goodness alone that we have our life, \"all our\nlife is in three,\" in nature, in mercy, in grace; \"whereof we have\nmeekness, mildness, patience and pity\" (lviii., lix.). Man's \"spirit,\"\nthe higher nature that Julian talks of, may indeed be there in the\nHeavenly places, as an infant's angel lying in the Father's arms,\nalways beholding His Face in love's silence of waiting; but here in\nearthly places is the Prodigal Son returning, here too is the Father's\nembrace, and here is His earliest greeting of the son that was lost and\nis found. And already here in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (where\n_all_ grow pure in the sonship obedience of Jesus Christ), are those\nthat are kept from the first as little children, taken up in His arms\nand suffered to sing their Hosannahs, which perfect His praise.\nThe Revelation of Love is all centred in the Passion, and looking on\nthe Passion in time the soul sees, in vision, the Lamb that was slain\nfrom the foundation of the world, the mind conceives how before all\ntime the Divine Love took to itself in the Wisdom of God the mode of\nManhood, and in time created Man in the same, and how thus God could\nbe and do all that man could be and do, could exercise Love Divine in\nhuman Faith and Courage: could \"take our flesh\" and live on the earth\nas \"the Man, Christ-Jesus,\" \"in all points tempted like as we are,\"\nfinding His daily Bread in the will of the Father, drinking with joy\nof the Wine of life in the evening cup of Death. \"Pain is passing,\"\nsays Julian, but in passing it leads forth love in man to its deepest\nliving, its fairest height of pureness and strength and fulfilment.\nThus it behoved the Captain of man's salvation to have His perfection\nhere through suffering. It is the _Lamb_ in the midst of the Throne,\nthe Almighty Love that was slain, that is Shepherd to the Martyrs,\nleading them unto living fountains of waters. He that bore the yoke\ngives rest to the heavy-laden; blessed is He that mourned: for He\ncomforteth with His comfort.\nSo in the Medi\u00e6val story,[8] the highest Mystical Vision, the sight of\nthe Holy Grail, comes only to him that is pure from self, and looks on\nthe bleeding wound that sin has left in man, and is compassionate, and\ngives himself to service and healing.--_Can ye_ drink _of the Cup I\ndrank of?_--Love's Cup that is Death and Life.--\n Wine of Love's joy I see thy cup\n Red to the trembling brim\n With Life outpoured, once lifted up,\n I drink, remembering Him.--\nIt is the mourners who are comforted: those that bear griefs of their\nown, or bear griefs of others fully, do not despair, though the mere\nonlooker may well despair. Thus the compassionate Julian's vision is of\n_Comfort_--comfort not for herself \"in special,\" but for \"the general\nMan\"--for all her fellow-Christians. She who had long time mourned\nfor the hurt that is come by sin to the creature, came to the sight\nof comfort not by turning her eyes away but by deeper compassion that\nfound through the very wounds the healing of Love on earth, the glory\nof Love in Heaven. She was \"filled with compassion for the Passion of\nChrist,\" and thus she saw _His joy_; so afterwards, she tells, \"I was\nfulfilled in part with compassion of all mine even-Christians, for that\nwell, well-beloved people that shall be saved. For God's servants,\nHoly Church, shall be shaken in sorrow and anguish and tribulation\nin this world, as men shake a cloth in the wind. And as to this our\nLord answered in this manner: A great thing shall I make hereof in\nHeaven of endless worship and everlasting joys. Yea so far forth as\nthis I saw: that our Lord joyeth of the tribulations of His servants,\nwith ruth and compassion.\" \"For He saith: _I shall wholly break you\nof your vain affections and of your vicious pride: and after that I\nshall together gather you, and make you mild and meek, clean and holy,\nby oneing to me_\" (xxviii.). Sin is indeed \"the sharpest scourge,\"\n\"viler and more painful than hell, without comparison,\" \"an horrible\nthing to see for the loved soul that would be all fair and shining in\nthe sight of God, as Nature and Grace teacheth.\" And darkness, which\noverhangs the soul while here it is \"meddling with any part of sin,\"\n\"so that we see not clearly the Blissful Countenance of our Lord,\" is\na lasting, life-long \"natural penance\" from God, the feeling of which\nindeed does not depart with actual sinning: \"for ever the more clearly\nthat the soul seeth this Blissful Countenance by grace of loving, the\nmore it longeth to see it in fulness\" (lxxii.). All this is in man's\nexperience, with many other pains--pains which in individual lives have\nno proportionate relation to sin, though, in general, \"sin is cause of\npain\" and \"pain purgeth.\"--(\"_For I tell thee, howsoever thou do thou\nshalt have woe_\"), (lxxvii., xxvii.). But the Comfort Revealed shews\nhow sin, which \"hath no part of being\" and \"could not be known but by\nthe pain it is cause of,\" (sin which in this view may be compared to\nthe nails of the Passion--mere dead matter, though with power to wound\nunto death for a time the blessed Life), sin, which is failure of human\nlove,--leaves, notwithstanding all its horror, an opening for a fuller\ninflux of Divine love and strength.[9] And as to _darkness_, \"seeking\nis as good as beholding, for the time that God will suffer the soul to\nbe in travail\" (x.). And as to tribulation of every kind, \"the Passion\nof our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and so is His blessed\nwill\" (xxvii.).\nThe parts may seem to come by chance and to be \"amiss,\" but the whole,\nand in the whole each part, is ordered. \"And when we be all brought\nup above, then shall we see clearly in God the secret things which be\nnow hid to us. Then shall none of us be stirred to say: _Lord, if it\nhad been thus, then it had been full well_: but we shall all say with\n_one_ voice: _Lord, blessed mayst Thou be, for it is thus: it is well;\nand now we see verily that all things are done as it was then ordained\nbefore that anything was made_\" (xi., lxxxv.). \"Moreover He that shall\nbe our bliss when we are there, is our Keeper while we are here\"; and\nthe Last Word of the Revelation is the same as the First; \"_Thou shalt\nnot be overcome._\" \"He said not: _Thou shalt not be tempested, thou\nshalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be distressed_; but He said:\n_Thou shalt not be overcome._\"\nThis is God's comfort. And that here, meanwhile, we should take His\ncomfort is Julian's chief desire and instruction. For Julian, who\nspeaking so much of sin as a strange and troubling sight, yet gives as\nexamples of sin only a slothful mistrusting despondency,--speaks indeed\nof faith and hope and charity, compassion and meekness, but scarcely\n_exhorts_ except to the cheerful enduring of tribulation. So she gives\ncounsel as to \"rejoicing more in His whole love than sorrowing in our\noften fallings\"; as to \"living gladly and merrily for love's sake\"\nin our penance of darkness (lxxii.-lxxxi.). And in general, for all\nexperiences of life, \"It is God's will that we take His promises and\nHis comfortings as largely and as mightily as we may take them, and\nalso He willeth that we take our abiding and our troubles as lightly as\nwe may take them, and set them at nought\" (lxiv., lxv., xv.).\n\"We are all one in comfort,\" says Julian, \"all the gracious comfort\nwas for all mine even-Christians.\" Sin separates, pain isolates, but\nsalvation and comfort unite.\nAnd lastly, in this mystical vision of the oneness of man with God\nin Christ, man is seen not only as united in himself in the diverse\nparts of his nature, and as one with his fellow man, but as joined\nto that which is below him. How often of one good and another, as of\nthat fair and sacred \"service of the Mother\"--\"nearest, readiest, and\nsurest\"--\"in the creatures by whom it is done,\" do we hear Julian's\nconfident word of Sacramental declaration: \"_It is Christ_.\" \"For God\nis all that is good, as to my sight, and God hath made all that is\nmade: and he that loveth generally all his even-Christians for God, he\nloveth all that is. For in Mankind that shall be saved is comprehended\nall: that is to say, all that is made and the Maker of all. For in Man\nis God, and God is in all. And I hope,\" adds Julian, in words that\nare fitting to take for her courteous, her tender, \"_Good Speed_\" ere\nwe pass to her book--altogether like her as they are, even to the\ncareful, conditional \"if\" (for _nothing,_ not even comfort, behoves\nto be \"overdone much\"), \"I hope by the grace of God he that beholdeth\nit thus shall be truly taught and mightily comforted, if he needeth\ncomfort\" (ix.).\n_Deus ubique est, et totus ubique est._ All things are gathered up in\nMan, and Man is gathered up in Christ; and Christ is gathered up in the\nBosom of the Father. So the world of the lower creation makes promise:\n_All things are yours_; and the Church says over its offering, lifted\nup: _Ye are Christ's_; and from the stillness the voice of peace is\nheard: _And Christ is God's_. \"All the promises of God in HIM are _Yea_\nand in HIM _Amen_, unto the glory of God by us.\" All the promises of\nGod: the blossom that floated to the ground; \"the lily of a day\" that\n\"fell and died that night\"; the \"little Child, whiter than lily, that\nswiftly glided up into Heaven\"--all the utterances silenced here--in\nHim are _Yea_ and in Him _Amen: Yea_ on earth and _Amen_ for ever. \"_He\nturneth the shadow of death into the morning._\"\n[1] _Theologia Germanica_, Chap. 1.\n[2] Blake's Poems.\n[3] _Memorabilia of Jesus_, by W. Peyton, p. 33.\n[4] Gilchrist's _Life and Works of William Blake_, vol. ii.\n[5] _Amor de Caritade_, by Jacopone da Todi (formerly ascribed to S.\nFrancis of Assisi).\n[6] \"_Quid me interrogas de bono? Unus est bonus, Deus._\"--S. Matt.\n[8] _A Key to Wagner's Parsifal_, by H. von Wolzogen, tr. by Ashton\nEllis.\n[9] Goodness is Active Love--love that moves. Drawing back from the\nfinite creature, as a wave from the shore, it \"suffers\" sin's void\nto appear. But this lack of itself is allowed for the time, that so\nreturning again in its force, to which evil is nothing, it may cover\nthe desolate nature with deepness and highness and fulness unknown\nbefore. (See lvii.).\n REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE\n \"A Revelation of Love--in Sixteen Shewings\"\nThis is a Revelation of Love that Jesus Christ, our endless bliss, made\nin Sixteen Shewings, or Revelations particular.\nOf the which the First is of His precious crowning with thorns;\nand therewith was comprehended and specified the Trinity, with the\nIncarnation, and unity betwixt God and man's soul; with many fair\nshewings of endless wisdom and teachings of love: in which all the\nShewings that follow be grounded and oned.[1]\nThe Second is the changing of colour of His fair face in token of His\ndearworthy[2] Passion.\nThe Third is that our Lord God, Allmighty Wisdom, All-Love, right as\nverily as He hath made everything that is, all-so verily He doeth and\nworketh all-thing that is done.\nThe Fourth is the scourging of His tender body, with plenteous shedding\nof His blood.\nThe Fifth is that the Fiend is overcome by the precious Passion of\nChrist.\nThe Sixth is the worshipful[3] thanking by our Lord God in which He\nrewardeth His blessed servants in Heaven.\nThe Seventh is [our] often feeling of weal and woe; (the feeling\nof weal is gracious touching and lightening, with true assuredness\nof endless joy; the feeling of woe is temptation by heaviness and\nirksomeness of our fleshly living;) with ghostly understanding that we\nare kept all as securely in Love in woe as in weal, by the Goodness of\nGod.\nThe Eighth is of the last pains of Christ, and His cruel dying.\nThe Ninth is of the pleasing which is in the Blissful Trinity by the\nhard Passion of Christ and His rueful dying: in which joy and pleasing\nHe willeth that we be solaced and mirthed[4] with Him, till when we\ncome to the fulness in Heaven.\nThe Tenth is, our Lord Jesus sheweth in love His blissful heart even\ncloven in two, rejoicing.\nThe Eleventh is an high ghostly Shewing of His dearworthy Mother.\nThe Twelfth is that our Lord is most worthy Being.\nThe Thirteenth is that our Lord God willeth we have great regard to\nall the deeds that He hath done: in the great nobleness of the making\nof all things; and the excellency of man's making, which is above all\nhis works; and the precious Amends[5] that He hath made for man's sin,\nturning all our blame into endless worship.[6] In which Shewing also\nour Lord saith: _Behold and see! For by the same Might, Wisdom, and\nGoodness that I have done all this, by the same Might, Wisdom, and\nGoodness I shall make well all that is not well; and thou shalt see\nit._ And in this He willeth that we keep us in the Faith and truth of\nHoly Church, not desiring to see into His secret things now, save as it\nbelongeth to us in this life.\nThe Fourteenth is that our Lord is the Ground of our Prayer. Herein\nwere seen two properties: the one is rightful prayer, the other is\nsteadfast trust; which He willeth should both be alike large; and thus\nour prayer pleaseth Him and He of His Goodness fulfilleth it.\nThe Fifteenth is that we shall suddenly be taken from all our pain and\nfrom all our woe, and of His Goodness we shall come up above, where we\nshall have our Lord Jesus for our meed and be fulfilled with joy and\nbliss in Heaven.\nThe Sixteenth is that the Blissful Trinity, our Maker, in Christ Jesus\nour Saviour endlessly dwelleth in our soul, worshipfully ruling and\nprotecting all things, us mightily and wisely saving and keeping, for\nlove; and we shall not be overcome of our Enemy.\n[1] made one, united.\n[2] precious, honoured.\n[3] honour-bestowing.\n[4] made glad.\n[5] MS. \"Asseth\" = Satisfaction, making-enough.\n[6] honour, glory.\n \"A simple creature unlettered.--Which creature afore desired three\nThese Revelations were shewed to a simple creature unlettered,[1] the\nyear of our Lord 1373, the Thirteenth day of May. Which creature [had]\nafore desired three gifts of God. The First was mind of His Passion;\nthe Second was bodily sickness in youth, at thirty years of age; the\nThird was to have of God's gift three wounds.\nAs to the First, methought I had some feeling in the Passion of Christ,\nbut yet I desired more by the grace of God. Methought I would have\nbeen that time with Mary Magdalene, and with other that were Christ's\nlovers, and therefore I desired a bodily sight wherein I might have\nmore knowledge of the bodily pains of our Saviour and of the compassion\nof our Lady and of all His true lovers that saw, that time, His pains.\nFor I would be one of them and suffer with Him. Other sight nor shewing\nof God desired I never none, till the soul were disparted from the\nbody. The cause of this petition was that after the shewing I should\nhave the more true mind in the Passion of Christ.\nThe Second came to my mind with contrition; [I] freely desiring that\nsickness [to be] so hard as to death, that I might in that sickness\nreceive all my rites of Holy Church, myself thinking that I should die,\nand that all creatures might suppose the same that saw me: for I would\nhave no manner of comfort of earthly life. In this sickness I desired\nto have all manner of pains bodily and ghostly that I should have if\nI should die, (with all the dreads and tempests of the fiends) except\nthe outpassing of the soul. And this I meant[2] for [that] I would be\npurged, by the mercy of God, and afterward live more to the worship of\nGod because of that sickness. And that for the more furthering[3] in my\ndeath: for I desired to be soon with my God.\nThese two desires of the Passion and the sickness I desired with a\ncondition, saying thus: _Lord, Thou knowest what I would,--if it be\nThy will that I have it--; and if it be not Thy will, good Lord, be not\ndispleased: for I will nought but as Thou wilt._\nFor the Third [petition], by the grace of God and teaching of Holy\nChurch I conceived a mighty desire to receive three wounds in my life:\nthat is to say, the wound of very contrition, the wound of kind[4]\ncompassion, and the wound of steadfast[5] longing toward God.[6] And\nall this last petition I asked without any condition.\nThese two desires aforesaid passed from my mind, but the third dwelled\nwith me continually.\n[1] \"that cowde no letter\" = unskilled in letters.\n[2] thought of, designed.\n[3] MS. \"speed.\"\n[4] _i.e._ natural.\n[5] MS. \"wilful\" = earnest, with set will.\n[6] For these wounds see xvii. p. 40, xxvii. p. 56, xxviii., lxxii. and\nxxxix.\n \"I desired to suffer with Him\"\nAnd when I was thirty years old and a half, God sent me a bodily\nsickness, in which I lay three days and three nights; and on the fourth\nnight I took all my rites of Holy Church, and weened not to have lived\ntill day. And after this I languored forth[1] two days and two nights,\nand on the third night I weened oftentimes to have passed;[2] and so\nweened they that were with me.\nAnd being in youth as yet, I thought it great sorrow to die;--but for\nnothing that was in earth that meliked to live for, nor for no pain\nthat I had fear of: for I trusted in God of His mercy. But it was to\nhave lived that I might have loved God better, and longer time, that I\nmight have the more knowing and loving of God in bliss of Heaven. For\nmethought all the time that I had lived here so little and so short in\nregard of that endless bliss,--I thought [it was as] nothing. Wherefore\nI thought: _Good Lord, may my living no longer be to Thy worship!_[3]\nAnd I understood by my reason and by my feeling of my pains that I\nshould die; and I assented fully with all the will of my heart to be at\nGod's will.\nThus I dured till day, and by then my body was dead from the middle\ndownwards, as to my feeling. Then was I minded to be set upright,\nbackward leaning, with help,--for to have more freedom of my heart to\nbe at God's will, and thinking on God while my life would last.\nMy Curate was sent for to be at my ending, and by that time when he\ncame I had set my eyes, and might[4] not speak. He set the Cross before\nmy face and said: _I have brought thee the Image of thy Maker and\nSaviour: look thereupon and comfort thee therewith_.\nMethought I was well [as it was], for my eyes were set uprightward unto\nHeaven, where I trusted to come by the mercy of God; but nevertheless I\nassented to set my eyes on the face of the Crucifix, if I might;[5] and\nso I did. For methought I might longer dure to look even-forth[6] than\nright up.\nAfter this my sight began to fail, and it was all dark about me in\nthe chamber, as if it had been night, save in the Image of the Cross\nwhereon I beheld a common light; and I wist not how. All that was\naway from[7] the Cross was of horror to me, as if it had been greatly\noccupied by the fiends.\nAfter this the upper[8] part of my body began to die, so far forth\nthat scarcely I had any feeling;--with shortness of breath. And then I\nweened in sooth to have passed.\nAnd in this [moment] suddenly all my pain was taken from me, and I was\nas whole (and specially in the upper part of my body) as ever I was\nafore.\nI marvelled at this sudden change; for methought it was a privy working\nof God, and not of nature. And yet by the feeling of this ease I\ntrusted never the more to live; nor was the feeling of this ease any\nfull ease unto me: for methought I had liefer have been delivered from\nthis world.\nThen came suddenly to my mind that I should desire the second wound of\nour Lord's gracious gift: that my body might be fulfilled with mind\nand feeling of His blessed Passion. For I would that His pains were\nmy pains, with compassion and afterward longing to God. But in this I\ndesired never bodily sight nor shewing of God, but compassion such as a\nkind[9] soul might have with our Lord Jesus, that for love would be a\nmortal man: and therefore I desired to suffer with Him.\n[1] \"I langorid forth\" = languished on.\n[2] I thought often that I was about to die.\n[3] Or it may be, at in de Cressy's version: _May my living be no\nlonger to Thy worship?_\n[4] _i.e._ could.\n[5] _i.e._ could.\n[6] straight forward.\n[7] MS. \"beside.\"\n[8] MS. \"over.\"\n[9] \"kinde,\" true to its nature that was made after the likeness of\nthe Creating Son of God, the type and the Head of Mankind,--therefore\nloving, and sympathetic with Him, and compassionate of His earthly\nsufferings: Who, Himself, for Love's sake, suffered as man.\n \"I saw ... as it were in the time of His Passion.... And in the same\n Shewing suddenly the Trinity filled my heart with utmost joy\"\nIn this [moment] suddenly I saw the red blood trickle down from under\nthe Garland hot and freshly and right plenteously, as it were in the\ntime of His Passion when the Garland of thorns was pressed on His\nblessed head who was both God and Man, the same that suffered thus for\nme. I conceived truly and mightily that it was Himself shewed it me,\nwithout any mean.[1]\nAnd in the same Shewing suddenly the Trinity fulfilled my heart most\nof joy. And so I understood it shall be in heaven without end to all\nthat shall come there. For the Trinity is God: God is the Trinity; the\nTrinity is our Maker and Keeper, the Trinity is our everlasting love\nand everlasting joy and bliss, by our Lord Jesus Christ. And this was\nshewed in the First [Shewing] and in all: for where Jesus appeareth,\nthe blessed Trinity is understood, as to my sight.\nAnd I said: _Benedicite Domine!_ This I said for reverence in my\nmeaning, with mighty voice; and full greatly was astonied for wonder\nand marvel that I had, that He that is so reverend and dreadful will be\nso homely with a sinful creature living in wretched flesh.\nThis [Shewing] I took for the time of my temptation,--for methought by\nthe sufferance of God I should be tempted of fiends ere I died. Through\nthis sight of the blessed Passion, with the Godhead that I saw in\nmine understanding, I knew well that _It_ was strength enough for me,\nyea, and for all creatures living, against all the fiends of hell and\nghostly temptation.\nIn this [Shewing] He brought our blessed Lady to my understanding. I\nsaw her ghostly, in bodily likeness: a simple maid and a meek, young of\nage and little waxen above a child, in the stature that she was when\nshe conceived. Also God shewed in part the wisdom and the truth of her\nsoul: wherein I understood the reverent beholding in which she beheld\nher God and Maker, marvelling with great reverence that He would be\nborn of her that was a simple creature of His making. And this wisdom\nand truth: knowing the greatness of her Maker and the littleness of\nherself that was made,--caused her to say full meekly to Gabriel: _Lo\nme, God's handmaid!_ In this sight[2] I understood soothly that she\nis more than all that God made beneath her in worthiness and grace;\nfor above her is nothing that is made but the blessed [Manhood][3] of\nChrist, as to my sight.\n[1] intermediary--thing or person. See vi., xix., xxxv., lv.\n[2] Either: _In this sight_--Shewing--_of her;_ or _In this her\nsight_,--insight--beholding (vii., xliv., lxv.). See Rev. xi. ch. xxv.,\n\"For our Lord shewed me nothing in special but our Lady Saint Mary;\nand her He shewed three times.\" The first shewing is here (a _sight_\nreferred to in ch. vii. and elsewhere); the second, in ch. xviii.; the\nthird, in ch. xxv.\n[3] This word is in S. de Cressy's edition.\n \"God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself;--only in Thee I have all\"\nIn this same time our Lord shewed me a spiritual[1] sight of His homely\nloving.\nI saw that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable for us:\nHe is our clothing that for love wrappeth us, claspeth us, and all\nencloseth[2] us for tender love, that He may never leave us; being to\nus all-thing that is good, as to mine understanding.\nAlso in this He shewed me a little thing, the quantity of an hazel-nut,\nin the palm of my hand; and it was as round as a ball. I looked\nthereupon with eye of my understanding, and thought: _What may this\nbe?_ And it was answered generally thus: _it is all that is made._\nI marvelled how it might last, for methought it might suddenly\nhave fallen to naught for little[ness]. And I was answered in my\nunderstanding: _It lasteth, and ever shall [last] for that God loveth\nit._ And so All-thing hath the Being by the love of God.\nIn this Little Thing I saw three properties. The first is that God\nmade it, the second is that God loveth it, the third, that God keepeth\nit. But what is to me verily the Maker, the Keeper, and the Lover,--I\ncannot tell; for till I am Substantially oned[3] to Him, I may never\nhave full rest nor very bliss: that is to say, till I be so fastened to\nHim, that there is right nought that is made betwixt my God and me.\nIt needeth us to have knowing of the littleness of creatures and to\nhold as nought[4] all-thing that is made, for to love and have God that\nis unmade. For this is the cause why we be not all in ease of heart\nand soul: that we seek here rest in those things that are so little,\nwherein is no rest, and know not our God that is All-mighty, All-wise,\nAll-good. For He is the Very Rest. God willeth to be known, and it\npleaseth Him that we rest in Him; for all that is beneath Him sufficeth\nnot us. And this is the cause why that no soul is rested till it is\nmade nought as to all[5] things that are made. When it is willingly\nmade nought, for love, to have Him that is all, then is it able to\nreceive spiritual rest.\nAlso our Lord God shewed that it is full great pleasance to Him that\na helpless soul come to Him simply and plainly and homely. For this\nis the natural yearnings of the soul, by the touching of the Holy\nGhost (as by the understanding that I have in this Shewing): _God, of\nThy Goodness, give me Thyself: for Thou art enough to me, and I may\nnothing ask that is less that may be full worship to Thee; and if I ask\nanything that is less, ever me wanteth,--but only in Thee I have all._\nAnd these words are full lovely to the soul, and full near touch they\nthe will of God and His Goodness. For His Goodness comprehendeth all\nHis creatures and all His blessed works, and overpasseth[6] without\nend. For He is the endlessness, and He hath made us only to Himself,\nand restored us by His blessed Passion, and keepeth us in His blessed\nlove; and all this of His Goodness.\n[1] MS. \"ghostly,\" and so, generally, throughout the MS.\n[2] \"Becloseth,\" and so generally.\n[3] _i.e._ in essence united.\n[4] \"to nowtyn.\"\n[5] \"nowtid of.\" de Cressy: \"_naughted_ (emptied).\"\n[6] surpasseth.\n \"The Goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down to the\n lowest part of our need\"\nThis Shewing was made to learn our soul wisely to cleave to the\nGoodness of God.\nAnd in that time the custom of our praying was brought to mind: how we\nuse for lack of understanding and knowing of Love, to take many means\n[whereby to beseech Him].[1]\nThen saw I truly that it is more worship to God, and more very delight,\nthat we faithfully[2] pray to Himself of His Goodness and cleave\nthereunto by His Grace, with true understanding, and steadfast by love,\nthan if we took all the means that heart can think. For if we took all\nthese means, it is too little, and not full worship to God: but in His\nGoodness is all the whole, and _there_ faileth right nought.\nFor this, as I shall tell, came to my mind in the same time: We pray\nto God for [the sake of] His holy flesh and His precious blood, His\nholy Passion, His dearworthy death and wounds: and all the blessed\nkindness,[3] the endless life that we have of all this, is His\nGoodness. And we pray Him for [the sake of] His sweet Mother's love\nthat Him bare; and all the help we have of her is of His Goodness. And\nwe pray by His holy Cross that he died on, and all the virtue and the\nhelp that we have of the Cross, it is of His Goodness. And on the same\nwise, all the help that we have of special saints and all the blessed\nCompany of Heaven, the dearworthy love and endless friendship that\nwe have of them, it is of His Goodness. For God of His Goodness hath\nordained means to help us, full fair and many: of which the chief and\nprincipal mean is the blessed nature that He took of the Maid, with all\nthe means that go afore and come after which belong to our redemption\nand to endless salvation. Wherefore it pleaseth Him that we seek Him\nand worship through means, understanding that He is the Goodness of all.\nFor the Goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down to\nthe lowest part of our need. It quickeneth our soul and bringeth it on\nlife, and maketh it for to waxen in grace and virtue. It is nearest in\nnature; and readiest in grace: for _it_ is the same grace that the soul\nseeketh, and ever shall seek till we know verily that He hath us all in\nHimself enclosed.\nFor He hath no despite of that He hath made, nor hath He any disdain to\nserve us at the simplest office that to our body belongeth in nature,\nfor love of the soul that He hath made to His own likeness.\nFor as the body is clad in the cloth, and the flesh in the skin, and\nthe bones in the flesh, and the heart in the whole,[4] so are we, soul\nand body, clad in the Goodness of God, and enclosed. Yea, and more\nhomely: for all these may waste and wear away, but the Goodness of God\nis ever whole; and more near to us, without any likeness; for truly our\nLover desireth that our soul cleave to Him with all its might, and that\nwe be ever-more cleaving to His Goodness. For of all things that heart\nmay think, this pleaseth most God, and soonest speedeth [the soul].\nFor our soul is so specially loved of Him that is highest, that it\noverpasseth the knowing of all creatures: that is to say, there is no\ncreature that is made that may [fully] know[5] how much and how sweetly\nand how tenderly our Maker loveth us. And therefore we may with grace\nand His help stand in spiritual beholding, with everlasting marvel of\nthis high, overpassing, inestimable[6] Love that Almighty God hath\nto us of His Goodness. And therefore we may ask of our Lover with\nreverence all that we will.\nFor our natural[7] Will is to have God, and the Good Will of God is to\nhave us; and we may never cease from willing nor from longing till we\nhave Him in fullness of joy: and then may we no more desire.\nFor He willeth that we be occupied in knowing and loving till the time\nthat we shall be fulfilled in Heaven; and therefore was this lesson of\nLove shewed, with all that followeth, as ye shall see. For the strength\nand the Ground of all was shewed in the First Sight. For of all things\nthe beholding and the loving of the Maker maketh the soul to seem less\nin his own sight, and most filleth him with reverent dread and true\nmeekness; with plenty of charity to his even-Christians.[8]\n[1] MS. \"To make many menys.\" So in _Letter_ 385 of _The Paston\nLetters_, 1422-1509 A.D.--\"Our Soverayn Lord hath wonne the feld, &\nuppon the Munday next after Palmesunday, he was resseved in York with\ngret solempnyte & processyons. And the Mair & Comons of the said cite\nmad ther menys to have grace be [by] Lord Montagu & Lord Barenars,\nwhich be for the Kyngs coming in to the said cite, which graunted hem\n[them] grace.\" _Letter_ 472 (from Margaret Paston).--\"Your ryth wele\nwillers have kounselyd me that I xuld kownsell you to maken other menys\nthan ye have made, to other folks, that wold spede your matyrs better\nthan they have done thatt ye have spoken to therof\" (ed. by James\nGairdner, vol i.). See ch. iv. p. 8.\n[2] _i.e._ trustingly.\n[3] bond as of relationship.\n[4] \"the bouke\" = the bulk, the thorax.\n[5] \"witten.\"\n[6] or, as in S. de Cressy, \"immeasurable.\" The word, however, looks\nlike \"oninestimable\" with the \"on\" blotted or erased.\n[7] \"kindly.\"\n[8] \"to his even cristen\"--fellow-Christians (\"even\" = equal).\n_Hamlet_, Act v. Sc. i. \"great folk ... more than their even Christian.\"\n \"The Shewing is not other than of faith, nor less nor more\"\nAnd [it was] to learn us this, as to mine understanding, [that] our\nLord God shewed our Lady Saint Mary in the same time: that is to say,\nthe high Wisdom and Truth _she_ had in beholding of her Maker so great,\nso holy, so mighty, and so good. This greatness and this nobleness of\nthe beholding of God fulfilled her with reverent dread, and withal she\nsaw herself so little and so low, so simple and so poor, in regard\nof[1] her Lord God, that this reverent dread fulfilled her with\nmeekness. And thus, by this ground [of meekness] she was fulfilled with\ngrace and with all manner of virtues, and overpasseth all creatures.\nIn all the time that He shewed this that I have told now in spiritual\nsight, I saw the bodily sight lasting of the plenteous bleeding of the\nHead. The great drops of blood fell down from under the Garland like\npellots, seeming as it had come out of the veins; and in the coming\nout they were brown-red, for the blood was full thick; and in the\nspreading-abroad they were bright-red; and when they came to the brows,\nthen they vanished; notwithstanding, the bleeding continued till many\nthings were seen and understood. The fairness and the lifelikeness\nis like nothing but the same; the plenteousness is like to the drops\nof water that fall off the eaves after a great shower of rain, that\nfall so thick that no man may number them with bodily wit; and for the\nroundness, they were like to the scale of herring, in the spreading on\nthe forehead. These three came to my mind in the time: pellots, for\nroundness, in the coming out of the blood; the scale of herring, in the\nspreading in the forehead, for roundness; the drops off eaves, for the\nplenteousness innumerable.\nThis Shewing was quick and life-like, and horrifying and dreadful,\nsweet and lovely. And of all the sight it was most comfort to me that\nour God and Lord that is so reverend and dreadful, is so homely and\ncourteous: and this most fulfilled me with comfort and assuredness of\nsoul.\nAnd to the understanding of this He shewed this open example:--\nIt is the most worship that a solemn King or a great Lord may do a poor\nservant if he will be homely with him, and specially if he sheweth\nit _himself_, of a full true meaning, and with a glad cheer, both\nprivately and in company. Then thinketh this poor creature thus: _And\nwhat might this noble Lord do of more worship and joy to me than to\nshew me that am so simple this marvellous homeliness? Soothly it is\nmore joy and pleasance to me than [if] he gave me great gifts and were\nhimself strange in manner._\nThis bodily example was shewed so highly that man's heart might be\nravished and almost forgetting itself for joy of the great homeliness.\nThus it fareth with our Lord Jesus and with us. For verily it is the\nmost joy that may be, as to my sight, that He that is highest and\nmightiest, noblest and worthiest, is lowest and meekest, homeliest and\nmost courteous: and truly and verily this marvellous joy shall be shewn\nus all when we see Him.\nAnd this willeth our Lord that we seek for and trust to, joy and\ndelight in, comforting us and solacing us, as we may with His grace\nand with His help, unto the time that we see it verily. For the most\nfulness of joy that we shall have, as to my sight, is the marvellous\ncourtesy and homeliness of our Father, that is our Maker, in our Lord\nJesus Christ that is our Brother and our Saviour.\nBut this marvellous homeliness may no man fully see in this time of\nlife, save he have it of special shewing of our Lord, or of great\nplenty of grace inwardly given of the Holy Ghost. But faith and belief\nwith charity deserveth the meed: and so it is had, by grace; for in\nfaith, with hope and charity, our life is grounded. The Shewing, made\nto whom that God will, plainly teacheth the same, opened and declared,\nwith many privy points belonging to our Faith which be worshipful to\nknow. And when the Shewing which is given in a time is passed and hid,\nthen the faith keepeth [it] by grace of the Holy Ghost unto our life's\nend. And thus through the Shewing it is not other than of faith, nor\nless nor more; as it may be seen in our Lord's teaching in the same\nmatter, by that time that it shall come to the end.\n[1] _i.e._ seen at the same time as, or in comparison with. See the\nnote to ch. iv. p. 9.\n \"In all this I was greatly stirred in charity to my fellow-Christians\n that they might see and know the same that I saw\"\nAnd as long as I saw this sight of the plenteous bleeding of the Head I\nmight never cease from these words: _Benedicite Domine!_\nIn which Shewing I understood six things:--The first is, the tokens of\nthe blessed Passion and the plenteous shedding of His precious blood.\nThe second is, the Maiden that is His dearworthy Mother. The third is,\nthe blissful Godhead that ever was, is, and ever shall be: Almighty,\nAll-Wisdom, All-Love. The fourth is, all-thing that He hath made.--For\nwell I wot that heaven and earth and all that is made is great and\nlarge, fair and good; but the cause why it shewed so little to my sight\nwas for that I saw it in the presence of Him that is the Maker of all\nthings: for to a soul that seeth the Maker of all, all that is made\nseemeth full little.--The fifth is: He that made all things for love,\nby the same love keepeth them, and shall keep them[1] without end.\nThe sixth is, that God is all that is good, as to my sight, and the\ngoodness that each thing hath, it is He.[2]\nAnd all these our Lord shewed me in the first Sight, with time and\nspace to behold it. And the bodily sight stinted,[3] but the spiritual\nsight dwelled in mine understanding, and I abode with reverent dread,\njoying in that I saw. And I desired, as I durst, to see more, if it\nwere His will, or else [to see for] longer time the same.\nIn all this I was greatly stirred in charity to mine even-Christians,\nthat they might see and know the same that I saw: for I would it were\ncomfort to them. For all this Sight was shewed [with] general [regard].\nThen said I to them that were about me: _It is to-day Doomsday with\nme_. And this I said for that I thought to have died. (For that day\nthat a man dieth, he is judged[4] as shall be without end, as to mine\nunderstanding.) This I said for that I would they might love God the\nbetter, for to make them to have in mind that this life is short, as\nthey might see in example. For in all this time I weened to have died;\nand that was marvel to me, and troublous partly: for methought this\nVision was shewed for them that should live. And that which I say of\nme, I say in the person of all mine even-Christians: for I am taught in\nthe Spiritual Shewing of our Lord God that He meaneth so. And therefore\nI pray you all for God's sake, and counsel you for your own profit,\nthat ye leave the beholding of a poor creature[5] that it was shewed\nto, and mightily, wisely, and meekly behold God that of His courteous\nlove and endless goodness would shew it generally, in comfort of us\nall. For it is God's will that ye take it with great joy and pleasance,\nas if Jesus had shewed it to you all.\n[1] \"it is kept, and shall be.\"\n[2] \"God is althing that is gode, as to my sight, and the godenes that\nal thing hath, it is he.\"\n[3] _i.e._ ceased.\n[4] \"deemed.\"\n[5] \"a wretch.\"\n \"If I look singularly to myself, I am right nought\"\nBecause of the Shewing I am not good but if I love God the better: and\nin as much as ye love God the better, it is more to you than to me. I\nsay[1] not this to them that be wise, for they wot it well; but I say\nit to you that be simple, for ease and comfort: for we are all one\nin comfort. For truly it was not shewed me that God loved me better\nthan the least soul that is in grace; for I am certain that there be\nmany that never had Shewing nor sight but of the common teaching of\nHoly Church, that love God better than I. For if I look singularly to\nmyself, I am right nought; but in [the] general [Body] I am, I hope, in\noneness of charity with all mine even-Christians.\nFor in this oneness standeth the life of all mankind that shall be\nsaved. For God is all that is good, as to my sight, and God hath made\nall that is made, and God loveth all that He hath made: and he that\nloveth generally all his even-Christians for God, he loveth all that\nis. For in mankind that shall be saved is comprehended all: that is to\nsay, all that is made and the Maker of all. For in man is God, and God\nis in all. And I hope by the grace of God he that beholdeth it thus\nshall be truly taught and mightily comforted, if he needeth comfort.\nI speak of them that shall be saved, for in this time God shewed me\nnone other. But in all things I believe as Holy Church believeth,\npreacheth, and teacheth. For the Faith of Holy Church, the which I\nhad aforehand understood and, as I hope, by the grace of God earnestly\nkept in use and custom, stood continually in my sight: [I] willing and\nmeaning never to receive anything that might be contrary thereunto. And\nwith this intent I beheld the Shewing with all my diligence: for in all\nthis blessed Shewing I beheld it as one in God's meaning.[2]\nAll this was shewed by three [ways]: that is to say, by bodily sight,\nand by word formed in mine understanding, and by spiritual sight. But\nthe spiritual sight I cannot nor may not shew it as openly nor as fully\nas I would. But I trust in our Lord God Almighty that He shall of His\ngoodness, and for your love, make you to take it more spiritually and\nmore sweetly than I can or may tell it.\n[1] \"sey\" = _say_ or _tell_.\n[2] _i.e._ The teaching of the Faith and the teaching of the special\nShewing were both from God and were seen to be at one.\n _THE SECOND REVELATION_\n \"God willeth to be seen and to be sought: to be abided and to be\nAnd after this I saw with bodily sight in the face of the crucifix\nthat hung before me, on the which I gazed continually, a part of His\nPassion: despite, spitting and sullying, and buffetting, and many\nlanguoring pains, more than I can tell, and often changing of colour.\nAnd one time I saw half the face, beginning at the ear, over-gone with\ndry blood till it covered to the mid-face. And after that the other\nhalf [was] covered on the same wise, the whiles in this [first] part\n[it vanished] even as it came.\nThis saw I bodily, troublously and darkly; and I desired more bodily\nsight, to have seen more clearly. And I was answered in my reason: _If\nGod will shew thee more, He shall be thy light: thee needeth none but\nHim._ For I saw Him sought.