understand that the best deed is well done and so well as the best deed that is done and the highest so well is the least deed done And all in the Property and in the Order that our Lord hath it ordeined tofore without beginning For there is no Door but he I saw full truly that he changed never his purpose in no manner of thing ne never shall without end For there was nothing unknown to him in his rightful Ordinance fro without beginning And therefore all thing were set in order ere any thing was made as it should stand without end and no manner of thing shall fail of that Point for he hath made all thing in fulhead of Goodness And therefore the blessed Trinity is ever full pleased in all his Works And all this shewed he full blessedly meaning thus See I am God See I am in all things See I do all things See I never left my hands of my Works ne never shall without end See I lead all thing to the end that I ordaine it to for without beginning by the same Might Wisdom and Love that I made it with How should any thing be amiss Thus mightily wisely and lovingly was the Soul examined in this Vision Then saw I verily that me behoveth needs to assent with great Reverence and Joy in God The Fourth Revelation The xij Chapter ANd after this I saw beholding the body plentuously bleeding in seeming of the scourging as thus The fair Skin was broken full deep into the tender flesh with sharp smitings all about the sweet Body The hot blood ran out so plenteously that there was neither seen Skin ne Wound but as it were all blood And when it came where it should have fallen down there it vanished Notwithstanding the bleeding continued a while till it might be seen with advisement And this was so plentuous to my sight that me thought if it had been so in kind and in substance for that time it should have made the Bed all on blood and have passed over all about Then came to my mind that God hath made Waters plentuous in Earth to our service and to our bodily ease for tender Love that he hath to us But yet liketh him better that we take full holsomely his blessed Blood to wash us from sin for there is no Liquor that is made that liketh him so well to give us For it is most plentuous as it is most precious and that by the vertue of the blessed Godhead and it is our own kind and blessedfully overfloweth us by the vertue of his precious Love The dear worthy blood of our Lord Jesu Christ also verily as it is most precious as verily it is most plentuous Behold and see the vertue of this precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood It descended down into Hell and brake her Bonds and delivered them all that were there which belongeth to the Court of Heaven The precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood overfloweth all Earth and is ready to wash all Creatures of sin which be of Good-will have been or shall be The precious plenty of his dear worthy Blood ascendeth up into Heaven in the blessed Body of our Lord Jesu Christ And there is in him Bleeding Praying for us to the Father and is and shall be as long as us needeth And evermore it floweth in all Heaven enjoying the Salvation of all Mankind that be there and shall be fulfilling the number that faileth The Fifth Revelation The xiij Chapter ANd after or that God shewed any words he suffered me to behold him a conveniable time And all that I had seen and all the understanding that was therein as the simpleness of the Soul might take it Then he without voyce and opening of Lips formed in my Soul these Words Herewith is the fiend overcome This Word said our Lord meaning his blessed Passion as he shewed before In this our Lord shewed a part of the fiends malice and fully his unmight for he shewed that the Passion of him is the overcoming of the fiend God shewed that the fiend hath now the same malice that he had before the Incarnation and also sore he travelleth And as continually he seeth that all Souls of Salvation escape him Worshipfully by the vertue of his precious Passion and that is his sorrow and full evil is he ashamed For all that God suffereth him to do turneth us to joy and him to shame and pain And he hath as much sorrow when God giveth him leave to Work as when he worketh not And that is for he may never do as ill as he would for his might is all locked in God's hand but in God may be no wrath as to my fight For our good Lord endlesly having regard to his own Worship and to the profit of all them that shall be saved with Might and Right he withstandeth the reproved the which of malice and of shrewdness busie them to contrary and do against God's will Also I saw our Lord scorning his malice and naughting his unmight And he will that we do so For this fight I laught mightly and that made them to laugh that were about me and their laughing was a liking to me I thought that I would that all my even Christen had seen as I saw then should all they have laughed with me but I saw not Christ laughing But well I wot that sight that he shewed me made me to laugh For I understood that we may laugh in comforting of our self and joying in God for the fiend is overcome And there I saw him scorn his malice it was beholding to my understanding into our Lord that is to say an inward shewing of * i. e. truth sooth fastness without changing of cheere For as to my sight it is a worshipful property that is in God which is durable And after this I fell into a sadness and said I see three things Game Scorn and Earnest I see Game that the fiend is overcome And I see Scorne that God scorneth him and he shall be scorned And I see Earnest that he is overcome by the blessedful Passion and Death of our Lord Jesu Christ that was done in full great earnest and with sad Travel And there I said that he is scorned I meant that God scorneth him that is to say for he seeth him now as he shall do without end for in this God shewed that the fiend is damned And this meant I there I said he should be scorned For I saw he shall be scorned at Doomes-day generally of all that shall be saved to whose Salvation he hath had great envy for then he shall see that all the Woe and Tribulation that he hath done them shall be turned into encrease of their joy without end And all the Pain and the Sorrow that he would have brought them to shall for ever go with him to Hell The Sixth Revelation The xiv Chapter ANd after this our Lord said I thank thee of thy Service
Sin and Wickedness for it longeth properly to vertues to hate Sin and Wickedness And thus is Jesu our very Mother in kind of our first making And he is our very first Mother in Grace by taking of our kind made all the fair Working and all the sweet kindly Offices of dear worthy Mother-head is * i e. appropriated impropred to the second Person For in him we have this goodly Will whole and safe without end both in Kind and in Grace of his own proper goodness I understood three manner of beholdings of Mother-head in God The first is ground of our kind Making The second is taking of our kind and there beginneth the Mother-head of Grace The third is Mother-head in Working And therein is a forth-speeding by the same Grace of length and bredth of height and of deepness without end and all is one Love The Lx. Chapter BUt now me behooveth to see a little more of this forth-spreading as I understood in the meaning of our Lord how that we be brought again by the Mother-head of Mercy and Grace into our kindly steed where that we were in made by the Mother-head of kind Love which kind Love never leaveth us Our kind Mother our gracious Mother for he would all whole become our Mother in all thing he took the ground of his Work full low and full mildly in the Maidens Womb. And that shewed he in the first where he brought the meek Maiden before the eye of my understanding in the simple stature as she was when he conceived that is to say our high God the severeign Wisdom of all In