and understood more in the xvjth Shewing as I shall say And as aneinst our substance it may rightly be called our Soul And aneinst our sensuality it may rightly be called our Soul and that is by the oning that it hath in God That worshipful City that our Lord Jesu sitteth in it is our sensuality in which he is enclosed And our kindly substance is beclosed in Jesu with the blessed Soul of Christ sitting in rest in the God-head And I saw full surely that it behooveth needs to be that we should be in longing and in Penance into the time that we be led so deep into God that we verily and truly know our own Soul And surely I saw that into this high deepness our good Lord himself leadeth us in the same Love that he made us and in the same Love he bought us by Mercy and Grace through vertue of his blessed Passion and notwithstanding all this we may never come to the full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul for into the time that it is in the full mights we may not be all holy and that is that our sensuality by the vertue of Christs Passion be brought up into the substance with all the profits of our tribulation that our Lord shall make us to get by Mercy and Grace I had in party touching and it is grounded in kind that is to say our reason is grounded in God which is substancially kindness Of this substancial kindness Mercy and Grace springeth and spreadeth into us working all things in fulfilling of our joy These be our grounds in which we have our being our encrease and our fulfilling for in kind we have our Life and our Being and in Mercy and Grace we have our encrease and our fulfilling It be three properties in one goodness And where that one worketh all worken in the thing that belongen to us God will we understand desiring with all our heart and with all our strength to have knowing of them ever more and more into the time that we be fulfilled For fully to know them and clearly to see them is * i e. naught not else but endless joy and bliss that we shall have in Heaven which God will we begin here in knowing of his Love for only by our reason we may not profit But if we have evenly therewith mind and Love ne only in our kindly ground that we have in God we may not be saved but if we have coming of the same ground Mercy and Grace For of these three Workings altogether we receive all our goods of which the first be goods of kind For in our first making God gave us as much good and as great good as we might receive only in our spirit But his fore-seeing purpose in his endless Wisdom would that we were double The Lvij. Chapter ANd against our substance he made us so noble and so rich that evermore we work his Will and his Worship there I say We it meaneth man that shall be saved For truly I saw that we be that he loveth and do that him liketh lastingly without any stinting And of this great riches and of this high noble vertues by measure come to our Soul what time that it is knit to our body In which knitting we be made sensual And thus in our substance we be full and in our sensuality we fail which failing God will restore and fulfill by working of Mercy and Grace plenteously flowing into us of his own kind goodness And thus this kind goodness maketh that Mercy and Grace worketh in us And the kind goodness that we have of him ableth us to receive the working of Mercy and Grace I saw that our kind is in God whole in which he maketh diversities flowing out of him to work his will whose kind keepeth and Mercy and Grace restoreth and fulfilleth And of these none shall be perished for our kind which is the higher party is knit to God in the making and God is knit to our kind which is the lower party in our flesh taking And thus in Christ our two kinds be oned For the Trinity is comprehended in Christ in whom our higher party is grounded and rooted and our lower party the second person hath taken which kind first to him was a dight For I saw full truly that all the Works that God hath done or ever shall were full known to him and before seen fro without beginning And for Love he made mankind and for the same Love himself would become Man The next good that we receive is our Faith in which our profiting beginneth and it becometh of the high riches of our kind substance into our sensual Soul and it is grounded in us and we in that through the kind goodness of God by the working of Mercy and Grace And thereof come all our goods by which we be led and saved for the Commandements of God come therein In which we owe to have two manner of understanding That one is that we owe to understand and know which be his bidings to love them and to keep them That other is that we owe to know his forbiddings to hate them and to refuse them for in these two is all our working comprehended Also in our Faith come the Seven Sacraments each following other in order as God hath ordained them to us and all manner vertues for the same vertues that we have received of our substance given to us in kind of the Goodness of God the same vertues by the working of Mercy be given to us in Grace