JULIAN OF NORWICH

SHOWING OF LOVE, PART 11

/S/ Of the longing and spiritual thirst of Christ which lasts and shall last until Doomsday. And by the reason of his body he is not yet full glorified nor all immortal. /SP/ The Thirty-First Chapter. /SPA/
{And thus our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts that I might make, saying full comfortably, /SP/ 'I may make all things well, I can make all thing well, and I /SPA/ will make all thing well, and I shall make all thing well, and you shall see your self that all manner of thing shall be well'. That he says 'I may' I understand for the Father and he says 'I can' I understand for the Son. ¶ And where he says 'I will', I understand for the holy Ghost. ¶ And where he says 'I shall' I understand for the Unity of the Blessed Trinity, Three Persons and One Truth. ¶ And where he says, 'You shall see yourself', I understand/

the /SA/ oneing /P/ coming /SPA/ of all mankind who shall be saved into the blissful Trinity. And in these five words God will /P/ that we /SPA/ be enclosed in rest and in peace. And thus shall the ghostly thirst of Christ have an end. ¶ For this is the ghostly thirst of Christ, the love longing that lasts and ever shall till we see that sight on Doomsday. For we who shall be saved, and shall be Christ's joy and /S/ his /P/ our endless /SPA/ bliss, some be yet here, /SP/ and some be to come. /SPA/ And so shall some be in to that day, therefore this is his thirst, /SP/ a love-longing to have us all together /S/ whole /P/ here /SP/ in him to /S/ his /P/ our endless /SP/ bliss as to my sight, /A/ the failing of his bliss, that he does not have us in him as wholly as he shall then have. /SP/ ¶ For we be not now as fully as whole in him as we shall be then. /SP/ For we know in our faith, and also it was showed in all that Christ Jesus is both God and man, and concerning the Godhead he is himself highest bliss, and was from without beginning. And shall be from without end. Which endless bliss may never be heightened nor lowered in the self. ¶ For this was plenteously seen in every Showing and namely in the Twelfth, where he says 'I am who is highest'. And concerning Christ's manhood it is known in our faith and also showed that he with the virtue of the Godhead for love to bring us to his bliss, suffered pains and passions, and died. ¶ And these be the works of Christ's manhood wherein he enjoys. And that he showed in the Ninth Revelation, where he says 'It is a joy, a bliss, an endless liking to me, that ever I suffered Passion for you'. And this is the bliss of Christ's works and thus he means where he says in the self-same Showing, we be his bliss, we be his reward, we be his worship, we be his crown. For concerning that Christ is our head, he is glorified and immortal. And concerning his body in which all his members be knit, he is not yet fully glorified nor yet all immortal. For the same desire and thirst that he had upon the /S/ Cross /P/ Rood Tree, /SP/ which desire, longing and thirst, as to my sight, was in him from without beginning, the same he has yet, and shall, until 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 truly is there a property in God of thirst and longing. And of the virtue of this longing in Christ, we have to belong again to him, without which no soul comes to heaven. And this property of longing and thirst comes of the endless goodness of God. Right as the property of pity comes of his endless goodness. And though /P/ he have /SP/ longing and pity /P/ they /SP/ are two sundry properties as to my sight. And in this stands the point of the ghostly thirst, which is lasting in him as long as we be in need, drawing us up into his bliss. /SPA/ ¶ And all this was seen /A/ showed me /SPA/ in the Showing of compassion. For that shall cease on Doomsday./

Thus he has ruth and compassion on us. And he has longing to have us, but his wisdom and his love suffer not the end to come till the best time. /SP/
/S/How all thing shall be well and Scripture fulfilled, and we must steadfastly hold us in the faith of holy Church, as is Christ's will. /SPU/ The Thirty-Second Chapter.