this low place he arraid him and dight him all ready in our poor flesh himself to do the service and the office of Mother-hood in all thing The Mothers service is nearest readiest and surest Nearest for it is most of kind readiest for it is most of Love and sikerest for it is most of Truth This Office ne might nor could never none done to the full but he alone We wit that all our Mothers bear us to Pain and to dying What is that but our very Mother Jesu He alone beareth us to joy and to endless living blessed mote he be Thus he sustained us within him in Love and Travel into the full time that he would suffer the sharpest Thornes and grievous Pains that ever were or ever shall be and died at the last And when he had done and so borne us to Bliss yet might not all this * i e. give satisfaction make asseeth to his marvellous Love And that he shewed in these high over-passing Words of Love If I might suffer more I would suffer more He might no more die but he would not stint working Wherefore him behooveth to find us for the dear worthy Love of Motherhood hath made him debtor to us The Mother may give her Child to suck her milk but our precious Mother Jesu he may feed us with himself and doth full courteously and full tenderly with the Blessed Sacrament that is precious food of very Life and with all the sweet Sacraments he sustaineth us full mercifully and graciously And so meant he in these blessed Words where he said I it am that Holy Church preacheth thee and teacheth thee that is to say all the Health and the Life of the Sacraments all the Vertue and the Grace of my Word all the goodness that is ordained in Holy Church to thee I it am The Mother may lay her Child tenderly to her Breast but our tender Mother Jesu he may homely lead us into his blessed Breast by his sweet open side and shew us there in party of the God-head and the joyes of Heaven with Ghostly sureness of endless bliss And that shewed he in the jxth Revelation giving the same understanding in this sweet Word where he saith Loe how I love thee behold into his blessed side enjoying This fair lovely Word Mother it is so sweet and so kind in it self that it may not verily be said of none ne to none but of him and to him that is very Mother of Life and of all To the property of Mother-head longeth kind Love Wisdom and Knowing and it is God For though it be so that our bodily forth-bringing be but little low and simple in regard of our Ghostly forth-bringing yet it is he that doth it in the Creatures by whom that it is done The kind loving Mother that wotteth and knoweth the need of her Child she keepeth it full tenderly as the kind and condition of Mother-head will and ever as it waxeth in Age and in Stature she changeth the Works but not her Love And when it is waxed of more Age she suffereth that it be chastised in breaking down of Vices to make the Child receive Vertues and Grace This Working with all that be fair and good our Lord doth it in him by whom it is done Thus he is our Mother in kind by the working of Grace in the lower party for love of the higher And he will that we know it for he will have all our Love fastned to him And in this I saw that all debt that we owe by Gods bidding to Father-head and Mother-head is fulfilled in true loving of God Which blessed Love Christ worketh in us And this was shewed in all And Namely in the High plentuous Words where he saith I it am that thou Lovest The Lxj. Chapter ANd in our Ghostly forth-bringing he useth more tenderness in keeping without any comparison by as much as our Soul is of more price in his sight He kindleth our understanding he prepareth our wayes he easeth our Conscience he comforteth our Soul he lighteth our Heart and giveth us in party knowing and loving in his blessedful God-head with gracious mind in his sweet Man-hood and his blessed Passion with courteous marvelling in his high over-passing goodness and maketh us to love all that he loveth for his Love and to be well apaid with him and with all his Works And when we fall hastily he raiseth us by his lovely * i e. embracing beclipping and his gracious Touching And when we be strengthened by his sweet working then we wilfully choose him by his Grace to be his Servants and his Lovers lastingly without end And yet after this he suffereth some of us to fall more hard and more grievous than ever we did before as us thinketh And then * i e. judge wene we that we be not all wise that all were naught that we have begun but it is not so For it needeth us to fall and it needeth us to see it for if we fell not we should not know how feeble and how wretched we be of our self nor also we should not so | i e. fully fulsomely know the marvellous Love of our Maker for we shall verily see in Heaven without end that we have grievously sinned in this Life And notwithstanding this we shall verily see that we were never hurt in
which he protraid with his own blessed face when he was in his hard Passion wilfully going to his Death and often changing of Colour of the brown-head and the black-head rewlyhead and lean-head Of this Image many marvelled how that might be standing that he protraid it with his blessed face which is the fairest of Heaven Flower of Earth and the fruit of the Maidens Womb. Then how might this Image be so discoloured and so far from fair-head I desire to see as I have understood by the Grace of God We know in our Faith and in our Belief by the Teaching and Preaching of Holy Church that the blessedfull Trinity made Mankind to his Image and Likeness In the same manner wise we know that when man fell so deep and so wretchedly by Sin there was none other help to restore man but through him that made man And he that made man for Love by the same Love he would restore man to the same bliss and over-passing And right as we were made like to the Trinity in our first making our Maker would that we should be like to Jesu Christ our Saviour in Heaven without end by the vertue of our own making Then between these two he would for Love and for Worship of man make himself as like to man in this deadly Life in our foul-head and in our wretchedness as man might be without guilt Whereof it meaneth as is before said it was the Image and the Likeness of our foul black deeds wherein our fair bright blessed Lord hid his God-head But verily I dare say and we ought to believe that so fair a man was never none but he till what time that his fair Colour was changed with Travaile and Sorrow Passion and Dying Of this it speaketh in the Second Revelation and in the xviijth Chapter where it speaketh more of the same likeness And there it saith of the Vernacle of Rome it meaneth by diverse changing of Colour and either sometime more comfortable and lively and sometime more ruful and deadly as it may be seen hereafter and this Vision was a learning to my understanding that the continually seeking of the Soul pleaseth God much for it may do no more than seek suffer and trust And this is wrought in every Soul that hath it by the Holy Ghost And the clearness of finding it is of the special Grace when it is his will the seeking with Faith Hope and Charity pleaseth our Lord and the finding pleaseth the Soul and fulfilleth it with joy And thus was I learned to my understanding that seeking is as good as heholding for the time that he will suffer the Soul to be in Travaile It is God's Will that we seek into the beholding of him for by that shall he shew us himself of his special Grace when he will And how a Soul shall * i e. behave have her in his beholding he shall teach himself and that is most Worship to him and most profit to the Soul and most received of Meekness and Vertues with the Grace and leading of the Holy Ghost for a Soul that only resigneth him to God with very trust either in seeking or in beholding it is the most Worship that he may do as to my sight These be two Workings