through the Holy Ghost renewed Which vertues and gifts are treasured to us in Jesu Christ for in that same time that God knit him to our body in the Maidens Womb he took our sensual Soul In which taking he us all having beclosed in him he oned it to our substance In which oning he was perfect man for Christ having knit in him all man that shall be saved is perfect man Thus our Lady is our Mother in whom we be all beclosed and of her born in Christ for she that is Mother of our Saviour is Mother of all that be saved in our Saviour And our Saviour is our very Mother in whom we be endlesly born and never shall come out of him Plentuously fully and sweetly was this shewed And it is spoken of in the first where it is said We be all in him beclosed and he is beclosed in us And that is spoken of in the xvjth Shewing where he he saith He sitteth in our Soul for it is his liking to reign in our understanding blessedfully and sitteth in our Soul restfully and to dwell in our Soul endlesly us all working into him In which working he will we be his helpers giving to him all our intent learning his Laws keeping his lore desiring that all bedone that he doth truly trusting in him for verily I saw that all our substance is in God The Lviij Chapter GOD the
God in substance Of which substance by God we be that we be And I saw no difference between God and our substance but as it were all God And yet my understanding took that our substance is in God that is to say that God is God and our substance is a Creature in God For the almighty Truth of the Trinity is our Father For he made us and keepeth us in him And the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother in whom we be closed And the high Goodness of the Trinity is our Lord and in him we be closed and he in us We be closed in the Father and we be closed in the Son and we be closed in the Holy Ghost And the Father is beclosed in us the Son is beclosed in us and the Holy Ghost is beclosed in us All Might all Wisdom and all Goodness one God one Lord. And our Faith is a vertue that cometh of our kind substance into our sensual Soul by the Holy Ghost In which vertue all our vertues come into us for without that no man may receive vertues for it is naught else but a right understanding with true belief and sure trust of our being that we be in God and he in us which we see not And this vertue with all others that God hath ordained to us coming therein worketh in us great things for Christ mercifully is working in us And we graciously according to him through the gift and the vertue of the Holy Ghost This working maketh that we be Christs Children and Christen in Lyving The lv Chapter ANd thus Christ is our way us surely leading in his Laws And Christ in his body mightily beareth as up into Heaven For I saw that Christ us all having in him that shall be saved by him Worshipfully presenteth his Father in Heaven with us which present full thankfully his Father receiveth and courteously giveth it unto his Son Jesu Christ Which Gift and Working is joy to the Father and bliss to the Son and liking to the Holy Ghost And of all thing that to us longeth it is most liking to our Lord that we enjoy in this joy which is in the blessed Trinity of our Salvation And this was seen in the Ninth Shewing where it speaketh more of this matter And notwithstanding all our feeling woe or weal God will we understand and believe that we we more verily in Heaven than in Earth Our Faith cometh of the kind Love of our Soul and of the clear light of our Reason and of the stedfast mind which we have of God in our first making And what time our Soul is inspired in our body in which we be made sensual assoon Mercy and Grace begin to work having of us cure and keeping with pity and love In which Working the the Holy Ghost formeth in our Faith hope that we shall come again up above to our substance into the vertue of Christ encreased and fulfilled through the Holy Ghost Thus I understood that the sensuality is grounded in kind in Mercy and in Grace Which ground ableth us to receive Gifts that lead us to endless Life for I saw full surely that our substance is in God And also I saw that in our sensuality God is for in the same point that our Soul is made sensual in the same point is the City of God ordained to him from without beginning In which City he cometh and never shall remove it For God is never out of the Soul in which he shall dwell blessedly without end And this was said in the xvjth shewing where it saith The place that Jesu taketh in our Soul he shall never remove it And all the Gifts that God may give to the Creature he hath given to his Son Jesu for us Which Gifts he * ie dwelling wonning in us hath beclosed in him into the time that we be waxen and grown our Soul with our Body and our Body with our Soul either of them take help of other till we be brought up into stature as kind worketh And then in the ground of kind with working of Mercy the Holy Ghost graciously enspireth into us Gifts leading to endless Life And thus was my understanding led of