One time our good Lord said, 'All /P/ manner of /SPU/ thing shall be well'. And another time he said 'You shall see yourself that all manner of thing shall be well'. And in these two the soul took sundry understanding. One was this, that he will we understand, that not only he pays heed to noble things and to great, but also to little and to small, to low and to simple, to one and to the other. And so means he in that he says 'All manner things shall be well'. For he will we know the least thing shall not be forgotten. ¶ Another understanding is this that there be evil deeds done in our sight and so great harm taken, that it seems to us that it were impossible that ever it should come to a good /SU/ end. /SPU/ And upon this we look sorrowing and mourning, therefore /SP/ so /SPU/ that we cannot rest us in the blissful beholding of God as we should do. ¶ And the cause of this, is that the use of our reason is now so blind, so low and so simple, that we cannot know that high marvelous wisdom, the might and the goodness of the blissful Trinity. And thus means he where he says, 'You shall see yourself that all manner thing shall be well'. As if he said, 'Pay heed now faithfully and trustingly and at the last end you shall truly see it in fulness of joy'. /SPAU/ ¶ And thus in these same five words beforesaid 'I may make all things well, etc.,' I understand a mighty comfort of all the works of our Lord God, that are to come. /SP/ ¶ There is a deed the which the blessed Trinity shall do in the last day, as to my sight, and /S/ when /P/ what /SP/ the deed shall be and how it shall be done, is unknown of all creatures who are beneath Christ and shall be until when it is done. /P/ The goodness and the love of our Lord God will that we know it shall be. ¶ And the might and the wisdom will of him by the same love heal it and hide it from us, what it shall be and how it shall be done. /SP/ And the cause he will we know is for he will we be the more eased in our soul and peaced in love, leaving the beholding of all tempests that might stop us of true enjoying in him. ¶ This is that great deed ordained of our Lord God from without beginning, treasured and hid in his blessed breast, only known to himself, by which deed he shall make all things well. /SP/¶ For like as the blessed Trinity made all things of nought, right so the same blessed Trinity shall make well all, that is not well. /SP/ And in this sight I marveled greatly and beheld our faith, /P/ meaning /S/ marveling /SP/ thus. Our faith is grounded in God's word, and it belongs to our faith, that we/

believe that God's word shall be saved in all things. ¶ And one point of our faith is that many creatures shall be damned as Angels who fell out of heaven for pride who be now fiends. And /S/ men /P/ many /SP/ on earth who die outside of the faith of the holy Church, that is to say they who be heathen men. And also /S/ men /P/ many /SP/ who have received Christendom and live un-Christian lives, and so die out of charity. All these shall be damned to hell without end, as holy Church teaches me to believe. ¶ And given all this, I thought it was impossible that all manner of thing should be well as our Lord showed in the time. And as to this I had no other answer in Showing of our Lord God but this, 'What is impossible to you is not impossible to me. I shall save my word in all things and I shall make all thing well'. Thus I was taught by the grace of God, that I should steadfastly hold me in the faith as I had beforehand understood. And therewith that I should /P/ stand and /SP/ solemnly believe that all thing shall be well, as our Lord showed in the same time. For this is the great deed that our Lord shall do, in which deed he shall save his word in all thing. And he shall make well all that is not well. /P/ But what the deed shall be, /SP/ And how it shall be done there is no creature beneath Christ who knows it, nor shall know it, till it is done, as to the understanding that I took of our Lord's meaning in this time.
/S/All damned Souls be despised in the sight of God as the Devil. And these Revelations withdraw not the faith of holy Church, but comfort. And the more we busily seek to know God's secrets, the less we know. /SP/ The Thirty-Third Chapter.