that may be seen in this Vision That one is seeking the other is beholding The seeking is common that each Soul may have with his Grace and ought to have discretion and teaching of Holy Church It is God's Will that we have three things in our seeking of his Gift The first is that we seek | i e. seriously wilfully and busily without sloath as it may be with his Grace gladly and merrily without unreasonable Heaviness and vain-sorrow The second that we abide him stedfastly for his Love without grudging and striving against him into Lives end for it shall last but a while The third is that we trust in him mightily of full and true Faith For it is his will that we know that he shall appear suddenly and blessedfully to all his Lovers For his Working is privy and he will be perceived and his appearing shall be sweet sudden and he will be trusted for he is full | i e. familiar homely curteous Blessed mote he be The Third Revelation The xj Chapter ANd after this I saw God in a Point that is to say in my understanding By which sight I saw that he is in all thing I beheld with advisement seeing and knowing in that sight that he doth all that is done I marvelled in that sight with a soft dread and thought what is sin For I saw truly that God doth all thing be it never so litle And I saw verily that nothing is done by happ ne by adventure but all by the aforesaid Wisdom of God if it be happ or Adventure in the sight of man our blind-head and un-fore-sight is the cause For those things that be in the foresaid Wisdom of God been fro without beginning which Rightfully and Worshipfully continually he leadeth to the best end As it cometh about falling to us suddenly our unwitting And thus by our blindness and our unforesight we say these things be by happs and Adventure Thus I understand in this shewing of Love For well I wot in the fight of our Lord God is no happ ne Adventure Wherefore me behoved needs to grant that all things that are done are well done for our Lord God doth all For in this time the Working of Creatures was not shewed but of our Lord God in the Creatures for he is in the mid Point of all things and all he doth And I am sure that he doth no sin And here I saw verily that sin is no deed for in all this sin was not shewed And I would no longer marvel in this but beheld our Lord what he would shew And thus as it might be for the time the rightfulness of God's Work was shewed for the Soul Rightfulness hath two fair Properties It is right and it is full And so be all the Works of our Lord. And thereto needeth neither Working of Mercy ne Grace For they be all rightful wherein faileth right nought And in an other time he shewed for beholding of sin naked as I shall say After when he useth working of Mercy and of Grace This Vision was shewed to my understanding For our Lord will have the Soul turned truly unto the beholding of him and generally of all his Works for they be full good And all his * i e. judgment Dooms be easie and sweet and two great eyes bringing the Soul that is turned from the beholding of the blind deeming of man into the faire sweet deeming of our Lord God For man he holdeth some deeds well done and some deeds evil And our Lord beholdeth them not so for as all that hath being in kind is of God's making so is all thing that is done in Property of Gods doing For it is easie to
Holy Church in the same Grace In this will our Lord that we be occupied and joying in him for he joyeth in us And the more plenteously that we take of this with Reverence and Meekness the more thank we deserve of him and the more * i e. profit speed to our self And thus may we see and | i e. rejoyce in that enjoy our part is our Lord That other is hid and †i e. shut up sparred from us that is to say all that is besides our Salvation for that is our Lords privy Counsel and it longeth to the Royal Lordship of God to have his privy Counsels in Peace And it longeth to his Servants for Obedience and Reverence not to will to know his Counsels Our Lord hath pity and Compassion on us for that some Creatures make them so busie therein and I am sure if we | i e. knew wist how greatly we should please him and ease our self to leave it we would The Saints in Heaven they will nothing wit but what our Lord will shew them and also their Charity and their desire is ruled after the Will of our Lord And thus ought we that our Will be like to them then shall we nothing will ne desire but the Will of our Lord like as they do for we be all one in Gods meaning And here I was learned that I should only enjoy in our blessed Saviour Jesu and trust in him for all thing The xxxij Chapter ANd thus our good Lord answered to all the Questions and Doubts that I might make saying full Comfortably I may make all thing well And I can make all thing well and I shall make all thing well and I will make all thing well and thou shalt see thy self that all manner of thing shall be well There he saith I may I understand for the Father and there he saith I can I understand for the Son and there he saith I will I understand for the Holy Ghost and there he saith I shall I understand the Unity of the blessed Trinity Three Persons and one Truth And there he saith Thou shalt see thy self I understand the Coming of all Mankind that shall be saved into the blessedful Trinity And in these five Words God will that we be enclosed in Rest and Peace And thus shall the Ghostly thirst of Christ have an end for this is the Ghostly thirst of Christ the Love-longing that lasteth and ever shall till we see that sight at Dooms-day for we that shall be safe and shall be Christs Joy and his Bliss been yet here and some be to come and so shall some be into that day Therefore this is his thirst and Love-longing of us all together here in him to our endless bliss as to my sight for we be not now fully as whole in him as we shall be then for we know in our Faith and also it was shewed in all that Christ Jesu was both God and Man And | i e. according to aneynst the Godhead he is himself highest bliss and was fro without beginning and shall be without end Which very endless bliss may never be * i e. encreased highed nor | i e diminished lowed in it self And this was plenteously seen in every shewing and namely in the xijth where he saith I it am that is highest And as aneynst Christs Manhood it is known in our Faith and also shewed that he through the Vertue of the Godhead for Love to bring us to his bliss suffered Pains and Passion and died And these be the Works of Christs Manhood wherein he enjoyeth And that shewed he in the ixth where he saith It is a joy a bliss and endless liking to me that ever I suffered Passion for thee And this is the bliss of Christs Works And thus he meaneth there he saith in the same shewing We be his bliss we be his | i e reward meed we be his Worship we be his Crown For as aneynst that Christ is our head he is glorified and unpassible And as aneynst his body in which all his Members be knit he is not yet full glorified ne all unpassible For the same thirst and longing that he had upon the | i e. cross Roode-tree which desire longing and thirst as to my fight was in him from without beginning the same hath he yet and shall into the time that the last Soul that shall be saved is come up to his bliss For as truly as there is a property in God of ruth and pity as verily there is a property in God of thirst and longing And of the vertue of this longing in Christ we have to long again to him without which no Soul cometh to Heaven And this property of longing and thirst cometh of the endless goodness of God right as the property of pity cometh of his endless goodness And though he have longing and pity they been sundry properties as to my sight And in this standeth the point of Ghostly thirst which is lasting in him as long as we be in need us drawing up to his bliss And all this was seen in shewing