God to see in him and to wit to understand and to know that our Soul is a made Trinity like to the unmade blessed Trinity known and loved from without beginning and in the making oned to the Maker as it is before said This sight was full sweet and marvellous to behold peaceable and restful sure and delectable And for the worshipful oning that was thus made of God between the Soul and the Body it behooved needs to be that mankind should be restored fro double death Which restoring might never be into the time that the second Person in the Trinity had taken the lower party of mankind to whom that highest was oned in the first making And these two parties were in Christ the higher and the lower which is but one Soul The higher party was ever in peace with God in full joy and bliss The lower party which is sensuality suffered for the Salvation of mankind And these two parties were seen and felt in the viijth Shewing in which my body was fulfilled of feeling and mind of Christs Passion and his dying And furthermore with this was a subtile feeling and a privy inward sight of the high parts And that was shewed in the same time where I might not for the mean profer look up into Heaven And that was for that each mighty beholding of the inward Life Which inward Life is that high substance that precious Soul which is endless enjoying in the God-head The lvj Chapter ANd thus I saw full surely that it is ready to us and more easie to come to the knowing of God than to know our own Soul For our Soul is so deep grounded in God and so endlesly treasured that we may not come to the knowing thereof till we have first knowing of God which is the Maker to whom it is oned But notwithstanding I saw that we have kindly of fulhead to desire wisely and truly to know our own Soul whereby we be learned to seek it * i e. where there it is and that is into God And thus by the gracious leading of the Holy Ghost we shall know him both in one Whether we be stirred to know God or our Soul it is both good and true God is more nearer to us than our own Soul for he is ground in whom our Soul standeth and he is mean that keepeth the substance and the sensuality together so that it shall never depart For our Soul sitteth in God in very rest and our Soul standeth in God in sure strength And our Soul is kindly rooted in God in endless Love And therefore if we will have knowing of our Soul and commoning and daliance therewith it behooveth to seek into our Lord God in whom it is inclosed And of this enclosing I saw
blessedful Trinity which is everlasting being right as he is endless from without beginning right so it was in his purpose endless to make mankind Which fair kind first was dight to his own Son the second Person and when he would by full accord of all the Trinity he made us all at ones And in our making he knit us and oned us to himself By which oning we be kept as clean and as noble as we were made by the vertue of that each precious oning we love our Maker and like him praise him and thank him and endlesly enjoy in him And this is the working which is wrought continually in each Soul that shall be saved which is the godly Will before said And thus in our making God Almighty is our kindly Father And God all Wisdom is our kindly Mother with the Love and the Goodness of the Holy Ghost which is all one God one Lord. And in the knitting and in the oning he is our very true Spouse and we his loved Wife and his fair Maiden with which Wife he was never displeased for he saith I love thee and thou lovest me and our love shall never part in two I beheld the working of all the blessed Trinity In which beholding I saw and understood these three properties the property of the Father-head and the property of the Mother-head and the property of the Lordship in one God In our Father Almighty we have our keeping and our bliss And aneynst our kindly substance which is to us by our making fro without beginning And in the second Person in Wit and Wisdom we have our keeping And aneynst our sensuality our restoring and our saving for he is our Mother Brother and Saviour And in our good Lord the Holy Ghost we have our rewarding and our yielding for our living and our travel and endlesly over-passing all that we desire in his marvellous courtesie of his high plentuous Grace for all our Life is in three In the first our being And in the second we have our encreasing And in the third we have our fulfilling The first is kind the second is Mercy the third is Grace For the first I saw and understood that the high might of the Trinity is our Father and the deep Wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother and the great Love of the Trinity is our Lord. And all these have we in kind and in our substantial making And furthermore I saw that the second Person which is our Mother substancially the same deer worthy Person is now become our Mother sensual for we be double of Gods making that is to say substancial and sensual Our substance is the higher party which we have in our Father God Almighty And the second Person of