And yet in this I desired as I dared that I might have had /S/ full /P/ some /SP/ sight of Hell and Purgatory. But it was not my meaning, to be privy to anything that belongs to /S/ the /P/ our /SP/ faith. For I believed truly, that Hell and Purgatory is for the same end that holy Church teaches, but my meaning was that I might have seen for learning in all things that belong to my faith, whereby I might live the more to God's worship and to my profit. And for /P/ ought that I could desire I could see /S/ my desire I learned of this /SP/ right nought, but as it is aforesaid in the Fifth Showing, where I saw that the Devil is reproved by God and endlessly damned. ¶ In which sight I understood that all creatures who are of the Devil's condition in this life, and therein end, there is no more mention made of them before God and all his holy ones than of the Devil, notwithstanding that they be of mankind, whether they have been Christened or not. For though the Revelation was /S/ made /P/ showed /SP/ of goodness in which was made little mention of evil, yet I was not drawn thereby from any point of the faith that holy Church teaches me to believe. For I had sight of the Passion of Christ in diverse Showings, in the First, in the Second, in the /S/ Fifth, /P/ Fourth, /SP/ and in the Eighth, as it is said before. Whereas I had in part a feeling of the sorrow of our Lady. And of his true friends who saw him in pain. But I saw not so properly specified the Jews who did him to death, notwithstanding I knew in my faith that/

they were cursed and damned without end; saving those who converted by grace. ¶ And I was strengthened and taught generally to keep me in the faith in every point, and in all, as I had before understood, hoping that I was therein with the mercy and the grace of God desiring and praying in my meaning that I might continue therein unto my life's end. /SPA/ ¶ It is God's will that we have great regard to all his deeds that he has done. /PA/ For he will thereby /PA/ that we know, /P/ trust and believe /SPA/ all that he shall do. /SP/ But evermore we need to believe the beholding what the deed shall be. And we desire to be like our brethren who be saints in heaven, who will right nought but God's will. Then shall we only enjoy in God, and be well paid both with hiding and with showing. ¶ For I saw truly in our Lord's meaning, the more we busy ourselves to know his secrets in this or any other thing, the farther shall we be from the knowing thereof. /A/ And that showed he me in this word that he said, 'And you shall see yourself that all manner of thing shall be well'. This I understood in two ways. One, that I am well-paid that I knew it not. Another, I am glad and merry, for I shall know it. It is God's will that we should know it all shall be well,in general, but it is not God's will that we should know it now, but as it belongs to us for the time and that is the teaching of holy Church.
/S/ God shows the secrets necessary to his Lovers, and how they much please God who receive diligently the preaching of holy Church. /SP/ The Thirty-Fourth Chapter.
Our Lord God showed two kinds of secrets. One is this great secret with all the privy points that belong thereto. And these privities he will we know to be hidden until the time that he will clearly show them to us. That other are the secrets that /S/ he will make open and known to us /P/ himself showed openly in the Revelation. /SP/ For he will we know that it is his will we know them. These are secrets to us not only because he wills they been secrets to us, but they are privities to us for our blindness and our unknowing. And thereof he has great ruth. And therefore he will himself make them more open to us, whereby we may know him, and love him and cleave to him. For all that is helpful to us to understand and to know, full courteously will our Lord show us. /SP/ And that is this with all the preaching and teaching of holy Church. /SPA/¶ {God showed full great pleasure that he has in all men and women, who mightily /S/ and meekly and wilfully /P/ wisely /A/ worshipfully /SPA/ take the preaching and teaching of holy Church. For /S/ it is his /P/ he it is /A/ he is /SPA/ holy Church, ¶ he is the ground, ¶ he is the substance, ¶ he is the teaching, ¶ he is the teacher, /S/¶  he is the way, /P/¶ he is the /PA/ end, he is the /SP/ reward /A/ means, /SPA/ wherefore every /P/ natural /SPA/ soul travails, and this is known and shall be known to every soul to whom the holy Ghost declares it. And I hope truly /A/ I am secure /SPA/ that all those who seek /PA/ this /SPA/ shall be helped for they seek God. ¶ All this that I have now said, and more that I shall say after is comforting against sin. ¶ For /SP/ in the Third Showing /A/ first /SPA/ when I saw that God does all that is done, I saw no sin, and then I saw that all is well, but when God showed me for sin, then he said, 'All shall be well'.