of Compassion for that shall cease at Dooms-day Thus he hath ruth and Compassion on us And he hath longing to have us but his Wisdom and his Love suffer not the | i e. end same to come till the best time The xxxij Chapter ONe time our good Lord said All manner of thing shall be well And another time he said Thou shalt see thy self that all manner of thing shall be well And in these two the Soul took sundry manner of understanding One was this that he will we wit that not only he taketh heed to noble things and to great but also to litle and to small to low and to simple and to one and to other And so meaneth he in that he saith All manner of thing shall be well for he will that we wit that the least thing shall not be forgotten Another understanding is this that there be many deeds evil done in our sight and so great harms take that it seemeth to us that it were impossible that ever it should come to a good end And upon this we look sorrow and mourn therefore so that we cannot rest us in the blissedful beholding of God as we should do And the cause is this that the use of our Reason is now so blind so low and so simple that we cannot know the high marvellous Wisdom the Might and the Goodness of the blissedful Trinity And this meaneth he where he saith Thou shalt see thy self that all manner of thing shall be well As if he said take now faithfully and trustfully add at the last end thou shalt be verily in | i e. fulness fulhead of Joy And thus in the same five Words beforesaid I may make all thing well I understand a mighty Comfort of all Works of our Lord God that are for to come There is a
that greatly pleaseth God and also meekly taketh bodily sickness of Gods sending Also Sorrow and Shame outwardly with reproof and despite of the World with all manner of Grievance and Temptations that we be cast in Ghostly and Bodily Full preciously our good Lord keepeth us when it seemeth to us that we be near forsaken and cast away for our sin and for we see that we have deserved it And because of the Meekness that we get thereby we be raised full high in Gods sight by his Grace And also whom our Lord will he visiteth of his special Grace with so great Contrition and also with Compassion and true longing to God that they be suddenly delivered of Sin and of Pain and taken up to bliss and made even with Saints By Contrition we be made clean by Compassion we be made ready And by true Longing to God we be made worthy These be three means as I understood whereby that all Souls come to Heaven that is to say that have been Sinners in Earth and shall be saved For by these Medicines behoveth that every sinful Soul be healed though that he be healed his Wounds be seen before God not as Wounds but as Worships And so on the contrariwise as we be punished here with Sorrow and with Penance we shall be rewarded in Heaven by the courteous Love of our God Almighty that will that none that come there leese his Travel in any degree For he beholdeth sin as Sorrow and Pains to his Lovers in whom he assigneth no blame for Love The meed that we undertake shall not be litle but it shall be high glorious and worshipful and so shall all shame turn to Worship and to Joy For our courteous Lord will not that his Servants despair for oft failing ne for grievous falling for our falling letteth not him to Love us Peace and Love is ever in us being and working but we be not ever in Peace and in Love But he will we take heed thus that he is ground of all our whole Life in Love And furthermore that he is our everlasting Keeper and mightily defendeth us against all our Enemies that be full fell and full fierce upon us And so much our need is the more for we give them occasion by our falling The xl Chapter ANd this is a sovereign Friendship of our courteous Lord that he keepeth us so tenderly whiles we be in our sin And furthermore he toucheth us full privily and sheweth us our sin by the sweet light of Mercy and Grace But when we see our self so foul then we wene that God were wrath with us for our sin Then be we stirred of the Holy Ghost by Contrition into Prayer and desire amending of our self with all our Might to slack the Wrath of God unto the time we find a rest in Soul and softness in Conscience And then hope we that God hath forgiven us our sin and it is true And then sheweth our courteous Lord himself to the Soul merrily and of full glad chear with friendfully welcoming as if it had been in Pain and in Prison saying thus My dear Darling I am glad thou art come to me in all thy Woe I have ever been with thee and now seest thou me loving and we be oned in Bliss Thus are sins forgiven by Grace and Mercy and our Soul Worshipfully received in Joy like as it shall be when it cometh into Heaven as oftimes as it cometh by the gracious Working of the Holy Ghost and the vertue of Christs Passion Here understood I verily that all manner of thing is made ready to us by the great Goodness of God so far forth that what time we be our self in Peace and in Charity we be verily safe But for we may not have this in fullhead while we be here therefore it befalleth us ever to live in sweet Praying and in lovely Longing with our Lord Jesu for he longeth ever for to bring us to the fulhead of Joy as it is before said where he sheweth the Ghostly Thirst But now because of all this Ghostly Comfort that is before said if any Man or Woman be stirred by Folly to say or to think Ob. If this be true then were it good for to Sin to have the more meed or else to charge the less to sin Sol. Beware of this stirring for truly if it come it is untrue and of the Enemy For the same true Love that toucheth us all by his blessed Comfort the same blessed Love teacheth us that we shall hate sin only for Love And I am sure by my own feeling the more that each kind Soul seeth this in the courteous Love of our Lord God the lother is him to sin and the more he is ashamed For if it were laid before us all the Pain that is in Hell and in Purgatory and in Earth to suffer it rather than sin we should rather choose all that Pain than sin For sin is so vile and so mickle for to hate that it may be likned to no Pain which Pain is not sin And to me was shewed none harder Hell than sin for a kind Soul hateth no Pain but sin for all is good but sin and naught is evil but sin And when we give our intent to Love and Meekness by the working of Mercy and Grace we be made all Fair and Clean. And as Mighty and as Wise as God is to save Man as willing he is For Christ himself is ground of all the Laws of Christen Men and he taught us to doe Good against Evil. Here we may see that he is himself this Charity and doth to us as he teacheth us to do For he will that we be like him in whole-head of endless Love to our self and to our even Christen No more than his Love is broken to us for our sin no more will he that our Love be broken to our self nor to our even Christen but nakedly hate sin and endlesly love the Soul as God loveth it Then should we hate sin like as God hateth it and love the Soul as God loveth it for these words that God said is an endless Comfort I keep thee full truly The Fourteenth Revelation The xlj Chapter AFter this our Lord shewed for Prayer In which shewing I saw two Conditions in our Lords meaning One is rightful Prayer Another is * i e. sure siker trust But yet oftentimes our trust is not full for we be not sure that God heareth us as we think for our unworthiness and for we feel right naught for we be as barren and as dry oft-times after our Prayers as we were before And thus in our feelling our folly is cause of our Weakness For thus have I felt by my self And all this brought our Lord suddenly to my mind and shewed these Words and said I am ground of thy beseeking First it is my will that thou have it And sithen I make thee to will it And sithen I make thee to beseek it and