[1]\nFor we are now so blind and unwise that we never seek God till He\nof His goodness shew Himself to us. And when we aught see of Him\ngraciously, then are we stirred by the same grace to seek with great\ndesire to see Him more blissfully.\nAnd thus I saw Him, and sought Him; and I had Him, I wanted Him. And\nthis is, and should be, our common working in this [life], as to my\nsight.\nOne time mine understanding was led down into the sea-ground, and there\nI saw hills and dales green, seeming as it were moss-be-grown, with\nwrack and gravel. Then I understood thus: that if a man or woman were\nunder the broad water, if he might have sight of God so as God is with\na man continually, he should be safe in body and soul, and take no\nharm: and overpassing, he should have more solace and comfort than all\nthis world can tell. For He willeth we should believe that we see Him\ncontinually though that to us it seemeth but little [of sight]; and in\nthis belief He maketh us evermore to gain grace. For He will be seen\nand He will be sought: He will be abided and he will be trusted.\nThis Second Shewing was so low and so little and so simple, that my\nspirits were in great travail in the beholding,--mourning, full of\ndread, and longing: for I was some time in doubt whether it was a\nShewing. And then diverse times our good Lord gave me more sight,\nwhereby I understood truly that it was a Shewing. It was a figure and\nlikeness of our foul deeds' shame that our fair, bright, blessed Lord\nbare for our sins: it made me to think of the Holy Vernacle[2] at\nRome, which He hath portrayed with His own blessed face when He was in\nHis hard Passion, with steadfast will going to His death, and often\nchanging of colour. Of the brownness and blackness, the ruefulness\nand wastedness of this Image many marvel how it might be, since that\nHe portrayed it with His blessed Face who is the fairness of heaven,\nflower of earth, and the fruit of the Maiden's womb. Then how might\nthis Image be so darkening in colour[3] and so far from fair?--I desire\nto tell like as I have understood by the grace of God:--\nWe know in our Faith, and believe by the teaching and preaching of Holy\nChurch, that the blessed Trinity made Mankind to[4] His image and to\nHis likeness. In the same manner-wise we know that when man fell so\ndeep and so wretchedly by sin, there was none other help to restore\nman but through Him that made man. And He that made man for love, by\nthe same love He would restore man to the same bliss, and overpassing;\nand like as we were like-made to the Trinity in our first making, our\nMaker would that we should be like Jesus Christ, Our Saviour, in heaven\nwithout end, by the virtue of our again-making.\nThen atwix these two, He would for love and worship of man make\nHimself as like to man in this deadly life, in our foulness and our\nwretchedness, as man might be without guilt. This is that which is\nmeant where it is said afore: it was the image and likeness of our foul\nblack deeds' shame wherein our fair, bright, blessed Lord God was hid.\nBut full certainly I dare say, and we ought to trow it, that so fair a\nman was never none but He, till what time His fair colour was changed\nwith travail and sorrow and Passion and dying. Of this it is spoken in\nthe Eighth Revelation, where it treateth more of the same likeness. And\nwhere it speaketh of the Vernacle of Rome, it meaneth by [reason of]\ndiverse changing of colour and countenance, sometime more comfortably\nand life-like, sometime more ruefully and death-like, as it may be seen\nin the Eighth Revelation.\nAnd this [dim] vision was a learning, to mine understanding, that the\ncontinual seeking of the soul pleaseth God full greatly: for it may\ndo no more than seek, suffer and trust. And this is wrought in the\nsoul that hath it, by the Holy Ghost; and the clearness of finding,\n_it_ is of His special grace, when it is His will. The seeking, with\nfaith, hope, and charity, pleaseth our Lord, and the finding pleaseth\nthe soul and fulfilleth it with joy. And thus was I learned, to mine\nunderstanding, that seeking is as good as beholding, for the time that\nHe will suffer the soul to be in travail. It is God's will that _we\nseek Him_, to the beholding of Him, for by _that_[5] He shall shew us\nHimself of His special grace when He will. And how a soul shall have\nHim in its beholding, He shall teach Himself: and that is most worship\nto Him and profit to thyself, and [the soul thus] most receiveth of\nmeekness and virtues with the grace and leading of the Holy Ghost. For\na soul that only fasteneth it[self] on to God with very trust, either\nby seeking or in beholding, it is the most worship that it may do to\nHim, as to my sight.\nThese are two workings that may be seen in this Vision: the one is\nseeking, the other is beholding. The seeking is common,--that every\nsoul may have with His grace,--and ought to have that discretion and\nteaching of the Holy Church. It is God's will that we have three\nthings in our seeking:--The first is that we seek earnestly and\ndiligently, without sloth, and, as it may be through His grace, without\nunreasonable[6] heaviness and vain sorrow. The second is, that we abide\nHim steadfastly for His love, without murmuring and striving against\nHim, to our life's end: for it shall last but awhile. The third is that\nwe trust in Him mightily of full assured faith. For it is His will that\nwe know that He shall appear suddenly and blissfully to all that love\nHim.\nFor His working is privy, and He willeth to be perceived; and His\nappearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth to be trusted. For He\nis full gracious[7] and homely: Blessed may He be!\n[1] In de Cressy's version: \"I saw Him and sought Him.\"\n[2] The Handkerchief of S. Veronica.\n[3] \"so discolouring.\"\n[4] _i.e. according to_.\n[5] \"for be that\" = _for by [means of] that_; or possibly the Old\nEnglish and Scottish 'forbye that' = _besides that_.\n[6] \"onskilful\" = without discernment or ability; unpractical. S. de\nCressy, \"unreasonable.\"\n[7] \"hend\" = at hand; (handy, dexterous;) courteous, gentle, urbane.\n\"All thing that is done, it is well done: for our Lord God doeth all.\"\nAnd after this I saw God in a Point,[1] that is to say, in mine\nunderstanding,--by which sight I saw that He is in all things.\nI beheld and considered, seeing and knowing in sight, with a soft\ndread, and thought: _What is sin?_\nFor I saw truly that God doeth all-thing, be it never so little. And I\nsaw truly that nothing is done by hap nor by adventure, but all things\nby the foreseeing wisdom of God: if it be hap or adventure in the sight\nof man, our blindness and our unforesight is the cause. For the things\nthat are in the foreseeing wisdom of God from without beginning, (which\nrightfully and worshipfully and continually He leadeth to the best\nend,) as they come about fall to us suddenly, ourselves unwitting; and\nthus by our blindness and our unforesight we say: these be haps and\nadventures. But to our Lord God they be not so.\nWherefore me behoveth needs to grant that all-thing that is done, it\nis well-done: for our Lord God doeth all. For in this time the working\nof creatures was not shewed, but [the working] of our Lord God in the\ncreature: for He is in the Mid-point of all thing, and all He doeth.\nAnd I was certain He doeth no sin.\nAnd here I saw verily that sin is no deed: for in all this was not sin\nshewed. And I would no longer marvel in this, but beheld our Lord, what\nHe would shew.\nAnd thus, as much as it might be for the time, the rightfulness of\nGod's working was shewed to the soul.\nRightfulness hath two fair properties: it is right and it is full.\nAnd so are all the works of our Lord God: thereto needeth neither the\nworking of mercy nor grace: for they be all rightful: wherein faileth\nnought.\nBut in another time He gave a Shewing for the beholding of sin nakedly,\nas I shall tell: where He useth working of mercy and grace.\nAnd this vision was shewed, to mine understanding, for that our\nLord would have the soul turned truly unto the beholding of Him,\nand generally of all His works. For they are full good; and all His\ndoings are easy and sweet, and to great ease bringing the soul that is\nturned from the beholding of the blind Deeming of man unto the fair\nsweet Deeming of our Lord God. For a man beholdeth some deeds well\ndone and some deeds evil, but our Lord beholdeth them not so: for as\nall that hath being in nature is of Godly making, so is all that is\ndone, in property of God's doing. For it is easy to understand that\nthe best deed is well done: and so well as the best deed is done--the\nhighest--so well is the least deed done; and all thing in its property\nand in the order that our Lord hath ordained it to from without\nbeginning. For there is no doer but He.\nI saw full surely that he changeth never His purpose in no manner of\nthing, nor never shall, without end. For there was no thing unknown to\nHim in His rightful ordinance from without beginning. And therefore\nall-thing was set in order ere anything was made, as it should stand\nwithout end; and no manner of thing shall fail of that point. For He\nmade all things in fulness of goodness, and therefore the blessed\nTrinity is ever full pleased in all His works.[2]\nAnd all this shewed He full blissfully, signifying thus: _See! I am\nGod: see! I am in all thing: see! I do all thing: see! I lift never\nmine hands off my works, nor ever shall, without end: see! I lead all\nthing to the end I ordained it to from without beginning, by the same\nMight, Wisdom and Love whereby I made it. How should any thing be\namiss?_\nThus mightily, wisely, and lovingly was the soul examined in this\nVision. Then saw I soothly that me behoved, of need, to assent, with\ngreat reverence enjoying in God.\n[1] See below: \"He is in the Mid-point,\" and lxiii. p. 158, \"the\nblessed Point from which nature came: that is, God.\" See also xxi. p.\n45, \"Where is now any point of thy pain?\" (least part) and xxi. p.\n46, \"abiding unto the last point\"; and lxiv. p. 161, \"set the point\nof our thought.\" These uses of the word may be compared with the\nfollowing:--From the _Banquet of Dante Alighieri_, tr. by K. Hillard\n(Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.), Bk. II. xiv. 12, \"_Geometry moves between\nthe print and the circle_\"; as Euclid says, \"the point is the beginning\nof Geometry, and according to him, the circle is the most perfect\nfigure, and therefore may be considered its end.... The point by reason\nof its indivisibility is immeasurable, and the circle by reason of\nits arc cannot be exactly squared, and therefore cannot be measured\nwith precision.\" Notes by Miss Hillard: \"This is why the Deity is\nrepresented by a _point. Paradiso_, xxviii. 16: 'A point beheld I,'\n'Heaven and all nature, hangs upon that point,' etc. Bk. IV. 6, quoting\nAristotle's _Physics_: '_The circle can be called perfect when it is\na true circle._ And this is when it contains a point which is equally\ndistant from every part of its circumference.' In the _Vita Nuova_ Love\nappearing, says--'I am as the centre of a circle, to which all parts of\nthe circumference bear an equal relation' ('_Amor che muove il sole e\nl'altre stelle_').\" From _Neoplatonism_, by C. Bigg, D.D. (S.P.C.K.),\np. 122: \"Thus we get a triplet--Soul, Intelligence, and a higher\nIntelligence. The last is spoken of as One, as a point, as neither good\nnor evil because above both.\"\n[2] On this subject, with the \"Two Deemings\" and \"the Godly Will,\" see\nxlv., xxxv., xxxvii., lxxxii.\n _THE FOURTH REVELATION_\n\"The dearworthy blood of our Lord Jesus Christ as verily as it is most\n precious, so verily it it most plenteous\"\nAnd after this I saw, beholding, the body plenteously bleeding in\nseeming of[1] the Scourging, as thus:--The fair skin was broken full\ndeep into the tender flesh with sharp smiting all about the sweet body.\nSo plenteously the hot blood ran out that there was neither seen skin\nnor wound, but as it were all blood. And when it came where it should\nhave fallen down, then it vanished. Notwithstanding, the bleeding\ncontinued awhile: till it might be seen and considered.[2] And this was\nso plenteous, to my sight, that methought if it had been so in kind[3]\nand in substance at that time, it should have made the bed all one\nblood, and have passed over about.\nAnd then came to my mind that God hath made waters plenteous in earth\nto our service and to our bodily ease for tender love that He hath to\nus, but yet liketh Him better that we take full homely His blessed\nblood to wash us of sin: for there is no water[4] that is made that\nHe liketh so well to give us. For it is most plenteous as it is most\nprecious: and that by the virtue of His blessed Godhead; and it is\n[of] our Kind, and all-blissfully belongeth to us by the virtue of His\nprecious love.\nThe dearworthy blood of our Lord Jesus Christ as verily as it is most\nprecious, so verily it is most plenteous. Behold and see! The precious\nplenty of His dearworthy blood descended down into Hell and burst her\nbands and delivered all that were there which belonged to the Court of\nHeaven. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood overfloweth all\nEarth, and is ready to wash all creatures of sin, which be of goodwill,\nhave been, and shall be. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood\nascended up into Heaven to the blessed body of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nand there is in Him, bleeding and praying for us to the Father,--and\nis, and shall be as long as it needeth;--and ever shall be as long\nas it needeth. And evermore it floweth in all Heavens enjoying the\nsalvation of all mankind, that are there, and shall be--fulfilling the\nnumber[5] that faileth.\n[1] _i.e._ as it were from.\n[2] \"sene with avisement,\" so, p. 26.--\"I beheld with avisement.\"\n[3] _i.e._ Nature, reality.\n[4] MS. \"licor.\"\n[5] The appointed number of heavenly citizens.\n \"The Enemy is overcome by the blessed Passion and Death of our Lord\nAnd after this, ere God shewed any words, He suffered me for a\nconvenient time to give heed unto Him and all that I had seen, and all\nintellect[1] that was therein, as the simplicity of the soul might\ntake it.[2] Then He, without voice and opening of lips, formed in my\nsoul these words: _Herewith is the Fiend overcome_. These words said\nour Lord, meaning His blessed Passion as He shewed it afore.\nOn this shewed our Lord that the Passion of Him is the overcoming\nof the Fiend. God shewed that the Fiend hath now the same malice\nthat he had afore the Incarnation. And as sore he travaileth, and\nas continually he seeth that all souls of salvation escape him,\nworshipfully, by the virtue of Christ's precious Passion. And that is\nhis sorrow, and full evil is he ashamed: for all that God suffereth\nhim to do turneth [for] us to joy and [for] him to shame and woe. And\nhe hath as much sorrow when God giveth him leave to work, as when he\nworketh not: and that is for that he may never do as ill as he would:\nfor his might is all taken[3] into God's hand.\nBut in God there may be no wrath, as to my sight: for our good Lord\nendlessly hath regard to His own worship and to the profit of all that\nshall be saved. With might and right He withstandeth the Reproved,\nthe which of malice and wickedness busy them to contrive and to do\nagainst God's will. Also I saw our Lord scorn his malice and set at\nnought his unmight; and He willeth that we do so. For this sight I\nlaughed mightily, and that made them to laugh that were about me, and\ntheir laughing was a pleasure to me. I thought that I would that all\nmine even-Christians had seen as I saw, and then would they all laugh\nwith me. But I saw not Christ laugh. For I understood that we may\nlaugh in comforting of ourselves and joying in God for that the devil\nis overcome. And when I saw Him scorn his malice, it was by leading\nof mine understanding into our Lord: that is to say, it was an inward\nshewing of verity, without changing of look.[4] For, as to my sight, it\nis a worshipful property of God's that [He] is ever the same.\nAnd after this I fell into a graveness,[5] and said: _I see three\nthings: I see game, scorn, and earnest. I see [a] game, in that the\nFiend is overcome; I see scorn, in that God scorneth him, and he shall\nbe scorned; and I see earnest, in that he is overcome by the blissful\nPassion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ that was done in full\nearnest and with sober travail._\nWhen I said, _he is scorned_,--I meant that God scorneth him, that\nis to say, because He seeth him now as he shall do without end. For\nin this [word] God shewed that the Fiend is condemned. And this\nmeant I when I said: _he shall be scorned_: [he shall be scorned] at\nDoomsday, generally of all that shall be saved, to whose consolation\nhe hath great ill-will.[6] For then he shall see that all the woe and\ntribulation that he hath done to them shall be turned to increase of\ntheir joy, without end; and all the pain and tribulation that he would\nhave brought them to shall endlessly go with him to hell.\n[1] _i.e._ significance, teaching.\n[2] _i.e._ in so far as the simplicity of my soul was able to\nunderstand it.--See xxiv.\n[3] S. de Cressy has \"locked\" instead of \"taken.\"\n[4] \"chere\" = expression of countenance.\n[5] \"sadhede.\"\n[6] \"invye.\"\n \"The age of every man shall be acknowledged before him in Heaven, and\n every man shall be rewarded for his willing service and for his time\"\nAfter this our good Lord said: _I thank thee for thy travail, and\nespecially for thy youth._\nAnd in this [Shewing] mine understanding was lifted up into Heaven\nwhere I saw our Lord as a lord in his own house, which hath called\nall his dear worthy servants and friends to a stately[1] feast. Then\nI saw the Lord take no place in His own house, but I saw Him royally\nreign in His house, fulfilling it with joy and mirth, Himself endlessly\nto gladden and to solace His dearworthy friends, full homely and\nfull courteously, with marvellous melody of endless love, in His own\nfair blessed Countenance. Which glorious Countenance of the Godhead\nfulfilleth the Heavens with joy and bliss.[2]\nGod shewed three degrees of bliss that every soul shall have in Heaven\nthat willingly hath served God in any degree in earth. The first is\nthe worshipful thanks of our Lord God that he shall receive when he is\ndelivered of pain. This thanking is so high and so worshipful that the\nsoul thinketh it filleth him though there were no more. For methought\nthat all the pain and travail that might be suffered by all living\nmen might not deserve the worshipful thanks that one man shall have\nthat willingly hath served God. The second is that all the blessed\ncreatures that are in Heaven shall see that worshipful thanking, and\nHe maketh his service known to all that are in Heaven. And here this\nexample was shewed:--A king, if he thank his servants, it is a great\nworship to them, and if he maketh it known to all the realm, then\nis the worship greatly increased.--The third is, that as new and as\ngladdening as it is received in that time, right so shall it last\nwithout end.\nAnd I saw that homely and sweetly was this shewed, and that the age of\nevery man shall be [made] known in Heaven, and [he] shall be rewarded\nfor his willing service and for his time. And specially the age of them\nthat willingly and freely offer their youth unto God, passingly is\nrewarded and wonderfully is thanked.\nFor I saw that whene'er what time a man or woman is truly turned to\nGod,--for one day's service and for his endless will he shall have all\nthese three decrees of bliss. And the more the loving soul seeth this\ncourtesy of God, the liefer he[3] is to serve him all the days of his\nlife.\n[1] MS. \"solemne\"--ceremonial.\n[2] See lxxii. and lxxv.\n[3] Thoughout this MS. _the soul_ is referred to generally with the\nmasculine pronoun; the feminine pronoun is never used, in any of its\ncases; the neuter sometimes occurs.\n _THE SEVENTH REVELATION_\n\"It is not God's will that we follow the feeling of pains in sorrow and\nAnd after this He shewed a sovereign ghostly pleasante in my soul. I\nwas fulfilled with the everlasting sureness, mightily sustained without\nany painful dread. This feeling was so glad and so ghostly that I was\nin all peace and in rest, that there was nothing in earth that should\nhave grieved me.\nThis lasted but a while, and I was turned and left to myself in\nheaviness, and weariness of my life, and irksomeness of myself, that\nscarcely I could have patience to live. There was no comfort nor none\nease to me but faith, hope, and charity; and these I had in truth, but\nlittle in feeling.\nAnd anon after this our blessed Lord gave me again the comfort and the\nrest in soul, in satisfying and sureness so blissful and so mighty that\nno dread, no sorrow, no pain bodily that might be suffered should have\ndistressed me. And then the pain shewed again to my feeling, and then\nthe joy and the pleasing, and now that one, and now that other, divers\ntimes--I suppose about twenty times. And in the time of joy I might\nhave said with Saint Paul: _Nothing shall dispart me from the charity\nof Christ_; and in the pain I might have said with Peter: _Lord, save\nme: I perish!_\nThis Vision was shewed me, according to mine understanding, [for]\nthat it is speedful to some souls to feel on this wise: sometime to\nbe in comfort, and sometime to fail and to be left to themselves. God\nwilleth that we know that He keepeth us even alike secure in woe and in\nweal. And for profit of man's soul, a man is sometime left to himself;\nalthough sin is not always the cause: for in this time I sinned not\nwherefore I should be left to myself--for it was so sudden. Also I\ndeserved not to have this blessed feeling. But freely our Lord giveth\nwhen He will; and suffereth us [to be] in woe sometime. And both is one\nlove.\nFor it is God's will that we hold us in comfort with all our might: for\nbliss is lasting without end, and pain is passing and shall be brought\nto nought for them that shall be saved. And therefore it is not God's\nwill that we follow the feelings of pain in sorrow and mourning for\nthem, but that we suddenly pass over, and hold us in endless enjoyment.\n _THE EIGHTH REVELATION_\nAfter this Christ shewed a part of His Passion near His dying.\nI saw His sweet face as it were dry and bloodless with pale dying. And\nlater, more pale, dead, languoring; and then turned more dead unto\nblue; and then more brown-blue, as the flesh turned more deeply dead.\nFor His Passion shewed to me most specially in His blessed face (and\nchiefly in His lips): there I saw these four colours, though it were\nafore fresh, ruddy, and pleasing, to my sight. This was a pitiful\nchange to see, this deep dying. And also the [inward] moisture clotted\nand dried, to my sight, and the sweet body was brown and black, all\nturned out of fair, life-like colour of itself, unto dry dying.\nFor that same time that our Lord and blessed Saviour died upon the\nRood, it was a dry, hard wind, and wondrous cold, as to my sight, and\nwhat time [all] the precious blood was bled out of the sweet body that\nmight pass therefrom, yet there dwelled a moisture in the sweet flesh\nof Christ, as it was shewed.\nBloodlessness and pain dried within; and blowing of wind and cold\ncoming from without met together in the sweet body of Christ. And these\nfour,--twain without, and twain within--dried the flesh of Christ by\nprocess of time. And though this pain was bitter and sharp, it was full\nlong lasting, as to my sight, and painfully dried up all the lively\nspirits of Christ's flesh. Thus I saw the sweet flesh dry in seeming by\npart after part, with marvellous pains. And as long as any spirit had\nlife in Christ's flesh, so long suffered He pain.\nThis long pining seemed to me as if He had been seven nights dead,\ndying, at the point of outpassing away, suffering the last pain. And\nwhen I said it seemed to me as if He had been seven night dead, it\nmeaneth that the sweet body was so discoloured, so dry, so shrunken,\nso deathly, and so piteous, as if He had been seven night dead,\ncontinually dying. And methought the drying of Christ's flesh was the\nmost pain, and the last, of His Passion.\n\"How might any pain be more to me than to see Him that is all my life,\n and all my bliss, and all my joy suffer?\"\nAnd in this dying was brought to my mind the words of Christ: _I\nthirst_.\nFor I saw in Christ a double thirst: one bodily; another spiritual, the\nwhich I shall speak of in the Thirty-first Chapter.\nFor this word was shewed for the bodily thirst: the which I understood\nwas caused by failing of moisture. For the blessed flesh and bones\nwas left all alone without blood and moisture. The blessed body dried\nalone long time with wringing of the nails and weight of the body. For\nI understood that for tenderness of the sweet hands and of the sweet\nfeet, by the greatness, hardness, and grievousness of the nails the\nwounds waxed wide and the body sagged, for weight by long time hanging.\nAnd [therewith was] piercing and pressing of the head, and binding\nof the Crown all baked with dry blood, with the sweet hair clinging,\nand the dry flesh, to the thorns, and the thorns to the flesh drying;\nand in the beginning while the flesh was fresh and bleeding, the\ncontinual sitting of the thorns made the wounds wide. And furthermore\nI saw that the sweet skin and the tender flesh, with the hair and\nthe blood, was all raised and loosed about from the bone, with the\nthorns where-through it were rent in many pieces, as a cloth that were\nsagging, as if it would hastily have fallen off, for heaviness and\nlooseness, while it had natural moisture. And that was great sorrow and\ndread to me: for methought I would not for my life have seen it fall.\nHow it was done I saw not; but understood it was with the sharp thorns\nand the violent and grievous setting on of the Garland of Thorns,\nunsparingly and without pity. This continued awhile, and soon it began\nto change, and I beheld and marvelled how it might be. And then I saw\nit was because it began to dry, and stint a part of the weight, and set\nabout the Garland. And thus it encircled all about, as it were garland\nupon garland. The Garland of the Thorns was dyed with the blood, and\nthat other garland [of Blood] and the head, all was one colour, as\nclotted blood when it is dry. The skin of the flesh that shewed (of the\nface and of the body), was small-rimpled[1] with a tanned colour, like\na dry board when it is aged; and the face more brown than the body.\nI saw four manner of dryings: the first was bloodlessness; the second\nwas pain following after; the third, hanging up in the air, as men hang\na cloth to dry; the fourth, that the bodily Kind asked liquid and there\nwas no manner of comfort ministered to Him in all His woe and distress.\nAh! hard and grievous was his pain, but much more hard and grievous it\nwas when the moisture failed and began to dry thus, shrivelling.\nThese were the pains that shewed in the blessed head: the first wrought\nto the dying, while it had moisture; and that other, slow, with\nshrinking drying, [and] with blowing of the wind from without, that\ndried and pained Him with cold more than mine heart can think.\nAnd other pains--for which pains I saw that all is too little that I\ncan say: for it may not be told.\nThe which Shewing of Christ's pains filled me full of pain. For I wist\nwell He suffered but once, but [this was as if] He would shew it me\nand fill me with mind as I had afore desired. And in all this time of\nChrist's pains I felt no pain but for Christ's pains. Then thought-me:\n_I knew but little what pain it was that I asked_; and, as a wretch,\nrepented me, thinking: _If I had wist what it had been, loth me had\nbeen to have prayed it_. For methought it passed bodily death, my pains.\nI thought: _Is any pain like this?_ And I was answered in my reason:\n_Hell is another pain: for there is despair. But of all pains that\nlead to salvation this is the most pain, to see thy Love suffer. How\nmight any pain be more to me than to see Him that is all my life, all\nmy bliss, and all my joy, suffer?_ Here felt I soothfastly[2] that I\nloved Christ so much above myself that there was no pain that might be\nsuffered like to that sorrow that I had to [see] Him in pain.\n[1] or _shrivelled_.\n[2] in sure verity.\n \"When He was in pain, we were in pain\"\nHere I saw a part of the compassion of our Lady, Saint Mary: for\nChrist and she were so oned in love that the greatness of her loving\nwas cause of the greatness of her pain. For in this [Shewing] I saw a\nSubstance of Nature's[1] Love, continued by Grace, that creatures have\nto Him: which Kind Love was most fully shewed in His sweet Mother, and\noverpassing; for so much as she loved Him more than all other, her\npains passed all other. For ever the higher, the mightier, the sweeter\nthat the love be, the more sorrow it is to the lover to see that body\nin pain that is loved.\nAnd all His disciples and all His true lovers suffered pains more than\ntheir own bodily dying. For I am sure by mine own feeling that the\nleast of them loved Him so far above himself that it passeth all that I\ncan say.\nHere saw I a great oneing betwixt Christ and us, to mine understanding:\nfor when He was in pain, we were in pain.\nAnd all creatures that ought suffer pain, suffered with Him: that is to\nsay, all creatures that God hath made to our service. The firmament,\nthe earth, failed for sorrow in their Nature in the time of Christ's\ndying. For it belongeth naturally to their property to know Him for\ntheir God, in whom all their virtue standeth: when He failed, then\nbehoved it needs to them, because of kindness [between them], to fail\nwith Him, as much as they might, for sorrow of His pains.\nAnd thus they that were His friends suffered pain for love. And,\ngenerally, _all_: that is to say, they that knew Him not suffered\nfor failing of all manner of comfort save the mighty, privy keeping\nof God. I speak of two manner of folk, as they may be understood by\ntwo persons: the one was Pilate, the other was Saint Dionyse[2] of\nFrance, which was [at] that time a Paynim. For when he saw wondrous\nand marvellous sorrows and dreads that befell in that time, he said:\n_Either the world is now at an end, or He that is Maker of Kind\nsuffereth._ Wherefore he did write on an altar: THIS IS THE ALTAR\nOF UNKNOWN GOD. God that of His goodness maketh the planets and the\nelements to work of Kind to the blessed man and the cursed, in that\ntime made withdrawing[3] of it from both; wherefore it was that they\nthat knew Him not were in sorrow that time.\nThus was our Lord Jesus made-naught for us; and all we stand in this\nmanner made-naught with Him, and shall do till we come to His bliss; as\nI shall tell after.\n[1] _i.e._ Natural.\n[2] Dionysius, \"the Areopagite,\" according to the legend of S. Denis.\n[3] MS.--\"it was withdrawen from bothe.\"\n \"Thus was I learned to choose Jesus for my Heaven, whom I saw only in\nIn this [time] I would have looked up from the Cross, but I durst not.\nFor I wist well that while I beheld in the Cross I was surely-safe;\ntherefore I would not assent to put my soul in peril: for away from the\nCross was no sureness, for frighting of fiends.\nThen had I a proffer in my reason,[1] as if it had been friendly said\nto me: _Look up to Heaven to His Father_. And then saw I well, with\nthe faith that I felt, that there was nothing betwixt the Cross and\nHeaven that might have harmed me. Either me behoved to look up or else\nto answer. I answered inwardly with all the might of my soul, and said:\n_Nay; I may not: for Thou art my Heaven._ This I said for that I would\nnot. For I would liever have been in that pain till Doomsday than to\ncome to Heaven otherwise than by Him. For I wist well that He that\nbound me so sore, He should unbind me when that He would. Thus was I\nlearned to choose Jesus to my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain at that\ntime: meliked no other Heaven than Jesus, which shall be my bliss when\nI come there.\nAnd this hath ever been a comfort to me, that I chose Jesus to my\nHeaven, by His grace, in all this time of Passion and sorrow; and that\nhath been a learning to me that I should evermore do so: choose only\nJesus to my Heaven in weal and woe.\nAnd though I as a wretched creature had repented me (I said afore if I\nhad wist what pain it would be, I had been loth to have prayed), here\nsaw I truly that it was reluctance and frailty of the flesh without\nassent of the soul: to which God assigneth no blame. Repenting and\nwilling choice be two contraries which I felt both in one at that time.\nAnd these be [of our] two parts: the one outward, the other inward. The\noutward part is our deadly flesh-hood, which is now in pain and woe,\nand shall be, in this life: whereof I felt much in this time; and that\npart it was that repented. The inward part is an high, blissful life,\nwhich is all in peace and in love: and this was more inwardly felt; and\nthis part is [that] in which mightily, wisely and with steadfast will I\nchose Jesus to my Heaven.\nAnd in this I saw verily that the inward part is master and sovereign\nto the outward, and doth not charge itself with, nor take heed to, the\nwill of that: but all the intent and will is set to be oned unto our\nLord Jesus. That the outward part should draw the inward to assent\nwas not shewed to me; but that the inward draweth the outward by\ngrace, and both shall be oned in bliss without end, by the virtue of\nChrist,--_this_ was shewed.\n[1] see xxxv. and lv.\n \"For every man's sin that shall be saved He suffered, and every man's\n sorrow and desolation He saw, and sorrowed for Kinship and Love\"\nAnd thus I saw our Lord Jesus languoring long time. For the oneing with\nthe Godhead gave strength to the manhood for love to suffer more than\nall men might suffer: I mean not only more pain than all men might\nsuffer, but also that He suffered more pain than all men of salvation\nthat ever were from the first beginning unto the last day might tell or\nfully think, having regard to the worthiness of the highest worshipful\nKing and the shameful, despised, painful death. For He that is highest\nand worthiest was most fully made-nought and most utterly despised.\nFor the highest point that may be seen in the Passion is to think and\nknow what He is that suffered. And in this [Shewing] He brought in part\nto mind the height and nobleness of the glorious Godhead, and therewith\nthe preciousness and the tenderness of the blessed Body, which be\ntogether united; and also the lothness that is in our Kind to suffer\npain. For as much as He was most tender and pure, right so He was most\nstrong and mighty to suffer.\nAnd for every man's sin that shall be saved He suffered: and every\nman's sorrow and desolation He saw, and sorrowed for Blindness and\nlove. (For in as much as our Lady sorrowed for His pains, in so much He\nsuffered sorrow for her sorrow;--and more, in as greatly as the sweet\nmanhood of Him was worthier in Kind.) For as long as He was passible\nHe suffered for us and sorrowed _for_ us; and now He is uprisen and no\nmore passible, yet He suffereth _with_ us.\nAnd I, beholding all this by His grace, saw that the Love of Him was so\nstrong which He hath to our soul that willingly He chose it with great\ndesire, and mildly He suffered it with well-pleasing.\nFor the soul that beholdeth it thus, when it is touched by grace, it\nshall verily see that the pains of Christ's Passion pass all pains:\n[all pains] that is to say, which shall be turned into everlasting,\no'erpassing joys by the virtue of Christ's Passion.\n \"We be now with Him in His Pains and His Passion, dying. We shall be\nwith Him in Heaven. Through learning in this little pain that we suffer\n here, we shall have an high endless knowledge of God which we could\n never have without that\"\nIt is God's will, as to mine understanding, that we have Three[1]\nManners of Beholding His blessed Passion. The First is: _the hard Pain\nthat He suffered_,--[beholding it] with contrition and compassion. And\nthat shewed our Lord in this time, and gave me strength and grace to\nsee it.\nAnd I looked for the departing with all my might, and thought to have\nseen the body all dead; but I saw Him not so. And right in the same\ntime that methought, by the seeming, the life might no longer last and\nthe Shewing of the end behoved needs to be,--suddenly (I beholding in\nthe same Cross), He changed [the look of] His blessed Countenance.[2]\nThe changing of His blessed Countenance changed mine, and I was as glad\nand merry as it was possible. Then brought our Lord merrily to my mind:\n_Where is now any point of the pain, or of thy grief?_ And I was full\nmerry.\nI understood that we be now, in our Lord's meaning, in His Cross with\nHim in His pains and His Passion, dying; and we, willingly abiding\nin the same Cross with His help and His grace unto the last point,\nsuddenly He shall change His Cheer to us, and we shall be with Him in\nHeaven. Betwixt that one and that other shall be no time, and then\nshall all be brought to joy. And thus said He in this Shewing: _Where\nis now any point of thy pain, or thy grief?_ And we shall be full\nblessed.\nAnd here saw I verily that if He shewed now [to] us His _Blissful_\nCheer, there is no pain in earth or in other place that should aggrieve\nus; but all things should be to us joy and bliss. But because He\nsheweth to us time of His Passion, as He bare it in _this_ life, and\nHis Cross, therefore we are in distress and travail, with Him, as our\nfrailty asketh. And the cause why He suffereth [it to be so,] is for\n[that] He will of His goodness make us the higher with Him in His\nbliss; and for this little pain that we suffer here, we shall have an\nhigh endless knowing in God which we could[3] never have without that.\nAnd the harder our pains have been with Him in His Cross, the more\nshall our worship[4] be with Him in His Kingdom.\n[1] xxii. and xxiii.\n[2] His \"blisful chere,\" or blessed Cheer; lxxii. and Note.\n[3] \"might.\"\n[4] _i.e._ glory.\n \"The Love that made Him to suffer passeth so far all His Pains as\nThen said our good Lord Jesus Christ: _Art thou well pleased that I\nsuffered for thee?_ I said: _Yea, good Lord, I thank Thee; Yea, good\nLord, blessed mayst Thou be._ Then said Jesus, our kind Lord: _If thou\nart pleased, I am pleased: it is a joy, a bliss, an endless satisfying\nto me that ever suffered I Passion for thee; and if I might suffer\nmore, I would suffer more._\nIn this feeling my understanding was lifted up into Heaven, and there I\nsaw three heavens: of which sight I marvelled greatly. And though I see\nthree heavens--and all in the blessed manhood of Christ--none is more,\nnone is less, none is higher, none is lower, but [they are] even-like\nin bliss.\nFor the First Heaven, Christ shewed me His Father; in no bodily\nlikeness, but in His property and in His working. That is to say, I saw\nin Christ that the Father is. The working of the Father is this, that\nHe giveth meed to His Son Jesus Christ. This gift and this meed is so\nblissful to Jesus that His Father might have given Him no meed that\nmight have pleased Him better. The first heaven, that is the pleasing\nof the Father, shewed to me as one heaven; and it was full blissful:\nfor He is full pleased with all the deeds that Jesus hath done about\nour salvation. Wherefore we be not only His by His buying, but also by\nthe courteous gift of His Father we be His bliss, we be His meed, we\nbe His worship, we be His crown. (And this was a singular marvel and a\nfull delectable beholding, that we be His crown!) This that I say is so\ngreat bliss to Jesus that He setteth at nought all His travail, and His\nhard Passion, and His cruel and shameful death.\nAnd in these words: _If that I might suffer more, I would suffer\nmore_,--I saw in truth that as often as He _might_ die, so often He\n_would_, and love should never let Him have rest till He had done it.\nAnd I beheld with great diligence for to learn how often He would die\nif He might. And verily the number passed mine understanding and my\nwits so far that my reason might not, nor could, comprehend it. And\nwhen He had thus oft died, or should, yet He would set it at nought,\nfor love: for all seemeth[1] Him but little in regard of His love.\nFor though the sweet manhood of Christ might suffer but once, the\ngoodness in Him may never cease of proffer: every day He is ready to\nthe same, if it might be. For if He said He would for my love make new\nHeavens and new Earth, it were but little in comparison;[2] for this\nmight be done every day if He would, without any travail. But to die\nfor my love so often that the number passeth creature's reason, it is\nthe highest proffer that our Lord God might make to man's soul, as to\nmy sight. Then meaneth He thus: _How should it not be that I should not\ndo for thy love all that I might of deeds which grieve me not, sith\nI would, for thy love, die so often, having no regard[3] to my hard\npains?_\nAnd here saw I, for the Second[4] Beholding in this blessed Passion\n_the love that made Him to suffer passeth as far all His pains as\nHeaven is above Earth._ For the pains was a noble, worshipful deed done\nin a time by the working of love: but[5] Love was without beginning,\nis, and shall be without ending. For which love He said full sweetly\nthese words: _If I might suffer more, I would suffer more._ He said\nnot, _If it were needful to suffer more:_ for though it were not\nneedful, if He _might_ suffer more, He would.\nThis deed, and this work about our salvation, was ordained as well as\nGod might ordain it. And here I saw a Full Bliss in Christ: for His\nbliss should not have been full, if it might any better have been done.\n[1] \"ffor al thynketh him but litil in reward of His love\" [in\ncomparison with].\n[2] MS. \"Reward.\"\n[3] MS. \"Reward.\"\n[4] See xxi., xxiii.\n[5] MS. \"and,\" probably here, at in other places, with something of the\nforce of \"but.\"\n \"The Glad Giver\" \"All the Trinity wrought in the Passion of Jesus\nAnd in these three words: _It is a joy, a bliss, an endless satisfying\nto me_, were shewed three heavens, as thus: For the joy, I understood\nthe pleasure of the Father; and for the bliss, the worship of the\nSon; and for the endless satisfying,[1] the Holy Ghost. The Father is\npleased, the Son is worshipped, the Holy Ghost is satisfied.