/S/ How God does all that is good and suffers worshipfully all by his mercy, the which shall cease when sin is no longer suffered. /SP/The Thirty-Fifth Chapter. /SPA/ /

And when God Almighty had showed /A/ me /SPA/ so plenteously and so fully of his goodness, I desired to know of a certain creature whom I loved, /SP/ if it should continue in good living, which I hoped by the grace of God was begun. /A/ how it should be with her /SPA/ And in this /SP/ singular /SPA/ desire it seemed that I hindered myself, for I was not taught in this time. And then was I answered in my reason, as it were with a friendly meaning, ¶ 'Take it generally and behold the courtesy of the Lord God as he shows /A/ it /SPA/ to you, for it is more worship to God to behold him in all, than in any special thing'. ¶ I assented and therewith I learned that it is more worship to God to know all things in general, than to desire anything in particular. And if I should do wisely after this teaching, I should not only be glad for nothing in special, nor greatly diseased for any manner of thing, for all shall be well. /SP/¶ For the fullness of joy is to behold God in all. ¶ For by the same blessed might, wisdom and love that he made all things, to the same end our good Lord leads it continually, and thereto himself shall bring it, and when it is time we shall see it. And the ground of this was showed in the First Showing and more openly in the Third Showing where it says, ¶ 'I saw God in a point'. All that our Lord does is rightful and that he suffers is worshipful. ¶ And in these two is comprehended good and /S/ ill /P/ evil. /SP/¶ For all that is good our Lord does, and that is evil our Lord suffers. I say not that any evil is worshipful, but I say the suffering of our Lord God is worshipful, whereby his goodness shall be known without end, in his marvelous meekness and mildness by the working of mercy and grace. ¶ Rightfulness is that thing that is so good, that may not be better than it is. For God himself is very rightfulness, and all his works are done rightfully as they are ordained from without beginning, his high might, his high wisdom, his high goodness. And right as he ordained unto the best, right so he works continually and leads it to the same end. And he is ever fully pleased with himself and with all his works. ¶ And the beholding of this blissful accord is full sweet to the soul who sees /P/ it /SP/ by grace. All the souls who shall be saved in heaven without end, be made rightful in the sight of God. And by his own goodness, in which righteousness we are endlessly kept, and marvelously above all creatures. And mercy is a working that comes of the goodness of God. ¶ And it shall last in working /S/ all along /P/ as long, /SP/ as sin is suffered to pursue/

a rightful soul. And when sin has no longer leave to pursue, then shall the working of mercy cease. And then shall all be brought to righteousness and therein stand without end. ¶ And by his sufferance we fall, and in his blissful love with his might and his wisdom we are kept. And by mercy and grace we are raised to manifold more joys. ¶ And thus in righteousness and in mercy he will be known and loved now without end. And the soul who wisely beholds it in grace it is well /S/ pleased /P/ paid /SP/ with both and endlessly enjoys.
/S/ Of another excellent deed that our Lord shall do, which by grace may be known in part here. And how we should enjoy in the same. And how God yet does miracles. /SP/ The Thirty-Sixth Chapter.
Our Lord God showed that a deed shall be done, and himself shall do it. /P/ And it shall be worshipful and marvelous and plenteous and by him it shall be done. And he himself shall do it. And this is the highest joy that the soul understands, that God himself shall do it. /SP/ And I shall do nothing but sin and my sin shall not stop his goodness from working. ¶ And I saw that the beholding of this is a /S/ high /P/ heavenly /SP/ joy in a dreadful soul, who evermore naturally by grace desires God's will. This deed shall be begun here, and it shall be worshipful to God, and plenteously profitable to /P/ all /SP/ his lovers on earth. And ever as we come to heaven we shall see it in marvelous joy. And it shall last thus in working unto the last day. And the worship and the bliss of that shall last in heaven before God and all his holy /P/ saints /SP/ without end. Thus was this deed seen and understood in our Lord's meaning. And the cause why he showed it, is to make us enjoy in him and in all his works. ¶ When I saw his Showing continued, I understood that it was showed for a great thing that was for to come, which thing God showed that himself should do it. Which deed has these properties beforesaid. ¶ And this showed he well blissfully meaning that I should take it wisely, faithfully and trustingly. But what this deed should be it was kept secret to me. ¶ And in this I saw that he will not that we dread to know the things that he shows. ¶ He shows them for he will we know them, by which knowing he will we love him, and delight and endlessly enjoy in him. And for the great love that he has to us he shows us all that is worshipful, and profitable for the time. And the things that he will now have secret, yet of his great goodness he shows them close. ¶ In which Showing he will we believe and understand, that we shall see it truly in his endless bliss. ¶ Then ought we to enjoy in him, for all that he shows, and all that he hides, and if we wilfully and meekly do thus, we shall find therein great ease, and endless thanks we shall have of him therefore. And thus is the understanding of this word, 'That it shall be done by me', that is the general man, that is to/