clearness of Truth and Wisdom maketh him to see and to know that he is made for Love in which Love God endlesly keepeth him The xlv Chapter GOD deemeth us upon our kindly substance which is ever kept one in him whole and safe without end And this Doome is of his rightful-head And man deemeth upon our Changeable sensuality which seemeth now one now another | i e. according as after that it taketh of the parties and shewed outward And this Doome is * i e. mingled or twofold meddled for sometimes it is good and easie and sometime it is hard and grievous And in as much as it is good and easie it longeth to the rightfulness and in as much as it is hard and grievous our good Lord Jesu reformeth it by Mercy and Grace through vertue of his blessed Passion and so bringeth into the rightfulness And though these two be thus accorded and oned yet it shall be known both in Heaven without end The first Doome which is of Gods rightfulness and that is of his own high endless Love and that is that fair sweet Doome that was shewed in all the fair Revelation in which I saw him assigne to us no manner of blame And though these were sweet and delectable yet only in the beholding of this I could not be full eased And that was for the Doome of Holy Church which I had before understanding and was continually in my sight And therefore by this Doome methought that me behooveth needs to know my self a sinner And by the same Doome I understood that sinners be sometimes worthy blame and Wrath and these two could I not see in God And therefore my advise and desire was more than I can or may tell for the higher Doome God sheweth himself in the same time And therefore me behooved needs to take it And the lower Doome was learned me before time in Holy Church and therefore I might not by no way leave the lower Doome Then was this my desire that I might see in God in what manner that the Doome of Holy Church here in Earth is true in his sight and how it longeth to me verily to know it whereby they might both be saved so as it were Worshipful to God and right way to me And to all this I ne had no other answer but a marvellous Example of a Lord and of a Servant as I shall say after and that full mistely shewed And yet I stood in Desire and Will into my lives end that I might by Grace know these two Dooms as it longeth to me For all Heavenly things and all Earthly things that long to Heaven be comprehended in these two Dooms And the more knowing and understanding by the gracious leading of the Holy Ghost that we have of these two Dooms the more we shall see and know our feelings and Workings of Grace and ever the more that we see them the more kindly by Grace we shall long to be fulfilled of endless Joy and Bliss for we be made thereto And our kindly substance is now blessedfully in God and hath been sithens it was made and shall be without end The xlvj Chapter BUt our passing living that we have here in our sensuality knoweth not what our self is but in our Faith And when we know and see verily and clearly what our self is then shall we verily and clearly see and know our Lord God in fulhead of joy And therefore it behoveth needs to be that the nearer we be our bliss the more we shall long and that both by Kind and by Grace We may have knowing of our self in this Life by continual help and vertue of our high kind in which knowing we may encrease and wax by furthering and speeding of Mercy and Grace But we may never full know our self into the last point In which Point this passing Life and all manner of Woe and Paine shall have an end And therefore it longeth properly to us both by Grace and by Kind to long and desire with all our Mights to know our self In which full knowing we shall verily and clearly know our God in fulhead of endless joy And yet in all this time fro the beginning to the end I had two manner of beholdings The one was endless continuant Love with sureness of keeping and blissful Salvation for of this was all the shewing That other was the common teaching of Holy Church of which I was before enformed and grounded and wilfully having in use and understanding And the beholding of this came not from me for by the shewing I was not stirred nor led therefro in no manner Point But I had therein teaching to love it and like it whereby I might with the help of our Lord and his Grace increase and rise to more Heavenly knowing and higher loving And thus in all this beholding methought it behoved needs to see and to know that we be sinners and do many Evils that we ought to leave and leave many good Deeds undone that we ought to do Wherefore we deserve pain blame and Wrath. And notwithstanding all this I saw verily that our Lord was never Wrath ne never shall For he is God he is Good he is Truth he is Love and he is Peace and his Might his Wisdom his Charity and his Unity suffereth him not to be Wrath For I saw truly that it is against the property of his Might to be Wrath and against the property of his Wisdom and against the property of his Goodness God is that Goodness that may not be Wrath for God is not but Goodness Our Soul is oned to him unchangeable Goodness And between God and our Soul is neither Wrath nor Forgiveness in his sight for our Soul is so | i e. fully fulsomely oned to God of his own Goodness that between God and our Soul may be right naught And to this understanding was the Soul led by Love and drawn by Might in every shewing That it is thus our good Lord shewed and how it is thus verily of his great Goodness and that he will we desire to wit that is to say as it longeth to his Creatures to wit it for all thing that the simple Soul understood God will that it be shewed and known for those things that he will have privy mightily and wisely himself hideth them for Love for I saw in the same shewing that much privity is hid which may never be known into the time that God of his Goodness hath made us worthy to see it And therewith I am well | i e. content apaid abiding our Lords Will in this high marvel And now I yield me to our Mother Holy Church as a simple Child oweth The xlvij Chapter TWo Points belonging to our Soul are debt One is that we Reverently marvel That ‑ i. e. duties other is that we meekly suffer every enjoying in God for he will that we know that we shall in short time see clearly in himself all
that we desire And notwithstanding all this I beheld and marvelled greatly what is the Mercy and Forgiveness of God For by the Teaching that I had before I understood that the Mercy of God shall be Forgiveness of his Wrath after the time that we have sinned For methought that to a Soul whose meaning and desire is to Love that the Wrath of God were harder than any other Pain And therefore I took that the Forgiveness of his Wrath should be one of the principal Points of his Mercy But for ought that I might behold and desire I could not see this Point in all the shewing But how I saw and understood of the Working of Mercy I shall say some deal as God will give me Grace I understood thus Man is changeable in this Life and by simpleness and uncunning falleth into sin He is unmighty and unwise of himself and also his Will is over-laid In this time he is in Tempest and in Sorrow and in Woe And the cause is blindness for he seeth not God for if he saw God continually he should have no mischievous feeling ne no manner stirring nor sorrowing that serveth to sin Thus saw I and felt in the same time and methought that the sight and the feeling was high and plentuous and gracious in regard that our common feeling is in this Life but yet methought it was but low and small in regard of the great desire that the Soul hath to see God For I felt in me five manner of workings which be these Enjoying Mourning Desire Dreed and true Hope Enjoying for God gave me understanding and knowing that it was himself that I saw Mourning and that was for feeling desire that was that I might see him for