[2]\nAnd here saw I, for the Third Beholding in His blissful Passion: that\nis to say, _the Joy and the Bliss that make Him to be well-satisfied\nin it._ For our Courteous Lord shewed His Passion to me in five\nmanners: of which the first is the bleeding of the head; the second\nis, discolouring of His face; the third is, the plenteous bleeding of\nthe body, in seeming [as] from the scourging; the fourth is, the deep\ndying:--these four are aforetold for the pains of the Passion. And\nthe fifth is [this] that was shewed for the joy and the bliss of the\nPassion.\nFor it is God's will that we have true enjoying with Him in our\nsalvation, and therein He willeth [that] we be mightily comforted and\nstrengthened; and thus willeth He that merrily with His grace our soul\nbe occupied. For we are His bliss: for in us He enjoyeth without end;\nand so shall we in Him, with His grace.\nAnd all that He hath done for us, and doeth, and ever shall, was never\ncost nor charge to Him, nor might be, but only that [which] He did in\nour manhood, beginning at the sweet Incarnation and lasting to the\nBlessed Uprise on Easter-morrow:[3] so long dured the cost and the\ncharge about our redemption in _deed_: of [the] which deed He enjoyeth\nendlessly, as it is aforesaid.\nJesus willeth that we take heed to the bliss that is in the blessed\nTrinity [because] of our salvation and that _we_ desire to have as much\nspiritual enjoying, with His grace, (as it is aforesaid): that is to\nsay, that the enjoying of our salvation be [as] like to the joy that\nChrist hath of our salvation as it may be while we are here.\nAll the Trinity wrought in the Passion of Christ, ministering abundance\nof virtues and plenty of grace to us by Him: but only the Maiden's Son\nsuffered: whereof all the blessed Trinity endlessly enjoyeth. All this\nwas shewed in these words: _Art thou well pleased?_--and by that other\nword that Christ said: _If thou art pleased, then am I pleased;_--as if\nHe said: _It is joy and satisfying enough to me, and I ask nought else\nof thee for my travail but that I might well please thee_.\nAnd in this He brought to mind the property of a glad giver. A glad\ngiver taketh but little heed of the thing that he giveth, but all his\ndesire and all his intent is to please him and solace him to whom he\ngiveth it. And if the receiver take the gift highly and thankfully,\nthen the courteous giver setteth at nought all his cost and all his\ntravail, for joy and delight that he hath pleased and solaced him that\nhe loveth. Plenteously and fully was this shewed.\nThink also wisely of the greatness of this word \"_ever_.\" For in it\nwas shewed an high knowing of love[4] that _He_ hath in our salvation,\nwith manifold joys that follow of the Passion of Christ. One is that He\nrejoiceth that He hath done it in deed, and He shall no more suffer;\nanother, that He bought us from endless pains of hell.\n[1] \"lykyng.\"\n[2] \"lykith.\"\n[3] \"Esterne morrow\" = Easter morning.\n[4] Experience of loving (?).\n \"Our Lord looked unto His [wounded] Side, and beheld, rejoicing....\nThen with a glad cheer our Lord looked unto His Side and beheld,\nrejoicing. With His sweet looking He led forth the understanding of His\ncreature by the same wound into His Side within. And then he shewed a\nfair, delectable place, and large enough for all mankind that shall be\nsaved to rest in peace and in love.[1] And therewith He brought to mind\nHis dearworthy blood and precious water which he let pour all out for\nlove. And with the sweet beholding He shewed His blessed heart even\ncloven in two.\nAnd with this sweet enjoying, He shewed unto mine understanding,\nin part, _the blessed Godhead_, stirring then the poor soul[2] to\nunderstand, as it may be said, that is, to think on,[3] the _endless_\nLove that was without beginning, and is, and shall be ever. And with\nthis our good Lord said full blissfully: _Lo, how that I loved thee,_\nas if He had said: _My darling, behold and see thy Lord, thy God that\nis thy Maker and thine endless joy, see what satisfying and bliss I\nhave in thy salvation; and for my love rejoice [thou] with me._\nAnd also, for more understanding, this blessed word was said: _Lo,\nhow I loved thee! Behold and see that I loved thee so much ere I died\nfor thee that I would die for thee; and now I have died for thee and\nsuffered willingly that which I may. And now is all my bitter pain and\nall my hard travail turned to endless joy and bliss to me and to thee.\nHow should it now be that thou shouldst anything pray that pleaseth me\nbut that I should full gladly grant it thee? For my pleasing is thy\nholiness and thine endless joy and bliss with me._\nThis is the understanding, simply as I can say it, of this blessed\nword: _Lo, how I loved thee._ This shewed our good Lord for to make us\nglad and merry.\n[1] See note on the passage in li., \"long and broad, all full of\nendless heavens\"; \"He hath, beclosed in Him, all heavens and all joy\nand bliss.\"\n[2] See xiii., \"the simplicity of the soul.\"\n[3] MS. \"that is to mene the endles love.\"\n _THE ELEVENTH REVELATION_\n\"I wot well that thou wouldst see my blessed Mother....\" \"Wilt thou see\n in her how thou art loved?\"\nAnd with this same cheer of mirth and joy our good Lord looked down\non the right side and brought to my mind where our Lady stood in the\ntime of His Passion; and said: _Wilt thou see her?_ And in this sweet\nword [it was] as if He had said: _I wot well that thou wouldst see\nmy blessed Mother: for, after myself, she is the highest joy that I\nmight shew thee, and most pleasance and worship to me; and most she\nis desired to be seen of my blessed creatures._ And for the high,\nmarvellous, singular love that He hath to this sweet Maiden, His\nblessed Mother, our Lady Saint Mary, He shewed her highly rejoicing, as\nby the meaning of these sweet words; as if He said: _Wilt thou see how\nI love her, that thou mightest joy with me in the love that I have in\nher and she in me?_\nAnd also (unto more understanding this sweet word) our Lord speaketh to\nall mankind that shall be saved, as it were all to one person, as if He\nsaid: _Wilt thou see in her how thou art loved? For thy love I made her\nso high, so noble and so worthy; and this pleaseth me, and so will I\nthat it doeth thee._\nFor after Himself she is the most blissful sight.\nBut hereof am I not learned to long to see her bodily presence while I\nam here, but the virtues of her blessed soul: her truth, her wisdom,\nher charity; whereby I may learn to know myself and reverently dread my\nGod. And when our good Lord had shewed this and said this word: _Wilt\nthou see her?_ I answered and said: _Yea, good Lord, I thank Thee; yea,\ngood Lord, if it be Thy will._ Oftentimes I prayed this, and I weened\nto have seen her in bodily presence, but I saw her not so. And Jesus in\nthat word shewed me ghostly sight of her: right as I had seen her afore\nlittle and simple, so He shewed her then high and noble and glorious,\nand pleasing to Him above all creatures.\nAnd He willeth that it be known; that [so] all those that please them\nin Him should please them in her, and in the pleasance that He hath\nin her and she in Him.[1] And, to more understanding, He shewed this\nexample: _As if a man love a creature singularly, above all creatures,_\nhe willeth to make all creatures to love and to have pleasance in that\ncreature that he loveth so greatly. And in this word that Jesus said:\n_Wilt thou see her?_ methought it was the most pleasing word that He\nmight have given me of her, with that ghostly Shewing that He gave me\nof her. For our Lord shewed me nothing in special but our Lady Saint\nMary; and her He shewed three times.[2] The first was as she was with\nChild; the second was as she was in her sorrows under the Cross; the\nthird is as she is now in pleasing, worship, and joy.\n[1] \"And he wil that it be knowen that al those that lyke in him should\nlyken in hir and in the lykyng that he hath in hir and she in him.\"\n[2] See (1) iv. (referred to in vii.); (2) xviii.\n _THE TWELFTH REVELATION_\nAnd after this our Lord shewed Himself more glorified, as to my sight,\nthan I saw Him before [in the Shewing] wherein I was learned that our\nsoul shall never have rest till it cometh to Him, knowing that He is\nfulness of joy, homely and courteous, blissful and very life.\nOur Lord Jesus oftentimes said: _I it am, I it am: I it am that is\nhighest, I it am that thou lovest, I it am that thou enjoyest, I it\nam that thou servest, I it am that thou longest for, I it am that thou\ndesirest, I it am that thou meanest, I it am that is all. I it am that\nHoly Church preacheth and teacheth thee, I it am that shewed me here to\nthee._ The number of the words passeth my wit and all my understanding\nand all my powers. And they are the highest, as to my sight: for\ntherein is comprehended--I cannot tell,--but the joy that I saw in\nthe Shewing of them passeth all that heart may wish for and soul may\ndesire. Therefore the words be not declared here; but every man after\nthe grace that God giveth him in understanding and loving, receive them\nin our Lord's meaning.\n _THE THIRTEENTH REVELATION_\n \"Often I wondered why by the great foreseeing wisdom of God the\nbeginning of sin was not hindered: for then, methought, all should have\n been well.\" \"Sin is behovable--[playeth a needful part]--; but all\nAfter this the Lord brought to my mind the longing that I had to Him\nafore. And I saw that nothing letted me but sin. And so I looked,\ngenerally, upon us all, and methought: _If sin had not been, we should\nall have been clean and like to our Lord, as He made us._\nAnd thus, in my folly, afore this time often I wondered why by the\ngreat foreseeing wisdom of God the beginning of sin was not letted: for\nthen, methought, all should have been well. This stirring [of mind]\nwas much to be forsaken, but nevertheless mourning and sorrow I made\ntherefor, without reason and discretion.\nBut Jesus, who in this Vision informed me of all that is needful to\nme, answered by this word and said: _It behoved that there should be\nsin;[1] but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of\nthing shall be well._\nIn this naked word _sin_, our Lord brought to my mind, generally, _all\nthat is not good_, and the shameful despite and the utter noughting[2]\nthat He bare for us in this life, and His dying; and all the pains\nand passions of all His creatures, ghostly and bodily; (for we be all\npartly noughted, and we shall be noughted following our Master, Jesus,\ntill we be full purged, that is to say, till we be fully noughted of\nour deadly flesh and of all our inward affections which are not very\ngood;) and the beholding of this, with all pains that ever were or ever\nshall be,--and with all these I understand the Passion of Christ for\nmost pain, and overpassing. All this was shewed in a touch and quickly\npassed over into comfort: for our good Lord would not that the soul\nwere affeared of this terrible sight.\nBut I saw not _sin_: for I believe it hath no manner of substance nor\nno part of being, nor could it be known but by the pain it is cause of.\nAnd thus[3] pain, _it_ is something, as to my sight, for a time; for\nit purgeth, and maketh us to know ourselves and to ask mercy. For the\nPassion of our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and so is His\nblessed will. And for the tender love that our good Lord hath to all\nthat shall be saved, He comforteth readily and sweetly, signifying\nthus: _It is sooth[4] that sin is cause of all this pain; but all shall\nbe well, and all shall be well, and all manner [of] thing shall be\nwell._\nThese words were said full tenderly, showing no manner of blame to me\nnor to any that shall be saved. Then were it a great unkindness[5] to\nblame or wonder on God for my sin, since He blameth not me for sin.\nAnd in these words I saw a marvellous high mystery hid in God, which\nmystery He shall openly make known to us in Heaven: in which knowing we\nshall verily see the cause why He suffered sin to come. In which sight\nwe shall endlessly joy in our Lord God.[6]\n[1] \"Synne is behovabil, but al shal be wel & al shal be wel & al\nmanner of thyng shal be wele.\"\n[2] Being made as nothing, set at nought.\n[3] S. de Cressy has \"this\" instead of _thus_.\n[4] _i.e._ truth, an actual reality. See lxxxii.\n[5] As it were, an unreasonable contravention of natural, filial trust.\n[6] See also chap. lxi. From the _Enchiridion_ of Saint\nAugustine:--\"All things that exist, therefore, seeing that the Creator\nof them all is supremely good, are themselves good. But because they\nare not like their Creator, supremely and unchangeably good, their good\nmay be diminished and increased. But for good to be diminished is an\nevil, although, however much it may be diminished, it is necessary, if\nthe being is to continue, that some good should remain to constitute\nthe being. For however small or of whatever kind the being may be, the\ngood which makes it a being cannot be destroyed without destroying the\nbeing itself.... So long as a being is in process of corruption, there\nis in it some good of which it is being deprived; and if a part of the\nbeing should remain which cannot be corrupted, this will certainly\nbe an incorruptible being, and accordingly the process of corruption\nwill result in the manifestation of this great good. But if it do\nnot cease to be corrupted, neither can it cease to possess good of\nwhich corruption may deprive it. But if it should be thoroughly and\ncompletely consumed by corruption, there will then be no good left,\nbecause there will be no being. Wherefore corruption can consume the\ngood only by consuming the being. Every being, therefore, is a good; a\ngreat good, if it cannot be corrupted; a little good, if it can: but in\nany case, only the foolish or ignorant will deny that it is a good. And\nif it be wholly consumed by corruption, then the corruption itself must\ncease to exist, as there is no being left in which it can dwell.\"\nChap. x. \"By the Trinity, thus supremely and equally and unchangeably\ngood, all things were created; and these are not supremely and equally\nand unchangeably good, but yet they are good, even taken separately.\nTaken as a whole, however, they are very good, because their _ensemble_\nconstitutes the universe in all its wonderful order and beauty.\"--_The\nWorks of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo_, (Edited by the Rev.\nMarcus Dods, D.D.), vol. ix.\n\"Each brotherly compassion that man hath on his fellow Christians, with\n charity, it is Christ in him\"\nThus I saw how Christ hath compassion on us for the cause of sin.\nAnd right as I was afore in the [Shewing of the] Passion of Christ\nfulfilled with pain and compassion, like so in this [sight] I was\nfulfilled, in part, with compassion of all mine even-Christians--for\nthat well, well beloved people that shall be saved. For God's servants,\nHoly Church, shall be shaken in sorrow and anguish, tribulation in this\nworld, as men shake a cloth in the wind.\nAnd as to this our Lord answered in this manner: _A great thing shall I\nmake hereof in Heaven of endless worship and everlasting joys._\nYea, so far forth I saw, that our Lord joyeth of the tribulations of\nHis servants, with ruth and compassion. On each person that He loveth,\nto His bliss for to bring [them], He layeth something that is no blame\nin His sight, whereby they are blamed and despised in this world,\nscorned, mocked,[1] and outcasted. And this He doeth for to hinder the\nharm that they should take from the pomp and the vain-glory of this\nwretched life, and make their way ready to come to Heaven, and up-raise\nthem in His bliss everlasting. For He saith: _I shall wholly break you\nof your vain affections and your vicious pride; and after that I shall\ntogether gather you, and make you mild and meek, clean and holy, by\noneing to me._\nAnd then I saw that each kind compassion that man hath on his\neven-Christians with charity, it is Christ in him.\nThat same noughting that was shewed in His Passion, it was shewed again\nhere in this Compassion. Wherein were two manner of understandings\nin our Lord's meaning. The one was the bliss that we are brought to,\nwherein He willeth that we rejoice. The other is for comfort in our\npain: for He willeth that we perceive that it shall all be turned to\nworship and profit by virtue of His passion, that we perceive that\nwe suffer not alone but with Him, and see Him to be our Ground, and\nthat we see His pains and His noughting passeth so far all that we may\nsuffer, that it may not be fully thought.\nThe beholding of this will save us from murmuring[2] and despair in the\nfeeling of our pains. And if we see soothly that our sin deserveth it,\nyet His love excuseth us, and of His great courtesy He doeth away all\nour blame, and beholdeth us with ruth and pity as children innocent and\nunloathful.\n[1] \"Something that is no lak in his syte, whereby thei are lakid\n& dispisyd in thys world, scornyd\" (a word like \"rapyd\"--probably\n\"mokyd,\" as in S. de Cressy) \"& outcasten.\"\n[2] \"gruching.\"\n \"How could all be well, for the great harm that is come by sin to the\nBut in this I stood beholding things general, troublously and mourning,\nsaying thus to our Lord in my meaning, with full great dread: _Ah! good\nLord, how might all be well, for the great hurt that is come, by sin,\nto the creature?_ And here I desired, as far as I durst, to have some\nmore open declaring wherewith I might be eased in this matter.\nAnd to this our blessed Lord answered full meekly and with full lovely\ncheer, and shewed that Adam's sin was the most harm that ever was\ndone, or ever shall be, to the world's end; and also He shewed that\nthis [sin] is openly known in all Holy Church on earth. Furthermore\nHe taught that I should behold the glorious Satisfaction[1]: for this\nAmends-making[2] is more pleasing to God and more worshipful, without\ncomparison, than ever was the sin of Adam harmful. Then signifieth our\nblessed Lord thus in this teaching, that we should take heed to this:\n_For since I have made well the most harm, then it is my will that thou\nknow thereby that I shall make well all that is less._\n[1] \"asyeth\" = _asseth_, Satisfying, Fulfilment. See p. 2.\n[2] \"asyeth making\". See preceding note.\n \"Two parts of Truth: the part that is open: our Saviour and our\n salvation;--and the part that is hid and shut up from us: all beside\nHe gave me understanding of two parts [of truth]. The one part is our\nSaviour and our salvation. This blessed part is open and clear and fair\nand light, and plenteous,--for all mankind that is of good will, and\nshall be, is comprehended in this part. Hereto are we bounden of God,\nand drawn and counselled and taught inwardly by the Holy Ghost and\noutwardly by Holy Church in the same grace. In this willeth our Lord\nthat we be occupied, joying in Him; for He enjoyeth in us. The more\nplenteously that we take of this, with reverence and meekness, the more\nthanks we earn of Him and the more speed[1] to ourselves, thus--may we\nsay--enjoying _our_ part of our Lord. The other [part] is hid and shut\nup from us: that is to say, all that is beside our salvation. For it is\nour Lord's privy counsel, and it belongeth to the royal lordship of God\nto have His privy counsel in peace, and it belongeth to His servant,\nfor obedience and reverence, not to learn[2] wholly His counsel. Our\nLord hath pity and compassion on us for that some creatures make\nthemselves so busy therein; and I am sure if we knew how much we should\nplease Him and ease ourselves by leaving it, we would. The saints that\nbe in Heaven, they will to know nothing but that which our Lord willeth\nto shew them: and also their charity and their desire is ruled after\nthe will of our Lord: and thus ought we to will, like to them. Then\nshall we nothing will nor desire but the will of our Lord, as they do:\nfor we are all one in God's seeing.\nAnd here was I learned that we shall trust and rejoice only in our\nSaviour, blessed Jesus, for all thing.\n[1] _i.e._ profit.\n[2] \"It longyth to the ryal Lordship of God to have his privy councell\nin pece, and it longyth to his servant for obedience and reverens not\nto wel wetyn his counselye.\"\n \"The Spiritual Thirst (which was in Him from without beginning) is\n desire in Him as long as we be in need, drawing us up to His Bliss\"\nAnd thus our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts that I\nmight make, saying full comfortably: _I may make all thing well, I can\nmake all thing well, I will make all thing well, and I shall make all\nthing well; and thou shalt see thyself that all manner of thing shall\nbe well._\nIn that He saith, _I may_, I understand [it] for the Father; and in\nthat He saith, _I can_, I understand [it] for the Son; and where He\nsaith, _I will_, I understand [it] for the Holy Ghost; and where He\nsaith, _I shall_, I understand [it] for the unity of the blessed\nTrinity: three Persons and one Truth; and where He saith, _Thou shalt\nsee thyself_, I understand the oneing of all mankind that shall be\nsaved unto the blessed Trinity. And in these five words God willeth we\nbe enclosed in rest and in peace.\nThus shall the Spiritual Thirst of Christ have an end. For this is the\nSpiritual Thirst of Christ: the love-longing that lasteth, and ever\nshall, till we see that sight on Doomsday. For we that shall be saved\nand shall be Christ's joy and His bliss, some be yet here and some be\nto come, and so shall some be, unto that day. Therefore this is His\nthirst and love-longing, to have us altogether whole in Him, to His\nbliss,--as to my sight. For we be not now as fully whole in Him as we\nshall be then.\nFor we know in our Faith, and also it was shewed in all [the\nRevelations] that Christ Jesus is both God and man. And anent the\nGodhead, He is Himself highest bliss, and was, from without beginning,\nand shall be, without end: which endless bliss may never be heightened\nnor lowered in itself. For this was plenteously seen in every Shewing,\nand specially in the Twelfth, where He saith: _I am that [which] is\nhighest_. And anent Christ's Manhood, it is known in our Faith, and\nalso [it was] shewed, that He, with the virtue of Godhead, for love, to\nbring us to His bliss suffered pains and passions, and died. And these\nbe the works of Christ's Manhood wherein He rejoiceth; and that shewed\nHe in the Ninth Revelation, where He saith: _It is a joy and bliss and\nendless pleasing to me that ever I suffered Passion for thee._ And\nthis is the bliss of Christ's _works_, and thus he signifieth where He\nsaith in that same Shewing: we be His bliss, we be His meed, we be His\nworship, we be His crown.\nFor anent that Christ is our Head, He is glorified and impassible; and\nanent His Body in which all His members are knit, He is not yet fully\nglorified nor all impassible. Therefore the same desire and thirst\nthat He had upon the Cross (which desire, longing, and thirst, as to\nmy sight, was in Him from without beginning) the same hath He yet, and\nshall [have] unto the time that the last soul that shall be saved is\ncome up to His bliss.\nFor as verily as there is a property in God of ruth and pity, so verily\nthere is a property in God of thirst and longing. (And of the virtue of\nthis longing in Christ, _we_ have to long again to Him: without which\nno soul cometh to Heaven.) And this property of longing and thirst\ncometh of the endless Goodness of God, even as the property of pity\ncometh of His endless Goodness. And though longing and pity are two\nsundry properties, as to my sight, in this standeth the point of the\nSpiritual Thirst: which is _desire in Him as long as we be in need_,\ndrawing us up to His bliss. And all this was seen in the Shewing of\nCompassion: for that shall cease on Doomsday.\nThus He hath ruth and compassion on us, and He hath longing to have us;\nbut His wisdom and His love suffereth not the end to come till the best\ntime.\n\"There be deeds evil done in our sight, and so great harms taken, that\n it seemeth to us that it were impossible that ever it should come to\n good end.\" \"That Great Deed ordained ... by which our Lord God shall\nOne time our good Lord said: _All thing shall be well_; and another\ntime he said: _Thou shalt see thyself that all_ MANNER _[of] thing\nshall be well_; and in these two [sayings] the soul took sundry\nunderstandings.\nOne was that He willeth we know that not only He taketh heed to noble\nthings and to great, but also to little and to small, to low and to\nsimple, to one and to other. And so meaneth He in that He saith: ALL\nMANNER OF THINGS _shall be well_. For He willeth we know that the least\nthing shall not be forgotten.\nAnother understanding is this, that there be deeds evil done in our\nsight, and so great harms taken, that it seemeth to us that it were\nimpossible that ever it should come to good end. And upon this we look,\nsorrowing and mourning therefor, so that we cannot resign us unto the\nblissful beholding of God as we should do. And the cause of this is\nthat the use of our reason is now so blind, so low, and so simple, that\nwe cannot know that high marvellous Wisdom, the Might and the Goodness\nof the blissful Trinity. And thus signifieth He when He saith: THOU\nSHALT SEE THYSELF _if[1] all manner of things shall be well_. As if He\nsaid: _Take now heed faithfully and trustingly, and at the last end\nthou shalt verily see it in fulness of joy_.\nAnd thus in these same five words aforesaid: _I may make all things\nwell_, etc., I understand a mighty comfort of all the works of our Lord\nGod that are yet to come. There is a Deed the which the blessed Trinity\nshall do in the last Day, as to my sight, and when the Deed shall be,\nand how it shall be done, is unknown of all creatures that are beneath\nChrist, and shall be till when it is done.\n[\"The Goodness and the Love of our Lord God will that we wit [know]\nthat it shall be; And the Might and the Wisdom of him by the same Love\nwill hill [conceal] it, and hide it from us what it shall be, and how\nit shall be done.\"][2]\nAnd the cause why He willeth that we know [this Deed shall be], is for\nthat He would have us the more eased in our soul and [the more] set at\npeace in love[3]--leaving the beholding of all troublous things that\nmight keep us back from true enjoying of Him. This is that Great Deed\nordained of our Lord God from without beginning, treasured and hid in\nHis blessed breast, only known to Himself: by which He shall make all\nthings well.\nFor like as the blissful Trinity made all things of nought, right so\nthe same blessed Trinity shall make well all that is not well.\nAnd in this sight I marvelled greatly and beheld our Faith, marvelling\nthus: Our Faith is grounded in God's word, and it belongeth to our\nFaith that we believe that God's word shall be saved in all things;\nand one point of our Faith is that many creatures shall be condemned:\nas angels that fell out of Heaven for pride, which be now fiends; and\nman[4] in earth that dieth out of the Faith of Holy Church: that is\nto say, they that be heathen men; and also man[5] that hath received\nChristendom and liveth unchristian life and so dieth out of charity:\nall these shall be condemned to hell without end, as Holy Church\nteacheth me to believe. And all this [so] standing,[6] methought it was\nimpossible that all manner of things should be well, as our Lord shewed\nin the same time.\nAnd as to this I had no other answer in Shewing of our Lord God but\nthis: _That which is impossible to thee is not impossible to me: I\nshall save my word in all things and I shall make all things well._\nThus I was taught, by the grace of God, that I should steadfastly hold\nme in the Faith as I had aforehand understood, [and] therewith that I\nshould firmly believe that all things shall be well, as our Lord shewed\nin the same time.\nFor this is the Great Deed that our Lord shall do, in which Deed He\nshall save His word and He shall make all well that is not well. How it\nshall be done there is no creature beneath Christ that knoweth it, nor\nshall know it till it is done; according to the understanding that I\ntook of our Lord's meaning in this time.\n[1] \"if\" = \"that.\" (Acts xxvi. 8.)\n[2] Inserted from Serenus de Cressy's version.\n[3] \"pecid in love--levyng the beholdyng of al tempests that might\nletten us of trew enjoyeng in hym.\" S. de Cressy: \"let us of true\nenjoying in him.\"\n[4] S. de Cressy, \"many.\"\n[5] S. de Cressy, \"many.\"\n[6] \"stondyng al this.\"\n \"It is God's will that we have great regard to all His deeds that He\n hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what the\nAnd yet in this I desired, as [far] as I durst, that I might have full\nsight of Hell and Purgatory. But it was not my meaning to make proof of\nanything that belongeth to the Faith: for I believed soothfastly that\nHell and Purgatory is for the same end that Holy Church teacheth, but\nmy meaning was that I might have seen, for learning in all things that\nbelong to my Faith: whereby I might live the more to God's worship and\nto my profit.\nBut for [all] my desire, I could[1] [see] of this right nought, save\nas it is aforesaid in the First Shewing, where I saw that the devil is\nreproved of God and endlessly condemned. In which sight I understood\nas to all creatures that are of the devil's condition in this life,\nand therein end, that there is no more mention made of them afore God\nand all His Holy than of the devil,--notwithstanding that they be of\nmankind--whether they be christened or not.\nFor though the Revelation was made of goodness in which was made\nlittle mention of evil, yet I was not drawn thereby from any point\nof the Faith that Holy Church teacheth me to believe. For I had\nsight of the Passion of Christ in diverse Shewings,--the First, the\nSecond, the Fifth, and the Eighth,--wherein I had in part a feeling\nof the sorrow of our Lady, and of His true friends that saw Him in\npain; but I saw not so properly specified the Jews that did Him to\ndeath. Notwithstanding I knew in my Faith that they were accursed and\ncondemned without end, saving those that converted, by grace. And I\nwas strengthened and taught generally to keep me in the Faith in every\npoint, and in all as I had before understood: hoping that I was therein\nwith the mercy and the grace of God; desiring and praying in my purpose\nthat I might continue therein unto my life's end.\nAnd it is God's will that we have great regard to all His deeds that\nHe hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what\nthe Deed shall be. And let us desire to be like our brethren which\nbe saints in Heaven, that will right nought but God's will and are\nwell pleased both with hiding and with shewing. For I saw soothly in\nour Lord's teaching, the more we busy us to know His secret counsels\nin this or any other thing, the farther shall we be from the knowing\nthereof.\n[1] \"I coude of this right nowte.\"\n \"All that is speedful for us to learn and to know, full courteously\nOur Lord God shewed two manner of secret things. One is this great\nSecret [Counsel] with all the privy points that belong thereto: and\nthese secret things He willeth we should know [as _being_, but as]\n_hid_ until the time that He will clearly shew them to us. The other\nare the secret things that He willeth to make open and known to us; for\nHe would have us understand that it is His will that we should know\nthem. They are secrets to us not only for that He willeth that they\nbe secrets to us, but they are secrets to us for our blindness and\nour ignorance; and thereof He hath great ruth, and therefore He will\nHimself make them more open to us, whereby we may know Him and love\nHim and cleave to Him. For all that is speedful for us to learn and to\nknow, full courteously will our Lord shew us: and [of] that is this\n[Shewing], with all the preaching and teaching of Holy Church.\nGod shewed full great pleasance that He hath in all men and women that\nmightily and meekly and with all their will take the preaching and\nteaching of Holy Church. For it is His Holy Church: He is the Ground,\nHe is the Substance, He is the Teaching, He is the Teacher, He is the\nEnd, He is the Meed for which every kind soul travaileth.\nAnd _this_ [of the Shewing] is [made] known, and shall be known to\nevery soul to which the Holy Ghost declareth it. And I hope truly that\nall those that seek this, He shall speed: for they seek God.\nAll this that I have now told, and more that I shall tell after, is\ncomforting against sin. For in the Third Shewing when I saw that God\ndoeth all that is done, I saw no sin: and then I saw that all _is_\nwell. But when God shewed me for sin, then said He: _All_ SHALL _be\nwell_.\n\"I desired to learn assuredly as to a certain creature that I loved....\n It is more worship to God to behold Him in _all_ than in any special\nAnd when God Almighty had shewed so plenteously and joyfully of His\nGoodness, I desired to learn assuredly as to a certain creature that\nI loved, if it should continue in good living, which I hoped by the\ngrace of God was begun. And in this desire for a _singular_ Shewing,\nit seemed that I hindered myself: for I was not taught in this time.\nAnd then was I answered in my reason, as it were by a friendly\nintervenor[1]: _Take it_ GENERALLY, _and behold the graciousness of the\nLord God as He sheweth to thee: for it is more worship to God to behold\nHim in all than in any special thing_. And therewith I learned that\nit is more worship to God to know all-thing in general, than to take\npleasure in any special thing. And if I should do wisely according to\nthis teaching, I should not only be glad for nothing in special, but\nI should not be greatly distressed for no manner of thing[2]: for ALL\n_shall be well_. For the fulness of joy is to behold God in _all_: for\nby the same blessed Might, Wisdom, and Love, that He made all-thing, to\nthe same end our good Lord leadeth it continually, and thereto Himself\nshall bring it; and when it is time we shall see it. And the ground\nof this was shewed in the First [Revelation], and more openly in the\nThird, where it saith: _I saw God in a point_.\nAll that our Lord doeth is rightful, and that which He suffereth[3] is\nworshipful: and in these two is comprehended good and ill: for all that\nis good our Lord doeth, and that which is evil our Lord suffereth. I\nsay not that any evil is worshipful, but I say the sufferance of our\nLord God is worshipful: whereby His Goodness shall be known, without\nend, in His marvellous meekness and mildness, by the working of mercy\nand grace.\n_Rightfulness_ is that thing that is so good that [it] may not be\nbetter than it is. For God Himself is very Rightfulness, and all His\nworks are done rightfully as they are ordained from without beginning\nby His high Might, His high Wisdom, His high Goodness. And right as He\nordained unto the best, right so He worketh continually, and leadeth\nit to the same end; and He is ever full-pleased with Himself and with\nall His works. And the beholding of this blissful accord is full\nsweet to the soul that seeth by grace. All the souls that shall be\nsaved in Heaven without end be made rightful in the sight of God, and\nby His own goodness: in which rightfulness we are endlessly kept, and\nmarvellously, above all creatures.\nAnd _Mercy_ is a working that cometh of the goodness of God, and it\nshall last in working all along, as sin is suffered to pursue rightful\nsouls. And when sin hath no longer leave to pursue, then shall the\nworking of mercy cease, and then shall all be brought to rightfulness\nand therein stand without end.\nAnd by His sufferance we fall; and in His blissful Love with His Might\nand His Wisdom we are kept; and by mercy and grace we are raised to\nmanifold more joys.\nThus in Rightfulness and Mercy He willeth to be known and loved, now\nand without end. And the soul that wisely beholdeth it in grace, it is\nwell pleased with both, and endlessly enjoyeth.\n[1] \"A friendful mene\" = intermediary (person or thing), medium:\ncompare chaps. xix., lv.\n[2] See xxxvi. 74.\n[3] _i.e._ alloweth.\n \"My sin shall not hinder His Goodness working.... A deed shall be\n done--as we come to Heaven--and it may be known here in part;--though\n it be truly taken for the general Man, yet it excludeth not the\n special. For what our good Lord will do by His poor creatures, it is\nOur Lord God shewed that a deed shall be done, and Himself shall do\nit, and I shall do nothing but sin, and my sin shall not hinder[1] His\nGoodness working. And I saw that the beholding of this is a heavenly\njoy in a fearing soul which evermore kindly by grace desireth God's\nwill. This deed shall be begun here, and it shall be worshipful to God\nand plenteously profitable to His lovers in earth; and ever as we come\nto Heaven we shall see it in marvellous joy, and it shall last thus in\nworking unto the last Day; and the worship and the bliss of it shall\nlast in Heaven afore God and all His Holy [ones] for ever.\nThus was this deed seen and understood in our Lord's signifying: and\nthe cause why He shewed it is to make us rejoice in Him and in all\nHis works. When I saw His Shewing continued, I understood that it\nwas shewed for a great thing that was for to come, which thing God\nshewed that He Himself should do it: which deed hath these properties\naforesaid. And this shewed He well blissfully, signifying that I should\ntake it myself faithfully and trustingly.\nBut what this deed should be was kept secret from me.\nAnd in this I saw that He willeth not that we dread to know the things\nthat He sheweth: He sheweth them because He would have us know them; by\nwhich knowing He would have us love Him and have pleasure and endlessly\nenjoy in Him. For the great love that He hath to us He sheweth us all\nthat is worshipful and profitable for the time. And the things that He\nwill now have privy, yet of His great goodness He sheweth them _close_:\nin which shewing He willeth that we believe and understand that we\nshall see the same verily in His endless bliss. Then ought we to\nrejoice in Him for all that He sheweth and all that He hideth; and if\nwe steadily[2] and meekly do thus, we shall find therein great ease;\nand endless thanks we shall have of Him therefor.\nAnd this is the understanding of this word:--That it shall be done for\nme, meaneth that it shall be done for the general Man: that is to say,\nall that shall be saved. It shall be worshipful and marvellous and\nplenteous, and God Himself shall do it; and this shall be the highest\njoy that may be, to behold the deed that God Himself shall do, and man\nshall do right nought but sin. Then signifieth our Lord God thus, as\nif He said: _Behold and see! Here hast thou matter of meekness, here\nhast thou matter of love, here hast thou matter to make nought of[3]\nthyself, here hast thou matter to enjoy in me;--and, for my love, enjoy\n[thou] in me: for of all things, therewith mightest thou please me\nmost_.\nAnd as long as we are in this life, what time that we by our folly turn\nus to the beholding of the reproved, tenderly our Lord God toucheth us\nand blissfully calleth us, saying in our soul: _Let be all thy love, my\ndearworthy child: turn thee to me--I am enough to thee--and enjoy in\nthy Saviour and in thy salvation_. And that this is our Lord's working\nin us, I am sure the soul that hath understanding[4] therein by grace\nshall see it and feel it.\nAnd though it be so that this deed be truly taken for the general Man,\nyet it excludeth not the special. For what our good Lord will do by His\npoor creatures, it is now unknown to me.\nBut this deed and that other aforesaid, they are not both one but two\nsundry. This deed shall be done sooner (and that [time] shall be as we\ncome to Heaven), and to whom our Lord giveth it, it may be known here\nin part. But that Great Deed aforesaid shall neither be known in Heaven\nnor earth till it is done.\nAnd moreover He gave special understanding and teaching of working of\nmiracles, as thus:--_It is known that I have done miracles here afore,\nmany and diverse, high and marvellous, worshipful and great. And so as\nI have done, I do now continually, and shall do in coming of time_.\nIt is known that afore miracles come sorrow and anguish and\ntribulation[5]; and that is for that we should know our own feebleness\nand our mischiefs that we are fallen in by sin, to meeken us and make\nus to dread God and cry for help and grace. Miracles come after that,\nand they come of the high Might, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, shewing\nHis virtue and the joys of Heaven so far at it may be in this passing\nlife: and that to strengthen our faith and to increase our hope, in\ncharity. Wherefore it pleaseth Him to be known and worshipped in\nmiracles. Then signifieth He thus: He willeth that we be not borne over\nlow for sorrow and tempests that fall to us: for it hath ever so been\nafore miracle-coming.\n[1] \"lettyn his goodnes werkyng.\"\n[2] \"wilfully.\"\n[3] \"to nowten.\"\n[4] \"is a perceyvid\" (S. de Cressy, \"pearced\"; Collins, \"pierced\";) =\nhas perception.\n[5] See v., xlviii., lix., lxi.\n\"In every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented\n to sin, nor ever shall.\"--\"For failing of Love on our part, therefore\nGod brought to my mind that I should sin. And for pleasance that I had\nin beholding of Him, I attended not readily to that shewing; and our\nLord full mercifully abode, and gave me grace to attend. And this\nshewing I took singularly to myself; but by all the gracious comfort\nthat followeth, as ye shall see, I was learned to take it for all mine\neven-Christians: _all in general and nothing in special_: though our\nLord shewed me that I should sin, by me alone is understood all.\nAnd therein I conceived a soft dread. And to this our Lord answered:\n_I keep thee full surely_. This word was said with more love and\nsecureness and spiritual keeping than I can or may tell. For as it\nwas shewed that [I][1] should sin, right so was the comfort shewed:\nsecureness and keeping for all mine even-Christians.\nWhat may make me more to love mine even-Christians than to see in God\nthat He loveth all that shall be saved as it were all one soul?\nFor in every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never\nassented to sin, nor ever shall. Right as there is a beastly will in\nthe lower part that may will no good, right so there is a Godly Will in\nthe higher part, which will is so good that it may never will evil, but\never good. And therefore we are that which He loveth and endlessly we\ndo that which Him pleaseth.