say all who shall be saved. It shall be worshipful and marvelous and plenteous, /P/ and by me it shall be done. /SP/ And God himself shall do it. And this shall be the highest joy that may be to behold the deed that God himself shall do. And man shall do right nought but sin. ¶ Then means our Lord God thus, as if he said, 'Behold and see. Here you have matter of meekness. Here you have matter of love. Here you have matter /S/ to nought /P/ of knowing /SP/ yourself. Here you have matter to enjoy in me. And for my love enjoy in me. For of all things therewith might you most please me'. And as long as we are in this life, what time that we, by our folly, turn us to the beholding of the reproved, tenderly our Lord God touches us, and blissfully calls us, saying in our soul, /PG/ 'Let me alone,/S/ 'Let be all your love, /SPG/ my dearworthy child. Intend to me. I am enough to you. And enjoy in your Saviour and in your salvation'. /SP/ And that this is our Lord's working in us. I am secure the soul that is /S/ perceived /P/ pierced /SP/ therein by grace shall see it and feel it. And though it be so, that this deed be truly taken for the general man, yet it excludes not the particular. For what our good Lord will do by his poor creatures it is now unknown to me. ¶ But this deed and the other aforesaid. They are not both one but two sundry. ¶ But this deed shall be /S/ done /P/ known /SP/ sooner and that shall be as /P/ we /SP/ come to heaven and to whom our Lord gives it, it may be known here in part. But the great deed beforesaid shall neither be known in heaven nor on earth till it is done. ¶ And moreover he gave special understanding and teaching of working /P/ and showing /SP/ of miracles. As thus, ¶ 'It is known that I have done miracles here before, many and /S/ plenty, /SP/ high and marvelously worshipful and great. And so as I have done, I do now continually, and shall do in the coming of time'. ¶ It is known that before miracles, come sorrow and anguish and tribulation, and that is that we should know our own feebleness and our mischief that we are fallen in by sin, to humble us, and to make us dread God, crying for help and grace. /P/ And great /SP/ miracles come after that, and that of the high might, wisdom and goodness of God, showing his virtue and the joys of heaven, so as it may be in this passing life and that for to strengthen our faith, and to increase our hope in charity. Wherefore it pleases him to be known and worshipped, in miracles. Then he means thus, he will that we be not brought too low through sorrow and tempests that befall us, for it has always been so before miracles coming.
/S/ God keeps his chosen full securely although they sin, for in these is a godly will that never tried to sin. /SP/The Thirty-Seventh Chapter. /SPA/
God brought to my mind, that I should sin, and for the delight that I had in beholding him, I attended not readily to that Showing. And our Lord full /SP/ mercifully /A/ courteously /SPA/ waited /SP/ and gave me grace to understand. And this Showing I took singularly to myself. But by all the gracious comfort that followed, as you shall see, I was taught to take it to /A/ so I would pay heed, and then our Lord brought to mind with my sins, the sin of /SPA/ all my even Christians, all in general and nothing in special. ¶ Though /A/ {If all /SPA/ our Lord showed me I should sin, by me alone is understood all. And in this I conceived a soft dread, and to this our Lord answered, 'I keep you full securely'. This word was said with more love and secureness and ghostly keeping than I can or may tell. ¶ For as it was showed /A/ to me /SPA/ that I should sin, right so was the comfort showed /A/ to me /P/ before /SPA/ of secureness and keeping for all my even Christians.¶ What may make me more to love my even Christians, than to see in God, that he loves all who shall be saved, as it were all one soul. For in every soul who shall be saved, is a godly will that never assented to sin, nor ever shall. Right as there is a beastly will in the lower part that may will no good, right so there is a godly will in the higher part, /SP/ which will is so good, /SPA/ that it may never will /S/ ill /PA/ evil /SPA/ but ever good. /SP/ And therefore we are whom he loves, and endlessly we do that that he likes. /A/ No more than the person of the blessed Trinity. /SPA/ ¶ And this showed our Lord /A/ to me /SPA/ in the wholeness of love that we stand in, in his sight. Yea, that he loves us now as well, while we are here, as he shall do when we are there before his blessed face. /SP/¶ But for failing of love on our part, therefore is all our travail.