ever more and more understanding and knowing that we shall never have full rest till we see him clearly and verily in Heaven Dreed was for it seemed to me in all that time that sight should fail and I to be left to my self True hope was in the endless Love that I saw that I should be kept by his Mercy and brought to the bliss And the joying in his sight with this true Hope of his merciful keeping made me to have Feeling and Comfort So that Mourning and dreed were not greatly painful And yet in all this I beheld in the shewing of God that this manner sight of him may not be continuant in this Life and that for his own Worship and for increase of our endless joy And therefore we fail oftentimes of the sight of him And anon we fall into our self and then find we feeling of right naught but the contrarious that is in our self And that of the old Root of our first sin with all that followeth of our own continuance And in this we be travelled and tempted with feeling of sin and of pain in many diverse manner Ghostly and Bodily as it is known to us in this Life The xlviij Chapter BUt our good Lord the Holy Ghost which is endless Life dwelling in our Soul full truly keepeth us and worketh therein a Peace and bringeth it to ease by Grace and maketh it | i e. complyant buxom and accordeth it to God And this is the Mercy and the Way that our good Lord continually leadeth us in as long as we be in this Life which is changeable For I saw no Wrath but on mans party and that forgiveth he in us For Wrath is not else but a frowardness and a contrariousness to Peace and Love And either it cometh of feeling of Might or of feeling of Wisdom or of feeling of Goodness which feeling is not of God but it is in our party for we by sin and wretchedness have in us a Wrath and a continuant contrariousness to Peace and to Love And that shewed he full oft in his lovely Chear of ruth and pity For the ground of Mercy is in Love and the working of Mercy is our keeping in Love And this was shewed in such a manner that I could not perceive of the property of Mercy otherwise but as it were all Love in Love that is to say as to my sight Mercy is a sweet gracious working in Love * ie mingled medled with plenteous pitty for Mercy worketh us keeping and Mercy worketh turning to us all thing to good Mercy for Love suffereth us to fail by measure and in as much as we fail in so much we fall and in as much as we fall in so much we die For us behooveth needs to die in as much as we fail sight and feeling of God that is our life Our failing is dreadful our falling is shameful and our dying is sorrowful But yet in all this the sweet eye of pity and love departeth never from us ne the working of Mercy ceaseth not For I beheld the property of Mercy and I beheld the property of Grace which have two manner of Working in one Love Mercy is a pitiful property which longeth to Mother-hood in tender Love And Grace is a Worshipful property which longeth to Royal Lordship in the same Love Mercy worketh keeping suffering quickening and healing and all is of tenderness of Love And Grace worketh with Mercy raising rewarding endlesly over-passing that our Loving and our Travel deserveth spreading abroad and shewing the high plenteousness largeness of Gods Royal Lordship in his marvellous courtesie And this is of the abundance of Love for Grace worketh our dreadful failing into plenteous and endless solace And Grace worketh our shameful falling into high Worshipful rising and Grace worketh our sorrowful dying into Holy blissful Life For I saw full truly that ever as our contrariousness worketh to us here in Earth pain shame and sorrow Right so on the contrariwise Grace worketh to us in Heaven Solace Worship and Bliss and over-passing so far forth that when we come up and receive that sweet Reward which Grace hath wrought to us there we shall thank and bless our Lord endlesly enjoying that ever we suffered Woe and that shall be for a property of blessed Love that we shall know in God which we might never have known without Woe going before And when I saw all this me behooved needs to grant that the Mercy of God and the Forgiveness slacketh and wasteth our Wrath. The xljx Chapter FOr it was an high marvel to the Soul which was continuantly shewed in all and with great diligence beholding that our Lord God aneynst himself may not forgive for he may not be Wrath. It were unpossible for this was shewed that our Life is all grounded and rooted in Love and without Love we may not live And therefore to the Soul that of his special Grace seeth so far forth of the high marvellous goodness of God that we be endlesly oned to him in Love It is the most unpossible that may be that God should be Wrath for Wrath and Friendship be two Contraries for he that wasteth and destroyeth our Wrath and maketh us meek and mild it
behooveth us needs to believe that he be ever in one Love meek and mild Which is contrary to Wrath for I saw full truly that where our Lord appeareth Peace is taken and Wrath hath no * i e place steede For I saw no manner of Wrath in God neither for short time nor for long for truly as so my sight if God might be Wrath a while we should neither have Life ne steede ne being for as verily as we have our being of the endless Might of God and of the endless Wisdom and of the endless Goodness Also verily we have our keeping in the endless Might of God in the endless Wisdom and in the endless Goodness For though we feel in us Wrath Debate and Strife yet we be all mercifully beclosed in the midhead of God and in his meekhead in his benignity and in his * i e. kindness buxomness For I saw full truly that all our endless Friendship our steed our life and our being is in God for that same endless Goodness that keepeth us when we sin that we perish not That same endless Goodness continually treateth in us a Peace against our Wrath and our contrarious falling and maketh us to see our need with a true dread mightily to seek unto God to have Forgiveness with a gracious desire of our Salvation for we may not be blissfully saved till we be verily in Peace and in Love for that is our Salvation And though we be Wrath and the contrariousness that is in us be now in Tribulation Disease and Woe as falling into our blindness and our pronity Yet be we sure and safe by the merciful keeping of God that we perish not but we be not blissfully safe in having of our endless joy till we be all in Peace and in Love that is to say full pleased with God and with all his Works and with all his Dooms and loving and pleasable with our selves and with our even Christen and with all that God loveth as love liketh And this doth Gods Goodness in us Thus saw I that God is our very Peace and he is our sure Keeper when we be our self at unpeace and he continually worketh to bring us into endless Peace And thus when by the working of mercy and grace we be made meek and mild than we be full safe Suddenly is the Soul oned to God when she is truly peaced in her self for in him is found no Wrath. And thus I saw when we be all in Peace and in Love we find no contrariousness in no manner of letting And that contrariousness which is now in us our Lord God of his goodness maketh it to us full profitable For contrariousness is cause of all our Tribulation and all our Woe And our Lord Jesu taketh them and sendeth them up to Heaven and then they are made more sweet and delectable than Heart may think or Tongue can tell And when we come thither we shall find them ready all turned into very fairness and endless Worship Thus is God our stedfast ground and shall be our full bliss and make us unchangeable as he is when we be there The L. Chapter ANd in this deadly Life Mercy and Forgiveness is our way that evermore leadeth us to grace And by the tempest and the sorrow that we fall in on our party we be often dead as to mans Doome in Earth but in the sight of