\nThis shewed our Lord in [shewing] the wholeness of love that we stand\nin, in His sight: yea, that He loveth us now as well while we are here,\nas He shall do while we are there afore His blessed face. But for\nfailing of love on our part, therefore is all our travail.\n[1] Perhaps the omitted word is \"_all_\"; but de Cressy has \"I\" as\nabove: \"that I should sin.\"\nIn Heaven \"the token of sin is turned to worship.\"--_Examples thereof_\nAlso God shewed that sin shall be no shame to man, but worship. For\nright as to every sin is answering a pain by truth, right so for every\nsin, to the same soul is given a bliss by love: right as diverse sins\nare punished with diverse pains according as they be grievous, right so\nshall they be rewarded with diverse joys in Heaven according as they\nhave been painful and sorrowful to the soul in earth. For the soul that\nshall come to Heaven is precious to God, and the place so worshipful\nthat the goodness of God suffereth never that soul to sin that shall\ncome there without that the which sin shall be rewarded; and it is made\nknown without end, and blissfully restored by overpassing worship.\nFor in this Sight mine understanding was lifted up into Heaven, and\nthen God brought merrily to my mind David, and others in the Old Law\nwithout number; and in the New Law He brought to my mind first Mary\nMagdalene, Peter and Paul, and those of Inde;[1] and Saint John of\nBeverley[2]; and others also without number: how they are known in the\nChurch in earth with their sins, and it is to them no shame, but all is\nturned for them to worship. And therefore our courteous Lord sheweth\n[it thus] for them here in part like as it is there in fulness: for\nthere the token of sin is turned to worship.\nAnd Saint John of Beverley, our Lord shewed him full highly, in\ncomfort to us for homeliness; and brought to my mind how he is a dear\nneighbour,[3] and of our knowing. And God called him _Saint John of\nBeverley_ plainly as we do, and that with a most glad sweet cheer,\nshewing that he is a full high saint in Heaven in His sight, and a\nblissful. And with this he made mention that in his youth and in his\ntender age he was a dearworthy servant to God, greatly God loving and\ndreading, and yet God suffered him to fall, mercifully keeping him that\nhe perished not, nor lost no time. And afterward God raised him to\nmanifold more grace, and by the contrition and meekness that he had in\nhis living, God hath given him in Heaven manifold joys, overpassing\nthat [which] he should have had if he had not fallen. And that this is\nsooth, God sheweth in earth with plenteous miracles doing about his\nbody continually.\nAnd all this was to make us glad and merry in love.\n[1] S. Thomas and S. Jude. According to tradition the Gospel was\ncarried to India by these Apostles.\n[2] S. John of Beverley was consecrated Bishop of Hexham in 687,\nand was afterwards Archbishop of York. \"He founded the monastery of\nBeverley in the midst of the wood called Deira, among the ruins of the\ndeserted Roman settlement of Pentuaria. This monastery, like so many\nothers of the Anglo-Saxons, was a double community of monks and nuns.\nIn 718 John retired for the remaining years of his life to Beverley,\nwhere he died in 721 on the 7th of May.... He was canonised in 1037.\nHenschenius the Bollandist, in the second tome of May, has published\nbooks of the miracles wrought at the relicks of St John of Beverley\nwritten by eye-witnesses. His sacred bones were honourably translated\ninto the church of Alfric, Archbishop of York, in 1037. A feast in\nhonour of his translation was kept on the 25th of October.\"--Alban\nButler's _Lives of the Saints_, etc.\nPerhaps the fact that the Saint's original Feast Day of the 7th of\nMay occurred on the second day of Julian's illness, had something to\ndo with his being brought to her mind a few days after with so much\nvividness.\n[3] \"and browte to mynd how he is an hende neybor and of our\nknowyng\"--_i.e._ he was a countryman of our own. \"hende\" = near,\nurbane, gentle.\n \"Sin is the sharpest scourge.... By contrition we are made clean, by\n compassion we are made ready, and by true longing towards God we are\nSin is the sharpest scourge that any chosen soul may be smitten with:\nwhich scourge thoroughly beateth[1] man and woman, and maketh him\nhateful in his own sight, so far forth that afterwhile[2] he thinketh\nhimself he is not worthy but as to sink in hell,--till [that time] when\ncontrition taketh him by touching of the Holy Ghost, and turneth the\nbitterness into hopes of God's mercy. And then He beginneth his wounds\nto heal, and the soul to quicken [as it is] turned unto the life of\nHoly Church. The Holy Ghost leadeth him to confession, with all his\nwill to shew his sins nakedly and truly, with great sorrow and great\nshame that he hath defouled the fair image of God. Then receiveth he\npenance for every sin [as] enjoined by his doomsman[3] that is grounded\nin Holy Church by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. And this is one\nmeekness that greatly pleaseth God; and also bodily sickness of God's\nsending, and also sorrow and shame from without, and reproof, and\ndespite of this world, with all manner of grievance and temptations\nthat we be cast in,[4] bodily and ghostly.\nFull preciously our Lord keepeth us when it seemeth to us that we are\nnear forsaken and cast away for our sin and because we have deserved\nit. And because of meekness that we get hereby, we are raised well-high\nin God's sight by His grace, with so great contrition, and also\ncompassion, and true longing to God. Then they be suddenly delivered\nfrom sin and from pain, and taken up to bliss, and made even high\nsaints.\nBy contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and\nby true longing toward God we are made worthy. These are three means,\nas I understand, whereby that all souls come to heaven: that is to say,\nthat have been sinners in earth and shall be saved: for by these three\nmedicines it behoveth that every soul be healed. Though the soul be\nhealed, his wounds are seen afore God,--not as wounds but as worships.\nAnd so on the contrary-wise, as we be punished here with sorrow and\npenance, we shall be rewarded in heaven by the courteous love of our\nLord God Almighty, who willeth that none that come there lose his\ntravail in any degree. For He [be]holdeth sin as sorrow and pain to\nHis lovers, to whom He assigneth no blame, for love. The meed that we\nshall receive shall not be little, but it shall be high, glorious, and\nworshipful. And so shall shame be turned to worship and more joy.\nBut our courteous Lord willeth not that His servants despair, for often\nnor for grievous falling: for our falling hindereth[5] not Him to love\nus. Peace and love are ever in us, being and working; but we be not\nalway in peace and in love. But He willeth that we take heed thus that\nHe is Ground of all our whole life in love; and furthermore that He is\nour everlasting Keeper and mightily defendeth us against our enemies,\nthat be full fell and fierce upon us;--and so much our need is the more\nfor [that] we give them occasion by our falling.[6]\n[1] \"al forbetyth.\" S. de Cressy: \"all to beateth,\" Judges ix. 53.\n[2] \"otherwhile.\"\n[3] S. de Cressy: \"Dome's-man, _i.e._ Confessarius.\"\n[4] MS. \"will be cast in.\"\n[5] letteth not Him to love us.\n[6] See chap. lxviii. Inx both passages the Brit. Mus. MS. seems to\nhave \"him,\" not \"hem\" = them. The reading here might be: \"For we give\n_Him_ occasion by our failing\"--occasion to keep and defend us: and so\nin lxxviii.: \"He keepeth us mightily and mercifully in the time that\nwe are in our sin and among all our enemies that are full fell upon\nus;--and so much we are in the more peril. For we give Him occasion\nthereto and know not our own need.\" Or possibly the sense is (1): He\ndefendeth us \"so much [as] our need is the more\" [so much more as]; and\n(2) \"so much [more as] we are in the more peril.\" But S. de Cressy's\nversion has in both passages \"them,\" and this reading agrees with chap.\nlxxvi.: \"We have this [fear] by the stirring of our enemy and by our\nown folly and blindness\"--we who \"fall often into sin.\"\n \"True love teacheth us that we should hate sin only for love.\" \"To me\n was shewed no harder hell than sin.\" \"God willeth that we endlessly\n hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it\"\nThis is a sovereign friendship of our courteous Lord that He keepeth\nus so tenderly while we be in sin; and furthermore He toucheth us\nfull privily and sheweth us our sin by the sweet light of mercy and\ngrace. But when we see our self so foul, then ween we that God were\nwroth with us for our sin, and then are we stirred of the Holy Ghost\nby contrition unto prayer and desire for the amending of our life with\nall our mights, to slacken the wrath of God, unto the time we find a\nrest in soul and a softness in conscience. Then hope we that God hath\nforgiven us our sins: and it is truth. And then sheweth our courteous\nLord Himself to the soul--well-merrily and with glad cheer--with\nfriendly welcoming as if it[1] had been in pain and in prison, saying\nsweetly thus: _My darling I am glad thou art come to me: in all thy\nwo I have ever been with thee; and now seest thou my loving and we be\noned in bliss_. Thus are sins forgiven by mercy and grace, and our soul\nis worshipfully received in joy like as it shall be when it cometh to\nHeaven, as oftentimes as it cometh by the gracious working of the Holy\nGhost and the virtue of Christ's Passion.\nHere understand I in truth that all manner of things are made ready\nfor us by the great goodness of God, so far forth that what time we be\nourselves in peace and charity, we be verily saved. But because we may\nnot have this in fulness while we are here, therefore it falleth to\nus evermore to live in sweet prayer and lovely longing with our Lord\nJesus. For He longeth ever to bring us to the fulness of joy; as it is\naforesaid, where He sheweth the Spiritual Thirst.\nBut now if any man or woman because of all this spiritual comfort that\nis aforesaid, be stirred by folly to say or to think: _If this be true,\nthen were it good to sin [so as] to have the more meed_,--or else to\ncharge the less [guilt] to sin,--beware of this stirring: for verily\nif it come it is untrue, and of the enemy of the same true love that\nteacheth us that we should hate sin only for love. I am sure by mine\nown feeling, the more that any kind[2] soul seeth this in the courteous\nlove of our Lord God, the lother he is to sin and the more he is\nashamed. For if afore us were laid [together] all the pains in Hell and\nin Purgatory and in Earth--death and other--, and [by itself] sin, we\nshould rather choose all that pain than sin. For sin is so vile and so\ngreatly to be hated that it may be likened to no pain which is not sin.\nAnd to me was shewed no harder hell than sin. For a kind[3] soul hath\nno hell but sin.\nAnd [when] we give our intent to love and meekness, by the working of\nmercy and grace we are made all fair and clean. As mighty and as wise\nas God is to save men, so willing He is. For Christ Himself is [the]\nground of all the laws of Christian men, and He taught us to do good\nagainst ill: here may we see that He is Himself this charity, and doeth\nto us as He teacheth us to do. For He willeth that we be like Him in\nwholeness of endless love to ourself and to our even-Christians: no\nmore than His love is broken to us for our sin, no more willeth He that\nour love be broken to ourself and to our even-Christians: but [that we]\nendlessly hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it.\nThen shall we hate sin like as God hateth it, and love the soul as God\nloveth it. And this word that He said is an endless comfort: _I keep\nthee securely_.\n[1] \"he,\" that is, the soul.\n[2] A naturally-loving, filial human soul.\n[3] A naturally-loving, filial human soul.\n _THE FOURTEENTH REVELATION._\n \"_I am the Ground of thy beseeching._\" \"Also to prayer belongeth\nAfter this our Lord shewed concerning Prayer. In which Shewing I see\ntwo conditions in our Lord's signifying: one is rightfulness, another\nis sure trust.\nBut yet oftentimes our trust is not full: for we are not sure that God\nheareth us, as we think because of our unworthiness, and because we\nfeel right nought, (for we are as barren and dry oftentimes after our\nprayers as we were afore); and this, in our feeling our folly, is cause\nof our weakness.[1] For thus have I felt in myself.\nAnd all this brought our Lord suddenly to my mind, and shewed these\nwords, and said: _I am Ground of thy beseeching: first it is my will\nthat thou have it; and after, I make thee to will it; and after, I make\nthee to beseech it and thou beseechest it. How should it then be that\nthou shouldst not have thy beseeching?_\nAnd thus in the first reason, with the three that follow, our good Lord\nsheweth a mighty comfort, as it may be seen in the same words. And in\nthe first reason,--where He saith: _And thou beseechest it_, there He\nsheweth [His] full great pleasance, and endless meed that He will give\nus for our beseeching. And in the second reason, where He saith: _How\nshould it then be?_ etc., this was said for an impossible [thing].\nFor it is most impossible that we should beseech mercy and grace, and\nnot have it. For everything that our good Lord maketh us to beseech,\nHimself hath ordained it to us from without beginning. Here may we see\nthat our beseeching is not cause of God's goodness; and that shewed\nHe soothfastly in all these sweet words when He saith: _I am [the]\nGround_.--And our good Lord willeth that this be known of His lovers in\nearth; and the more that we know [it] the more should we beseech, if it\nbe wisely taken; and so is our Lord's meaning.\nBeseeching is a true, gracious, lasting will of the soul, oned and\nfastened into the will of our Lord by the sweet inward work of the\nHoly Ghost. Our Lord Himself, He is the first receiver of our prayer,\nas to my sight, and taketh it full thankfully and highly enjoying; and\nHe sendeth it up above and setteth it in the Treasure, where it shall\nnever perish. It is there afore God with all His Holy continually\nreceived, ever speeding [the help of] our needs; and when we shall\nreceive our bliss it shall be given us for a degree of joy, with\nendless worshipful thanking from[2] Him.\nFull glad and merry is our Lord of our prayer; and He looketh\nthereafter and He willeth to have it because with His grace He maketh\nus like to Himself in condition as we are in kind: and so is His\nblissful will. Therefore He saith thus: _Pray inwardly,[3] though thee\nthinketh it savour thee not: for it is profitable, though thou feel\nnot, though thou see nought; yea, though thou think thou canst not.\nFor in dryness and in barrenness, in sickness and in feebleness, then\nis thy prayer well-pleasant to me, though thee thinketh it savour thee\nnought but little. And so is all thy believing prayer in my sight._ For\nthe meed and the endless thanks that He will give us, _therefor_ He is\ncovetous to have us pray continually in His sight. God accepteth the\ngoodwill and the travail of His servant, howsoever we feel: wherefore\nit pleaseth Him that we work both in our prayers and in good living,\nby His help and His grace, reasonably with discretion keeping our\npowers[4] [turned] to Him, till when that we have Him that we seek, in\nfulness of joy: that is, Jesus. And that shewed He in the Fifteenth\n[Revelation], farther on, in this word: _Thou shalt have me to thy\nmeed_.\nAnd also to prayer belongeth thanking. Thanking is a true inward\nknowing, with great reverence and lovely dread turning ourselves\nwith all our mights unto the working that our good Lord stirreth us\nto, enjoying and thanking inwardly. And sometimes, for plenteousness\nit breaketh out with voice, and saith: _Good Lord, I thank Thee![5]\nBlessed mayst Thou be!_ And sometime when the heart is dry and feeleth\nnot, or else by temptation of our enemy,--then it is driven by reason\nand by grace to cry upon our Lord with voice, rehearing His blessed\nPassion and His great Goodness; and the virtue of our Lord's word\nturneth into the soul and quickeneth the heart and entereth[6] it by\nHis grace into true working, and maketh it pray right blissfully. And\ntruly to enjoy our Lord, it is a full blissful thanking in His sight.\n[1] MS.: \"_And this in our felyng our foly is cause of our wekenes._\"\nS. de Cressy: \"And thus in our feelings our folly is cause of our\nweakness.\"\n[2] \"of\" = by, from.\n[3] \"inderly\" = inwardly--or from the heart: heartily, as in lxvi.\n[4] _i.e._ Faculties.--MS. \"Mights.\"\n[5] \"Grante mercy\" = _grand-merci_.\n[6] \"entrith,\" leadeth.\n \"Prayer is a right understanding of that fulness of joy that is to\n come, with accordant longing and sure trust\"\nOur Lord God willeth that we have true understanding, and specially\nin three things that belong to our prayer. The first is: _by whom and\nhow that our prayer springeth. By whom_, He sheweth when He saith:\n_I am [the] Ground_; and _how_, by His Goodness: for He saith first:\n_It is my will._ The second is: _in what manner and how we should\nuse our prayer_; and that is that our will be turned unto the will\nof our Lord, enjoying: and so meaneth He when He saith: _I make thee\nto will it_. The third is that we should know _the fruit and the end\nof our prayers_: that is, that we be oned and like to our Lord in\nall things; and to this intent and for this end was all this lovely\nlesson shewed. And He will help us, and we shall make it so as He saith\nHimself;--Blessed may He be!\nFor this is our Lord's will, that our prayer and our trust be both\nalike large. For if we trust not as much as we pray, we do not full\nworship to our Lord in our prayer, and also we tarry[1] and pain our\nself. The cause is, as I believe, that we know not truly that our Lord\nis [the] Ground on whom our prayer springeth; and also that we know not\nthat it is given us by the grace of His love. For if we knew this, it\nwould make us to trust to have, of our Lord's gift, all that we desire.\nFor I am sure that no man asketh mercy and grace with true meaning, but\nif mercy and grace be first given to him.\nBut sometimes it cometh to our mind that we have prayed long time, and\nyet we think to ourselves that we have not our asking. But herefor\nshould we not be in heaviness. For I am sure, by our Lord's signifying,\nthat either we abide a better time, or more grace, or a better gift. He\nwilleth that we have true knowing in Himself that He is Being; and in\nthis knowing He willeth that our understanding be grounded, with all\nour mights and all our intent and all our meaning; and in this ground\nHe willeth that we take our place and our dwelling, and by the gracious\nlight of Himself He willeth that we have understanding of the things\nthat follow. The first is our noble and excellent making; the second,\nour precious and dearworthy again-buying; the third, all-thing that\nHe hath made beneath us, [He hath made] to serve us, and for our love\nkeepeth it. Then signifieth He thus, as if He said: _Behold and see\nthat I have done all this before thy prayers; and now thou art, and\nprayest me_. And thus He signifieth that it belongeth to us to learn\nthat the greatest deeds be [already] done, as Holy Church teacheth; and\nin the beholding of this, with thanking, we ought to pray for the deed\nthat is now in doing: and that is, that He rule and guide us, to His\nworship, in this life, and bring us to His bliss. And therefor He hath\ndone all.\nThen signifieth He thus: that we [should] see that He doeth it, and\nthat we [should] pray therefor. For the one is not enough. For if we\npray and see not that He doeth it, it maketh us heavy and doubtful; and\nthat is not His worship. And if we see that He doeth, and we pray not,\nwe do not our debt, and so may it not be: that is to say, so is it not\n[the thing that is] in His beholding. But to see that He doeth it, and\nto pray forthwithal,--so is he worshipped and we sped. All-thing that\nour Lord hath ordained to do, it is His will that we pray therefor,\neither in special or in general. And the joy and the bliss that it is\nto Him, and the thanks and the worship that we shall have therefor, it\npasseth the understanding of creatures, as to my sight.\nFor prayer is a right[2] understanding of that fulness of joy that is\nto come, with well-longing and sure trust. Failing of our bliss that we\nbe kindly ordained to, maketh us to long; true understanding and love,\nwith sweet mind in our Saviour, graciously maketh us to trust. And in\nthese two workings our Lord beholdeth us continually[3]: for it is our\ndue part, and His Goodness may no less assign to us.\nThus it belongeth to us to do our diligence; and when we have done it,\nthen shall us yet think that [it] is nought,--and sooth it is. But\nif we do as we can, and ask, in truth, for mercy and grace, all that\nfaileth us we shall find in Him. And thus signifieth He where He saith:\n_I am Ground of thy beseeching_. And thus in this blessed word, with\nthe Shewing, I saw a full overcoming against all our weakness and all\nour doubtful dreads.\n[1] _i.e._ torment, tire, hinder.\n[2] \"rythwis\" = right manner of.\n[3] Or: 'And for these two workings our Lord looketh to us\ncontinually.' See above: \"so is it not in His beholding,\" and chap.\nxliii. \"for He beholdeth us in love and would make us partners of His\ngood deed.\"\n \"Prayer uniteth the soul to God\"\nPrayer oneth the soul to God. For though the soul be ever like to\nGod in kind and substance, restored by grace, it is often unlike in\ncondition, by sin on man's part. Then is prayer a witness that the soul\nwilleth as God willeth; and it comforteth the conscience and enableth\nman to grace. And thus He teacheth us to pray, and mightily to trust\nthat we shall have it. For He beholdeth us in love and would make us\npartners of His good deed, and therefore He stirreth us to pray for\nthat which it pleaseth him to do. For which prayer and good will, that\nwe have of His gift, He will reward us and give us endless meed.\nAnd this was shewed in this word: _And thou beseechest it_. In this\nword God shewed so great pleasance and so great content, as though He\nwere much beholden to us for every good deed that we do (and yet it\nis _He_ that doeth it) because that we beseech Him mightily to do all\nthings that seem to Him good: as if He said: _What might then please me\nmore than to beseech me, mightily, wisely, and earnestly, to do that\nthing that I shall do?_\nAnd thus the soul by prayer accordeth to God.\nBut when our courteous Lord of His grace sheweth Himself to our soul,\nwe have that [which] we desire. And then we see not, for the time,\nwhat we should more pray, but all our intent with all our might is\nset wholly to the beholding of Him. And this is an high unperceivable\nprayer, as to my sight: for all the cause wherefor we pray it, is oned\ninto the sight and beholding of Him to whom we pray; marvellously\nenjoying with reverent dread, and with so great sweetness and delight\nin Him that we can pray right nought but as He stirreth us, for the\ntime. And well I wot, the more the soul seeth of God, the more it\ndesireth Him by His grace.\nBut when we see Him not so, then feel we need and cause to pray,\nbecause of failing, for enabling of our self, to Jesus. For when the\nsoul is tempested, troubled, and left to itself by unrest, then it is\ntime to pray, for to make itself pliable and obedient[1] to God. (But\nthe soul by no manner of prayer maketh God pliant to it: for He is ever\nalike in love.)\nAnd this I saw: that what time we see needs wherefor we pray, then\nour _good Lord followeth us_, helping our desire; and when we of His\nspecial grace plainly behold Him, seeing none other needs, then _we\nfollow Him_ and He draweth us unto Him by love. For I saw and felt that\nHis marvellous and plentiful Goodness fulfilleth all our powers; and\ntherewith I saw that His continuant working in all manner of things is\ndone so goodly, so wisely, and so mightily, that it overpasseth all our\nimagining, and all that we can ween and think; and then we can do no\nmore but behold Him, enjoying, with an high, mighty desire to be all\noned unto Him,--centred to His dwelling,--and enjoy in His loving and\ndelight in His goodness.\nAnd then shall we, with His sweet grace, in our own meek continuant\nprayer come unto Him now in this life by many privy touchings of sweet\nspiritual sights and feeling, measured to us as our simpleness may bear\nit. And this is wrought, and shall be, by the grace of the Holy Ghost,\nso long till we shall die in longing, for love. And then shall we all\ncome into our Lord, our Self clearly knowing, and God fully having;\nand we shall endlessly be all had in God: Him verily seeing and fully\nfeeling, Him spiritually hearing, and Him delectably in-breathing, and\n[of] Him sweetly drinking.[2]\nAnd then shall we see God face to face, homely and fully. The creature\nthat is made shall see and endlessly behold God which is the Maker.\nFor thus may no man see God and live after, that is to say, in this\ndeadly life. But when He of His special grace will shew Himself here,\nHe strengtheneth the creature above its self, and He measureth the\nShewing, after His own will, as it is profitable for the time.\n[1] \"supple and buxum.\"\n[2] To express the fulness of spiritual perception the mystic seizes\non all the five sense-perceptions as symbols. For the last word S.\nde Cressy gives again the word \"smelling\" (rendered here, above, by\n\"in-breathing\"). Collins reads the Brit. Mus. MS. as \"following\"; but\nthe word there is \"swelowyng\" = swallowing.\n _ANENT CERTAIN POINTS IN THE FOREGOING FOURTEEN REVELATIONS_\n \"God is endless, sovereign Truth,--Wisdom,--Love, not-made; and man's\n Soul is a creature in God which hath the same properties made\"\nGod shewed in all the Revelations, oftentimes, that man worketh\nevermore His will and His worship lastingly without any stinting. And\n_what_ this work is, was shewed in the First, and that in a marvellous\nexample: for it was shewed in the working of the soul of our blissful\nLady, Saint Mary: [that is, the working of] Truth and Wisdom.[1] And\n_how_ [it is done] I hope by the grace of the Holy Ghost I shall tell,\nas I saw.\nTruth seeth God, and Wisdom beholdeth God, and of these two cometh the\nthird: that is, a holy marvellous[2] delight in God; which is Love.\nWhere Truth and Wisdom are verily, there is Love verily, coming of\nthem both. And all of God's making: for He is endless sovereign Truth,\nendless sovereign Wisdom, endless sovereign Love, unmade; and man's\nSoul is a creature in God which hath the same properties _made_,[3]\nand evermore it doeth that it was made for: it seeth God, it beholdeth\nGod, and it loveth God. Whereof God enjoyeth in the creature; and the\ncreature in God, endlessly marvelling.\nIn which marvelling he seeth his God, his Lord, his Maker so high, so\ngreat, and so good, in comparison with him that is made, that scarcely\nthe creature seemeth ought to the self. But the clarity and the\nclearness of Truth and Wisdom maketh him to see and to bear witness[4]\nthat he is made for Love: in which God endlessly keepeth him.\n[1] See chap. iv.\n[2] _i.e. marvelling._\n[3] chaps. liv., lv.\n[4] \"beknowen.\"\n \"All heavenly things and all earthly things that belong to Heaven are\n comprehended in these two judgments\"\nGod deemeth us [looking] upon our Nature-Substance, which is ever\nkept one in Him, whole and safe without end: and _this_ doom is\n[because] of His rightfulness [in the which it is made and kept]. And\nman judgeth [looking] upon our changeable Sense-soul, which seemeth\nnow one [thing], now other,--according as it taketh of the [higher or\nlower] parts,--and [is that which] showeth outward. And _this_ wisdom\n[of man's judgment] is _mingled_ [because of the diverse things it\nbeholdeth]. For sometimes it is good and easy, and sometimes it is hard\nand grievous. And in as much as it is good and easy it belongeth to the\nrightfulness; and in as much as it is hard and grievous [by reason of\nthe sin beheld, which sheweth in our Sense-soul,] our good Lord Jesus\nreformeth it by [the working in our Sense-soul of] mercy and grace\nthrough the virtue of His blessed Passion, and so bringeth it to the\nrightfulness.\nAnd though these two [judgments] be thus accorded and oned, yet both\nshall be known in Heaven without end. The first doom, which is of\nGod's rightfulness, is [because] of His high endless life [in our\nSubstance]; and this is that fair sweet doom that was shewed in all the\nfair Revelation, in which I saw Him assign to us no manner of blame.\nBut though this was sweet and delectable, yet in the beholding only of\nthis, I could not be fully eased: and that was because of the doom of\nHoly Church, which I had afore understood and which was continually\nin my sight. And therefore by _this_ doom methought I understood that\nsinners are worthy sometime of blame and wrath; but these two could\nI not see in God; and therefore my desire was more than I can or may\ntell. For the higher doom was shewed by God Himself in that same time,\nand therefore me behoved needs to take it; and the lower doom was\nlearned me afore in Holy Church, and therefore I might in no way leave\nthe lower doom. Then was this my desire: that I might see in God in\nwhat manner that which the doom of Holy Church teacheth is true in His\nsight, and how it belongeth to me verily to know it; whereby the two\ndooms might both be saved, so as it were worshipful to God and right\nway to me.\nAnd to all this I had none other answer but a marvellous example of a\nlord and of a servant, as I shall tell after: and that full mistily\nshewed.[1] And yet I stand desiring, and will unto my end, that I might\nby grace know these two dooms as it belongeth to me. For all heavenly,\nand all earthly things that belong to Heaven, are comprehended in\nthese two dooms. And the more understanding, by the gracious leading\nof the Holy Ghost, that we have of these two dooms, the more we shall\nsee and know our failings. And ever the more that we see them, the\nmore, of nature, by grace, we shall long to be fulfilled of endless joy\nand bliss. For we are made thereto, and our Nature-Substance is now\nblissful in God, and hath been since it was made, and shall be without\nend.\n[1] Chap. li.\n \"It is needful to see and to know that we are sinners: wherefore we\n deserve pain and wrath.\" \"He is God: Good, Life, Truth, Love, Peace:\n His Clarity and His Unity suffereth Him not to be wroth\"\nBut our passing life that we have here in our sense-soul knoweth not\nwhat our Self is. [And when we verily and clearly see and know what\nour Self is][1] then shall we verily and clearly see and know our Lord\nGod in fulness of joy. And therefore it behoveth needs to be that the\nnearer we be to our bliss, the more we shall long [after it]: and\nthat both by nature and by grace. We may have knowing of our Self in\nthis life by continuant help and virtue of our high Nature. In which\nknowing we may exercise and grow, by forwarding and speeding of mercy\nand grace; but we may never fully know our Self until the last point:\nin which point this passing life and manner of pain and woe shall have\nan end. And therefore it belongeth properly to us, both by nature and\nby grace, to long and desire with all our mights to know our Self in\nfulness of endless joy.\nAnd yet in all this time, from the beginning to the end, I had two\nmanner of beholdings. The one was endless continuant love, with\nsecureness of keeping, and blissful salvation,--for of this was all\n_the Shewing_. The other was of the common teaching of Holy Church, in\nwhich I was afore informed and grounded--and with all my will having in\nuse and understanding. And the beholding of _this_ went not from me:\nfor by the Shewing I was not stirred nor led therefrom in no manner\nof point, but I had therein teaching to love it and find it good[2]:\nwhereby I might, by the help of our Lord and His grace, increase and\nrise to more heavenly knowing and higher loving.\nAnd thus in all the Beholding methought it was needful to see and to\nknow that we are sinners, and do many evils that we ought to leave,\nand leave many good deeds undone that we ought to do: wherefore we\ndeserve pain and wrath. And notwithstanding all this, I saw soothfastly\nthat our Lord was never wroth, nor ever shall be. For He is God: Good,\nLife, Truth, Love, Peace; His Clarity[3] and His Unity suffereth Him\nnot to be wroth. For I saw truly that it is against the property of\nHis Might to be wroth, and against the property of His Wisdom, and\nagainst the property of His Goodness. God is the Goodness that may not\nbe wroth, for He is not [other] but Goodness: our soul is oned to Him,\nunchangeable Goodness, and between God and our soul is neither wrath\nnor forgiveness in His sight. For our soul is so fully oned to God of\nHis own Goodness that between God and our soul may be right nought.\nAnd to this understanding was the soul led by love and drawn by might\nin every Shewing: _that it is thus_ our good Lord shewed, and _how it\nis thus in truth of His great Goodness_. And He willeth that we desire\nto learn it--that is to say, as far as it belongeth to His creature\nto learn it. For all things that the simple soul[4] understood, God\nwilleth that they be shewed and [made] known. For the things that He\nwill have privy, mightily and wisely Himself He hideth them, for love.\nFor I saw in the same Shewing that much privity is hid, which may never\nbe known until the time that God of His goodness hath made us worthy\nto see it; and therewith I am well-content, abiding our Lord's will in\nthis high marvel. And now I yield me to my Mother, Holy Church, as a\nsimple child oweth.\n[1] So S. de Cressy has it. There is evidently an omission in the MS.\nof part of this sentence. See lvi., lxxii. The dim sight of God comes\nbefore the dim sight of the Self, but the clear sight of God comes\nafter the clear sight of the Self.\n[2] \"like it.\"\n[3] Cressy has: \"He is Peace; and His Might, His Wisdom, His Charity,\nand His Unity,\" etc.\n[4] Chap. ii. \"a simple creature\"; \"the soul,\" xxiv., xiii., etc., and\nxxxii. p. 64.\n \"We fail oftentimes of the sight of Him, and anon we fall into our\n self, and then find we no feeling of right,--nought but contrariness\nTwo things belong to our soul as duty: the one is that we reverently\nmarvel, the other that we meekly suffer, ever enjoying in God. For He\nwould have us understand that we shall in short time see clearly in\nHimself all that we desire.\nAnd notwithstanding all this, I beheld and marvelled greatly: _What\nis the mercy and forgiveness of God?_ For by the teaching that I had\nafore, I understood that the mercy of God should be the forgiveness of\nHis wrath after the time that we have sinned. For methought that to a\nsoul whose meaning and desire is to love, the wrath of God was harder\nthan any other pain, and therefore I took[1] that the forgiveness of\nHis wrath should be one of the principal points of His mercy. But\nhowsoever I might behold and desire, I could in no wise see this point\nin all the Shewing.[2]\nBut how I understood and saw of the work of mercy, I shall tell\nsomewhat, as God will give me grace. I understood this: Man is\nchangeable in this life, and by frailty and overcoming falleth into\nsin: he is weak and unwise of himself, and also his will is overlaid.\nAnd in this time he is in tempest and in sorrow and woe; and the cause\nis blindness: for he seeth not God. For if he saw God continually,\nhe should have no mischievous feeling, nor any manner of motion or\nyearning that serveth to sin.[3]\nThus saw I, and felt in the same time; and methought that the sight and\nthe feeling was high and plenteous and gracious in comparison with that\nwhich our common feeling is in this life; but yet I thought it was but\nsmall and low in comparison with the great desire that the soul hath to\nsee God.\nFor I felt in me five manner of workings, which be these: Enjoying,\nmourning, desire, dread, and sure hope. Enjoying: for God gave me\nunderstanding and knowing that it was Himself that I saw; mourning:\nand that was for failing; desire: and that was I might see Him ever\nmore and more, understanding and knowing that we shall never have\nfull rest till we see Him verily and clearly in heaven; dread was:\nfor it seemed to me in all that time that that sight should fail, and\nI be left to myself; sure hope was in the endless love: that I saw I\nshould be kept by His mercy and brought to His bliss. And the joying\nin His sight with this sure hope of His merciful keeping made me to\nhave feeling and comfort so that mourning and dread were not greatly\npainful. And yet in all this I beheld in the Shewing of God that this\nmanner of sight may not be continuant in this life,--and that for His\nown worship and for increase of our endless joy. And therefore we fail\noftentimes of the sight of Him, and anon we fall into our self, and\nthen find we no feeling of right,--naught but contrariness that is in\nour self; and that of the elder root of our first sin,[4] with all the\nsins that follow, of our contrivance. And in this we are in travail and\ntempest[5] with feeling of sins, and of pain in many divers manners,\nspiritual and bodily, as it is known to us in this life.\n[1] understood--took it.\n[2] \"But for nowte that I myte beholden and desyrin I could not se.\"\n[3] \"ne no manner steryng ne [or _ye_ = the] yernyng.\"\n[4] _i.e._ contrariness, springing from the beginning of sin in the\nfirst fall of man.\n[5] \"traveylid and tempested.\"\n \"I beheld the property of Mercy, and I beheld the property of Grace:\n which have two manners of working in one love\"\nBut our good Lord the Holy Ghost, which is endless life dwelling in\nour soul, full securely keepeth us; and worketh therein a peace and\nbringeth it to ease by grace, and accordeth it to God and maketh it\npliant.[1] And this is the mercy and the way that our Lord continually\nleadeth us in as long as we be here in this life which is changeable.\nFor I saw no wrath but on man's part; and that forgiveth He in us.\nFor wrath is not else but a forwardness and a contrariness to peace\nand love; and either it cometh of failing of might, or of failing of\nwisdom, or of failing of goodness: which failing is not in God, but is\non our part. For we by sin and wretchedness have in us a wretched and\ncontinuant contrariness to peace and to love. And that shewed He full\noften in His lovely Regard of Ruth and Pity.[2] For the ground of mercy\nis love, and the working of mercy is our keeping in love. And this was\nshewed in such manner that I could[3] not have perceived of the part of\nmercy but as it were alone in love; that is to say, as to my sight.\nMercy is a sweet gracious working in love, mingled with plenteous pity:\nfor mercy worketh in keeping us, and mercy worketh turning to us all\nthings to good. Mercy, by love, suffereth us to fail in measure and\nin as much as we fail, in so much we fall; and in as much as we fall,\nin so much we die: for it needs must be that we die in so much as we\nfail of the sight and feeling of God that is our life. Our failing is\ndreadful, our falling is shameful, and our dying is sorrowful: but in\nall this the sweet eye of pity and love is lifted never off us, nor the\nworking of mercy ceaseth.[4]\nFor I beheld the property of mercy, and I beheld the property of\ngrace: which have two manners of working in one love. Mercy is a\npitiful property which belongeth to the Motherhood in tender love; and\ngrace is a worshipful property which belongeth to the royal Lordship\nin the same love. Mercy worketh: keeping, suffering, quickening, and\nhealing; and all is tenderness of love. And grace worketh: raising,\nrewarding, endlessly overpassing that which our longing and our travail\ndeserveth, spreading abroad and shewing the high plenteous largess[5]\nof God's royal Lordship in His marvellous courtesy; and this is of\nthe abundance of love. For grace worketh our dreadful failing into\nplenteous, endless solace; and grace worketh our shameful falling into\nhigh, worshipful rising; and grace worketh our sorrowful dying into\nholy, blissful life.\nFor I saw full surely that ever as our contrariness worketh to us here\nin earth pain, shame, and sorrow, right so, on the contrary wise, grace\nworketh to us in heaven solace, worship, and bliss; and overpassing.\nAnd so far forth, that when we come up and receive the sweet reward\nwhich grace hath wrought for us, then we shall thank and bless our\nLord, endlessly rejoicing that ever we suffered woe. And that shall be\nfor a property of blessed love that we shall know in God which we could\nnever have known without woe going before.\nAnd when I saw all this, it behoved me needs to grant that the mercy of\nGod and the forgiveness is to slacken and waste _our_ wrath.\n[1] \"buxum\" = ready to bend or obey.\n[2] \"lovely chere,\" loving Look. See li., lxxi., etc.\n[3] \"I cowth not a perceyven of.\"\n[4] \"But in all this the swete eye of pite and love cumith never of us,\nne the werkyng of mercy cesyth not.\"\n[5] or largeness.\n \"Where our Lord appeareth, peace is taken, and wrath hath no place.\"\n \"Immediately is the soul made at one with God when it is truly set at\nFor this was an high marvel to the soul which was continually shewed in\nall the Revelations, and was with great diligence beholden, that our\nLord God, anent Himself may not forgive, for He may not be wroth: it\nwere impossible. For this was shewed: that our life is all grounded and\nrooted in love, and without love we may not live; and therefore to the\nsoul that of His special grace seeth so far into the high, marvellous\nGoodness of God, and seeth that we are endlessly oned to Him in love,\nit is the most impossible that may be, that God should be wroth.\nFor wrath and friendship be two contraries. For He that wasteth and\ndestroyeth our wrath and maketh us meek and mild,--it behoveth needs\nto be that He [Himself] be ever one in love, meek and mild: which is\ncontrary to wrath.