the Trinity is our Mother in kind in our substancial making in whom we be grounded and rooted And he is our Mother of Mercy in our sensuality taking And thus our Mother is to us diverse manner working in whom our parts be kept undeparted For in our Mother Christ we profit and encrease and in Mercy he reformeth us and restoreth And by the vertue of his Passion his Death and his Uprising oned us to our substance This worketh our Mother in mercy to all his beloved Children which be to him buxom and obedient And grace worketh with mercy and namely in two properties as it was shewed Which working longeth to the third Person the Holy Ghost he worketh rewarding and giving Rewarding is a gift of trust that the Lord doth to them that hath traveled And giving is a courteous Working which he doth freely of grace fulfilling and over-passing all that is deserved of Creatures Thus in our Father God Almighty we have our being And in our Mother of mercy Jesu Christ we have our reforming and our restoring in whom our parts be oned and all made perfect man And by yielding and giving in grace of the Holy Ghost we be fulfilled and our substance is in our Father God Almighty And our substance is in our Mother God all Wisdom And our substance is in our Lord God the Holy Ghost all goodness for our substance is whole in each person of the Trinity which is one God And our sensuality is only in the second Person Christ Jesu in whom is the Father and the Holy Ghost And in him and by him we be mightily taken out of Hell and out of the wretchedness in Earth and worshipfully brought up into Heaven and blessedfully oned to our substance encreased in Riches and Nobly by all the vertue of Christ and by the grace and working of the Holy Ghost The Ljx. Chapter ANd all this bliss we have by mercy and grace Which manner bliss we might never have had and known but if that property and goodness which is in God had been contraried whereby we have this bliss For wickedness hath been suffered to rise contrary to that goodness and the goodness of mercy and grace contraried against that wickedness and turned all to goodness and worship to all that shall be saved For it is that property in God which doth good against evil Thus Jesu Christ that doth good against evil is our very Mother We have our being of him where the ground of Mother-head beginneth with all the sweet keeping of Love that endlesly followeth As verily as God is our Father as verily is God our Mother and that shewed he in all and namely in these sweet words there he saith I it am that is to say I it am the Might and the Goodness of the Father-head I it am the Wisdom and the Kindness of the Mother-head I it am the Light and the Grace that is all blessed Love I it am the Trinity I it am the Vnity I it am the high Sovereign Goodness of all manner thing I it am that maketh thee to long I it am the endless fulfilling of all true desires For there the Soul is highest noblest and worshipfullest yet it is lowest meekest and mildest And of this substancioal ground we have all our Vertues in our sensuality by gift of kind and by helping and speeding of mercy and grace without which we may not profit Our high Father Almighty God which is being he knoweth us and loved us fro before any time Of which knowing in his full marvellous deep Charity by the fore-seeing endless counsel of all the blessed Trinity he would that the second Person should become our Mother our Brother and our Saviour Whereof it followeth that as verily as God is our Father verily God is our Mother Our Father willeth our Mother worketh Our good Lord the Holy Ghost confirmeth and therefore it longeth to us to love our God in whom we have our being him reverently thanking and praising of our making mightily praying to our Mother of mercy and pity and to our Lord the Holy Ghost of help and grace for in these three is all our Life Kind Mercy and grace Whereof we have mild-head patience and pity and hating of
his eternal Love nor we were never the less of price in his sight And by the assey of this falling we shall have an high and a marvellous knowing of Love in God without end For hard and marvellous is that Love which may not nor will not be broken for trespass And this was one understanding of profit An other is the lowness and meekness that we shall get by the sight of our falling for thereby we shall highly be raised in Heaven To which rising we might never have come without that meekness And therefore it needed us to see it and if we see it not though we feel it it should not profit us And commonly first we fall and sithen we see it and both is of the mercy of God The Mother may suffer the Child to fall some time and be diseased in diverse manners for the own profit but she may never suffer that any manner of peril come to her Child for Love And though our earthly Mother may suffer her Child to perish our Heavenly Mother Jesu may never suffer us that be his Children to perish for he is all Mighty all Wisdom and all Love And so is none but he blessed mote he be But oft-times when our Falling