God the Soul that shall be safe was never dead ne never shall be But yet here I wondred and marvelled with all the diligence of my Soul meaning thus Good Lord I see that thou art the very Truth and I know truly that we sin grievously all day and be much blame-worthy And I may neither leave the knowing of this | i e. truth sooth nor I see not the shewing to us no manner of blame How may this be For I know by the common teaching of Holy Church and by mine own feeling that the blame of our sins continually hangeth upon us fro the first man into the time that we come up into Heaven Then was this my marvel that I saw our Lord God shewing to us no more blame than if we were as clean and as holy as Angels be in Heaven And between these two contraries my Reason was greatly travelled by my blindness and could have no rest for dread that his blessed Presence should pass from my sight and I to be left in unknowing how he behold us in our sin for either me behooved to see in God that sin were all done away or else me behooved to see in God how he seeth it whereby I might truly know how it longeth to mee to see sin and the manner of our blame My longing endured him continually beholding and yet I could have no patience for great fear and perplexity thinking if I take it thus that we be no sinners nor no blame worthy it seemeth as I should Erre and fail of knowing of this sooth And if it be true that we be sinners and blame worthy good Lord how may it then be that I cannot see this truth in thee which art my God my Maker in whom I desire to see all truth For three Points make me hardy to ask it The first is for it is so low a thing for if it were an high I should be | i e. fear adred The second is that it is so common for if it were special and privy also I should be adred The third is that it needeth me to wit as me thinketh if I shall live here for knowing of Good and Evil whereby I may by reason and by grace the more depart them asunder and love Goodness and hate Evil as Holy Church teacheth I cried inwardly with all my Might seeking unto God for help meaning thus Ah Lord Jesu King of Bliss How shall I be eased Who shall tell me and teach me that me needeth to wit if I may not at this time see it in thee The lj Chapter ANd then our courteous Lord answered in shewing full | i e. darkly mistely by a wonderful Example of a Lord that hath a Servant and gave me sight to my understanding of both which sight was shewed double in the Lord and the sight was shewed double in the Servant That one party was shewed Ghostly in bodily likeness That other party was shewed more Ghostly without bodily likeness For the first thus I saw two Persons in bodily likeness that is to say a Lord and a Servant And therewith God gave me Ghostly understanding The Lord sitteth solemnly in rest and in peace the Servant standeth before his Lord reverently ready to do his Lords Will The Lord looketh upon his Servant full lovely and sweetly and meekly he sendeth him into a certain place to do his Will The Servant not only he goeth but suddenly he starteth and runneth in great haste for Love to do his Lords Will. And anon he falleth in a * i e. precipice
of endless cleanness wide and side fairer and richer than was the cloathing which I saw on the Father for that cloathing was blew And Christs cloathing is now of fair seemly | i e. mixture medelour which is so marvellous that I can it no descrie for it is all of very Worship Now sitteth not the Lord on Earth in Wilderness but he sitteth on his rich and noble Seat which he made in Heaven most to his liking Now standeth not the Son before the Father as a Servant before the Lord dreadfully cloathed in party naked but he standeth before the Father even right richly cloathed in blissful largeness with a Crown upon his head of precious richness For it was shewed that we be his Crown Which Crown is the Fathers joy the Sons Worship the Holy Ghosts liking And endless marvellous bliss to all that be in Heaven Now standeth not the Son before the Father on the left side as a Labourer but he sitteth on the Fathers right hand in endless rest and peace But it is not meant that the Son sitteth on the right hand beside as one man sitteth by another in this Life For there is no such sitting as to my sight in the Trinity but he sitteth on his Fathers right hand that is to say right in the highest nobility of the Fathers joy Now is the Spouse Gods Son in peace with his loved Wife Which is the fair Maiden of endless joy Now sitteth the Son very God and very Man in his City in rest and in peace which his Father hath dight to him of endless purpose And the Father in the Son And the Holy Ghost in the Father and in the Son The Lij Chapter ANd thus I saw that God | i e. rejoyce enjoyeth that he is our Father and God enjoyeth that he is our Mother And God enjoyeth that he is our very Spouse and our Soul his loved Wife And Christ enjoyeth that he is our Brother And Jesu enjoyeth that he is our Saviour These be five high joyes as I understand in which he will that we enjoy him praising him thanking him loving him endlesly blessing all that shall be saved for the time of this Life we have in us a marvellous | i e. mixture medelour both of weal and of woe We have in us our Lord Jesu Christ up-risen and we have in us the wretchedness and the mischief of Adams falling dying By Christ we be lastingly kept and by his gracious touching we be raised into very trust of Salvation And by Adams falling we be so briken in our feeling on diverse manners by sin and by sundry pains In which we be made dark and so blind that unneths we can take any Comfort But in our meaning we abide God and faithfully trust to have Mercy and Grace And this is his own working in us and of his Goodness openeth the eye of our understanding by which we have sight some time more and sometime less | i e. according as after that God giveth ability to take And now we be raised into that one and now we are suffered to fall into that other And thus is that medle so marvellous in us that unneths we know of our self or of our even Christen in what way we stand for the marvellousness of this sundry feeling But that each holy assent that we assent to God when we feel him truly willing to be with him with all our heart with all our Soul and with all our might And then we hate and despise our evil stirring and all that might be occasion of sin Ghostly and Bodily And yet nevertheless when this sweetness is hid we fall again into blindness and so into Woe and Tribulation on diverse manners But then is this our comfort that we know in our Faith that by the vertue of Christ which is our Keeper we assent never thereto But we grudge there against and endure in pain and in woe praying into that time that he shewed him again to us And thus we stand in this medelour all the dayes of our Life But he will we trust that he is lastingly with us and that in three manners He is with us Heaven very man in his own person us up-drawing And that was shewed in the Ghostly thirst And he is with us in Earth us leading and that was shewed in the third where I saw God in a point And he is with us in our Soul endlesly | ie dwelling wonning ruling and guiding us And that was shewed in the xvjth as I shall say And thus in the Servant was shewed the blindness and the mischief of Adams falling And in the Servant was shewed the Wisdom and the Goodness of Gods Son And in the Lord was shewed the rewth and the pity of Adams Woe And in the Lord was shewed the high nobility and endless Worship that mankind is come to by the vertue of the Passion and the Death of his dear worthy Son And therefore mightily he enjoyeth in his falling for the high raising and fulhead of bliss that mankind is come to over-passing that we should have had if he had not fallen And thus to see this over-passing nobility was my understanding led into God in the same