\nFor I saw full surely that where our Lord appeareth, peace is taken and\nwrath hath no place. For I saw no manner of wrath in God, neither for\nshort time nor for long;--for in sooth, as to my sight, if God might\nbe wroth for an instant,[1] we should never have life nor place nor\nbeing. For as verily as we have our being of the endless Might of God\nand of the endless Wisdom and of the endless Goodness, so verily we\nhave our keeping in the endless Might of God, in the endless Wisdom,\nand in the endless Goodness. For though we feel in ourselves, [frail]\nwretches, debates and strifes, yet are we all-mannerful enclosed in\nthe mildness of God and in His meekness, in His benignity and in His\ngraciousness.[2] For I saw full surely that all our endless friendship,\nour place, our life and our being, is in God.\nFor that same endless Goodness that keepeth us when we sin, that we\nperish not, the same endless Goodness continually treateth in us a\npeace against our wrath and our contrarious falling, and maketh us to\nsee our need with a true dread, and mightily to seek unto God to have\nforgiveness, with a gracious desire of our salvation. And though we, by\nthe wrath and the contrariness that is in us, be now in tribulation,\ndistress, and woe, as falleth to our blindness and frailty, yet are we\n_securely_ safe by the merciful keeping of God, that we perish not.\nBut we are not _blissfully_ safe, in having of our endless joy, till\nwe be all in peace and in love: that is to say, full pleased with God\nand with all His works, and with all His judgments, and loving and\npeaceable with our self and with our even-Christians and with all that\nGod loveth, as love beseemeth.[3] And this doeth God's Goodness in us.\nThus saw I that God is our very Peace, and He is our sure Keeper when\nwe are ourselves in unpeace, and He continually worketh to bring us\ninto endless peace. And thus when we, by the working of mercy and\ngrace, be made meek and mild, we are fully safe; suddenly is the soul\noned to God when it is truly peaced in itself: for in Him is found no\nwrath. And thus I saw when we are all in peace and in love, we find\nno contrariness, nor no manner of letting through that contrariness\nwhich is now in us; [nay], our Lord of His Goodness maketh it to us\nfull profitable. For that contrariness is cause of our tribulations\nand all our woe, and our Lord Jesus taketh them and sendeth them up to\nHeaven, and there are they made more sweet and delectable than heart\nmay think or tongue may tell. And when we come thither we shall find\nthem ready, all turned into very fair and endless worships. Thus is\nGod our steadfast Ground: and He shall be our full bliss and make us\nunchangeable, as He is, when we are there.\n[1] \"a touch.\"\n[2] \"buxumhede.\"\n[3] \"liketh.\"\n \"The blame of our sin continually hangeth upon us.\" \"In the sight of\nGod the soul that shall be saved was never dead, nor ever shall be dead\"\nAnd in this life mercy and forgiveness is our way and evermore leadeth\nus to grace. And by the tempest and the sorrow that we fall into on our\npart, we be often dead as to man's doom in earth; but in the sight of\nGod the soul that shall be saved was never dead, nor ever shall be.\nBut yet here I wondered and marvelled with all the diligence of my\nsoul, saying thus within me: _Good Lord, I see Thee that art very\nTruth; and I know in truth[1] that we sin grievously every day and be\nmuch blameworthy; and I may neither leave the knowing of Thy truth,[2]\nnor do I see Thee shew to us any manner of blame. How may this be?_\nFor I knew by the common teaching of Holy Church and by mine own\nfeeling, that the blame of our sin continually hangeth upon us, from\nthe first man unto the time that we come up unto heaven: then was this\nmy marvel that I saw our Lord God shewing to us no more blame than if\nwe were as clean and as holy as Angels be in heaven. And between these\ntwo contraries my reason was greatly travailed through my blindness,\nand could have no rest for dread that His blessed presence should pass\nfrom my sight and I be left in unknowing [of] how He beholdeth us in\nour sin. For either [it] behoved me to see in God that sin was all done\naway, or else me behoved to see in God how He seeth it, whereby I might\ntruly know how it belongeth to me to see sin, and the manner of our\nblame. My longing endured, Him continually beholding;--and yet I could\nhave no patience for great straits[3] and perplexity, thinking: _If I\ntake it thus that we be no sinners and not blameworthy, it seemeth as I\nshould err and fail of knowing of this truth[4]; and if it be so that\nwe be sinners and blameworthy,--Good Lord, how may it then be that I\ncannot see this true thing[5] in Thee, which art my God, my Maker, in\nwhom I desire to see all truths?_[6]\nFor three points make me hardy to ask it. The first is, because it is\nso low a thing: for if it were an high thing I should be a-dread. The\nsecond is, that it is so common: for if it were special and privy, also\nI should be a-dread. The third is, that it needeth me to know it (as\nmethinketh) if I shall live here for knowing of good and evil, whereby\nI may, by reason and grace, the more dispart them asunder, and love\ngoodness and hate evil, as Holy Church teacheth. I cried inwardly,\nwith all my might seeking unto God for help, saying thus: _Ah! Lord\nJesus, King of bliss, how shall I be eased? Who shall teach me and tell\nme that [thing] me needeth to know, if I may not at this time see it in\nThee?_\n[1] \"sothly.\"\n[2] \"sothe.\"\n[3] \"awer,\" liii. note 1.\n[5] \"sothnes.\"\n[6] \"trueths.\"\n\"He is the Head, and we be His members.\" \"Therefore our Father nor may\n nor will more blame assign to us than to His own Son, precious and\nAnd then our Courteous Lord answered in shewing full mistily a\nwonderful example of a Lord that hath a Servant: and He gave me sight\nto my understanding of both. Which sight was shewed doubly in the\nLord and doubly in the Servant: the one part was shewed spiritually\nin bodily likeness, and the other part was shewed more spiritually,\nwithout bodily likeness.\nFor the first [sight], thus, I saw two persons in bodily likeness: that\nis to say, a Lord and a Servant; and therewith God gave me spiritual\nunderstanding. The Lord sitteth stately in rest and in peace; the\nServant standeth by afore his Lord reverently, ready to do his Lord's\nwill. The Lord looketh upon his Servant full lovingly and sweetly, and\nmeekly he sendeth him to a certain place to do his will. The Servant\nnot only he goeth, but suddenly he starteth, and runneth in great\nhaste, for love to do his Lord's will. And anon he falleth into a\nslade,[1] and taketh full great hurt. And then he groaneth and moaneth\nand waileth and struggleth, but he neither may rise nor help himself by\nno manner of way.\nAnd of all this the most mischief[2] that I saw him in, was failing of\ncomfort: for he could not turn his face to look upon his loving Lord,\nwhich was to him full near,--in Whom is full comfort;--but as a man\nthat was feeble and unwise for the time, he turned his mind[3] to his\nfeeling and endured in woe.\nIn which woe he suffered seven great pains. The first was the sore\nbruising that he took in his falling, which was to him feelable pain;\nthe second was the heaviness of his body; the third was feebleness\nfollowing from these two; the fourth, that he was blinded in his reason\nand stunned in his mind, so far forth that almost he had forgotten his\nown love; the fifth was that he might not rise; the sixth was most\nmarvellous to me, and that was that he lay all alone: I looked all\nabout and beheld, and far nor near, high nor low, I saw to him no help;\nthe seventh was that the place which he lay on was a long, hard, and\ngrievous [place].\nI marvelled how this Servant might meekly suffer there all this woe,\nand I beheld with carefulness to learn if I could perceive in him any\nfault, or if the Lord should assign to him any blame. And in sooth\nthere was none seen: for only his goodwill and his great desire was\ncause of his falling; and he was unlothful, and as good inwardly as\nwhen he stood afore his Lord, ready to do his will. And right thus\ncontinually his loving Lord full tenderly beholdeth him. But now with\na _double_ manner of Regard: one outward, full meekly and mildly,\nwith great ruth and pity,--and this was of the first [sight], another\n_inward,_ more spiritually,--and this was shewed with a leading of mine\nunderstanding into the Lord, [in the] which I saw Him highly rejoicing\nfor the worshipful restoring that He will and shall bring His Servant\nto by His plenteous grace; and this was of that other shewing.\nAnd now [was] my understanding led again into the first [sight]; both\nkeeping in mind. Then saith this courteous Lord in his meaning: _Lo,\nlo, my loved Servant, what harm and distress he hath taken in my\nservice for my love,--yea, and for his goodwill. Is it not fitting that\nI award him [for] his affright and his dread, his hurt and his maim\nand all his woe? And not only this, but falleth it not to me to give\na gift that [shall] be better to him, and more worshipful, than his\nown wholeness should have been?--or else methinketh I should do him no\ngrace._\nAnd in this an inward spiritual Shewing of the Lord's meaning descended\ninto my soul: in which I saw that it behoveth needs to be, by virtue of\nHis great [Goodness] and His own worship, that His dearworthy Servant,\nwhich He loved so much, should be verily and blissfully rewarded, above\nthat he should have been if he had not fallen. Yea, and so far forth,\nthat his falling and his woe, that he hath taken thereby, shall be\nturned into high and overpassing worship and endless bliss.\nAnd at this point the shewing of the example vanished, and our good\nLord led forth mine understanding in sight and in shewing of the\nRevelation to the end. But notwithstanding all this forth-leading, the\nmarvelling over the example went never from me: for methought it was\ngiven me for an answer to my desire, and yet could I not take therein\nfull understanding to mine ease at that time. For in the Servant that\nwas shewed for Adam, as I shall tell, I saw many diverse properties\nthat might in no manner of way be assigned[4] to single Adam. And\nthus in that time I stood for much part in unknowing: for the full\nunderstanding of this marvellous example was not given me in that time.\nIn which mighty example three properties of the Revelation be yet\ngreatly hid; and notwithstanding this [further forthleading], I saw and\nunderstood that every Shewing is full of secret things [left hid].\nAnd therefore me behoveth now to tell three properties in which I\nam somewhat eased. The first is the beginning of teaching that I\nunderstood therein, in the same time; the second is the inward teaching\nthat I have understood therein afterward; the third, all the whole\nRevelation from the beginning to the end (that is to say of this Book)\nwhich our Lord God of His goodness bringeth oftentimes freely to the\nsight of mine understanding. And these three are so oned, as to my\nunderstanding, that I cannot, nor may, dispart them. And by these\nthree, as one, I have teaching whereby I ought to believe and trust in\nour Lord God, that of the same goodness of which He shewed it, and for\nthe same end, right so, of the same goodness and for the same end He\nshall declare it to us when it is His will.\nFor, twenty years after the time of the Shewing, save three months,\nI had teaching inwardly, as I shall tell: _It belongeth to thee to\ntake heed to all the properties and conditions that were shewed in the\nexample, though thou think that they be misty and indifferent[5] to thy\nsight_. I assented willingly, with great desire, and inwardly [beheld]\nwith heedfulness[6] all the points and properties that were shewed in\nthe same time, as far forth as my wits and understanding would serve:\nbeginning my beholding at the Lord and at the Servant, and the manner\nof sitting of the Lord, and the place that he sat on, and the colour of\nhis clothing and the manner of shape, and his countenance without, and\nhis nobleness and his goodness within; at the manner of standing of the\nServant, and the place where, and how; at his manner of clothing, the\ncolour and the shape; at his outward having and at his inward goodness\nand his unloathfulness.\nThe Lord that sat stately in rest and in peace, I understood that He is\nGod. The Servant that stood afore the Lord, I understood that it was\nshewed for Adam: that is to say, one man was shewed, that time, and his\nfalling, to make it thereby understood how God beholdeth All-Man and\nhis falling. For in the sight of God all man is one man, and one man\nis all man. This man was hurt in his might and made full feeble; and\nhe was stunned in his understanding so that he [was] turned from the\nbeholding of his Lord. But his will was kept whole in God's sight;--for\nhis will I saw our Lord commend and approve. But himself was letted and\nblinded from the knowing of this will; and this is to him great sorrow\nand grievous distress: for neither doth he see clearly his loving Lord,\nwhich is to him full meek and mild, nor doth he see truly what himself\nis in the sight of his loving Lord. And well I wot when these two are\nwisely and truly seen, we shall get rest and peace here in part, and\nthe fulness of the bliss of Heaven, by His plenteous grace.\nAnd this was a beginning of teaching which I saw in the same time,\nwhereby I might come to know in what manner He beholdeth us in our sin.\nAnd then I saw that only Pain blameth and punisheth, and our courteous\nLord comforteth and sorroweth; and ever He is to the soul in glad\nCheer, loving, and longing to bring us to His bliss.\nThe place that the Lord sat on was simple, on the earth, barren and\ndesert, alone in wilderness; his clothing was ample and full seemly,\nas falleth to a Lord; the colour of his cloth was blue as azure, most\nsad and fair, his cheer was merciful; the colour of his face was\nfair-brown,--with full seemly features; his eyes were black, most fair\nand seemly, shewing [_outward_] full of lovely _pity_, and [shewing],\n_within_ him, an high Regard,[7] long and broad, all full of endless\nheavens. And the lovely looking wherewith He looked upon His Servant\ncontinually,--and especially in his falling,--methought it might melt\nour hearts for love and burst them in two for joy. The fair looking\nshewed [itself] of a seemly mingledness which was marvellous to behold:\nthe one [part] was Ruth and Pity, the other was Joy and Bliss. The\nJoy and Bliss passeth as far Ruth and Pity as Heaven is above earth:\nthe Pity was earthly and the Bliss was heavenly: the Ruth and Pity of\nthe Father was [in regard] of the falling of Adam, which is His most\nloved creature; the Joy and Bliss was [in regard] of His dearworthy\nSon, which is even with the Father. The Merciful Beholding of His\nCountenance[8] of love fulfilled all earth and descended down with Adam\ninto hell, with which continuant pity Adam was kept from endless death.\nAnd thus Mercy and Pity dwelleth with mankind unto the time we come up\ninto Heaven.\nBut man is blinded in this life and therefore we may not see our\nFather, God, as He is. And what time that He of His goodness\nwilleth to shew Himself to man, He sheweth Himself homely, as man.\nNotwithstanding, I reason, in verity[9] we ought to know and believe\nthat the Father is not man.\nBut his sitting on the earth barren and desert, is to signify this:--He\nmade man's soul to be His own City and His dwelling-place: which is\nmost pleasing to Him of all His works. And what time that man was\nfallen into sorrow and pain, he was not all seemly to serve in that\nnoble office; and therefore our Lord Father would prepare Himself\nno other place, but would sit upon the earth abiding mankind, which\nis mingled with earth, till what time by His grace His dearworthy\nSon had brought again His City into the noble fairness with His hard\ntravail. The blueness of the clothing betokeneth His steadfastness; the\nbrownness of his fair face, with the seemly blackness of the eyes, was\nmost accordant to shew His holy soberness. The length and breadth of\nhis garments, which were fair, flaming about, betokeneth that He hath,\nbeclosed in Him, all Heavens, and all Joy and Bliss:[10] and this was\nshewed in a touch [of time], where I have said: _Mine understanding\nwas led into the Lord_; in which [inward shewing] I saw Him highly\n_rejoice_ for the worshipful restoring that He will and shall bring His\nservant to by His plenteous grace.\nAnd yet I marvelled, beholding the Lord and the Servant aforesaid. I\nsaw the Lord sit stately, and the Servant standing reverently afore his\nLord. In which Servant there is double understanding, one _without_,\nanother _within. Outwardly_:--he was clad simply, as a labourer which\nwere got ready for his toil;[11] and he stood full near the Lord--not\nevenly in front[12] of him, but in part to one side, on the left. His\nclothing was a white kirtle, single, old, and all defaced, dyed with\nsweat of his body, strait-fitting to him, and short--as it were an\nhandful beneath the knee; [thread]bare, seeming as it should soon be\nworn out, ready to be ragged and rent. And of this I marvelled greatly,\nthinking: this is now an unseemly clothing for the Servant that is so\ngreatly loved to stand in afore so worshipful a Lord. And _inwardly_ in\nhim was shewed a ground of love: which love that he had to the Lord was\neven-like[13] to the love that the Lord had to him.\nThe wisdom of the Servant saw inwardly that there was one thing to\ndo which should be to the worship of the Lord. And the Servant, for\nlove, having no regard to himself nor to nothing that might befall\nhim, hastily he started and ran at the sending of his Lord, to do that\nthing which was his will and his worship. For it seemed by his outward\nclothing as he had been a continuant labourer of long time, and by the\n_inward sight_ that I had both of the Lord and the Servant it seemed\nthat he was a[14] new [one], that is to say, new beginning to travail:\nwhich Servant was never sent out afore.\nThere was a treasure in the earth which the Lord loved. I marvelled and\nthought what it might be, and I was answered in mine understanding: _It\nis a food which is delectable and pleasant to the Lord_. For I saw the\nLord sit as a man, and I saw neither meat nor drink wherewith to serve\nhim. This was one marvel. Another marvel was that this majestic Lord\nhad no servant but one, and him he sent out. I beheld, thinking what\nmanner of labour it might be that the Servant should do. And then I\nunderstood that he should do the greatest labour and hardest travail:\nthat is, he should be a gardener, delve and dyke, toil and sweat,\nand turn the earth upside-down, and seek the deepness, and water the\nplants in time. And in this he should continue his travail and make\nsweet floods to run, and noble and plenteous fruits to spring, which he\nshould bring afore the Lord to serve him therewith to his desire. And\nhe should never turn again till he had prepared this food all ready as\nhe knew that it pleased the Lord. And then he should take this food,\nwith the drink in the food, and bear it full worshipfully afore the\nLord. And all this time the Lord should sit in the same place, abiding\nhis Servant whom he sent out.\nAnd yet I marvelled from whence the Servant came. For I saw in the Lord\nthat HE hath within Himself endless life, and all manner of goodness,\nsave that treasure that was in the earth. And [also] _that_ [treasure]\nwas grounded in the Lord in marvellous deepness of endless love, but\nit was not all to His worship till the Servant had thus nobly prepared\nit, and brought it before Him in himself present. And without the Lord\nwas nothing but wilderness. And I understood not all what this example\nmeant, and therefore I marvelled whence the Servant came.\nIn the Servant is comprehended the Second Person in the Trinity; and\nin the Servant is comprehended Adam: that is to say, All-Man. And\ntherefore when I say the _Son_, it meaneth the Godhead which is even\nwith the Father; and when I say the _Servant_, it meaneth Christ's\nManhood, which is rightful Adam. By the nearness of the Servant is\nunderstood the Son, and by the standing on the left side is understood\nAdam. The Lord is the Father, God; the Servant is the Son, Christ\nJesus; the Holy Ghost is Even[15] Love which is in them both.\nWhen Adam fell, God's Son fell: because of the rightful oneing which\nhad been made in heaven, God's Son might not [be disparted] from Adam.\n(For by Adam I understand All-Man.) Adam fell from life to death, into\nthe deep[16] of this wretched world, and after that into hell: God's\nSon fell with Adam, into the deep[17] of the Maiden's womb, who was the\nfairest daughter of Adam; and for this end: to excuse Adam from blame\nin heaven and in earth; and mightily He fetched him out of hell.\nBy the wisdom and goodness that was in the Servant is understood\nGod's Son; by the poor clothing as a labourer standing near the left\nside, is understood the Manhood and Adam, with all the scathe[18] and\nfeebleness that followeth. For in all this our good Lord shewed His own\nSon and Adam but _one_ Man. The virtue and the goodness that we have is\nof Jesus Christ, the feebleness and the blindness that we have is of\nAdam: which two were shewed in the Servant.\nAnd thus hath our good Lord Jesus taken upon Him all our blame, and\ntherefore our Father nor may nor will more blame assign to us than to\nHis own Son, dearworthy Christ. Thus was He, the Servant, afore His\ncoming into earth standing ready afore the Father in purpose, till what\ntime He would send Him to do that worshipful deed by which mankind was\nbrought again into heaven;--that is to say, notwithstanding that He is\nGod, even with the Father as anent the Godhead. But in His foreseeing\npurpose that He would be Man, to save man in fulfilling of His Father's\nwill, so He stood afore His Father as a Servant, willingly[19] taking\nupon Him all our charge. And then He started full readily at the\nFather's will, and anon He fell full low, into the Maiden's womb,\nhaving no regard to Himself nor to His hard pains.\nThe white kirtle is the flesh; the singleness is that there was right\nnought atwix the Godhead and Manhood; the straitness is poverty; the\neld is of Adam's wearing; the defacing, of sweat of Adam's travail; the\nshortness sheweth the Servant's labour.\nAnd thus I saw the Son saying in His meaning[20]: _Lo! my dear Father,\nI stand before Thee in Adam's kirtle, all ready to start and to run: I\nwould be in the earth to do Thy worship when it is Thy will to send me.\nHow long shall I desire?_ Full soothfastly wist the Son when it would\nbe the Father's will and how long He should desire: that is to say,\n[He wist it] anent the Godhead: for He is the Wisdom of the Father;\nwherefore this question was shewed with understanding of the _Manhood_\nof Christ. For all mankind that shall be saved by the sweet Incarnation\nand blissful Passion of Christ, all is the Manhood of Christ: for He\nis the Head and we be His members. To which members the day and the\ntime is unknown when every passing woe and sorrow shall have an end,\nand the everlasting joy and bliss shall be fulfilled; which day and\ntime for to see, all the Company of Heaven longeth. And all that shall\nbe under heaven that shall come thither, their way is by longing and\ndesire. Which desire and longing was shewed in the Servant's standing\nafore the Lord,--or else thus in the Son's standing afore the Father in\nAdam's kirtle. For the longing[21] and desire of all Mankind that shall\nbe saved appeared in Jesus: for Jesus is All that shall be saved, and\nAll that shall be saved is Jesus. And all of the Charity of God; with\nobedience, meekness, and patience, and virtues that belong to us.\nAlso in this marvellous example I have teaching with me as it were\nthe beginning of an A.B.C., whereby I have some understanding of\nour Lord's meaning. For the secret things of the Revelation be hid\ntherein;--notwithstanding that _all_ the Shewings are full of secret\nthings. The _sitting_ of the Father betokeneth His Godhead: that is\nto say, by shewing of rest and peace: for in the Godhead may be no\ntravail.[22] And that He shewed Himself as _Lord_, betokeneth His\n[governance] to our manhood. The _standing_ of the Servant betokeneth\ntravail; _on one side_, and on the _left_, betokeneth that he was not\nall worthy to stand even-right afore the Lord; his _starting_ was the\nGodhead, and the _running_ was the Manhood: for the Godhead started\nfrom the Father into the Maiden's womb, falling into the taking of our\nKind. And in this falling he took great sore: the _sore_ that He took\nwas our flesh, in which He had also swiftly feeling of deadly pains.\nThat he stood _adread_ before the Lord and not even-right, betokeneth\nthat His clothing was not seemly[23] to stand in even-right afore the\nLord, nor _that_ might not, nor should not, be His office while He\nwas a labourer; nor also He might not sit in rest and peace with the\nLord till He had won His peace rightfully with His hard travail; and\nthat he stood by the _left_ side [betokeneth] that the Father left\nHis own Son, willingly,[24] in the Manhood to suffer all man's pains,\nwithout sparing of Him. By that _his kirtle was in point to be ragged\nand rent_, is understood the blows, the scourgings, the thorns and the\nnails, the drawing and the dragging, His tender flesh rending. (As\nI saw in some part [before] how the flesh was rent from the skull,\nfalling in pieces until the time when the bleeding ceased, and then\nit began to dry again, cleaving to the bone.) And by the _struggling\nand writhing, groaning and moaning,_ is understood that He might never\nrise almightily from the time that He was fallen into the Maiden's\nwomb, till his body was slain and dead, He yielding the soul into the\nFather's hands with all Mankind for whom He was sent.\nAnd at this point He began first to shew His might: for He went into\nHell, and when He was there He raised up the great Root out of the deep\ndeepness which rightfully was knit to Him in high Heaven. The body was\nin the grave till Easter-morrow, and from that time He lay nevermore.\nFor then was rightfully ended the struggling and the writhing, the\ngroaning and the moaning. And our foul deadly flesh that God's Son\ntook on Him, which was Adam's old kirtle, strait, [worn]-bare, and\nshort, was then by our Saviour made fair, new, white and bright and of\nendless cleanness; loose and long[25]; fairer and richer than was then\nthe clothing which [before] I saw on the Father: for that clothing was\nblue, but Christ's clothing is [coloured] now of a fair seemly medlour,\nwhich is so marvellous that I can it not describe: for it is all of\nvery worships.\nNow sitteth not the Son on earth in wilderness, but He sitteth in\nHis noblest Seat, which He made in Heaven most to His pleasing. Now\nstandeth not the Son afore the Father as a Servant afore the Lord\ndreadingly, meanly clad, in part naked; but He standeth afore the\nFather even-right, richly clad in blissful largeness, with a Crown\nupon His head of precious richness. For it was shewed that _we be His\nCrown_: which Crown is the Joy of the Father, the Worship of the Son,\nthe Satisfying of the Holy Ghost, and endless marvellous Bliss to all\nthat be in Heaven. Now standeth not the Son afore the Father on the\nleft side, as a labourer, but He sitteth on His Father's right hand,\nin endless rest and peace.[26] (But it is not meant that the Son\nsitteth on the right hand, side by side, as one man sitteth by another\nin this life,--for there is no such sitting, as to my sight, in the\nTrinity,--but He sitteth on His Father's right hand,--that is to say:\nin the highest nobleness of the Father's joys.) Now is the Spouse,\nGod's Son, in peace with His loved Wife, which is the Fair Maiden of\nendless Joy. Now sitteth the Son, Very God and Man, in His City in rest\nand peace: which [City] His Father hath adight to Him of His endless\npurpose; and the Father in the Son; and the Holy Ghost in the Father\nand in the Son.\n[1] _i.e._ a steep hollow place; a ravine.\n[2] _i.e._ injury, harm.\n[3] \"entended.\"\n[4] \"aret\" = reckoned.\n[5] _i.e._ not of definite purport, indistinct.\n[6] \"avisement.\"\n[7] MS. \"within him an _heyward_ long and brode, all full of endless\nhevyns.\" Cressy and Collins transcribe this word without explanation,\nbut give \"heavenliness\" for \"heavens.\" It seems most likely that \"hey\"\nhas been written as if affixed to \"ward\" (_i.e. \"regard,\" \"deeming,\"_\nor _\"reward\"_), or else to _\"reward,\"_ meaning, as usual, _regard_\n(\"Beholding\"). See pp. 108 and 113.\nIf \"_an heyward_\"--\"long and brode all full of endless hevyns,\"--were\nto be rendered as \"an high reward,\" revealed for the future along\nwith, though less clearly than, the divine pity for the pains of the\npresent, reference might be made to Revelation ix. pp. 47, 50: \"It is\na joy, a bliss, an endless satisfying to me that ever suffered Passion\nfor thee.\" ... \"In this feeling mine understanding was lifted up into\nHeaven: and there I saw three heavens\"; and to Rev. x. p. 51: \"then\nwith a glad Cheer our Lord looked into His Side and beheld, rejoicing.\nWith His sweet looking He led forth the understanding of His creature\nby the same wound into His Side within. And then He shewed a fair\ndelectable place, and large enough for all mankind that shall be saved\nto rest in peace and in love.\"\nBut \"Regard\" (scope of true, continuing, divine Sight, Insight,\nAll-comprehending sight) seems more likely to be the true rendering.\n\"Long and broad\" go strangely with the word, but on p. 113 the _length\nand breadth_ of the garments is interpreted immediately after the\ncolour of the eyes, and is said to betoken that \"He hath in Him, all\nHeavens, and all Joy and Bliss,\" and indeed these words but fill out\nthe idea of the more frequently used \"high\" to signify the \"enclosing\"\nof \"endless heavens:\" that Sphere of \"fulness\" which is infinite.\nWith this passage may be compared one below, on p. 113: \"The Merciful\nBeholding of His loving Cheer fulfilled all earth and descended\ndown with Adam into hell, ... and thus Mercy and Pity dwelleth with\nmankind unto the time we come up into Heaven.\" The other, the Inward,\nthe _high_ Beholding or Regard it not said to \"fill\" Heaven, but to\nbe \"full of\" endless Heavens. So elsewhere it is said that in our\n_Sense-soul_, the lower part of human nature, _God dwells_, but that\nour _Substance_, the higher part, _dwells in God_. (The regard of Mercy\nand Pity is with the Sense-soul; the high Regard of Joy and Bliss is\nwith the Substance.) P. 132, chap. lv.: \"I saw that our Substance is in\nGod, and also I saw that in our Sense-soul God is.\" lvi. p. 135:\" The\nworshipful City that our Lord Jesus sitteth in, it is our Sense-part,\nin which He is enclosed; and our Nature-Substance is beclosed in Jesus,\nwith the blessed Soul of Christ sitting in rest in the Godhead.\"\n[8] \"lofly cher.\"\n[9] \"I reson sothly we owen.\"\n[10] See p. 112, the \"high reward.\"\n[11] \"which wer disposed to travel.\"\n[12] \"even fornempts\" = strait opposite.\n[13] _i.e._ equal (MS. \"even like\").\n[14] S. de Cressy: \"anaved\"; MS. \"anew.\"\n[15] _i.e._ equal--see p. 114. \"All of the Charity of God,\" the mutual\nlove that also embraces created souls, p. 118.\n[16] \"the slade.\"\n[17] \"the slade.\"\n[18] \"mischief.\"\n[19] \"wilfully\" = voluntarily, of His own Will as God.\n[20] purpose, intent, thought or speech.\n[21] \"langor.\"\n[22] _i.e._ painful toil. \"He sitteth ... in peace and rest. And\nthe Godhead ruleth and careth for heaven and earth and all that is\"\n(lxvii.).\n[23] \"honest.\"\n[24] \"wilfully.\"\n[25] \"wyde and syde\" = wide and long.\n[26] But see also xxxix. p. 81, lxxx. p. 194.\n \"We have now matter of mourning: for our sin is cause of Christ's\npains; and we have, lastingly, matter of joy: for endless love made Him\nAnd thus I saw that God rejoiceth that He is our Father, and God\nrejoiceth that He is our Mother, and God rejoiceth that He is Very\nSpouse and our soul is His loved Wife. And Christ rejoiceth that He\nis our Brother, and Jesus rejoiceth that He is our Saviour. These are\nfive high joys, as I understand, in which He willeth that we enjoy; Him\npraising, Him thanking, Him loving, Him endlessly blessing.\nAll that shall be saved, we have in us, for the time of this life, a\nmarvellous mingling[1] both of weal and woe: we have in us our Lord\nJesus uprisen, we have in us the wretchedness and the mischief of\nAdam's falling, dying. By Christ we are steadfastly kept, and by His\ngrace touching us we are raised into sure trust of salvation. And by\nAdam's falling we are so broken, in our feeling, in diverse manners\nby sins and by sundry pains, in which we are made dark, that scarsely\nwe can take any comfort. But in our intent[2] we abide in God, and\nfaithfully trust to have mercy and grace; and this is His own working\nin us. And of His goodness He openeth the eye of our understanding, by\nwhich we have sight, sometime more and sometime less, according as God\ngiveth ability to receive. And now we are raised into the one, and now\nwe are suffered to fall into the other.\nAnd thus is this medley so marvellous in us that scarsely we know\nof our self or of our even-Christian in what way we stand, for the\nmarvellousness of this sundry feeling. But that same Holy Assent,\n_that_ we assent to God when we feel Him, truly setting our will to be\nwith Him, with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our\nmight. And then we hate and despise our evil stirrings and all that\nmight be occasion of sin, spiritual and bodily.[3] And yet nevertheless\nwhen this sweetness is hid, we fall again into blindness, and so into\nwoe and tribulation in diverse manners. But then is this our comfort,\nthat we _know in our faith_ that by virtue of Christ which is our\nKeeper, we assent never thereto, but we groan there-against, and dure\non, in pain and woe, praying, unto that time that He sheweth Him again\nto us.\nAnd thus we stand in this medley all the days of our life. But He\nwilleth that we trust that He is lastingly with as. And that in\nthree manner.--He is with us in Heaven, very Man, in His own Person,\nus updrawing; and that was shewed in [the Shewing of] the Spiritual\nThirst. And He is with us in earth, us leading; and that was shewed\nin the Third [Shewing], where I saw God in a Point. And He is with us\nin our soul, endlessly dwelling, us ruling and keeping; and that was\nshewed in the Sixteenth [Shewing], as I shall tell.\nAnd thus in the Servant was shewed the scathe and blindness of Adam's\nfalling; and in the Servant was shewed the wisdom and goodness of\nGod's Son. And in the Lord was shewed the ruth and pity of Adam's woe,\nand in the Lord was shewed the high nobility and the endless worship\nthat Mankind is come to by the virtue of the Passion and death of His\ndearworthy Son. And therefore mightily He joyeth in his falling for the\nhigh raising and fulness of bliss that Mankind is come to, overpassing\nthat we should have had if he had not fallen.--And thus to see this\noverpassing nobleness was mine understanding led into God in the same\ntime that I saw the Servant fall.\nAnd thus we have, now, matter of mourning: for our sin is cause of\nChrist's pains; and we have, lastingly, matter of joy: for endless love\nmade Him to suffer. And therefore the creature that seeth and feeleth\nthe working of love by grace, hateth nought but sin: for of all things,\nto my sight, love and hate are [the] hardest and most unmeasureable\ncontraries. And notwithstanding all this, I saw and understood in our\nLord's meaning that we may not in this life keep us from sin as wholly\nin full cleanness as we shall be in Heaven. But we may well by grace\nkeep us from the sins which would lead us to endless pains, as Holy\nChurch teacheth us; and eschew venial [ones] reasonably up to our\nmight. And if we by our blindness and our wretchedness any time fall,\nwe should readily rise, knowing the sweet touching of grace, and with\nall our will amend us upon the teaching of Holy Church, according as\nthe sin is grievous, and go forthwith to God in love; and neither, on\nthe one side, fall over low, inclining to despair, nor, on the other\nside, be over-reckless, as if we made no matter of it[4]; but nakedly\nacknowledge our feebleness, finding that we may not stand a twinkling\nof an eye but by Keeping of grace, and reverently cleave to God, on Him\nonly trusting.\nFor after one wise is the Beholding by[5] God, and after another wise\nis the Beholding by[6] man. For it belongeth to man meekly to accuse\nhimself, and it belongeth to the proper Goodness of our Lord God\ncourteously to excuse man. And these be two parts that were shewed in\nthe double Manner of Regard with which the Lord beheld the falling of\nHis loved Servant. The one was shewed outward, very meekly and mildly,\nwith great ruth and pity; and that of endless Love. And right thus\nwilleth our Lord that we accuse our self, earnestly and truly seeing\nand knowing our falling and all the harms that come thereof; seeing\nand learning[7] that we can never restore it; and therewith that we\nearnestly and truly see and know His everlasting love that He hath to\nus, and His plenteous mercy. And thus graciously to see and know both\ntogether is the meek accusing that our Lord asketh of us, and Himself\nworketh it where it is. And this is the lower part of man's life, and\nit was shewed in the [Lord's] _outward_ manner of Regard. In which\nshewing I saw _two_ parts: the one is the rueful falling of man, the\nother is the worshipful Satisfaction[8] that our Lord hath made for man.\nThe other manner of Regard was shewed _inward_: and that was more\nhighly and all [fully] _one_.[9] For the life and the virtue that we\nhave in the lower part is of the higher, and it cometh down to us [from\nout] of the Natural love of the [high] Self, by [the working of] grace.\nAtwix [the life of] the one and [the life of] the other there is right\nnought: for it is all one love. Which one blessed love hath now, in us,\ndouble working: for in the lower part are pains and passions, mercies\nand forgiveness, and such other that are profitable; but in the higher\npart are none of these, but all one high love and marvellous joy:\nin[10] which joy all pains are highly restored. And in this [time] our\nLord showed not only our Excusing[11] [from blame, in His beholding of\nour higher part], but the worshipful nobility that He shall bring us\nto [by the working of grace in our lower part], turning all our blame\n[that is therein, from our falling] into endless worship [when we be\noned to the high Self above].[12]\n[1] \"medlour,\" \"medle.\"\n[2] \"menyng.\"\n[3] \"And thus is this medle so mervelous in us that onethys we knowen\nof our selfe or of our evyn Cristen in what way we stonden for the\nmarveloushede of this sundry felyng. But that ilke holy assent that we\nassenten to God when we feel hym truly willand to be with him with al\nour herte, with al our soule and with al our myte, and than we haten\nand dispisen our evil sterings and al that myte be occasion of synne\ngostly and bodily.\"\n[4] \"gove no fors\" = gave it no force.\n[7] \"witand\" = witting.\n[8] \"Asseth.\"\n[9] \"and al on\"--perhaps for _all is one_.\n[10] \"in\" = _in, into,_ or _unto_.\n[11] _i.e. Exculpating_--as in Romans ii. 15.\n[12] \"Man,--seeing he is not a simple nature--in one aspect of his\nbeing, which is the better, and that I may speak more openly what I\nought to speak, his very self, is immortal; but on the other side,\nwhich is weak and fallen, and which alone is known to those who have\nno faith except in sensible things, he is obnoxious to mortality and\nmutability.\"--From the _Didascolon_ of Hugo of St Victor, as quoted in\nF. D. Maurice's _Medi\u00e6val Philosophy_, p. 147.\n\"In every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented\nto sin, nor ever shall.\" \"Ere that He made us He loved us, and when we\nAnd I saw that He willeth that we understand He taketh not harder the\nfalling of any creature that shall be saved than He took the falling of\nAdam, which, we know, was endlessly loved and securely kept in the time\nof all his need, and now is blissfully restored in high overpassing\njoy. For our Lord is so good, so gentle, and so courteous, that He may\nnever assign default [in those] in whom He shall ever be blessed and\npraised.\nAnd in this that I have now told was my desire in part answered, and my\ngreat difficulty[1] some deal eased, by the lovely, gracious Shewing of\nour good Lord. In which Shewing I saw and understood full surely that\nin every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented\nto sin, nor ever shall: which Will is so good that it may never will\nevil, but evermore continually it willeth good; and worketh good in the\nsight of God. Therefore our Lord willeth that we know this in the Faith\nand the belief; and especially that we have all this blessed Will whole\nand safe in our Lord Jesus Christ. For that same Kind[2] that Heaven\nshall be filled with behoveth needs, of God's rightfulness, so to have\nbeen knit and oned to Him, that therein was kept a Substance\nwhich might never, nor should, be parted from Him; and _that_ through\nHis own Good Will in His endless foreseeing purpose.\nBut notwithstanding this rightful knitting and this endless oneing, yet\nthe redemption and the again-buying of mankind is needful and speedful\nin everything, as it is done for the same intent and to the same end\nthat Holy Church in our Faith us teacheth.\nFor I saw that God _began_ never to love mankind: for right the same\nthat mankind shall be in endless bliss, fulfilling the joy of God as\nanent His works, right so the same, mankind hath been in the foresight\nof God: known and loved from without beginning in his[3] rightful\nintent. By the endless assent of the full accord of all the Trinity,\nthe Mid-Person willed to be Ground and Head of this fair Kind: out of\nWhom we be all come, in Whom we be all enclosed, into Whom we shall\nall wend,[4] in Him finding our full Heaven in everlasting joy, by the\nforeseeing purpose of all the blessed Trinity from without beginning.\nFor ere that He made us He loved us, and when we were made we loved\nHim. And this is a Love that is _made_, [to our Kindly Substance], [by\nvirtue] of the Kindly Substantial _Goodness_ of the Holy Ghost; Mighty,\nin Reason, [by virtue] of the _Might_ of the Father; and Wise, in Mind,\n[by virtue] of the _Wisdom_ of the Son. And thus is Man's Soul made by\nGod and in the same point knit to God.