and our Wretchedness is shewed us we be sore adread and so greatly ashamed of our self that unneths we wit where that we may hold us But then will not our courteous Mother that we flee away For him were nothing * i e. more unwilling lother But he will then that we use the condition of a Child For when it is diseased and afraid it runneth hastily to the Mother and if it may do no more it crieth on the Mother for help with all the might so will he that we done as the meek Child saying thus My kind Mother my gracious Mother my dear worthy Mother have mercy upon me I have made my self foul and unlike to thee and I may not nor can amend it but with thine Help and Grace And if we feel us not than eased assoon be we sure that he useth the condition of a wise Mother For if he see that it be for profit to us to mourn and to weep he suffereth with ruth and pity into the best time for Love And he will then that we use the property of a Child that evermore kindly trusteth to the Love of the Mother in Weal and in Woe And he will that we take us mightily to the Faith of Holy Church and find there our dear worthy Mother in solace and true understanding with all the blessed * i e. community of Christians Common For one singular person may oftentimes be broken as it seemeth to the self but the whole body of Holy Church was never broken ne never shall be without end And therefore a sure thing it is a good and a gracious to will meekly and mightily be fastened and oned to our Mother Holy Church that is Christ Jesu For the flood of Mercy that is his dear worthy Blood and and precious Water is plentuous to make us fair and clean The blessed Wounds of our Saviour be open and * i e. rejoyce enjoy to heal us The sweet gracious Hands of our Mother be ready and diligent about us for he in all this Working useth the very Office of a kind Nurse that hath naught else to done but to entend to the Salvation of her Child It is his Office to save us It is his Worship to do it and it is his Will we know it For he will we love him sweetly and trust in him meekly and mightily And this shewed he in these gracious words I keep thee full surely The Lxij Chapter FOr in that time he shewed our frailty and our Fallings our Breakin gs and our Naughtings our Despites and our Chargings and all our Woe as far forth as me thought that it might fall in this Life And therewith he shewed his blessed Might his blessed Wisdom his blessed Love that he keepeth us in this time as tenderly and as sweetly to his Worship and as surely to our Salvation as he doth when we be in most solace and comfort And thereto raiseth us Ghostly and Highly in Heaven and turneth all to his Worship and to our Joy without end For his precious Love he suffereth us never to loose time Since all things turn to our greater good And all this is of the kind goodness of God by the working of Grace God is * i e. nature kind in his being that is to say that goodness that is kind it is God He is the ground he is the substance he is the same thing that is kindness And he is very Father and very Mother of kinds And all kinds that he hath made to flow out of him to work his Will it should be restored and brought again into him by Salvation of man through the working of Grace For of all kinds that he hath set in divers Creatures by party in man is all the whole in ful head and in vertue in fair-head and in good-head in Rialty and in Noblety in all manner of Solemnity of Preciousness and Worship Here may we see that we be all bound to God for kind and we be bound to God for Grace Here may we see that us needeth not greatly to seek far out to know sundry kinds but to Holy Church into our Mothers breast that is to say into our own Soul where our Lord dwelleth And there should we find all now in Faith and in Understanding and after verily in himself clearly in bliss But no Man ne Woman take this singularity to himself for it is not so it is general For it is our precious Mother Christ and to him was this fair kind * i e. appropriated dight for the Worship and the Nobly of mans making and for the joy and the bliss of mans Salvation right as he saw wist and knew from without beginning The Lxiij Chapter HEre may we see that we have verily of * i e. nature kind to hate sin And we have verily of grace to hate sin for kind is all good and fair in it self And grace was sent out to save kind and keep kind and destroy sin and bring again fair kind into the blessed Point fro thence it came that is God with more Nobleness and Worship by the vertuous working of grace for it shall be seen before God of all his Holy in joy without end that kind hath been assaid in the fire of Tribulation and therein found no lack nor no default Thus is kind and grace of one accord for Grace is God as unmade kind is God He is two in manner working and one in Love And neither of them worketh without other ne none be departed And when we by the mercy of God and with his help accord us to kind and to grace we shall see verily that sin is worse viler and painfuller than Hell without any likeness For it