time that I saw the Servant fall And thus we have matter of mourning for our sin is cause of Christs pains and we have lastingly matter of joy for endless Love made him to suffer And therefore the Creature that seeth and feeleth the working of Love by Grace hateth nought but sin for of all thing as to my sight Love and Hate be hardest and most unmeasurable contraries And notwithstanding all this I saw and understood this in our Lords meaning that we | i e. can may not in this Life keep us from sin all holy in full cleanness as we shall be in Heaven But we may well by Grace keep us fro the sins which would lead us to endless pain as Holy Church teacheth us and eschew Venial reasonably * i e. according to up our might And if we by our blindness and our wretchedness any time fall that we readily rise knowing the sweet touching of Grace and wilfully amend us upon teaching of Holy Church after that the sin is grievous and go forth with God in Love And neither on that one side fall over low enclining to despair ne on that other side be over richless as we | i e. cared not give no force But meekly know our feebleness witting that we may not stand the twinkling of an eye but with keeping of Grace and reverently cleave to God in him only trusting For otherwise is the beholding of God and otherwise is the beholding of Man For it longeth to man meekly to accuse himself and it longeth to the proper Goodness of our Lord God courteously to excuse man And these be two parties that were shewed in the double chear in which the Lord beheld the falling of his loved Servant That
now fro this time evermore be so busie to keep thee from sin this were a good and a soveraign occupation For I thought faithfully were I safe from sin I were full safe from all the fiends in Hell and enemies of my Soul And thus he occupied me all that night and on the morrow till it was about prime day And anon they were all gone and passed and there left nothing but stink and lasted still a while and I scorned him And thus was I delivered of him by the vertue of Christs Passion for therewith is the fiend overcome as our Lord Jesu Christ said afore In all this blessed shewing our good Lord gave understanding that the sight should pass Which blessed shewing the Faith keepeth with his own good will and his grace for he left with me neither signe ne token whereby I might know it But he left with me his own blessed word in true understanding bidding me full mightily that I should believe it and so I do Blessed mote he be I believe that he is our Saviour that shewed it and that it is in the Faith that he shewed And therefore I love it ever joying and thereto I am bound by all his own meaning with the next words that follow Keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith and trust thereto Thus I am beholding to keep it in my Faith For on the same day that it was shewed what time the sight was passed as a wretch I forsook it and openly I said that I had raved Then our Lord Jesu of his mercy would not let it perish but he shewed it all again within my Soul with more fulhead with the blessed Light of his precious Love saying these Words full mightily and full meekly Wit it now well it was no raving that thou saw this day as if he had said for the sight was passed from thee thou lost it and could or might not keep it But wit it now that is to say now thou seest it This was said not only for the same time but also to set thereupon the ground of my Faith where he saith anon following But take it and learn it and keep thee therein and comfort thee therewith and trust thereto and thou shalt not be overcome The Lxxj. Chapter IN these six Words that followeth where he saith Take it his meaning is to fasten it faithfully in our Heart for he will it dwell with us in Faith into our Lives end and after in fulhead of joy willing that we have ever faithful trust of his blessedful promises knowing his goodness For our Faith is contraried in diverse manner by our own blindness and our Ghostly Enemies within and without And therefore our precious Lover helpeth us with Ghostly Light and true Teaching on diverse manner within and without whereby that we may know him And therefore in what manner that he teacheth us he will that we perceive him wisely receiving him sweetly and keep us in him faithfully For above the Faith is no goodness kept in this Life as to my sight And beneath the Faith is no Health of Soul But in the Faith there will our Lord we keep us For we have by his goodness and his own working to keep us in the Faith And by his sufferance through Ghostly enmity we are | i e. tryed assaid in the Faith and made mighty For if our Faith had not enmity it should deserve no meed as by the understanding that I have in our Lords meaning Glad and merry and sweet is the blessedful Lovely Chear of our Lord to our Souls for he beheld us ever living in Love-Longing And he will our Soul be in glad chear to him to yield him his meed And thus I hope with his grace he hath and more shall draw the * i. e. outward utter chear to the inner and make us all at one with him and each of us with other in true lasting joy that is Jesu I have meaning of three manner of chears of our Lord The first is chear of Passion as he shewed whiles he was with us in this Life dying And though this beholding be mourning and | i. e. dark swemful yet it is glad and merry for he is God The second manner of chear it is pitty and ruth and compassion and this sheweth he to all his Lovers with * sikerness of keeping that hath ‑ i. e. sureness need to his mercy The third is the blissedful chear as it shall be without end And this was oftenest shewed longest continued And thus in the time of our Pain and our Woe he sheweth to us chear of his Passion and his Cross helping us to bear it by his own blessed vertue And in time of our sinning he sheweth to us chear of ruth and pity mightily keeping us and defending against all our Enemies And these two be the common chears which he sheweth to us in this Life therewith medling the third And that is his blessed chear like in party as it shall be in Heaven and that is by gracious touching of sweet Lightning of Ghostly Life whereby that we are kept in true Faith Hope and Charity with Contrition and Devotion and also with Contemplation and all manner of true joyes and sweet Comforts The blessedful chear of our Lord God worketh it in us by Grace But now me behooveth to tell in what manner that I saw sin deadly in the Creatures which should not die for sin but live in the joy of God without end I saw that two contraries should not be together in one steed The most contrarious that are is the highest bliss and the deepest pain The highest bliss that is is to have God in clerity of endless Light him verily seeing him sweetly feeling him all peaceable having in fulhead of joy And thus was the blessedful chear of our Lord God shewed in party In which shewing I saw that sin was the most contrary so far forth that as long as we be medled with any part of sin we shall never see clearly the blessed chear of God And the horriblier and the grievouser that our sins be the deeper are we for that time fro this blessed sight And therefore it seemeth to us ostentimes as we were in peril of Death and in a party of Hell for the sorrow and the pain that sin is to us And thus we are dead for the time fro the very sight of our blessedful Life But in all this I saw faithfully that we be not dead in the sight of God ne he passeth never from us but he shall never have his full bless in us till we have our full bless in him verily seeing his fair blessedful chear for we are ordained thereto in kind and getten thereto by grace Thus I saw how sin is deadly for a short time to the blessed Creatures of endless Life and ever the more clearly that the Soul seeth the blissful chear by grace of Loving the more it longeth to see it