\nAnd thus I understand that man's Soul is made of nought: that is to\nsay, it is made, but of nought that is made. And thus:--When God\nshould make man's body He took the clay of earth, which is a matter\nmingled and gathered of all bodily things; and thereof He made man's\nbody. But to the making of man's Soul He would take right nought, but\nmade it. And thus is the Nature-made rightfully oned to the Maker,\nwhich is Substantial Nature not-made: that is, God. And therefore it is\nthat there may nor shall be right nought atwix God and man's Soul.\nAnd in this endless Love man's Soul is kept whole, as the matter of the\nRevelations signifieth and sheweth: in which endless Love we be led\nand kept of God and never shall be lost. For He willeth we[5] be aware\nthat our Soul is a life, which life of His Goodness and His Grace shall\nlast in Heaven without end, Him loving, Him thanking, Him praising. And\nright the same that we shall be without end, the same we were treasured\nin God and hid, known and loved from without beginning.\nWherefore He would have us understand that the noblest thing that ever\nHe made is mankind: and the fullest Substance and the highest Virtue is\nthe blessed Soul of Christ. And furthermore He would have us understand\nthat His[6] dear worthy Soul [of Manhood] was preciously knit to Him in\nthe making [by Him of Manhood's Substantial Nature] which knot is so\nsubtle and so mighty that (it)[7]--[man's soul]--is oned into God: in\nwhich oneing it is made endlessly holy. Furthermore He would have us\nknow that all the souls that shall be saved in Heaven without end, are\nknit and oned in this oneing and made holy in this holiness.\n[1] \"awer\" = awe, travail of perplexity, dilemma--see l. note 3.\n[2] Man's nature.\n[3] Or (it may be): \"In His Rightful Intent ... the Mid-Person\nwilled....\"\n[4] \"wynden.\"\n[5] \"wetyn\" = wit.\n[6] S. de Cressy has \"this \"; the word in the MS. is more like \"his.\"\n[7] The pronoun \"it\" given by S. de Cressy is omitted in the MS. The\nmeaning is, perhaps, that the Manhood-Substance, or Soul of Christ,\nwas in its making, by the Second Person in the Trinity, so united to\nHimself that Man's Substance and each man's soul (in salvation), being\none with it, are one with God the Son. See li. p. 117.\n \"Faith is nought else but a right understanding, with true belief and\nsure trust, of our Being: that we are in God, and God is in us: Whom we\nAnd because of this great, endless love that God hath to all Mankind,\nHe maketh no disparting in love between the blessed Soul of Christ and\nthe least soul that shall be saved. For it is full easy to believe and\nto trust that the dwelling of the blessed Soul of Christ is full high\nin the glorious Godhead, and verily, as I understand in our Lord's\nsignifying, where the blessed Soul of Christ is, there is the Substance\nof all the souls that shall be saved by Christ.\nHighly ought we to rejoice that God dwelleth in our soul, and much more\nhighly ought we to rejoice that our soul dwelleth in God. Our soul is\n_made_ to be God's dwelling-place; and the dwelling-place of the soul\nis God, Which is _unmade_. And high understanding it is, inwardly to\nsee and know that God, which is our Maker, dwelleth in our soul; and an\nhigher understanding it is, inwardly to see and to know that our soul,\nthat is made, dwelleth in God's Substance: of which Substance, God, we\nare that we are.\nAnd I saw no difference between God and our Substance: but as it were\nall God; and yet mine understanding took that our Substance is in God:\nthat is to say, that God is God, and our Substance is a creature in\nGod. For the Almighty Truth of the Trinity is our Father: for He made\nus and keepeth us in Him; and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our\nMother, in Whom we are all enclosed; the high Goodness of the Trinity\nis our Lord, and in Him we are enclosed, and He in us. We are enclosed\nin the Father, and we are enclosed in the Son, and we are enclosed\nin the Holy Ghost. And the Father is enclosed in us, and the Son is\nenclosed in us, and the Holy Ghost is enclosed in us: Almightiness,\nAll-Wisdom, All-Goodness: one God, one Lord.\nAnd our faith is a Virtue that cometh of our Nature-Substance into our\nSense-soul by the Holy Ghost; in which all our virtues come to us: for\nwithout that, no man may receive virtue. For it is nought else but a\nright understanding, with true belief, and sure trust, of our Being:\nthat we are in God, and God in us, Whom we see not. And this virtue,\nwith all other that God hath ordained to us coming therein, worketh\nin us great things. For Christ's merciful working is in us, and we\ngraciously accord to Him through the gifts and the virtues of the Holy\nGhost. This working maketh that we are Christ's children, and Christian\nin living.\n \"Christ is our Way\"--\"Mankind shall be restored from double death\"\nAnd thus Christ is our Way, us surely leading in His laws, and Christ\nin His body mightily beareth us up into heaven. For I saw that\nChrist, us all having in Him that shall be saved by Him, worshipfully\npresenteth His Father in heaven with us; which present full thankfully\nHis Father receiveth, and courteously giveth it to His Son, Jesus\nChrist: which gift and working is joy to the Father, and bliss to the\nSon, and pleasing to the Holy Ghost. And of all things that belong to\nus [to do], it is most pleasing to our Lord that we enjoy in this joy\nwhich is in the blessed Trinity [in virtue] of our salvation. (And this\nwas seen in the Ninth Shewing, where it speaketh more of this matter.)\nAnd notwithstanding all our feeling of woe or weal, God willeth that\nwe should understand and hold[1] by faith that we are more verily in\nheaven than in earth.\nOur Faith cometh of the natural Love of our soul, and of the clear\nlight of our Reason, and of the steadfast Mind which we have from[2]\nGod in our first making. And what time that our soul is inspired into\nour body, in which we are made sensual, so soon mercy and grace begin\nto work, having of us care and keeping with pity and love: in which\nworking the Holy Ghost formeth, in our Faith, _Hope_ that we shall come\nagain up above to our Substance, into the Virtue of Christ, increased\nand fulfilled through the Holy Ghost. Thus I understood that the\nsense-soul is grounded in Nature, in Mercy, and in Grace: which Ground\nenableth us to receive gifts that lead us to endless life.\nFor I saw full assuredly that our Substance is in God, and also I saw\nthat in our sense-soul[3] God is: for in the self-[same] point that\nour Soul is made sensual, in the self-[same] point is the City of God\nordained to Him from without beginning; into which seat He cometh,\nand never shall remove [from] it. For God is never out of the soul:\nin which He dwelleth blissfully without end. And this was seen in the\nSixteenth Shewing where it saith: _The place that Jesus taketh in our\nsoul, He shall never remove [from] it_. And all the gifts that God may\ngive to creatures, He hath given to His Son Jesus for us: which gifts\nHe, dwelling in us, hath enclosed in Him unto the time that we be waxen\nand grown,--our soul with our body and our body with our soul, either\nof them taking help of other,--till we be brought up unto stature, as\nnature worketh. And then, in the ground of nature, with working of\nmercy, the Holy Ghost graciously inspireth into us gifts leading to\nendless life.\nAnd thus was my understanding led of God to see in Him and to\nunderstand, to perceive and to know, that our soul is _made-trinity_,\nlike to the unmade blissful Trinity,[4] known and loved from without\nbeginning, and in the making oned to the Maker, as it is aforesaid.\nThis sight was full sweet and marvellous to behold, peaceable, restful,\nsure, and delectable.\nAnd because of the worshipful oneing that was thus made by God\nbetwixt the soul and body, it behoveth needs to be that mankind shall\nbe restored from double death: which restoring might never be until\nthe time that the Second Person in the Trinity had taken the lower[5]\npart of man's nature; to Whom the highest[6] [part] was oned in the\nFirst-making. And these two parts were in Christ, the higher and the\nlower: which is but one Soul; the higher part was one in peace with\nGod, in full joy and bliss; the lower part, which is sense-nature,[7]\nsuffered for the salvation of mankind.\nAnd these two parts [in Christ] were seen and felt in the Eighth\nShewing, in which my body was fulfilled with feeling and mind of\nChrist's Passion and His death, and furthermore with this was a subtile\nfeeling and privy inward sight of the High Part which I was shewed in\nthe same time when I could not, [even] for the friendly[8] proffer\n[made to me], look up into Heaven: and that was because of that mighty\nbeholding [that I had] of the Inward Life. Which Inward Life is that\nHigh Substance, that precious Soul, [of Christ], which is endlessly\nrejoicing in the Godhead.\n[1] \"feythyn.\"\n[3] \"sensualite.\"\n[4] Wisdom, Truth, Love or Goodness, p. 93.\n[5] the Sense-soul.\n[6] the Substance.\n[7] \"sensualite.\"\n[8] \"wher I myte not for the mene profir lokyn up on to hevyn.\" \"mene\"\n= medium, is perhaps a sub. in the gen. = intervenor's, intermediary's.\nSee xix. p. 42 and xxxv. p. 70, S. de Cressy has: \"Where I might not\nfor the mean profer look up\"; Collins: \"for the meanwhile.\"\n \"God is nearer to us than our own soul\" \"We can never come to full\n knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul\"\nAnd thus I saw full surely that it is readier to us to come to\nthe knowing of God than to know our own Soul. For our Soul is so\ndeep-grounded in God, and so endlessly treasured, that we may not come\nto the knowing thereof till we have first knowing of God, which is the\nMaker, to whom it is oned. But, notwithstanding, I saw that we have,\nfor fulness, to desire wisely and truly to know our own Soul: whereby\nwe are learned to seek it where it is, and that is, in God. And thus by\ngracious leading of the Holy Ghost, we should know them both in one:\nwhether we be stirred to know God or our Soul, both [these stirrings]\nare good and true.\nGod is nearer to us than our own Soul: for He is [the] Ground in whom\nour Soul standeth, and He is [the] Mean that keepeth the Substance\nand the Sense-nature together so that they shall never dispart. For\nour soul sitteth in God in very rest, and our soul standeth in God in\nvery strength, and our Soul is kindly rooted in God in endless love:\nand therefore if we will have knowledge of our Soul, and communing and\ndalliance therewith, it behoveth to seek unto our Lord God in whom it\nis enclosed. (And of this enclosement I saw and understood more in the\nSixteenth Shewing, as I shall tell.)\nAnd as anent our Substance and our Sense-part, both together may\nrightly be called our Soul:[1] and that is because of the oneing that\nthey have in God. The worshipful City that our Lord Jesus sitteth in is\nour Sense-soul, in which He is enclosed: and our Kindly Substance is\nenclosed in Jesus with the blessed Soul of Christ sitting in rest in\nthe Godhead.\nAnd I saw full surely that it behoveth needs to be that we should be\nin longing and in penance unto the time that we be led so deep into\nGod that we verily and truly know our own Soul. And truly I saw that\ninto this high deepness our good Lord Himself leadeth us in the same\nlove that He made us, and in the same love that He bought us by Mercy\nand Grace through virtue of His blessed Passion. And notwithstanding\nall this, we may never come to full knowing of God till we know first\nclearly our own Soul. For until the time that our Soul is in its full\npowers[2] we cannot be all fully holy: and that is [until the time]\nthat our Sense-soul by the virtue of Christ's Passion be brought up to\nthe Substance, with all the profits of our tribulation that our Lord\nshall make us to get by Mercy and Grace.\nI had, in part, [experience of the] Touching [of God in the soul],\nand it is grounded in Nature. That is to say, our Reason is grounded\nin God, which is Substantial Naturehood.[3] [Out] of this Substantial\nNaturehood Mercy and Grace springeth and spreadeth into us, working all\nthings in fulfilling of our joy: these are our Ground in which we have\nour Increase and our Fulfilling.\nThese be three properties in one Goodness: and where one worketh, all\nwork in the things which be _now_ belonging to us. God willeth that we\nunderstand [this], desiring with all our heart to have knowing of them\nmore and more unto the time that we be fulfilled: for fully to know\nthem is nought else but endless joy and bliss that we shall have in\nHeaven, which God willeth should be begun here in knowing of His love.\nFor only by our Reason we may not profit, but if we have evenly\ntherewith Mind and Love: nor only in our Nature-Ground that we have\nin God we may not be saved but if we have, coming of the same Ground,\nMercy and Grace. For of these three working all together we receive\nall our Goodness. Of the which the first [gifts] are goods of Nature:\nfor in our First making God gave us as full goods as we might receive\nin our spirit alone,[4]--and also greater goods; but His foreseeing\npurpose in His endless wisdom willed that we should be double.\n[1] \"& anempts our substance and sensualite it may rytely be clepid our\nsoule.\"\n[2] \"the full myts.\"\n[3] \"I had in partie touching and it is grounded in kynd: that is to\nsey, our reson is groundid in God, which is substantial kyndhede.\"\n[4] \"ffor in our first makyng God gaf us as ful goods and also greter\ngodes as we myte receivin only in our spirite.\" In the MS. the word\n\"spirit\" is used only here, where it means \"the Substance.\"\n \"In Christ our two natures are united\"\nAnd anent our Substance He made us noble, and so rich that evermore we\nwork His will and His worship. (Where I say \"we,\" it meaneth Man that\nshall be saved.) For soothly I saw that we are that which He loveth,\nand do that which Him pleaseth, lastingly without any stinting: and\n[that by virtue] of the great riches and of the high noble virtues by\nmeasure come to our soul what time it is knit to our body: in which\nknitting we are made Sensual.\nAnd thus in our Substance we are full, and in our Sense-soul we fail:\nwhich failing God will restore and fulfil by working of Mercy and Grace\nplenteously flowing into us out of His own Nature-Goodness.[1] And thus\nHis Nature-Goodness maketh that Mercy and Grace work in us, and the\nNature-goodness that we have of Him enableth us to receive the working\nof Mercy and Grace.\nI saw that our nature is in God whole: in which [whole nature of\nManhood] He maketh diversities flowing out of Him to work His will:\nwhom Nature keepeth, and Mercy and Grace restoreth and fulfilleth. And\nof these none shall perish: for our nature that is the higher part is\nknit to God, in the making; and God is knit to our nature that is the\nlower part, in our flesh-taking: and thus in Christ our two natures are\noned. For the Trinity is comprehended in Christ, in whom our higher\npart is grounded and rooted; and our lower part the Second Person hath\ntaken: which nature first to Him was made-ready.[2] For I saw full\nsurely that all the works that God hath done, or ever shall, were fully\nknown to Him and aforeseen from without beginning. And for Love He made\nMankind, and for the same Love would be Man.\nThe next[3] Good that we receive is our Faith, in which our\nprofiting beginneth. And it cometh [out] of the high riches of our\nnature-Substance into our Sensual soul, and it is grounded in us\nthrough the Nature-Goodness of God, by the working of Mercy and Grace.\nAnd thereof come all other goods by which we are led and saved. For the\nCommandments of God come therein: in which we ought to have two manners\nof understanding: [the one is that we ought to understand and know]\nwhich are His biddings, to love and to keep them; the other is that we\nought to know His forbiddings, to hate and to refuse them. For in these\ntwo is all our working comprehended. Also in our faith come the Seven\nSacraments, each following other in order as God hath ordained them to\nus: and all manner of virtues.\nFor the same virtues that we have received of our Substance, given to\nus in Nature by the Goodness of God,--the same virtues by the working\nof Mercy are given to us in Grace through the Holy Ghost, _renewed_:\nwhich virtues and gifts are treasured to us in Jesus Christ. For in\nthat same[4] time that God knitted Himself to our body in the Virgin's\nwomb, He took our Sensual soul:[5] in which taking He, us all having\nenclosed in Him, oned it to our Substance: in which oneing He was\nperfect Man. For Christ having knit in Him each[6] man that shall be\nsaved, is perfect Man. Thus our Lady is our Mother in whom we are all\nenclosed and of her born,[7] in Christ: (for she that is Mother of our\nSaviour is Mother of all that shall be saved in our Saviour;) and our\nSaviour is our Very Mother in whom we be endlessly borne,[8] and never\nshall come out of Him.\nPlenteously and fully and sweetly was this shewed, and it is spoken of\nin the First, where it saith: _We are all in Him enclosed and He is\nenclosed in us_. And that [enclosing of Him in us] is spoken of in the\nSixteenth Shewing, where it saith: _He sitteth in our soul_.\nFor it is His good-pleasure to reign in our Understanding blissfully,\nand sit in our Soul restfully, and to dwell in our Soul endlessly,\nus all working into Him: in which working He willeth that we be His\nhelpers, giving to Him all our attending, learning His lores, keeping\nHis laws, desiring that all be done that He doeth; truly trusting in\nHim.\nFor soothly I saw that our Substance is in God.[9]\n[1] \"kynde godhede.\"\n[2] \"adyte.\"\n[3] or the _first_.\n[5] Here, as above, the MS. term for the \"_Sensual soul_\" is the\n\"_Sensualite_.\"\n[7] The MS. word is in both cases \"borne,\" which may mean either _born_\nor _borne_. S. de Cressy gives \"born\" both for the first word and the\nsecond. See lx. \"He sustaineth us within Himself in love,\" etc.; and\nlxiii. \"In the taking of our nature He quickened us,\" etc.\n[8] See preceding note.\n[9] From _The Scale [or Ladder] of Perfection,_ by Walter Hilton\n(Fourteenth century), edition of 1659, Part III. ch. ii.:--\n\"The soule of a man is a life consisting of three powers, _Memory,\nUnderstanding,_ and _Will,_ after the image and likeness of the blessed\nTrinity.... Whereby you may see, that man's soule (which may be called\na created Trinity) was in its natural state replenished in its three\npowers, with the remembrance, sight, and love of the most blessed\nuncreated Trinity, which is God.... But when Adam sinned, choosing\nlove and delight in himselfe, and in the creatures, he lost all his\nexcellency and dignity, and thou also in him.\"\nCh. III. Sec. i. \"And though we should prove not to be able to recover\nit fully here in this life, yet should we desire and endeavour to\nrecover the image and likeness of the dignity we had, so that our soul\nmight be reformed as it were in a shadow by grace to the image of the\nTrinity which we had by nature, and hereafter shall have fully in\nbliss....\" Sec. ii. \"Seeke then that which thou hast lost, that thou\nmayest finde it; for well I wote, whosoever once hath an inward sight,\nbut a little of that dignity and that spirituall fairness which a soule\nhath by creation, and shall have again by grace, he will loath in his\nheart all the blisse, the liking, and the fairnesse of this world....\nNevertheless as thou hast not as yet seen what it is fully, for thy\nspiritual eye is not yet opened, I shall tell thee one word for all, in\nthe which thou shalt seeke, desire, and finde it; for in that one word\nis all that thou hast lost. This word is Jesus.... If thou feelest in\nthy heart a great desire to Jesus ... then seekest thou well thy Lord\nJesus. And when thou feelest this desire to God, or to Jesus (for it\nis all one) holpen and comforted by a ghostly might, insomuch that it\nis turned into love, affection, and spiritual fervour and sweetnesse,\ninto light and knowing of truth, so that for the time the point of thy\nthought is set upon no other created thing, nor feeleth any stirring\nof vain-glory, nor of selfe-love, nor any other evill affection (for\nthey cannot appear at that time) but this thy desire is onely enclosed,\nrested, softened, suppled, and annoynted in Jesus, then hast thou found\nsomewhat of Jesus; I mean not him as he is, but a shadow of him; for\nthe better that thou findest him, the more shalt thou desire him. Then\nobserve by what manner of Prayer or Meditation or exercise of Devotion\nthou findest greatest and purest desire stirred up in thee to him, and\nmost feeling of him, by that kind of prayer, exercise, or worke seekest\nthou him best, and shalt best finde him....\n\"See then the mercy and courtesie of Jesus. Thou hast lost him, but\nwhere? soothly in thy house, that is to say, in thy soul, that if\nthou hadst lost all thy reason of thy soule, by its first sinne, thou\nshouldst never have found him again; but he left thee thy reason, and\nso he is still in thy soule, and never is quite lost out of it.\n\"Nevertheless, thou art never the nearer him, till thou hast found\nhim. He is in thee, though he be lost from thee; but thou art not in\nhim, till thou hast found him. This is his mercy also, that he would\nsuffer himself to be lost onely where he may be found, so that thou\nneedest not run to _Rome_, nor to _Jerusalem_ to seeke him there, but\nturne thy thoughts into thy owne soule, where he is hid, as the Prophet\nsaith; _Truly thou art the hidden God_, hid in thy soule, and seek him\nthere. Thus saith he himselfe in the Gospel; _The kingdome of heaven is\nlikened to a treasure hid in the field, the which when a man findeth,\nfor joy thereof, he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that\nfield_. Jesus is a treasure hid in the soule....\n\"As long as Jesus findeth not his image reformed in thee, he is\nstrange, and the farther from thee: therefore frame and shape thyself\nto be arrayed in his likenesse, that is in humility and charity, which\nare his liveries, and then will he know thee, and familiarly come\nto thee, and acquaint thee with his secrets. Thus saith he to his\nDisciples; _Who so loveth me, he shall be loved of my Father, and I\nwill manifest my selfe unto him_. There is not any vertue nor any good\nwork that can make thee like to our Lord, without Humility and Charity,\nfor these two above all other are most acceptable ('most leyf') to\nhim, which appeareth plainly in the Gospel, where our Lord speaketh of\nhumility thus; _Learn of me, for I am meeke and humble in heart_. He\nsaith not, learn of me to go barefoot, or to go into the desart, and\nthere to fast forty dayes, nor yet to choose to your selves Disciples\n(as I did) but learne of me meeknesse, for I am meek and lowly in\nheart. Also of charity he saith thus; _This is my Commandment, that ye\nlove one another as I loved you, for by that shall men know you for\nmy Disciples_. Not that you worke miracles, or cast out Devills, or\npreach, or teach, but that each one of you love one another in charity.\nIf therefore thou wilt be like him, have humility and charity. Now thou\nknowest what charity is, _viz._ To love thy neighbour as thy selfe.\"\nChap. IV. Sec. 1.... \"Now I shall tell thee (according to my feeble\nability) how thou mayest enter into thy selfe to see the ground of sin,\nand destroy it as much as thou canst, and so recover a part of thy\nsouls dignity.... Draw in thy thoughts ... and set thy intent and full\npurpose, as if thou wouldst not seek nor find any thing but onely the\ngrace and spiritual presence of Jesus.\"\n\"This will be painful; for vaine thoughts will presse into thy heart\nvery thick, to draw thy minde down to them. And in doing thus, thou\nshalt find somewhat, but not Jesus whom thou seekest, but onely a naked\nremembrance of his name. But what then shalt thou finde? Surely this;\nA darke and ill-favoured image of thy owne soule, which hath neither\nlight of knowledge nor feeling of love of God.... This is not the image\nof Jesus, but the image of sin, which St Paul calleth a _body of sinne\nand of death_.... Peradventure now thou beginnest to thinke with thy\nselfe what this image is like, and that thou shouldst not study much\nupon it, I will tell thee. It is like no bodily thing; What is it then\nsaist thou? Verily it is _nought_, or no reall thing, as thou shalt\nfinde, if thou try by doing as I have spoken; that is, draw in thy\nthoughts into thy selfe from all bodily things, and then shalt thou\nfind right _nought_ wherein thy soule may rest.\n\"This _nothing_ is nought else but darknesse of conscience, and a\nlacking of the love of God and of light; as sin is nought but a want\nof good, if it were so that the ground of sin was much abated and\ndryed up in thee, and thy soule was reformed right as the image of\nJesus; then if thou didst draw into thy selfe thy heart, thou shouldst\nnot find this _Nought_, but thou shouldst find Jesus; not only the\nnaked remembrance of this name, but Jesus Christ in thy soule readily\nteaching thee, thou shouldst there find light of understanding, and\nno darknesse of ignorance, a love and liking of him; and no pain of\nbitternesse, heavinesse, or tediousenesse of him....\n\"And here also thou must beware that thou take Jesus Christ into thy\nthoughts against this darknesse in thy mind, by busie prayer and\nfervent desire to God, not setting the point of thy thoughts on that\nforesaid _Nought_, but on Jesus Christ whom thou desirest. Think\nstifly on his passion, and on his Humility, and through his might thou\nshalt arise. Do as if thou wouldst beate downe this darke image, and\ngo through-stitch with it. Thou shalt hate ('agryse') and loath this\ndarknesse and this _Nought_, just as the Devill, and thou shalt despise\nand all to break it ('brest it').\n\"For within this Nought is Jesus hid in his joy, whom thou shalt not\nfinde with all thy seeking, unlesse thou passe this darknesse of\nconscience.\n\"This is the ghostly travel I spake of, and the cause of all this\nwriting is to stir thee thereto, if thou have grace. This darknesse\nof conscience, and this _Nought_ is the image of the first _Adam_: St\nPaul knew it well, for he said thus of it; As we have before borne the\n_image of the earthly man_, that is the first _Adam, right so that we\nmight now beare the image of the heavenly man_, which is Jesus, the\nsecond _Adam_. St _Paul_ bare this image oft full heavily, for it was\nso cumbersome to him, that he cryed out of it, saying thus; _O who\nshall deliver me from this body and this image of death_. And then he\ncomforted himselfe and others also thus: _The grace_ of God through\nJesus Christ.\"\n \"All our life is in three: 'Nature, Mercy, Grace.' The high Might of\n the Trinity is our Father, and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our\n Mother, and the great Love of the Trinity is our Lord\"\nGod, the blessed Trinity, which is everlasting Being, right as He is\nendless from without beginning, right so it was in His purpose endless,\nto make Mankind. Which fair Kind first was prepared[1] to His own\nSon, the Second Person. And when He would, by full accord of all the\nTrinity, He made us all at once; and in our making He knit us and oned\nus to Himself: by which oneing we are kept as clear and as noble as\nwe were made. By the virtue of the same precious oneing, we love our\nMaker and seek Him, praise Him and thank Him, and endlessly enjoy Him.\nAnd this is the work which is wrought continually in every soul that\nshall be saved: which is the Godly Will aforesaid. And thus in our\nmaking, God, Almighty, is our Nature's Father; and God, All-Wisdom, is\nour Nature's Mother; with the Love and the Goodness of the Holy Ghost:\nwhich is all one God, one Lord. And in the knitting and the oneing He\nis our Very, True Spouse, and we His loved Wife, His Fair Maiden: with\nwhich Wife He is never displeased. For He saith: I love thee and thou\nlovest me, and our love shall never be disparted in two.\nI beheld the working of all the blessed Trinity: in which beholding\nI saw and understood these three properties: the property of the\nFatherhood, the property of the Motherhood, and the property of the\nLordhood, in one God. In our Father Almighty we have our keeping and\nour bliss as anent our natural Substance, which is to us by our making,\nwithout beginning. And in the Second Person in skill[2] and wisdom\nwe have our keeping as anent our Sense-soul: our restoring and our\nsaving; for He is our Mother, Brother, and Saviour. And in our good\nLord, the Holy Ghost, we have our rewarding and our meed-giving for our\nliving and our travail, and endless overpassing of all that we desire,\nin His marvellous courtesy, of His high plenteous grace.\nFor all our life is in _three_: in the first we have our Being, in the\nsecond we have our Increasing, and in the third we have our Fulfilling:\nthe first is Nature, the second is Mercy, and the third is Grace.\nFor the first, I understood that the high Might of the Trinity is our\nFather, and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, and the great\nLove of the Trinity is our Lord: and all this have we in Nature and in\nthe making of our Substance.[3]\nAnd furthermore I saw that the Second Person, which is our Mother as\nanent the Substance, that same dearworthy Person is become our Mother\nas anent the Sense-soul. For we are double by God's making: that is\nto say, Substantial and Sensual. Our Substance is the higher part,\nwhich we have in our Father, God Almighty; and the Second Person of\nthe Trinity is our Mother in Nature, in making of our Substance: in\nwhom we are grounded and rooted. And He is our Mother in Mercy, in\ntaking of our Sense-part. And thus our Mother is to us in diverse\nmanners working: in whom our parts are kept undisparted. For in our\nMother Christ we profit and increase, and in Mercy He reformeth us\nand restoreth, and, by the virtue of His Passion and His Death and\nUprising, oneth us to our Substance. Thus worketh our Mother in Mercy\nto all His children which are to Him yielding[4] and obedient.\nAnd Grace worketh with Mercy, and specially in two properties, as it\nwas shewed: which working belongeth to the Third Person, the Holy\nGhost. He worketh _rewarding_ and _giving_. Rewarding is a large\ngiving-of-truth that the Lord doeth to him that hath travailed;\nand giving is a courteous working which He doeth freely of Grace,\nfulfilling and overpassing all that is deserved of creatures.\nThus in our Father, God Almighty, we have our being; and in our Mother\nof Mercy we have our reforming and restoring: in whom our Parts are\noned and all made perfect Man; and by [reward]-yielding and giving in\nGrace of the Holy Ghost, we are fulfilled.\nAnd our Substance is [in] our Father, God Almighty, and our Substance\nis [in][5] our Mother, God, All-wisdom; and our Substance is in our\nLord the Holy Ghost, God All-goodness. For our Substance is whole in\neach Person of the Trinity, which is one God. And our Sense-soul is\nonly in the Second Person Christ Jesus; in whom is the Father and the\nHoly Ghost: and in Him and by Him we are mightily taken out of Hell,\nand out of the wretchedness in Earth worshipfully brought up into\nHeaven and blissfully oned to our Substance: increased in riches and in\nnobleness by all the virtues of Christ, and by the grace and working of\nthe Holy Ghost.\n[1] MS. \"adyte to\" = ordained to, made ready for.\n[2] MS. \"Witt.\"\n[3] \"in our substantiall makyng.\"\n[4] \"buxum.\"\n[5] S. de Cressy gives the \"in\" twice missed in the Brit. Mus. MS.\n\"Jesus Christ that doeth Good against evil is our Very Mother: we have\n our Being of Him where the Ground of Motherhood beginneth,--with all\n the sweet Keeping by Love, that endlessly followeth.\"\nAnd all this bliss we have by Mercy and Grace: which manner of bliss we\nmight never have had nor known but if that property of Goodness which\nis God had been contraried: whereby we have this bliss. For wickedness\nhath been suffered to rise contrary to the Goodness, and the Goodness\nof Mercy and Grace contraried against the wickedness and turned all to\ngoodness and to worship, to all these that shall be saved. For it is\nthe property in God which doeth good against evil. Thus Jesus Christ\nthat doeth good against evil is our Very Mother: we have our Being of\nHim,--where the Ground of Motherhood beginneth,--with all the sweet\nKeeping of Love that endlessly followeth. As verily as God is our\nFather, so verily God is our Mother; and that shewed He in all, and\nespecially in these sweet words where He saith: _I it am_.[1] That is\nto say, _I it am, the Might and the Goodness of the Fatherhood; I it\nam, the Wisdom of the Motherhood; I it am, the Light and the Grace that\nis all blessed Love: I it am, the Trinity, I it am, the Unity: I am the\nsovereign Goodness of all manner of things. I am that maketh thee to\nlove: I am that maketh thee to long: I it am, the endless fulfilling of\nall true desires._\nFor there the soul is highest, noblest, and worthiest, where it is\nlowest, meekest, and mildest: and [out] of this _Substantial Ground_ we\nhave all our virtues in our Sense-part by gift of Nature, by helping\nand speeding of Mercy and Grace: without the which we may not profit.\nOur high Father, God Almighty, which is Being, He knew and loved us\nfrom afore any time: of which knowing, in His marvellous deep charity\nand the foreseeing counsel of all the blessed Trinity, He willed that\nthe Second Person should become our Mother. Our Father [willeth], our\nMother worketh, our good Lord the Holy Ghost confirmeth: and therefore\nit belongeth to us to love our God in whom we have our being: Him\nreverently thanking and praising for[2] our making, mightily praying to\nour Mother for[3] mercy and pity, and to our Lord the Holy Ghost for[4]\nhelp and grace.\nFor in these three is all our life: Nature, Mercy, Grace: whereof we\nhave meekness and mildness; patience and pity; and hating of sin and\nof wickedness,--for it belongeth properly to virtue to hate sin and\nwickedness. And thus is Jesus our Very Mother in Nature [by virtue] of\nour first making; and He is our Very Mother in Grace, by taking our\nnature made. All the fair working, and all the sweet natural office of\ndearworthy Motherhood is impropriated[5] to the Second Person: for in\nHim we have this Godly Will whole and safe without end, both in Nature\nand in Grace, of His own proper Goodness. I understood three manners of\nbeholding of Motherhood in God: the first is grounded in our Nature's\n_making_; the second is _taking_ of our nature,--and there beginneth\nthe Motherhood of Grace; the third is Motherhood of _working_,--and\ntherein is a forthspreading by the same Grace, of length and breadth\nand height and of deepness without end. And all is one Love.\n[1] it is I.\n[5] Or \"appropriated to\"; MS. \"impropried\" = made to be the property\nof; assigned and consigned to.\nBut now behoveth to say a little more of this forthspreading, as I\nunderstand in the meaning of our Lord: how that we be brought again by\nthe Motherhood of Mercy and Grace into our Nature's place, where that\nwe were made by the Motherhood of Nature-Love: which kindly-love, it\nnever leaveth us.\nOur Kind Mother, our Gracious Mother,[1] for that He would all wholly\nbecome our Mother in all things, He took the Ground of His Works full\nlow and full mildly in the Maiden's womb. (And that He shewed in the\nFirst [Shewing] where He brought that meek Maid afore the eye of mine\nunderstanding in the simple stature as she was when she conceived.)\nThat is to say: our high God is sovereign Wisdom of all: in this low\nplace He arrayed and dight Him full ready in our poor flesh, Himself to\ndo the service and the office of Motherhood in all things.\nThe Mother's service is nearest, readiest, and surest: [nearest, for\nit is most of nature; readiest, for it is most of love; and surest][2]\nfor it is most of truth. This office none might, nor could, nor ever\nshould do to the full, but He alone. We know that all our mothers'\nbearing is [bearing of] us to pain and to dying: and what is this but\nthat our Very Mother, Jesus, He--All-Love--beareth us to joy and to\nendless living?--blessed may He be! Thus He sustaineth[3] us within\nHimself in love; and travailed, unto the full time that He would suffer\nthe sharpest throes and the most grievous pains that ever were or ever\nshall be; and died at the last. And when He had finished, and so borne\nus to bliss, yet might not all this make full content to His marvellous\nlove; and that sheweth He in these high overpassing words of love: _If\nI might suffer more, I would suffer more_.\nHe might no more die, but He would not stint of working: wherefore then\nit behoveth Him to feed us; for the dearworthy love of Motherhood hath\nmade Him debtor to us. The mother may give her child suck of her milk,\nbut our precious Mother, Jesus, He may feed us with Himself, and doeth\nit, full courteously and full tenderly, with the Blessed Sacrament\nthat is precious food of my life; and with all the sweet Sacraments He\nsustaineth us full mercifully and graciously. And so meant He in this\nblessed word where that He said: _It is I[4] that Holy Church preacheth\nthee and teacheth thee._ That is to say: _All the health and life of\nSacraments, all the virtue and grace of my Word, all the Goodness that\nis ordained in Holy Church for thee, it is I_. The Mother may lay the\nchild tenderly to her breast, but our tender Mother, Jesus, He may\nhomely lead us into His blessed breast, by His sweet open side, and\nshew therein part of the Godhead and the joys of Heaven, with spiritual\nsureness of endless bliss. And that shewed He in the Tenth [Shewing],\ngiving the same understanding in this sweet word where He saith: _Lo!\nhow I loved thee_; looking unto [the Wound in] His side, rejoicing.\nThis fair lovely word _Mother_, it is so sweet and so close in Nature\nof itself[5] that it may not verily be said of none but of _Him_;\nand to her that is very Mother of Him and of all. To the property of\nMotherhood belongeth natural love, wisdom, and knowing; and it is\ngood: for though it be so that our bodily forthbringing be but little,\nlow, and simple in regard of our spiritual forthbringing, yet it is He\nthat doeth it in the creatures by whom that it is done. The Kindly,[6]\nloving Mother that witteth and knoweth the need of her child, she\nkeepeth it full tenderly, as the nature[7] and condition of Motherhood\nwill. And as it waxeth in age, she changeth her working, but not her\nlove. And when it is waxen of more age, she suffereth that it be\nbeaten[8] in breaking down of vices, to make the child receive virtues\nand graces. This working, with all that be fair and good, our Lord\ndoeth it in them by whom it is done: thus He is our Mother in Nature by\nthe working of Grace in the lower part for love of the higher part. And\nHe willeth that we know this: for He will have all our love fastened\nto Him. And in this I saw that all our duty that we owe, by God's\nbidding, to Fatherhood and Motherhood, for [reason of] God's Fatherhood\nand Motherhood is fulfilled in true loving of God; which blessed love\nChrist worketh in us. And this was shewed in all [the Revelations] and\nespecially in the high plenteous words where He saith: _It is I that\nthou lovest_.\n[1] Our Mother by Nature, our Mother In Grace.\n[2] These clauses, probably omitted by mistake, are in S. de Cressy's\nversion.\n[3] S. de Cressy has \"sustained.\" See lvii. p. 139.\n[5] \"so kynd of the self.\"\n[6] \"kynde.\"\n[8] \"bristinid.\"\n\"By the assay of this falling we shall have an high marvellous knowing\n of Love in God, without end. For strong and marvellous is that love\n which may not, nor will not, be broken for trespass\"\nAnd in our spiritual forthbringing He useth more tenderness of keeping,\nwithout any likeness: by as much as our soul is of more price in His\nsight. He kindleth our understanding, He directeth our ways, He easeth\nour conscience, He comforteth our soul, He lighteneth our heart, and\ngiveth us, in part, knowing and believing in His blissful Godhead,\nwith gracious mind in His sweet Manhood and His blessed Passion, with\nreverent marvelling in His high, overpassing Goodness; and maketh us\nto love all that He loveth, for His love, and to be well-pleased with\nHim and all His works. And when we fall, hastily He raiseth us by\nHis lovely calling[1][2] and gracious touching. And when we be thus\nstrengthened by His sweet working, then we with all our will choose\nHim, by His sweet grace, to be His servants and His lovers lastingly\nwithout end.\nAnd after this He suffereth some of us to fall more hard and more\ngrievously than ever we did afore, as us thinketh. And then ween we\n(who be not all wise) that all were nought that we have begun. But this\nis not so. For it needeth us to fall, and it needeth us to see it.\nFor if we never fell, we should not know how feeble and how wretched\nwe are of our self, and also we should not fully know that marvellous\nlove of our Maker. For we shall see verily in heaven, without end, that\nwe have grievously sinned in this life, and notwithstanding this, we\nshall see that we were never hurt in His love, we were never the less\nof price in His sight. And by the assay of this falling we shall have\nan high, marvellous knowing of love in God, without end. For strong\nand marvellous is that love which may not, nor will not, be broken for\ntrespass. And this is one understanding of [our] profit. Another is the\nlowness and meekness that we shall get by the sight of our falling:\nfor thereby we shall highly be raised in heaven; to which raising\nwe might[3] never have come without that meekness. And therefore it\nneedeth us to see it; and if we see it not, though we fell it should\nnot profit us. And commonly, first we fall and later we see it: and\nboth of the Mercy of God.\nThe mother may suffer the child to fall sometimes, and to be hurt in\ndiverse manners for its own profit, but she may never suffer that any\nmanner of peril come to the child, for love. And though our earthly\nmother may suffer her child to perish, our heavenly Mother, Jesus, may\nnot suffer us that are His children to perish: for He is All-mighty,\nAll-wisdom, and All-love; and so is none but He,--blessed may He be!