/S/Sin of the chosen shall be turned to joy and worship. Example of David, Peter, John of Beverley. /SP/ The Thirty-Eighth Chapter. /P/
And /SA/ Also /SPA/ God showed /A/ me /SPA/ that sin shall be no shame, but worship to man, /SP/ for right as to every sin is answering a pain by truth, right so for every sin to the same soul is given a bliss by love. Right as diverse sins are punished with diverse pains after that they be grievous, right so shall they be rewarded with diverse joys in heaven, after they have been painful and sorrowful to the soul on earth. For the soul that shall come to heaven is /P/ so /SP/ precious to God, and the place so worshipful, that the goodness of God suffers never that soul to sin /P/ finally /SP/ who shall come there, but /P/ what sinners they are that which /S/ sin /P/ so /SP/ shall be rewarded. And it is made known /P/ in holy Church on earth and also in heaven /S/ without end, and blissfully restored /SP/ by overpassing honours, /SPA/¶ For in this sight my understanding was lifted up into heaven. /SP/¶ And there God brought merrily /A/ Then came verily /SPA/ to my mind David /SP/ and others in the old law without number. And in the new law he brought to my mind, first Mary/

Magdalen, Peter and Paul, and Thomas of India /P/ Thomas and Jude, /A/ Peter and Paul, Thomas of India and the Magdalen /SP/ and Saint John of Beverley. And others also without number, /SPA/ how they are known in the Church on earth with their sins, /A/ to their worship, /SP/ and it is to them no shame /A/ that they have sinned, no more it is the bliss of heaven. /SP/, but all is turned to their worship. And therefore our courteous Lord showed for them here in part, like as it is there in fullness. /SPA/ For there the /SP/ tokens of sin are /A/ taking of sin is /SPA/, but all is turned to their worship. /A/ Right so our Lord God showed me them in example of all others who shall come there. /SP/¶ And Saint John of Beverley, our Lord showed him full highly in comfort to us, for homeliness, and brought to my mind how he is a /S/ gracious /P/ natural /SP/ neighbour and of our knowing. And God called him Saint John of Beverley plainly as we do, and that with a full glad sweet cheer, showing that he is a full high saint /S/ in heaven /SP/ in his sight and a blissful one. And with this he made mention that in his youth and in his tender age he was a dearworthy servant to God, much loving and dreading God. ¶ And nevertheless God suffered him to fall, keeping him mercifully so that he perished not nor lost time. ¶ And afterward God raised him to manifold more grace and by the contrition and meekness that he had in his living, God has given him in heaven manifold joys overpassing that he should have had if he had not /P/ sinned or /SP/ fallen. And that this is true God shows on earth, with plenteous miracles done about his body continually, and all this was to make us glad and merry in love.
/S/Of the sharpness of sin and the goodness of contrition and how our natural Lord will not we despair for often falling. /SP/The Thirty-Ninth Chapter. /SPA/
Sin is the sharpest scourge that any chosen soul may be smitten with, which scourge all severely beats man and woman /PA/ and all for breaks them and /S/ annoys /P/ purges /A/ noughts /SPA/ him in his own sight, /SPA/ so much so that he thinks himself the while he is not worthy but /A/ as it were /SPA/ as to sink into hell, till contrition takes him by the touching of the holy Ghost, and turns the bitterness in hopes of God's mercy. And then begin his wounds to heal, and the soul to quicken, turned into the life of holy Church. ¶ The holy Ghost leads him to confession wilfully, to show his sins nakedly and truly with great sorrow, and great shame, that he has /PA/ so /SPA/ defouled the fair image of God. Then he undergoes penance for every sin enjoined by his confessor, who is grounded in holy Church by the teaching of the holy Ghost. /A/ By this medicine ought each sinful soul be healed, and namely of sins that are deadly in the self. /SP/ And this is one meekness that much pleases God. And also /P/ meekly taking /SP/ bodily sickness of God's sending. And also sorrow and shame from without, and disgust and despite of this world, with all manner of grievance and temptations that /S/ he /P/ we /SP/ will be cast in, bodily and ghostly. Full preciously our Lord keeps us when it/

seems to us that we are near forsaken and cast away for our sin, and because we /P/ see that we /SP/ have deserved it. And because of meekness that we get hereby, we are raised /S/ wholly /P/ highly /SP/ in God's sight by his grace /P/ and also whom our Lord will, he visits with his special grace /SP/ with so great contrition, also with compassion and true longing to God. Then they be suddenly delivered of sin and of pain, and taken up to bliss, and made even /S/ high /P/ with/SP/ saints. ¶ By contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and by true longing to God we are made worthy. These are three means as I understand whereby that all souls come to heaven, that is to say who have been sinners in earth and shall be saved. ¶ For by these medicines it is needful that every soul be healed. /SPA/ Though he be healed his wounds are seen before God, not as wounds but as worships. ¶ And so on the contrary wise, as we be punished here with sorrow and with penance, we shall be rewarded in heaven by the courteous love of our Lord God Almighty, who will that none who comes there lose his travail in any degree. /SP/ For he beholds sin as sorrow and pain to his lovers, in whom he assigns no blame for love. /SPA/ The reward that we shall receive shall not be little, but it shall be high, glorious and worshipful, and so shall /PA/ all /SPA/ shame be turned to worship and more joy. /A/ And I am secure by my own feeling the more that each natural soul sees this in the natural and courteous love of God, the loather he is to sin. /SP/ For our courteous Lord wills not that his servants despair, for often, nor for grievous, falling, for our falling does not stop him from loving us. ¶ Peace and love are ever in us being and working. But we be not /S/ always /P/ ever /SP/ in peace and in love. But he will that 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 defends us against our enemies, who are full evil and fierce upon us. And so much our need is the more, for we give him occasion by our falling.