\nBut oftentimes when our falling and our wretchedness is shewed us, we\nare so sore adread, and so greatly ashamed of our self, that scarcely\nwe find where we may hold us. But then willeth not our courteous Mother\nthat we flee away, for Him were nothing lother. But He willeth then\nthat we use the condition of a child: for when it is hurt, or adread,\nit runneth hastily to the mother for help, with all its might. So\nwilleth He that we do, as a meek child saying thus: _My kind Mother, my\nGracious Mother, my dearworthy Mother, have mercy on me: I have made\nmyself foul and unlike to Thee, and I nor may nor can amend it but with\nthine help and grace_. And if we feel us not then eased forthwith, be\nwe sure that He useth the condition of a wise mother. For if He see\nthat it be more profit to us to mourn and to weep, He suffereth it,\nwith ruth and pity, unto the best time, for love. And He willeth then\nthat we use the property of a child, that evermore of nature trusteth\nto the love of the mother in weal and in woe.\nAnd He willeth that we take us mightily to the Faith of Holy Church and\nfind there our dearworthy Mother, in solace of true Understanding, with\nall the blessed Common. For one single person may oftentimes be broken,\nas it seemeth to himself, but the whole Body of Holy Church was never\nbroken, nor never shall be, without end. And therefore a sure thing it\nis, a good and a gracious, to will meekly and mightily to be fastened\nand oned to our Mother, Holy Church, that is, Christ Jesus. For the\nfood of mercy that is His dearworthy blood and precious water is\nplenteous to make us fair and clean; the blessed wounds of our Saviour\nbe open and enjoy to heal us; the sweet, gracious hands of our Mother\nbe ready and diligently about us. For He in all this working useth the\noffice of a kind nurse that hath nought else to do but to give heed\nabout[4] the salvation of her child.\nIt is His office to save us: it is His worship to do [for] us,[5] and\nit is His will [that] we know it: for He willeth that we love Him\nsweetly and trust in Him meekly and mightily. And this shewed He in\nthese gracious words: _I keep thee full surely_.\n[1] \"clepyng.\"\n[2] From the _Ancren Riwle_ (Camden Society's version, edited by J.\nMorton, D.D.), p. 231: \"The sixth comfort is, that our Lord, when He\nsuffereth us to be tempted, playeth with us, as the mother with her\nyoung darling: she flies from him, and hides herself, and lets him\nsit alone, and look anxiously around, and call _Dame! Dame!_ and weep\nawhile; and then she leapeth forth laughing, with outspread arms,\nand embraceth and kisseth him, and wipeth his eyes. In like manner,\nour Lord sometimes leaveth us alone, and withdraweth His grace, His\ncomfort, and His support, so that we feel no delight in any good that\nwe do, nor any satisfaction of heart; and yet, at that very time, our\ndear Father loveth us never the less, but doth it for the great love\nthat He hath to us.\"\np. 135: \"The fourth reason why our Lord hideth Himself is, that thou\nmayest seek him more earnestly, and call, and weep after Him, as the\nlittle baby doth after his mother\" (\"ase deth thet lutel baban\"--in\nanother manuscript 'lite barn'--\"efter his moder\").\n[3] _i.e._ could.\n[4] \"entend about.\"\n[5] S. de Cressy has here \"to do it.\" This MS. seems to have: \"to don\nus,\" possibly for to work at us, carry out our salvation to perfection,\nor, to take in hand for us, \"to _do_ for us.\" See _The Paston Letters_,\nvol. ii. (Letter 472), _May_ 1463, \"he prayid hym that he wold don for\nhym in hys mater, and gaf hym a reward; and withinne ryth short tym\nafter, his mater sped.\"\n\"God is Very Father and Very Mother of Nature: and all natures that He\n hath made to flow out of Him to work His will shall be restored and\nbrought again into Him by the salvation of Mankind through the working\nFor in that time He shewed our frailty and our fallings, our\nafflictings and our settings at nought,[1] our despites and our\noutcastings, and all our woe so far forth as methought it might befall\nin this life. And therewith He shewed His blessed Might, His blessed\nWisdom, His blessed Love: that He keepeth us in this time as tenderly\nand as sweetly to His worship, and as surely to our salvation, as He\ndoeth when we are in most solace and comfort. And thereto He raiseth us\nspiritually and highly in heaven, and turneth it all to His worship and\nto our joy, without end. For His love suffereth us never to lose time.\nAnd all this is of the Nature-Goodness of God, by the working of Grace.\nGod is Nature[2] in His being: that is to say, that Goodness that is\nNature, it is God. He is the ground, He is the substance, He is the\nsame thing that is Nature-hood.[3] And He is very Father and very\nMother of Nature: and all natures that He hath made to flow out of Him\nto work His will shall be restored and brought again into Him by the\nsalvation of man through the working of Grace.\nFor of all natures[4] that He hath set in diverse creatures by part,\nin man is all the whole; in fulness and in virtue, in fairness and\nin goodness, in royalty and nobleness, in all manner of majesty, of\npreciousness and worship. Here may we see that we are all beholden to\nGod for nature, and we are all beholden to God for grace. Here may we\nsee us needeth not greatly to seek far out to know sundry natures, but\nto Holy Church, unto our Mother's breast: that is to say, unto our own\nsoul where our Lord dwelleth; and there shall we find all now in faith\nand in understanding. And afterward verily in Himself clearly, in bliss.\nBut let no man nor woman take this singularly to himself: for it is\nnot so, it is general: for it is [of] our precious Christ, and to Him\nwas this fair nature adight[5] for the worship and nobility of man's\nmaking, and for the joy and the bliss of man's salvation; even as He\nsaw, wist, and knew from without beginning.\n[1] \"our brekyngs and our nowtyngs.\"\n[2] \"kynde.\"\n[3] \"kindhede.\"\n[4] \"kyndes.\"\n[5] _i.e._ made ready, prepared, appointed.\n \"As verily as sin is unclean, so verily is it unkind\"--a disease or\n monstrous thing against nature. \"He shall heal us full fair.\"\nHere may we see that we have verily of Nature to hate sin, and we have\nverily of Grace to hate sin. For Nature is all good and fair in itself,\nand Grace was sent out to save Nature and destroy sin, and bring again\nfair nature to the blessed point from whence it came: that is God; with\nmore nobleness and worship by the virtuous working of Grace. For it\nshall be seen afore God by all His Holy in joy without end that Nature\nhath been assayed in the fire of tribulation and therein hath been\nfound no flaw, no fault.[1] Thus are Nature and Grace of one accord:\nfor Grace is God, as Nature is God: He is two in manner of working and\none in love; and neither of these worketh without other: they be not\ndisparted.\nAnd when we by Mercy of God and with His help accord us to Nature and\nGrace, we shall see verily that sin is in sooth viler and more painful\nthan hell, without likeness: for it is contrary to our fair nature. For\nas verily as sin is unclean, so verily is it unnatural,[2] and thus an\nhorrible thing to see for the loved[3] soul that would be all fair and\nshining in the sight of God, as Nature and Grace teacheth.\nYet be we not adread of this, save inasmuch as dread may speed us:\nbut meekly make we our moan to our dearworthy Mother, and He shall\nbesprinkle us in His precious blood and make our soul full soft and\nfull mild, and heal us full fair by process of time, right as it is\nmost worship to Him and joy to us without end. And of this sweet fair\nworking He shall never cease nor stint till all His dearworthy children\nbe born and forthbrought. (And that shewed He where He shewed [me]\nunderstanding of the ghostly Thirst, that is the love-longing that\nshall last till Doomsday.)\nThus in [our] Very Mother, Jesus, our life is grounded, in the\nforeseeing Wisdom of Himself from without beginning, with the high\nMight of the Father, the high sovereign Goodness of the Holy Ghost. And\nin the taking of our nature He quickened us; in His blessed dying upon\nthe Cross He bare us to endless life; and from that time, and now, and\nevermore unto Doomsday, He feedeth us and furthereth us: even as that\nhigh sovereign Kindness of Motherhood, and as Kindly need of Childhood\nasketh.\nFair and sweet is our Heavenly Mother in the sight of our souls;\nprecious and lovely are the Gracious Children in the sight of our\nHeavenly Mother, with mildness and meekness, and all the fair virtues\nthat belong to children in Nature. For of nature the Child despaireth\nnot of the Mother's love, of nature the Child presumeth not of itself,\nof nature the Child loveth the Mother and each one of the other\n[children]. These are the fair virtues, with all other that be like,\nwherewith our Heavenly Mother is served and pleased.\nAnd I understood none higher stature in this life than Childhood,\nin feebleness and failing of might and of wit, unto the time that\nour Gracious Mother hath brought us up to our Father's Bliss.[4] And\nthen shall it verily be known to us His meaning in those sweet words\nwhere He saith: _All shall be well: and thou shalt see, thyself, that\nall manner of things shall be well_. And then shall the Bliss of our\nMother, in Christ, be new to begin in the Joys of our God: which new\nbeginning shall last without end, new beginning.\nThus I understood that all His blessed children which be come out of\nHim by Nature shall be brought again into Him by Grace.\n[1] \"no lak (blame), no defaute.\"\n[2] \"as sothly as sin is onclene as sothly is it onkinde.\"\n[3] S. de Cressy has \"the loving soul.\"\n[4] \"Our fader bliss.\"\n _THE FIFTEENTH REVELATION_\n \"_Thou shalt come up above._\" \"A very fair creature, a little\n Child--nimble and lively, whiter than lily\"\nAfore this time I had great longing and desire of God's gift to be\ndelivered of this world and of this life. For oftentimes I beheld the\nwoe that is here, and the weal and the bliss that is being there: (and\nif there had been no pain in this life but the absence of our Lord,\nmethought it was some-time more than I might bear;) and this made me\nto mourn, and eagerly to long. And also from mine own wretchedness,\nsloth, and weakness, me liked not to live and to travail, as me fell to\ndo.\nAnd to all this our courteous Lord answered for comfort and patience,\nand said these words: _Suddenly thou shalt be taken from all thy pain,\nfrom all thy sickness, from all thy distress[1] and from all thy woe.\nAnd thou shalt come up above and thou shalt have me to thy meed, and\nthou shalt be fulfilled of love and of bliss. And thou shalt never have\nno manner of pain, no manner of misliking, no wanting of will; but ever\njoy and bliss without end. What should it then aggrieve thee to suffer\nawhile, seeing that it is my will and my worship?_\nAnd in this word: _Suddenly thou shalt be taken_,--I saw that God\nrewardeth man for the patience that he hath in abiding God's will, and\nfor his time, and [for] that man lengtheneth his patience over the\ntime of his living. For not-knowing of his time of passing, that is a\ngreat profit: for if a man knew his time, he should not have patience\nover that time; but, as God willeth, while the soul is in the body it\nseemeth to itself that it is ever at the point to be taken. For all\nthis life and this languor that we have here is but a point, and when\nwe are taken suddenly out of pain into bliss then pain shall be nought.\nAnd in this time I saw a body lying on the earth, which body shewed\nheavy and horrible,[2] without shape and form, as it were a swollen\nquag of stinking mire.[3] And suddenly out of this body sprang a full\nfair creature, a little Child, fully shapen and formed, nimble[4] and\nlively, whiter than lily; which swiftly[5] glided up into heaven.\nAnd the swollenness of the body betokeneth great wretchedness of our\ndeadly flesh, and the littleness of the Child betokeneth the cleanness\nof purity in the soul. And methought: _With this body abideth[6] no\nfairness of this Child, and on this Child dwelleth no foulness of this\nbody_.\nIt is more blissful that man be taken from pain, than that pain be\ntaken from man;[7] for if pain be taken from us it may come again:\ntherefore it is a sovereign comfort and blissful beholding in a loving\nsoul that we shall be taken from pain. For in this behest[8] I saw\na marvellous compassion that our Lord hath in us for our woe, and a\ncourteous promising[9] of clear deliverance. For He willeth that we be\ncomforted in the overpassing;[10] and _that_ He shewed in these words:\n_And thou shalt come up above, and thou shalt have me to thy meed, and\nthou shalt be fulfilled of joy and bliss_.\nIt is God's will that we set the point of our thought in this blissful\nbeholding as often as we may,--and as long time keep us therein with\nHis grace; for this is a blessed contemplation to the soul that is led\nof God, and full greatly to His worship, for the time that it lasteth.\nAnd [when] we fall again to our heaviness, and spiritual blindness,\nand feeling of pains spiritual and bodily, by our frailty, it is God's\nwill that we know that He hath not forgotten us. And so signifieth He\nin these words: _And thou shalt never more have pain; no manner of\nsickness, no manner of misliking, no wanting of will; but ever joy and\nbliss without end. What should it then aggrieve thee to suffer awhile,\nseeing it is my will and my worship?_\nIt is God's will that we take His behests[11] and His comfortings as\nlargely and as mightily as we may take them, and also He willeth that\nwe take our abiding and our troubles[12] as lightly as we may take\nthem, and set them at nought. For the more lightly we take them, and\nthe less price we set on them, for love, the less pain we shall have\nin the feeling of them, and the more thanks and meed we shall have for\nthem.\n[1] \"disese.\"\n[2] \"uggley.\"\n[3] a \"bolned quave of styngand myre.\"\n[4] \"swifie\" = agile, quick.\n[5] \"sharply.\"\n[6] \"beleveth.\"\n[7] \"full blissful ... mor than.\"\n[8] _i.e._ promise, proclamation.\n[9] \"behoting.\"\n[10] _i.e._ the exceeding fulness of heavenly bliss.\n[11] See note 8 above.\n[12] \"diseases\" = discomforts, distresses.\n \"The Charity of God maketh in us such a unity that, when it is truly\n seen, no man can part himself from other\"\nAnd thus I understood that what man or woman with firm will[1] chooseth\nGod in this life, for love, he may be sure that he is loved without\nend: which endless love worketh in him that grace. For He willeth that\nwe be as assured in hope of the bliss of heaven while we are here, as\nwe shall be in sureness while we are there. And ever the more pleasance\nand joy that we take in this sureness, with reverence and meekness, the\nbetter pleaseth Him, as it was shewed. This reverence that I mean is\na holy courteous dread of our Lord, to which meekness is united: and\nthat is, that a creature seeth the Lord marvellous great, and itself\nmarvellous little. For these virtues are had endlessly by the loved of\nGod, and this may now be seen and felt in measure through the gracious\npresence of our Lord when it is [seen]: which presence in all things\nis most desired, for it worketh marvellous assuredness in true faith,\nand sure hope, by greatness of charity, in dread that is sweet and\ndelectable.\nIt is God's will that I see myself as much bound[2] to Him in love as\nif He had done for me all that He hath done; and thus should every soul\nthink inwardly of its[3] Lover. That is to say, the Charity of God\nmaketh in us such a unity that, when it is truly seen, no man can part\nhimself from other. And thus ought our soul to think that God hath done\nfor it[4] all that He hath done.\nAnd this sheweth He to make us to love Him and nought dread but Him.\nFor it is His will that we perceive that all the might of our Enemy\nis taken into our Friend's hand; and therefore the soul that knoweth\nassuredly this, he[5] shall not dread but Him that he loveth. All\nother dread he[6] setteth among passions and bodily sickness and\nimaginations. And therefore though we be in so much pain, woe, and\ndistress that it seemeth to us we can think [of] right nought but [of]\nthat [which] we are in, or [of] that [which] we feel, [yet] as soon as\nwe may, pass we lightly over, and set we it at nought. And why? For\nthat God willeth we know [Him]; and if we know Him and love Him and\nreverently dread Him, we shall have peace, and be in great rest, and\nit shall be great pleasance to us, all that He doeth. And this shewed\nour Lord in these words: _What should it then aggrieve thee to suffer\nawhile, sith it is my will and my worship?_\nNow have I told you of Fifteen Revelations, as God vouchsafed to\nminister them to [my] mind, renewed by lightings and touchings, I hope\nof the same Spirit that shewed them all.\nOf which Fifteen Shewings the First began early in the morn, about\nthe hour of four; and they lasted, shewing by process full fair and\nsteadily, each following other, till it was nine of the day, overpassed.\n[1] \"wilfully.\"\n[2] \"bounden\" = beholden.\n[5] _i.e._ the soul.\n[6] _i.e._ the soul.\n\"All was closed, and I saw no more.\" \"For the folly of feeling a little\n bodily pain I unwisely lost for the time the comfort of all this\n blessed Shewing of our Lord God\"\nAnd after this the good Lord shewed the Sixteenth [Revelation] on the\nnight following, as I shall tell after: which Sixteenth was conclusion\nand confirmation to all Fifteen.\nBut first me behoveth to tell you as anent my feebleness, wretchedness\nand blindness.--I have said in the beginning: _And in this [moment] all\nmy pain was suddenly taken from me:_ of which pain I had no grief nor\ndistress as long as the Fifteen Shewings lasted following. And at the\nend all was close, and I saw no more. And soon I felt that I should\nlive and languish;[1] and anon my sickness came again: first in my head\nwith a sound and a din, and suddenly all my body was fulfilled with\nsickness like as it was afore. And I was as barren and as dry as [if]\nI never had comfort but little. And as a wretched creature I moaned\nand cried for feeling of my bodily pains and for failing of comfort,\nspiritual and bodily.\nThen came a Religious person to me and asked me how I fared. I said I\nhad raved to-day. And he laughed loud and heartily.[2] And I said: _The\nCross that stood afore my face, methought it bled fast_. And with this\nword the person that I spake to waxed all sober and marvelled. And anon\nI was sore ashamed and astonished for my recklessness, and I thought:\n_This man taketh in sober earnest[3] the least word that I might say_.\nThen said I no more thereof. And when I saw that he took it earnestly\nand with so great reverence, I wept, full greatly ashamed, and would\nhave been shriven; but at that time I could tell it no priest, for I\nthought: _How should a priest believe me? I believe not our Lord God._\nThis [Shewing] I believed verily for the time that I saw Him, and so\nwas then my will and my meaning ever for to do without end; but as a\nfool I let it pass from my mind. Ah! lo, wretch that I am! this was a\ngreat sin, great unkindness, that I for folly of feeling of a little\nbodily pain, so unwisely lost for the time the comfort of all this\nblessed Shewing of our Lord God. Here may you see what I am of myself.\nBut herein would our Courteous Lord not leave me. And I lay still till\nnight, trusting in His mercy, and then I began to sleep. And in the\nsleep, at the beginning, methought the Fiend set him on my throat,\nputting forth a visage full near my face, like a young man's and it was\nlong and wondrous lean: I saw never none such. The colour was red like\nthe tilestone when it is new-burnt, with black spots therein like black\nfreckles--fouler than the tilestone. His hair was red as rust, clipped\nin front,[4] with full locks hanging on the temples. He grinned on me\nwith a malicious semblance, shewing white teeth: and so much methought\nit the more horrible. Body nor hands had he none shapely, but with his\npaws he held me in the throat, and would have strangled me, but he\nmight not.\nThis horrible Shewing was made [whilst I was] sleeping, and so was none\nother. But in all this time I trusted to be saved and kept by the mercy\nof God. And our Courteous Lord gave me grace to waken; and scarcely\nhad I my life. The persons that were with me looked on me, and wet my\ntemples, and my heart began to comfort. And anon a light smoke came\nin the door, with a great heat and a foul stench. I said: _Benedicite\nDomine! it is all on fire that is here!_ And I weened it had been a\nbodily fire that should have burnt us all to death. I asked them that\nwere with me if they felt any stench. They said, Nay: they felt none. I\nsaid: _Blessed be God!_ For then wist I well it was the Fiend that was\ncome to tempest me. And anon I took to that [which] our Lord had shewed\nme on the same day, with all the Faith of Holy Church (for I beheld it\nis both one), and fled thereto as to my comfort. And anon all vanished\naway, and I was brought to great rest and peace, without sickness of\nbody or dread of conscience.\n[1] \"langiren.\"\n[2] \"inderly\" = inwardly; so de Cressy; (Collins has \"drolly\").\n[3] \"sadly\" = solidly, soberly.\n[4] \"evisid aforn with syde lokks hongyng on the thounys\" (or thowngs,\nor thoungs). Bradley's _Dictionary of Middle English--thun(?)wange_ =\ntemple, _evesed_ p. ple of _efesian_ = to clip the edges (_cf. eaves_).\nThe Paris MS. however reads: \"His hair was rede as rust not scoryd\nafore, with syde lockes hangyng on the thouwonges.\" S. de Cressy gives\nthis as: \"his hair was red as rust not scoured; afore with side locks\nhanging down in flakes.\"\n _THE SIXTEENTH REVELATION_\n \"The place that Jesus taketh in our soul He shall never remove from,\n without end:--for in us His homliest home and His endless dwelling.\"\n \"Our soul can never have rest in things that are beneath itself--yet\n may it not abide in the beholding of its self\"\nAnd then our Lord opened my spiritual eye and shewed me my soul in\nmidst of my heart. I saw the Soul so large as it were an endless\nworld, and as it were a blissful kingdom. And by the conditions that\nI saw therein I understood that it is a worshipful City. In the midst\nof that City sitteth our Lord Jesus, God and Man, a fair Person of\nlarge stature, highest Bishop, most majestic[1] King, most worshipful\nLord; and I saw Him clad majestically.[2] And worshipfully He sitteth\nin the Soul, even-right[3] in peace and rest. And the Godhead ruleth\nand sustaineth[4] heaven and earth and all that is,--sovereign Might,\nsovereign Wisdom, and sovereign Goodness,--[but] the place that Jesus\ntaketh in _our Soul_ He shall never remove it, without end, as to my\nsight: for in us is His _homliest_ home and His _endless_ dwelling.[5]\nAnd in this [sight] He shewed the satisfying that He hath of the\nmaking of Man's Soul. For as well as the Father might make a creature,\nand as well as the Son could make a creature, so well would the Holy\nGhost that Man's Soul were made: and so it was done. And therefore the\nblessed Trinity enjoyeth without end in the making of Man's Soul: for\nHe saw from without beginning what should please Him without end. All\nthing that He hath made sheweth His Lordship,--as understanding was\ngiven at the same time by example of a creature that is to see great\ntreasures and kingdoms belonging to a lord; and when it had seen all\nthe nobleness beneath, then, marvelling, it was moved to seek above to\nthe high place where the lord dwelleth, knowing, by reason, that his\ndwelling is in the worthiest place. And thus I understood in verity\nthat our Soul may never have rest in things that are beneath itself.\nAnd when it cometh above all creatures into the Self, yet may it not\nabide in the beholding of its Self, but all the beholding is blissfully\nset in God that is the Maker dwelling therein. For in Man's Soul is His\nvery dwelling; and the highest light and the brightest shining of the\nCity is the glorious love of our Lord, as to my sight.\nAnd what may make us more to enjoy in God than to see in Him that He\nenjoyeth in the highest of all His works? For I saw in the same Shewing\nthat if the blessed Trinity might have made Man's Soul any better,\nany fairer, any nobler than it was made, He should not have been\nfull pleased with the making of Man's Soul. And He willeth that our\nhearts be mightily raised above the deepness of the earth and all vain\nsorrows, and rejoice[6] in Him.\n[1] \"solemnest.\"\n[2] \"solemnly\" = in state.\n[3] _i.e._ straight-set.\n[4] \"gemeth.\"\n[5] \"woning.\"\n[6] \"enjoyen.\"\n \"He said not: _Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be\n travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted_; but He said: _Thou shalt not\nThis was a delectable Sight and a restful Shewing, that it is so\n_without end_. The beholding of this while we are here is full pleasing\nto God and full great profit to us; and the soul that thus beholdeth,\nit maketh it like to Him that is beheld, and oneth it in rest and peace\nby His grace. And this was a singular joy and bliss to me that I saw\nHim _sitting_: for the [quiet] secureness of sitting sheweth endless\ndwelling.\nAnd He gave me to know soothfastly that it was He that shewed me all\nafore. And when I had beheld this with heedfulness, then shewed our\ngood Lord words[1] full meekly without voice and without opening of\nlips, right as He had [afore] done, and said full sweetly: _Wit it now\nwell that it was no raving that thou sawest to-day: but take it and\nbelieve it, and keep thee therein, and comfort thee therewith, and\ntrust thou thereto: and thou shalt not be overcome._\nThese Last Words were said for believing and true sureness that it is\nour Lord Jesus that shewed me all. And right as in the first word that\nour good Lord shewed, signifying His blissful Passion,--_Herewith is\nthe devil overcome_,--right so He said in the last word, with full\ntrue secureness, meaning us all: _Thou shalt not_ be overcome. And\nall this teaching in this true comfort, it is general, to all mine\neven-Christians, as it is aforesaid: and so is God's will.\nAnd this word: _Thou shalt not be overcome_, was said full clearly[2]\nand full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations\nthat may come. He said not: _Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shall\nnot be travailed, thou shah not be afflicted_; but He said: _Thou shalt\nnot be overcome_. God willeth that we take heed to these words, and\nthat we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For He loveth\nand enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and\nmightily trust in Him; and _all shall be well_.\nAnd soon after, all was close and I saw no more.\n[1] See lxx. \"He shewed it all [the Revelation] again within in my\nsoul.\"\n[2] \"sharply\" = decisively.\n \"I was delivered from the Enemy by the virtue of Christ's Passion\"\nAfter this the Fiend came again with his heat and with his stench,\nand gave me much ado,[1] the stench was so vile and so painful, and\nalso dreadful and travailous. Also I heard a bodily jangling,[2] as if\nit had been of two persons; and both, to my thinking, jangled at one\ntime as if they had holden a parliament with a great busy-ness; and\nall was soft muttering, so that I understood nought that they said.\nAnd all this was to stir me to despair, as methought,--seeming to\nme as [though] they mocked at praying of prayers[3] which are said\nboisterously with [the] mouth, failing [of] devout attending and wise\ndiligence: the which we owe to God in our prayers.\nAnd our Lord God gave me grace mightily for to trust in Him, and to\ncomfort my soul with bodily speech as I should have done to another\nperson that had been travailed. Methought _that_ busy-ness[4] might\nnot be likened to no bodily busy-ness. My bodily eye I set in the same\nCross where I had been in comfort afore that time; my tongue with\nspeech of Christ's Passion and rehearsing the Faith of Holy Church;\nand my heart to fasten on God with all the trust and the might. And I\nthought to myself, saying: _Thou hast now great busy-ness to keep thee\nin the Faith for that thou shouldst not be taken of the Enemy: wouldst\nthou now from this time evermore be so busy to keep thee from sin, this\nwere a good and a sovereign occupation!_ For I thought in sooth were I\nsafe from sin, I were full safe from all the fiends of hell and enemies\nof my soul.\nAnd thus he occupied me all that night, and on the morn till it was\nabout prime day. And anon they were all gone, and all passed; and they\nleft nothing but stench, and that lasted still awhile; and I scorned\nhim.\nAnd thus was I delivered from him by the virtue of Christ's Passion:\nfor _therewith is the Fiend overcome_, as our Lord Jesus Christ said\nafore.\n[1] \"made me full besy.\"\n[2] _i.e._ gabbling.\n[3] \"bidding of bedes.\"\n[4] see above, \"made me full busy.\"\n \"Above the Faith is no goodness kept in this life, as to my sight,\n and beneath the Faith is no help of soul; but _in_ the Faith, _there_\n willeth the Lord that we keep us\"\nIn all this blessed Shewing our good Lord gave understanding that the\nSight should pass: which blessed Shewing the Faith keepeth, with His\nown good will and His grace. For He left with me neither sign nor token\nwhereby I might know it, but He left with me His own blessed word in\ntrue understanding, bidding me full mightily that I should believe it.\nAnd so I do,--Blessed may He be!--I believe that He is our Saviour that\nshewed it, and that it is the Faith that He shewed: and therefore I\nbelieve it, rejoicing. And thereto I am bounden by all His own meaning,\nwith the next words that follow: _Keep thee therein, and comfort thee\ntherewith, and trust thou thereto_.\nThus I am bounden to keep it in my faith. For on the same day that it\nwas shewed, what time that the Sight was passed, as a wretch I forsook\nit, and openly I said that I had raved. Then our Lord Jesus of His\nmercy would not let it perish, but He showed it all again _within in\nmy soul_[1] with more fulness, with the blessed light of His precious\nlove: saying these words full mightily and full meekly: _Wit it now\nwell: it was no raving that thou sawest this day_. As if He had said:\n_For that the Sight was passed from thee, thou losedst it and hadst\nnot skill to keep[2] it. But wit[3] it now_; that is to say, _now that\nthou seest it_. This was said not only for that same time, but also to\nset thereupon the ground of my faith when He saith anon following: _But\ntake it, believe it, and keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith\nand trust thou thereto; and thou shalt not be overcome_.\nIn these six words that follow (_Take it_--[etc.]) His meaning is to\nfasten it faithfully in our heart: for He willeth that it dwell with\nus in faith to our life's end, and after in fulness of joy, desiring\nthat we have ever steadfast trust in His blissful behest--knowing His\nGoodness.\nFor our faith is contraried in diverse manners by our own blindness,\nand our spiritual enemy, within and without; and therefore our precious\nLover helpeth us with spiritual sight and true teaching in sundry\nmanners within and without, whereby that we may know Him. And therefore\nin whatsoever manner He teacheth us, He willeth that we perceive Him\nwisely, receive Him sweetly, and keep us in Him faithfully. For above\nthe Faith is no goodness kept in this life, as to my sight, and beneath\nthe Faith is no help of soul; but in the Faith, there willeth the Lord\nthat we keep us. For we have by His goodness and His own working to\nkeep us in the Faith; and by His sufferance through ghostly enmity we\nare assayed in the Faith and made mighty. For if our faith had none\nenmity, it should deserve no meed, according to the understanding that\nI have in all our Lord's teaching.\n[1] see ch. lxviii.\n[2] \"couthest not.\"\n[3] _i.e._ learn, perceive, know for certainty by the conviction of\nreason and consciousness--grasp once for all the truth beheld.\n \"Three manners of looking seen in our Lord's Countenance\"\nGlad and joyous and sweet is the Blissful lovely Cheer[1] of our Lord\nto our souls. For He [be]holdeth[2] us ever, living in love-longing:\nand He willeth that _our_ soul be in glad cheer to Him, to give Him His\nmeed. And thus, I hope, with His grace He hath [drawn], and more shall\ndraw, the Outer Cheer to the Inner Cheer, and make us all one with Him,\nand each of us with other, in true lasting joy that is Jesus.\nI have signifying of Three manners of Cheer of our Lord. The first is\nCheer of Passion, as He shewed while He was here in this life, dying.\nThough this [manner of] Beholding be mournful and troubled, yet it is\nglad and joyous: for He is God.--The second manner of Cheer is [of]\nRuth and Compassion: and this sheweth He, with sureness of Keeping,\nto all His lovers that betake them[3] to His mercy. The third is the\nBlissful Cheer, as it shall be without end: and this was [shewed]\noftenest and longest-continued.\nAnd thus in the time of our pain and our woe He sheweth us Cheer of\nHis Passion and His Cross, helping us to bear it by His own blessed\nvirtue. And in the time of our sinning He sheweth to us Cheer of Ruth\nand Pity, mightily keeping us and defending us against all our enemies.\nAnd these be the common Cheer which He sheweth to us in this life;\ntherewith mingling the third: and that is His Blissful Cheer, like,\nin part, as it shall be in Heaven. And that [shewing is] by gracious\ntouching and sweet lighting of the spiritual life, whereby that we are\nkept in sure faith, hope, and charity, with contrition and devotion,\nand also with contemplation and all manner of true solace and sweet\ncomforts.\n[1] \"Cher,\" in earlier chapters rendered by _manner of Countenance_ or\n_Regard_.\n[2] The word of the MS. might be: \"he havith\" (possibly \"draweth\"), or\n\"behadith\" or \"behavith.\" There is a verb \"bi-hawen\" _to behold_--in\nother forms bihabben, bi-halden--; and \"behave\" had the meaning of to\n_manage, govern_. Elsewhere in the MS. to _regard_, if not _to fix the\neyes upon_, is expressed (_e.g._ in xxxix.) simply by _to \"holden\"_\nwithout the prefix. S. de Cressy has here \"he beheld.\"\n[3] \"that have to\"; S. de Cressy, \"have need to.\"\n \"As long as we be meddling with any part of sin we shall never see\n clearly the Blissful Countenance of our Lord\"\nBut now behoveth me to tell in what manner I saw sin deadly in the\ncreatures which shall not die for sin, but live in the joy of God\nwithout end.\nI saw that two contrary things should never be together in one place.\nThe most contrary that are, is the highest bliss and the deepest pain.\nThe highest bliss that is, is to have Him in clarity of endless life,\nHim verily seeing, Him sweetly feeling, all-perfectly having in fulness\nof joy. And thus was the Blissful Cheer of our Lord shewed in Pity:[1]\nin which Shewing I saw that sin is most contrary,--so far forth that\nas long as we be meddling with any part of sin, we shall never see\nclearly the Blissful Cheer of our Lord. And the more horrible and\ngrievous that our sins be, the deeper are we for that time from this\nblissful sight. And therefore it seemeth to us oftentimes as we were in\nperil of death, in a part of hell, for the sorrow and pain that the sin\nis to us. And thus we are dead for the time from the very sight of our\nblissful life. But in all this I saw soothfastly that we be not dead in\nthe sight of God, nor He passeth never from us. But He shall never have\nHis full bliss in us till we have our full bliss in Him, verily seeing\nHis fair Blissful Cheer. For we are ordained thereto in nature, and get\nthereto by grace. Thus I saw how sin is deadly for a short time in the\nblessed creatures of endless life.\nAnd ever the more clearly that the soul seeth this Blissful Cheer\nby grace of loving, the more it longeth to see it in fulness. For\nnotwithstanding that our Lord God dwelleth in us and is here with us,\nand albeit He claspeth us and encloseth[2] us for tender love that He\nmay never leave[3] us, and is more near to us than tongue can tell or\nheart can think, yet may we never stint of moaning nor of weeping nor\nof longing till when we see Him clearly in His Blissful Countenance.\nFor in that precious blissful sight there may no woe abide, nor any\nweal fail.[4]\nAnd in this I saw matter of mirth and matter of moaning: matter of\nmirth: for our Lord, our Maker, is so near to us, and in us, and we\nin Him, by sureness of keeping through His great goodness; matter of\nmoaning: for our ghostly eye is so blind and we be so borne down by\nweight of our mortal flesh and darkness of sin, that we may not see\nour Lord God clearly in His fair Blissful Cheer. No; and because of\nthis dimness[5] scarsely we can believe and trust His great love and\nour sureness[6] of keeping. And therefore it is that I say we may\nnever stint of moaning nor of weeping. This \"weeping\" meaneth not all\nin pouring out of tears by our bodily eye, but also hath more ghostly\nunderstanding. For the kindly desire of our soul is so great and so\nunmeasurable, that if there were given us for our solace and for our\ncomfort all the noble things that ever God made in heaven and in earth,\nand we saw not the fair Blissful Cheer[7] of Himself, yet we should\nnot stint of moaning nor ghostly weeping, that is to say, of painful\nlonging, till when we [should] see verily the fair Blissful Cheer of\nour Maker. And if we were in all the pain that heart can think and\ntongue may tell, if we might in that time see His fair Blissful Cheer,\nall this pain should not aggrieve us.\nThus is that Blissful Sight [the] end of all manner of pain to the\nloving soul, and the fulfilling of all manner of joy and bliss. And\nthat shewed He in the high, marvellous words where He said: _I it am\nthat is highest; I it am that is lowest; I it am that is all_.\nIt belongeth to us to have three manner of knowings: the first is that\nwe know our Lord God; the second is that we know our self: what we are\nby Him, in Nature and Grace; the third is that we know meekly what our\nself is anent our sin and feebleness. And for these three was all the\nShewing made, as to mine understanding.\n[1] That is: in the Shewing of Pity (Rev. ii) ch. x., in which it was\nshewed _darkly_. S. de Cressy has \"in _party_\" = _part_, but the word\nseems to be \"_pite_\" = _pity_.\n[2] halsith; beclosith.\n[3] levyn; tellen; thyn ken; stint; see.\n[4] \"abiden, ne no wele fallen.\"\n[5] \"myrkehede, unethes we can leven and trowen.\"\n[6] \"sekirnes.\"\n[7] The words \"Blissful Cheer\" cannot be rendered by the more beautiful\nand familiar BLESSED COUNTENANCE, and even \"_Blissful_ Countenance\"\nmight fail to bring out the reference to _one Aspect_ of the Divine\nFace, one part of the threefold Truth.\n\"Two manners of sickness that we have: impatience, or sloth;--despair,\nAll the blessed teaching of our Lord was shewed by three parts: that\nis to say, by bodily sight, and by word formed in mine understanding,\nand by spiritual sight. For the bodily sight, I have said as I saw, as\ntruly as I can; and for the words, I have said them right as our Lord\nshewed them to me; and for the spiritual sight, I have told some deal,\nbut I may never fully tell it: and therefore of this sight I am stirred\nto say more, as God will give me grace.\nGod shewed two manners of sickness that we have: the one is impatience,\nor sloth: for we bear our travail and our pains heavily; the other is\ndespair, or doubtful dread, which I shall speak of after. _Generally_,\nHe shewed _sin_, wherein that all is comprehended, but in special He\nshewed only these two. And these two are they that most do travail\nand tempest us, according to that which our Lord shewed me; and of\nthem He would have us be amended. I speak of such men and women as for\nGod's love hate sin and dispose themselves to do God's will: then by\nour spiritual blindness and bodily heaviness we are most inclining to\nthese. And therefore it is God's will that they be known, for then we\nshall refuse them as we do other sins.\nAnd for help of this, full meekly our Lord shewed the patience that He\nhad in His Hard Passion; and also the joying and the satisfying that\nHe hath of that Passion, for love. And this He shewed in example that\nwe should gladly and wisely bear our pains, for that is great pleasing\nto Him and endless profit to us. And the cause why we are travailed\nwith them is for lack in knowing[1] of Love. Though the three Persons\nin the Trinity[2] be all even[3] in Itself, the soul[4] took most\nunderstanding in Love; yea, and He willeth that in all things we have\nour beholding and our enjoying in Love. And of this knowing are we most\nblind. For some of us believe that God is Almighty and may do all,\nand that He is All-Wisdom and can do all; but that He is All-Love and\nwill do all, there we stop short.[5] And this not-knowing it is, that\nhindereth most God's lovers, as to my sight.\nFor when we begin to hate sin, and amend us by the ordinance of Holy\nChurch, yet there dwelleth a dread that letteth us, because of the\nbeholding of our self and of our sins afore done. And some of us\nbecause of our every-daily sins: for we hold not our Covenants, nor\nkeep we our cleanness that our Lord setteth us in, but fall oftentimes\ninto so much wretchedness that shame it is to see it. And the beholding\nof this maketh us so sorry and so heavy, that scarsely we can find any\ncomfort.\nAnd this dread we take sometime for a meekness, but it is a foul\nblindness and a weakness.[6] And we cannot despise it as we do another\nsin, that we know [as sin]: for it cometh [subtly] of Enmity, and it\nis against truth. For it is God's will that of all the properties of\nthe blissful Trinity, we should have most sureness and comfort in Love:\nfor Love maketh Might and Wisdom full meek to us. For right as by the\ncourtesy of God He forgiveth our sin after the time that we repent us,\nright so willeth He that _we_ forgive our sin, as anent our unskilful\nheaviness and our doubtful dreads.\n[1] \"for _unknowing_.\"\n[2] seen as Might, Wisdom, Love.\n[3] _i.e._ equal.\n[4] _i.e._ Julian (xiii., xxiv., xlvi.).\n[5] \"astynten.\"\n[6] S. de Cressy: \"a wickedness\"; but the MS. word is \"waykenes.