/S/ We need to belong in love with Jesus, eschewing sin for love. The vileness of sin passes all pains. And God wholly loves us tenderly while we be in sin, and so we need to do to our neighbour. /SP/ The Fortieth Chapter./P/
And /SP/ this is a sovereign friendship of our courteous Lord, that he keeps us so tenderly while we be in /P/ our /SP/ sin, and furthermore he touches us full privily and shows us our sin by the sweet light of mercy and grace. But when we see our self so foul, then we think that God were wroth with us for our sin. And then we are stirred of the holy Ghost by contrition into prayers and desire to amend our life, with all our might to appease the wrath of God until the time we find a rest in soul, and softness/

in conscience. And then we hope that God has forgiven us our sins. And it is true. ¶ And then shows our courteous Lord himself to the soul /S/ wholly /SP/ merrily and with glad cheer, with friendly welcoming, as if he had been in pain and in prison, saying /S/ sweetly /SP/ thus, 'My /P/ dear /SP/ darling, I am glad you are come to me in all your woe. I have ever been with you, and now you see my loving, and we be oned in bliss'. Thus are sins forgiven by mercy and grace, and our soul worshipfully received in joy, like as it shall be when it comes to heaven, as oftentimes as it comes by the gracious working of the holy Ghost, and the virtue of Christ's Passion. /W/ Also /SP/ ¶ Here /WSP/ understood I truly that all manner thing is made ready to us by the great goodness of God, so much that what time we be ourself in peace and charity, we be truly saved. But because we may not have this in fullness while we are here, therefore it befalls us ever the more to live in sweet prayer and in lovely longing with our Lord Jesus./SP/ For he longs ever to bring us to the fullness of joy, as it is beforesaid, where he shows the ghostly thirst. /SPA/ ¶ {But /SP/ now because of all this ghostly comfort, that is said before, if any man or woman /A/ if you /SPA/ be stirred by folly to say or to think, 'If this be true, then were it good to sin to have the more reward', /SP/ or else to charge the less to the sin, /SPA/ beware of this stirring /A/ and despise it for it is /SP/ for truly if it come it is a lie, and /SPA/ of the enemy. /SP/¶ For the same true love that /S/ teaches us all /P/ touches us all by /S/ this /P/ his blessed /SP/ comfort, the same blessed love teaches us that we should hate sin only for love. /A/ For what soul who wilfully takes this stirring he may never be saved till he makes amends for deadly sin. /SP/¶ And I am sure by my own feeling, the more that every natural soul sees this in the courteous love of our Lord God, the loather is he to sin. And the more he is ashamed. /SPA/ For if were laid before /SP/ us /A/ me /SPA/ all the pains in hell and in purgatory and on earth, death and other, and sin, /SP/ we /A/ I /SPA/ should rather choose all that pain than sin. ¶ For sin is so vile and so much to hate that it may be like to no pain which pain is not sin. /SP/ ¶ And to me was showed no harder hell than sin. For a natural soul /S/ has /P/ hates /SP/ no /S/ hell /P/ pain /SP/ but sin. /PA/ For all is good but sin, and nought is /P/ evil /A/ wicked /PA/ but sin. /A/ Sin is neither deed nor desire. But when a soul chooses sin wilfully, that is pain before his God. At the end he has right nought. That pain, I think, the hardest Hell. For he has not his God. In all pains a soul may have God but in sin. /SP/¶ And we, given our intent to love and meekness by the working of mercy and grace, we are made all fair and clean. /SPA/ 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 Christian men. And he taught us to do good against /S/ ill /PA/ evil. /SPA/ Here may we see that he is himself this charity, and does to us as he teaches us to do, for he will we be like him in /SP/ wholeness /A/ oneness /SPA/ of endless love to our self and to our even Christians. No more then is his love broken to us, for our sin; no more will he that our love be broken to ourself/