\"\n \"There is no dread that fully pleaseth God in us but reverent dread\"\nFor I understand [that there be] four manner of dreads. One is the\ndread of an affright that cometh to a man suddenly by frailty. This\ndread doeth good, for it helpeth to purge man, as doeth bodily sickness\nor such other pain as is not sin. For all such pains help man if\nthey be patiently taken. The second is dread of pain, whereby man is\nstirred and wakened from sleep of sin. He is not able for the time to\nperceive the soft comfort of the Holy Ghost, till he have understanding\nof this dread of pain, of bodily death, of spiritual enemies; and\nthis dread stirreth us to seek comfort and mercy of God, and thus\nthis dread helpeth us,[1] and enableth us to have contrition by the\nblissful touching of the Holy Ghost. The third is doubtful dread.\nDoubtful dread in as much as it draweth to despair, God will have it\nturned in us into love by the knowing of love: that is to say, that\nthe bitterness of doubt be turned into the sweetness of natural love\nby grace. For it may never please our Lord that His servants doubt in\nHis Goodness. The fourth is reverent dread: for there is no dread that\nfully pleaseth God in us but reverent dread. And that is full soft, for\nthe more it is had, the less it is felt for sweetness of love.\nLove and Dread are brethren, and they are rooted in us by the Goodness\nof our Maker, and they shall never be taken from us without end. We\nhave of nature to love and we have of grace to love: and we have of\nnature to dread and we have of grace to dread. It belongeth to the\nLordship and to the Fatherhood to be dreaded, as it belongeth to the\nGoodness to be loved: and it belongeth to us that are His servants and\nHis children to dread Him for Lordship and Fatherhood, as it belongeth\nto us to love Him for Goodness.\nAnd though this reverent-dread and love be not parted asunder, yet they\nare not both one, but they are two in property and in working, and\nneither of them may be had without other. Therefore I am sure, he that\nloveth, he dreadeth, though that he feel it but a little.\nAll dreads other than reverent dread that are proffered to us, though\nthey come under the colour of holiness yet are not so true, and hereby\nmay they be known asunder.--That dread that maketh us hastily to flee\nfrom all that is not good and fall into our Lord's breast, as the Child\ninto the Mother's bosom,[2] with all our intent and with all our mind,\nknowing our feebleness and our great need, knowing His everlasting\ngoodness and His blissful love, only seeking to Him for salvation,\ncleaving to [Him] with sure trust: that dread that bringeth us into\nthis working, it is natural,[3] gracious, good and true. And all that\nis contrary to this, either it is wrong, or it is mingled with wrong.\nThen is this the remedy, to know them both and refuse the wrong.\nFor the natural property of dread which we have in this life by the\ngracious working of the Holy Ghost, the same shall be in heaven afore\nGod, gentle, courteous, and full delectable. And thus we shall in\nlove be homely and near to God, and we shall in dread be gentle and\ncourteous to God: and both alike equal.\nDesire we of our Lord God to dread Him reverently, to love Him meekly,\nto trust in Him mightily; for when we dread Him reverently and love\nHim meekly our trust is never in vain. For the more that we trust, and\nthe more mightily, the more we please and worship our Lord that we\ntrust in. And if we fail in this reverent dread and meek love (as God\nforbid we should!), our trust shall soon be misruled for the time. And\ntherefore it needeth us much to pray our Lord of grace that we may have\nthis reverent dread and meek love, of His gift, in heart and in work.\nFor without this, no man may please God.\n[1] Here the transcriber of the B. Mus. MS. repeats (by mistake, no\ndoubt) \"to seek,\" etc. S. de Cressy: \"helpeth us as an entry.\"\n[2] S. de Cressy: \"Mothers Arme,\" but MS. (B.M.) \"Moder barme.\"\n[3] \"kinde.\"\n \"We shall see verily the cause of all things that He hath done; and\n evermore we shall see the cause of all things that He hath permitted\"\nI saw that God can do all that we need. And these three that I shall\nspeak of we need: love, longing, pity. Pity in love keepeth us in the\ntime of our need; and longing in the same love draweth us up into\nHeaven. For the Thirst of God is to have the general Man unto Him: in\nwhich thirst He hath drawn His Holy that be now in bliss; and getting\nHis lively members, ever He draweth and drinketh, and yet He thirsteth\nand longeth.\nI saw three manners of longing in God, and all to one end; of which we\nhave the same in us, and by the same virtue and for the same end.\nThe first is, that He longeth to teach us to know Him and love Him\nevermore, as it is convenient and speedful to us. The second is, that\nHe longeth to have us up to His Bliss, as souls are when they are taken\nout of pain into Heaven. The third is to fulfill us in bliss; and\nthat shall be on the Last Day, fulfilled ever to last. For I saw, as\nit is known in our Faith, that the pain and the sorrow shall be ended\nto all that shall be saved. And not only we shall receive the same\nbliss that souls afore have had in heaven, but also we shall receive\na new [bliss], which plenteously shall be flowing out of God into us\nand shall fulfill us; and these be the goods which He hath ordained\nto give us from without beginning. These goods are treasured and hid\nin Himself; for unto that time [no] Creature is mighty nor worthy to\nreceive them.\nIn this [fulfilling] we shall see verily the cause of all things that\nHe hath done; and evermore we shall see the cause of all things that He\nhath suffered.[1] And the bliss and the fulfilling shall be so deep and\nso high that, for wonder and marvel, all creatures shall have to God so\ngreat reverent dread, overpassing that which hath been seen and felt\nbefore, that the pillars of heaven shall tremble and quake. But this\nmanner of trembling and dread shall have no pain; but it belongeth to\nthe worthy might of God thus to be beholden by His creatures, in great\ndread trembling and quaking for meekness of joy, marvelling at the\ngreatness of God the Maker and at the littleness of all that is made.\nFor the beholding of this maketh the creature marvellously meek and\nmild.\nWherefore God willeth--and also it belongeth to us, both in nature\nand grace--that we wit and know of this, desiring this sight and this\nworking; for it leadeth us in right way, and keepeth us in true life,\nand oneth us to God. And as good as God is, so great He is; and as\nmuch as it belongeth to His goodness to be loved, so much it belongeth\nto His greatness to be dreaded. For this reverent dread is the fair\ncourtesy that is in Heaven afore God's face. And as much as He shall\nthen be known and loved overpassing that He is now, in so much He shall\nbe dreaded overpassing that He is now. Wherefore it behoveth needs to\nbe that all Heaven and earth shall tremble and quake when the pillars\nshall tremble and quake.\n[1] _i.e._ permitted; \"all that is good our Lord doeth, and that which\nis evil our Lord suffereth,\" xxxv.\n \"The soul that beholdeth the fair nature of our Lord Jesus, it hateth\nI speak but little of reverent dread, for I hope it may be seen in this\nmatter aforesaid. But well I wot our Lord shewed me no souls but those\nthat dread Him. For well I wot the soul that truly taketh the teaching\nof the Holy Ghost, it hateth more sin for vileness and horribleness\nthan it doth all the pain that is in hell. For the soul that beholdeth\nthe fair nature[1] of our Lord Jesus, it hateth no hell but sin, as to\nmy sight. And therefore it is God's will that we know sin, and pray\nbusily and travail earnestly and seek teaching meekly that we fall not\nblindly therein; and if we fall, that we rise readily. For it is the\nmost pain that the soul may have, to turn from God any time by sin.\nThe soul that willeth to be in rest when [an] other man's sin cometh\nto mind, he shall flee it as the pain of hell, seeking unto God for\nremedy, for help against it. For the beholding of other man's sins,\nit maketh as it were a thick mist afore the eyes of the soul, and we\ncannot, for the time, see the fairness of God, but if we may behold\nthem with contrition with him, with compassion on him, and with holy\ndesire to God for him. For without this it harmeth[2] and tempesteth\nand hindereth the soul that beholdeth them. For this I understood in\nthe Shewing of Compassion.\nIn this blissful Shewing of our Lord I have understanding of two\ncontrary things: the one is the most wisdom that any creature may\ndo in this life, the other is the most folly. The most wisdom is\nfor a creature to do after the will and counsel of his highest\nsovereign Friend. This blessed Friend is Jesus, and it is His will\nand His counsel that we hold us with Him, and fasten us to Him\nhomely--evermore, in what state soever that we be; for whether-so that\nwe be foul or clean, we are all one in His loving. For weal nor for woe\nHe willeth never we flee from Him. But because of the changeability\nthat we are in, in our self, we fall often into sin. Then we have this\n[doubting dread] by the stirring of our enemy and by our own folly and\nblindness: for they say thus: _Thou seest well thou art a wretched\ncreature, a sinner, and also unfaithful. For thou keepest not the\nCommand[3]; thou dost promise oftentimes our Lord that thou shalt do\nbetter, and anon after, thou fallest again into the same, especially\ninto sloth and losing of time._ (For that is the beginning of sin, as\nto my sight,--and especially to the creatures that have given them to\nserve our Lord with inward beholding of His blessed Goodness.) And this\nmaketh us adread to appear afore our courteous Lord. Thus is it our\nenemy that would put us aback[4] with his false dread, [by reason] of\nour wretchedness, through pain that he threateth us with. For it is his\nmeaning to make us so heavy and so weary in this, that we should let\nout of mind the fair, Blissful Beholding of our Everlasting Friend.\n[1] \"kindness.\"\n[2] \"noyith.\"\n[3] S. de Cressy--\"thy Covenant.\"\n[4] \"on bakke.\"\n\"Accuse not thyself overmuch, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe\n is all thy fault.\" \"All thy living is penance profitable.\" \"In the\n remedy He willeth that we rejoice\"\nOur good Lord shewed the enmity of the Fiend: in which Shewing I\nunderstood that all that is contrary to love and peace is of the Fiend\nand of his part. And we have, of our feebleness and our folly, to fall;\nand we have, of mercy and grace of the Holy Ghost, to rise to more\njoy. And if our enemy aught winneth of us by our falling, (for it is\nhis pleasure,[1]) he loseth manifold more in our rising by charity and\nmeekness. And this glorious rising, it is to him so great sorrow and\npain for the hate that he hath to our soul, that he burneth continually\nin envy. And all this sorrow that he would make us to have, it shall\nturn to himself. And for this it was that our Lord scorned him, and [it\nwas] this [that] made me mightily to laugh.\nThen is this the remedy, that we be aware of our wretchedness and flee\nto our Lord: for ever the more needy that we be, the more speedful it\nis to us to draw nigh to Him.[2] And let us say thus in our thinking:\n_I know well I have a shrewd pain; but our Lord is All-Mighty and\nmay punish me mightily; and He is All-Wisdom and can punish me\ndiscerningly; and He is All-Goodness and loveth me full tenderly_. And\nin this beholding it is necessary for us to abide; for it is a lovely\nmeekness of a sinful soul, wrought by mercy and grace of the Holy\nGhost, when we willingly and gladly take the scourge and chastening of\nour Lord that Himself will give us. And it shall be full tender and\nfull easy, if that we will only hold us satisfied with Him and with all\nHis works.\nFor the penance that man taketh of himself was not shewed me: that is\nto say, it was not shewed specified. But specially and highly and with\nfull lovely manner of look was it shewed that we shall meekly bear and\nsuffer the penance that God Himself giveth us, with mind in His blessed\nPassion. (For when we have mind in His blessed Passion, with pity and\nlove, then we suffer with Him like as His friends did that saw it. And\nthis was shewed in the Thirteenth Shewing, near the beginning, where it\nspeaketh of Pity.) For He saith: _Accuse not [thy]self overdone much,\ndeeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is all for thy fault; for I\nwill not that thou be heavy or sorrowful indiscreetly. For I tell thee,\nhowsoever thou do, thou shalt have woe. And therefore I will that thou\nwisely know thy penance; and [thou] shalt see in truth that all thy\nliving is penance profitable._\nThis place is prison and this life is penance, and in the remedy He\nwilleth that we rejoice. The remedy is that our Lord is with us,\nkeeping and leading into the fulness of joy. For this is an endless joy\nto us in our Lord's signifying, that He that shall be our bliss when we\nare there, He is our keeper while we are here. Our way and our heaven\nis true love and sure trust; and of this He gave understanding in all\n[the Shewings] and especially in the Shewing of the Passion where He\nmade me mightily to choose Him for my heaven.[3]\nFlee we to our Lord and we shall be comforted, touch we Him and we\nshall be made clean, cleave we to Him and we shall be sure,[4] and safe\nfrom all manner of peril.\nFor our courteous Lord willeth that we should be as homely with Him as\nheart may think or soul may desire. But [let us] beware that we take\nnot so recklessly this homeliness as to leave courtesy. For our Lord\nHimself is sovereign homeliness, and as homely as He is, so courteous\nHe is: for He is very courteous. And the blessed creatures that shall\nbe in heaven with Him without end, He will have them like to Himself in\nall things. And to be like our Lord perfectly, it is our very salvation\nand our full bliss.\nAnd if we wot not how we shall do all this, desire we of our Lord and\nHe shall teach us: for it is His own good-pleasure and His worship;\nblessed may He be!\n[1] S. de Cressy, \"likeness\"; Collins, \"business.\" The word may be\n\"Lifenes\" = lefness, pleasure; lif = lef = lief = (Morris' _Specimens\nof Early English_) pleasing, dear.\n[2] \"neyghen him.\"\n[3] ch. xix.\n[4] \"sekir.\"\n \"Though we be highly lifted up into contemplation by the special gift\nof our Lord, yet it is needful to us to have knowledge and sight of our\n sin and our feebleness\"\nOur Lord of His mercy sheweth us our sin and our feebleness by the\nsweet gracious light of Himself; for our sin is so vile and so horrible\nthat He of His courtesy will not shew it to us but by the light of\nHis grace and mercy. Of four things therefore it is His will that we\nhave knowing: the first is, that He is our Ground from whom we have\nall our life and our being. The second is, that He keepeth us mightily\nand mercifully in the time that we are in our sin and among all our\nenemies, that are full fell upon us; and so much we are in the more\nperil for [that] we give them occasion thereto, and know not our own\nneed.[1] The third is, how courteously He keepeth us, and _maketh us to\nknow_ that we go amiss. The fourth is, how steadfastly He abideth us\nand changeth no regard:[2] for He willeth that we be turned [again],\nand oned to Him in love as He is to us.\nAnd thus by this gracious knowing we may see our sin profitably without\ndespair. For truly we need to see it, and by the sight we shall be\nmade ashamed of our self and brought down as anent our pride and\npresumption; for it behoveth us verily to see that of ourselves we are\nright nought but sin and wretchedness. And thus by the sight of the\nless that our Lord sheweth us, the more is reckoned[3] which we see\nnot. For He of His courtesy measureth the sight to us; for it is so\nvile and so horrible that we should not endure to see it as it is. And\nby this meek knowing after this manner, through contrition and grace\nwe shall be broken from all that is not our Lord. And then shall our\nblessed Saviour perfectly heal us, and one us to Him.\nThis breaking and this healing our Lord meaneth for the general Man.\nFor he that is highest and nearest with God, he may see himself\nsinful--and needeth to--with me; and I that am the least and lowest\nthat shall be saved, I may be comforted with him that is highest: so\nhath our Lord oned us in charity; [as] where He shewed me that I should\nsin.[4]\nAnd for joy that I had in beholding of Him I attended not readily\nto that Shewing, and our courteous Lord stopped there and would not\nfurther teach me till that He gave me grace and will to attend.\nAnd hereby was I learned that though we be highly lifted up into\ncontemplation by the special gift of our Lord, yet it is needful to us\ntherewith to have knowing and sight of our sin and our feebleness. For\nwithout this knowing we may not have true meekness, and without this\n[meekness] we may not be saved.\nAnd afterward, also, I saw that we may not have this knowing from our\nself; nor from none of all our spiritual enemies: for they will us not\nso great good. For if it were by their will, we should not see it until\nour ending day. Then be we greatly beholden[5] to God for that He will\nHimself, for love, shew it to us in time of mercy and grace.\n[1] See ch. xxxix. p. 81.\n[2] \"chere\" = manner of looking on us; mien.\n[3] S. de Cressy: \"wasted,\" but the indistinct word of the Brit. Mus.\nMS. is probably \"_castid_,\" for \"cast,\" or \"_casten_\" = conjectured.\n[4] ch. xxxvii.\n[5] _i.e._ in gratitude.\n \"I was taught that I should see mine own sin, and not other men's sin\nexcept it may be for comfort and help of my fellow-Christians\" (lxxvi.)\nAlso I had of this [Revelation] more understanding. In that He shewed\nme that I should sin, I took it nakedly to mine own singular person,\nfor I was none otherwise shewed at that time. But by the high,\ngracious comfort of our Lord that followed after, I saw that His\nmeaning was for the general Man: that is to say, All-Man; which is\nsinful and shall be unto the last day. Of which Man I am a member, as\nI hope, by the mercy of God. For the blessed comfort that I saw, it is\nlarge enough for us all. And here was I learned that I should see mine\nown sin, and not other men's sins but if it may be for comfort and help\nof mine even-Christians.\nAnd also in this same Shewing where I saw that I should sin, there was\nI learned to be in dread for unsureness of myself. For I wot not how I\nshall fall, nor I know not the measure nor the greatness of sin; for\nthat would I have wist, with dread, and thereto I had none answer.\nAlso our courteous Lord in the same time He shewed full surely and\nmightily the endlessness and the unchangeability of His love; and,\nafterward, that by His great goodness and His grace inwardly keeping,\nthe love of Him and our soul shall never be disparted in two, without\nend.[1]\nAnd thus in this dread I have matter of meekness that saveth me from\npresumption, and in the blessed Shewing of Love I have matter of true\ncomfort and of joy that saveth me from despair. All this homely Shewing\nof our courteous Lord, it is a lovely lesson and a sweet, gracious\nteaching of Himself in comforting of our soul. For He willeth that\nwe [should] know by the sweetness and homely loving of Him, that all\nthat we see or feel, within or without, that is contrary to this is of\nthe enemy and not of God. And thus;--If we be stirred to be the more\nreckless of our living or of the keeping of our hearts because that we\nhave knowing of this plenteous love, then need we greatly to beware.\nFor this stirring, if it come, is untrue; and greatly we ought to hate\nit, for it all hath no likeness of God's will. And when that we be\nfallen, by frailty or blindness, then our courteous Lord toucheth us\nand stirreth us and calleth us; and then willeth He that we see our\nwretchedness and meekly be aware of it.[2] But He willeth not that\nwe abide thus, nor He willeth not that we busy us greatly about our\naccusing, nor He willeth not that we be wretched over our self;[3] but\nHe willeth that we hastily turn ourselves unto Him. For He standeth all\naloof and abideth us sorrowfully and mournfully till when we come, and\nhath haste to have us to Him. For we are His joy and His delight, and\nHe is our salve and our life.\nWhen I say He standeth all alone, I leave the speaking of the blessed\nCompany of heaven, and speak of His office and His working here on\nearth,--upon the condition of the Shewing.\n[1] See xxxvii., xl., xlviii., lxi., lxxxii.\n[2] \"ben it aknowen.\" S. de Cressy, \"be it a knowen.\"\n[3] MS. \"wretchful of our selfe.\" S. de Cressy, \"wretchful on our self.\"\n \"Himself is nearest and meekest, highest and lowest, and doeth all.\"\n \"Love suffereth never to be without Pity\"\nBy three things man standeth in this life; by which three God is\nworshipped, and we be speeded,[1] kept and saved.\nThe first is, use of man's Reason natural; the second is, common\nteaching of Holy Church; the third is, inward gracious working of the\nHoly Ghost. And these three be all of one God: God is the ground of our\nnatural reason; and God, the teaching of Holy Church; and God is the\nHoly Ghost. And all be sundry gifts to which He willeth that we have\ngreat regard, and attend us thereto. For these work in us continually\nall together; and these be great things. Of which great things He\nwilleth that we have knowing here as it were in an A.B.C., that is to\nsay, that we have a little knowing; whereof we shall have fulness in\nHeaven. And that is for to speed us.\nWe know in our Faith that God alone took our nature, and none but He;\nand furthermore that Christ alone did all the works that belong to\nour salvation, and none but He; and right so He alone doeth now the\nlast end: that is to say, He dwelleth here with us, and ruleth us\nand governeth us in this living, and bringeth us to His bliss. And\nthis shall He do as long as any soul is in earth that shall come to\nheaven,--and so far forth that if there were no such soul but one,\nHe should be withal alone till He had brought him up to His bliss. I\nbelieve and understand the ministration of angels, as clerks tell us:\nbut it was not shewed me. For Himself is nearest and meekest, highest\nand lowest, and doeth all. And not only all that we need, but also He\ndoeth all that is worshipful, to our joy in heaven.\nAnd where I say that He abideth sorrowfully and moaning, it meaneth\nall the true feeling that _we_ have in our self, in contrition and\ncompassion, and all sorrowing and moaning that we are not oned with our\nLord. And all such that is speedful, it is Christ in us. And though\nsome of us feel it seldom, it passeth never from Christ till what time\nHe hath brought us out of all our woe. For love suffereth never to be\nwithout pity. And what time that we fall into sin and leave the mind of\nHim and the keeping of our own soul, then keepeth Christ alone all the\ncharge; and thus standeth He sorrowfully and moaning.\nThen belongeth it to us for reverence and kindness to turn us hastily\nto our Lord and leave Him not alone. He is here alone with us all: that\nis to say, only for us He is here. And what time I am strange to Him by\nsin, despair or sloth, then I let my Lord stand alone, in as much as it\nis in me. And thus it fareth with us all which be sinners. But though\nit be so that we do thus oftentimes, His Goodness suffereth us never to\nbe alone, but lastingly He is with us, and tenderly He excuseth us, and\never shieldeth us from blame in His sight.\n[1] _i.e._ helped onwards.\n\"God seeth all our living a penance: for nature-longing of our love is\n to Him a lasting penance in us.\" \"His love maketh Him to long\"\nOur Good Lord shewed Himself in diverse manners both in heaven and in\nearth, but I saw Him take no place save in man's soul.\nHe shewed Himself in earth in the sweet Incarnation and in His blessed\nPassion. And in other manner He shewed Himself in earth [as in the\nRevelation] where I say: _I saw God in a Point_.[1] And in another\nmanner He shewed Himself in earth thus as it were in pilgrimage: that\nis to say, He is here with us, leading us, and shall be till when He\nhath brought us all to His bliss in heaven. He shewed Himself diverse\ntimes reigning, as it is aforesaid; but principally in man's soul. He\nhath taken there His resting-place and His worshipful City: out of\nwhich worshipful See He shall never rise nor remove without end.\nMarvellous and stately[2] is the place where the Lord dwelleth,\nand therefore He willeth that we readily answer to[3] His gracious\ntouching, more rejoicing in His whole love than sorrowing in our often\nfallings. For it is the most worship to Him of anything that we may\ndo, that we live gladly and merrily, for His love, in our penance.\nFor He beholdeth us so tenderly that He seeth all our living [here] a\npenance: for nature's longing in us is to Him aye-lasting penance in\nus[4]: which penance He worketh in us and mercifully He helpeth us to\nbear it. For His love maketh _Him_ to long [for us]; His wisdom and His\ntruth with His rightfulness maketh _Him_ to suffer us [to be] here: and\nin this same manner [of longing and abiding] He willeth to see it in\nus. For this is our natural penance,--and the highest, as to my sight.\nFor this penance goeth[5] never from us till what time that we be\nfulfilled, when we shall have Him to our meed. And therefore He willeth\nthat we set our hearts in the Overpassing[6]: that is to say, from the\npain that we feel into the bliss that we trust.\n[2] \"solemne.\"\n[3] \"entenden to\" = turn our attention, respond to.\n[4] or, at in S. de Cressy, \"For kind longing in us to him is a lasting\npenance in us.\"\n[5] \"cometh.\"\n[6] The exceeding Bliss. \"Our light affliction, which is but for a\nmoment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of\nglory.\"--2 Cor. iv. 17.\n \"In falling and in rising we are ever preciously kept in one Love\"\nBut here shewed our courteous Lord the moaning and the mourning of\nthe soul, signifying thus: _I know well thou wilt live for my love,\njoyously and gladly suffering all the penance that may come to thee;\nbut in as much as thou livest not without sin thou wouldest suffer, for\nmy love, all the woe, all the tribulation and distress that might come\nto thee. And it is sooth.[1] But be not greatly aggrieved with sin that\nfalleth to thee against thy will._\nAnd here I understood that [which was shewed] that the Lord beholdeth\nthe servant with pity and not with blame.[2] For this passing life\nasketh[3] not to live all without blame and sin. He loveth us\nendlessly, and we sin customably, and He sheweth us full mildly, and\nthen we sorrow and mourn discreetly, turning us unto the beholding\nof His mercy, cleaving to His love and goodness, seeing that He is\nour medicine, perceiving that we do nought but sin. And thus by the\nmeekness we get by the sight of our sin, faithfully knowing His\neverlasting love, Him thanking and praising, we please Him:--_I love\nthee, and thou lovest me, and our love shall not be disparted in two:\nfor thy profit I suffer [these things to come]._ And all this was\nshewed in spiritual understanding, saying these blessed words: _I keep\nthee full surely_.\nAnd by the great desire that I saw in our blessed Lord that we shall\nlive in this manner,--that is to say, in longing and enjoying, as all\nthis lesson of love sheweth,--thereby I understood that that which is\ncontrarious to us is not of Him but of enmity; and He willeth that we\nknow it by the sweet gracious light of His kind love. If any such lover\nbe in earth which is continually kept from falling, I know it not:\nfor it was not shewed me. But this was shewed: that in falling and in\nrising we are ever preciously kept in one Love. For in the Beholding of\nGod we fall not, and in the beholding of self we stand not; and both\nthese [manners of beholding] be sooth as to my sight. But the Beholding\nof our Lord God is the highest soothness.[4] Then are we greatly bound\nto God[5] [for] that He willeth in this living to shew us this high\nsoothness. And I understood that while we be in this life it is full\nspeedful to us that we see both these at once. For the higher Beholding\nkeepeth us in spiritual solace and true enjoying in God; [and] that\nother that is the lower Beholding keepeth us in dread and maketh us\nashamed of ourself. But our good Lord willeth ever that we hold us much\nmore in the Beholding of the higher, and [yet] leave not the knowing of\nthe lower, unto the time that we be brought up above, where we shall\nhave our Lord Jesus unto our meed and be fulfilled of joy and bliss\nwithout end.\n[1] _i.e._ truth. See xxvii., \"It is sooth that sin it cause of all\nthis pain.\"\n[3] _i.e._ \"demandeth not that we live.\"\n[4] sooth, soothness: _i.e._ truth, trueness. \"Both these ben soth, as\nto my syte. But the beholdyng of our Lord God is the heyest sothnes.\"\nSee chaps. xlv., liii., etc., the two \"Deemings\": the Beholding by God\nof the higher Self and the Beholding by man of the lower self.\n[5] in gratitude, obligation.\nI had, in part, touching, sight, and feeling in three properties of\nGod, in which the strength and effect of all the Revelation standeth:\nand they were seen in every Shewing, and most properly in the Twelfth,\nwhere it saith oftentimes: [_It is I._] The properties are these: Life,\nLove, and Light.[1] In life is marvellous homeliness, and in love is\ngentle courtesy, and in light is endless Nature-hood. These properties\nwere in one Goodness: unto which Goodness my Reason would be oned, and\ncleave to it with all its might.\nI beheld with reverent dread, and highly marvelling in the sight\nand in the feeling of the sweet accord, that our Reason is in God;\nunderstanding that it is the highest gift that we have received; and it\nis grounded in nature.\nOur faith is a light by nature coming of our endless Day, that is our\nFather, God. In which light our Mother, Christ, and our good Lord, the\nHoly Ghost, leadeth us in this passing life. This light is measured\ndiscreetly, needfully standing to us in the night. The light is cause\nof our life; the night is cause of our pain and of all our woe: in\nwhich we earn meed and thanks of God. For we, with mercy and grace,\nsteadfastly know and believe our light, going therein wisely and\nmightily.\nAnd at the end of woe, suddenly our eyes shall be opened, and in\nclearness of light our sight shall be full: which light is God, our\nMaker and Holy Ghost, in Christ Jesus our Saviour.\nThus I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night:\nwhich light is God, our endless Day.\n[1] _Cf._ chs. lxxxv. and lxxxvi. These words might be (as Life,\nLight, and Love) for the Trinity of _Might_ (\"the Father willeth\"),\n_Wisdom_ (\"the Son worketh\"), _Love_ (\"the Holy Ghost confirmeth\"):\n_one Goodness_: or as it is sometimes denoted, the Trinity of\n_Might, Wisdom, Goodness: one Love_. But here the thought seems to\nbe centred in _Light_ as the manifestation of Being (of _Kyndhede_ =\nrelationships, correspondences of nature): of the Triune Divine Light\nwhich in Man is corresponding Reason, Faith, Charity: Charity keeping\nman, while here, in Faith and Hope; Charity leading him from and\nthrough and into the Eternal Divine Love.\nThe light is Charity, and the measuring of this light is done to us\nprofitably by the wisdom of God. For neither is the light so large that\nwe may see our blissful Day, nor is it shut from us; but it is such a\nlight in which we may live meedfully, with travail deserving[1] the\nendless worship of God. And this was seen in the Sixth Shewing where He\nsaid: _I thank thee of thy service and of thy travail_. Thus Charity\nkeepeth us in Faith and Hope, and Hope leadeth us in Charity. And in\nthe end all shall be Charity.\nI had three manners of understanding of this light, Charity. The first\nis Charity unmade; the second is Charity made; the third is Charity\ngiven. Charity unmade is God; Charity made is our soul in God; Charity\ngiven is virtue. And that is a precious gift of working in which we\nlove God, for Himself; and ourselves, in God; and that which God\nloveth, for God.\n[1] _i.e._ earning the endless praise.\n \"Lord, blessed mayest Thou be, for it is thus: it is well\"\nAnd in this sight I marvelled highly. For notwithstanding our simple\nliving and our blindness here, yet endlessly our courteous Lord\nbeholdeth us in this working, rejoicing; and of all things, we may\nplease Him best wisely and truly to believe, and to enjoy with Him and\nin Him. For as verily as we shall be in the bliss of God without end,\nHim praising and thanking, so verily we have been in the foresight of\nGod, loved and known in His endless purpose from without beginning. In\nwhich unbegun love He made us; and in the same love He keepeth us and\nnever suffereth us to be hurt [in manner] by which our bliss might be\nlost. And therefore when the Doom is given and we be all brought up\nabove, then shall we clearly see in God the secret things which be now\nhid to us. Then shall none of us be stirred to say in any wise: _Lord,\nif it had been thus, then it had been full well_; but we shall say\nall with one voice: _Lord, blessed mayst thou be, for it is thus: it\nis well; and now see we verily that all-thing is done as it was then\nordained before that anything was made._\n \"Love was our Lord's Meaning\"\nThis book is begun by God's gift and His grace, but it is not yet\nperformed, as to my sight.\nFor Charity pray we all; [together] with _God's_ working, thanking,\ntrusting, enjoying. For thus will our good Lord be prayed to, as by the\nunderstanding that I took of all His own meaning and of the sweet words\nwhere He saith full merrily: _I am the Ground of thy beseeching_. For\ntruly I saw and understood in our Lord's meaning that He shewed it for\nthat He willeth to have it known more than it is: in which knowing He\nwill give us grace to love to Him and cleave to Him. For He beholdeth\nHis heavenly treasure with so great love on earth that He willeth to\ngive us more light and solace in heavenly joy, in drawing to Him of our\nhearts, for sorrow and darkness[1] which we are in.\nAnd from that time that it was shewed I desired oftentimes to learn[2]\nwhat was our Lord's meaning. And fifteen years after, and more, I was\nanswered in ghostly understanding, saying thus: _Wouldst thou learn[3]\nthy Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was His meaning.\nWho shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love. Wherefore shewed\nit He? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and know more\nin the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn therein other thing\nwithout end._ Thus was I learned[4] that Love was our Lord's meaning.\nAnd I saw full surely that ere God made us He loved us; which love was\nnever slacked, nor ever shall be. And in this love He hath done all His\nworks; and in this love He hath made all things profitable to us; and\nin this love our life is everlasting. In our making we had beginning;\nbut the love wherein He made us was in Him from without beginning: in\nwhich love we have our beginning. And all this shall we see in God,\nwithout end.\n[1] \"merkness\" = dimness.\n[2] \"witten\" = to see clearly.\n[3] \"witten\" = to see clearly.\n[4] \"lerid.\"\n POSTSCRIPT BY A SCRIBE\n[The Sloane MS. is entitled \"Revelations to one who could not read a\nLetter, Anno Dom. 1373,\" and each chapter is headed by a few lines\ndenoting its contents. These titles are in language similar to that of\nthe text, and are probably the work of an early scribe. No doubt it\nis the same scribe who after the last sentence of the book adds the\naspiration:] _Which Jesus mot grant us_\n [And to him also may be assigned this conclusion:--]\nThus endeth the Revelation of Love of the blissid Trinite shewid by\nour Savior Christ Jesu for our endles comfort and solace and also to\nenjoyen in him in this passand journey of this life.\n _Amen Jesu Amen_\nI pray Almyty God that this booke com not but to the hands of them\nthat will be his faithfull lovers, and to those that will submitt\nthem to the faith of holy Church, and obey the holesom understondying\nand teching of the men that be of vertuous life, sadde Age and sound\nlering: ffor this Revelation is hey Divinitye and hey wisdom, wherfore\nit may not dwelle with him that is thrall to synne and to the Devill.\nAnd beware thou take not on thing after thy affection and liking, and\nleve another: for that is the condition of an heretique. But take every\nthing with other. And, trewly understonden, All is according to holy\nScripture and groundid in the same. And _that_ Jesus, our very love,\nlight and truth, shall shew to all clen soulis that with mekeness aske\nprofe reverently this wisdom of hym.\nAnd thou to whom this boke shall come, thank heyley and hertily our\nSaviour Christ Jesu that he made these shewings and revelations, for\nthe, and to the, of his endles love, mercy and goodnes for thine and\nour save guide, to conduct to everlastying bliss: _the which Jesus mot\ngrant us._ AMEN.\n _Adight_ = prepared, ordained.\n _Adventure_ = chance, hazard.\n _After_ = according to.\n _All thing_ = with the verb singular--kept here chiefly to express\n _all_, the _whole_ of things related to each other, though often, as in\n the original, meaning simply _every, each_. In Early and Middle English\n _thing_ had no _s_ in the plural.\n _And_ had sometimes the force of _but_, and once or twice in the MS. it\n is used in its sense of _if_, or of _and though_, or _and when_.\n _Asseth, asyeth, asyeth-making_ = satisfaction; fulfilment\n (theologically used).\n _Asketh_ = requireth, demandeth.\n _Avisement_ = consideration; observation with self-consulting.\n _Beclosed_ = enclosed.\n _Behest_ = promise: a thing proclaimed; afterwards, command.\n _Behold in_ = behold. _Beholding_ = manner of regarding things.\n _Belongeth to, behoveth_ = is incumbent, befitteth.\n _Blissful_ = used sometimes as _blessed_.\n _Bodily_ = perceived by any of the bodily senses, effected by material\n agency.\n _Braste_ = burst.\n _Busyness_ = the state of being busy; _great busyness_ = much ado.\n _But if_ = unless, save.\n _Cause_ = reason, end, object.\n _Cheer_ = expression of countenance shewing sorrow or gladness; mien.\n _Close_ = shut away; hid, or partially hid.\n _Come from_ = go from.\n _Common: the Blessed Common_ = the Christian Community.\n _Contrarious_ = perverse. Various other forms are used from to\n _contrary_, to oppose.\n _Could_ and _can_ refer to knowledge and practical skill, ability.\n _Courteous_ = gently considerate and fair; reverentially ceremonious;\n Gracious.\n _Deadly_ = mortal.\n _Dearworthy_ = precious; beloved and honoured.\n _Depart_ = dispart, part.\n _Deserve_ = earn.\n _Disease_ = distress, trouble, want of case.\n _Doom, deeming_ = judgment. _Doomsman_ = priestly confessor.\n _Enjoy in_ = enjoy; rejoice in.\n _Entend_ = attend.\n _Enter_ = to lead in.\n _Even_ = equal; _even-like; even-right_ = straight, straight-facing.\n _Even-Christian_ (_even-cristen_, sing. or pl.) = fellow-Christian.\n _Hamlet_ V. i., \"And the more the pity that great folk have countenance\n in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even\n Christian.\"\n _Faithfully_ = trustfully.\n _For that_ = because.\n _Fulfilled of_ = filled full with. _Fulfilling_ = fulfilment, Perfect\n Bliss.\n _Garland_ = crown.\n _Generally_ = relating to things or people in general, not \"in special.\"\n _Grante mercy_ = (\"grand merci\") great thanks.\n _Have to_ = betake one's self to.\n _Hastily_ = quickly, soon.\n _Homely_ = intimate, simple, as of one at home.\n _Honest_ = fair, seemly.\n _If_ = that (chap. xxxii., \"Thou shalt see--if all--shall be well\" Acts\n xxvi. 8).\n _Impropriated (impropried) to_ = appropriated to.\n _Indifferent_ (to thy sight, chap. li.) = indistinct.\n _Intellect_ = understanding, that which is to be understood, inference.\n xiii.\n _Intent_ = attention.\n _Kind_ = nature, race, birth, species; natural, etc.; _kindly_ = as by\n birth and kinship, natural, filial, gentle, genial, human and humane.\n _Known_ = made known.\n _Languor_ = to languish.\n _Learn_ = teach.\n _Let_, \"_letten_\" = hinder (letted).\n _Like (it liketh him, meliketh)_ = to suit, be similar to the desire,\n to be pleasing (Amos iv. 5). _Liking_ = pleasure, pleasance.\n _Likeness_ (\"without any likeness\") = comparison.\n _May, might,_ often for _can_ and _could_ of modern usage.\n _Mean_ = to think, say, signify, intend; to have in one's mind.\n _Mean, means_ = medium, intermediary thing, or person, or communication.\n _Mind_ = feeling, memory, sympathetic perception or realisation.\n _Mischief_ = hurt, injury, harm.\n _Mights_ = powers, faculties.\n _Morrow_ = morning.\n _Moaning_ = sorrowing.\n _Naked_ = simple, single, plain, by itself.\n _Needs_ = of need; it _behoveth needs_ = is incumbent through necessity.\n _Oweth_ = ought, is bound by duty or debt.\n _One_ (oned, oneing) = to make one, unite.\n _Over_ = upper.\n _Overpassing_ = exceeding; the _overpassing_ = the Restoration,\n the heavenly Fulfilment of the Company of souls made _more_ than\n conquerors; the Supernal Blessedness.\n _Pass_ = to die.\n _Passing_ = surpassingly.\n _Regard, in regard of_ = in respect of, comparison with. _Regard_ =\n look, sight.\n _Ready_ = prepared; _readily_ = quickly.\n _Sad_ = Sober (\"sad votaress,\" Milton, _Comus_), originally \"firm\"\n (\"rype and sad corage,\" Chaucer: _The Clerkes Tale_, 164).\n _Say_ = tell.\n _Skilfully_ = discerningly, with practical knowledge and ability.\n _Slade_ = a steep, hollow place; a ravine.\n _So far forth_ = to such a measure.\n _Solemn_ = festal, as of a yearly feast, stately, ceremonial.\n _Sooth_ = very reality, that which _is; soothly, soothfastly_.\n _Speed_ = prospering, furtherance, profit.\n _Stint_ (\"stinten\") = to cease.\n _Stirring_ (\"stering\") = moving, prompting, motion.\n _Substantial_ and _sensual_, relating respectively (in the writer's\n psychology) to the _Substance_ or higher self, and the soul inhabiting\n the body on earth, called by her the _Sensualite_, and in chap. lvii.\n _the sensual soul; cf._ Genesis i. 27, with ii. 7.\n _Tarry_ = to vex, delay.\n _Touch_ (a) = an instant. _Touching_ = influence.\n _Trow_ = believe.\n _Unknowing_ = ignorance; _unmade_ = not made.\n _Ween_ = suppose, expect, think.\n _Will; He will_ = He willeth that. _Wilfully_ = with firm will,\n resolutely.\n _Wit_ to know by perception, to experience, find, learn. Knowledge\n knows: _Wisdom wits_.\n _Worship_ = honour, praise, glory.\n _Wretch_ = a poor, a mean creature of no account.\n[THE END.]", "source_dataset": "gutenberg", "source_dataset_detailed": "gutenberg - Revelations of Divine Love\n"} +] \ No newline at end of file