/S/ and /PA/ nor /SPA/ to our even Christian, but nakedly hate sin and endlessly /SPA/ love the soul as God loves it. /S/ Then shall we hate sin, like as God hates it, and love the soul as God loves it. /SPA/ For this word that /SP/ is /A/ God /SPA/ said is an endless comfort, 'I keep you securely'. /SP/
The Fourteenth Revelation /S/ is as said before, etc. It is impossible we should pray for mercy and want it. And how God wills that we always pray though we be dry and barren, for that prayer is to him acceptable and pleasing. /SP/The Forty-First Chapter. /WSPA/
{After this our Lord showed /A/ to me /WSP/ for /A/ four /WSPA/ prayers. /WSP/ In which Showing /WSPA/ I see two conditions /WSP/ in our Lord's meaning, /A/ in them who pray, as I have felt in myself /WSP/¶ One is /WA/ rightful prayer /S/ rightfulness. /WSP/¶ Another is secure trust. /A/ One is they will pray not just for anything that may be, but only what is God's will and his worship. Another is that they set them mightily and continually to ask that thing that is his will and his worship. And this is as I have understanding by the teaching of holy Church. For in this our Lord taught me the same, to have of God's gift, faith, hope and charity, And to keep us therein to our lives' end. And in this we say, Pater Noster, Ave, and Credo, with devotion as God will give it. And thus we pray for all our even-Christians and for all manner of men what God's will is. For we would that all manner of men and women were in the same virtue and grace that we ought to desire for our self. /WSPA/ But yet /A/ in all this /WSPA/ oftentimes our trust is not full for we are not secure that God /A/ Almighty /SPA/ hears us as we think, for our unworthiness and because we feel right nought. For we are as barren and dry oftentimes after our prayers as we were before, and this in our feeling. Our folly is cause of our weakness, for thus have I felt in myself. ¶ And all this brought our Lord suddenly to my mind, /A/ and mightily and lively and comforting me against this kind of weakness in prayers. /WSP/ And showed these words and said, /WSPA/ 'I am ground of your prayer. First it is my will that you have it, and since I make you to will, /WSP/ and since I make you to beseech it, and you beseech it, /WSPA/ how should it then be that you should not have your beseeching?'. And thus in the first reason with the three that follow, our good Lord shows a mighty comfort /WSP/ as it may be seen in the same words. /WSPA/ And in the first reason thus he says, 'And you pray it', there he shows the full great pleasance and endless reward that he will give us for our beseeking, and in the /WSP/ sixth /A/ fourth /SPA/ reason there he says, 'How should it then be,/A/ that you should not have your beseeching?' There he shows a sober undertaking for we trust not as mightily as we should. Thus will our Lord that we both pray and trust. For the cause of the reasons beforesaid is to make us strong against weakness in our prayers. For it is God's will we pray and thereto he stirs us in these words beforesaid. For he will that we be secure to have our prayer. For prayer pleases God. Prayer pleases man with himself and makes him sober and meek who beforehand was in strife and travail. /WSP/ This was said for an /WS/ impossibility /P/ impossible thing. /WSP/ For it is the most impossible that /WP/ that may be that /WSP/ we should beseech mercy and grace and not have it. ¶ For of all thing that our good Lord makes us to beseech himself has ordained it to us from without beginning. Here may we see that our beseeking is not cause of /WP/ the /S/ God's /WSP/ goodness /WP/ and grace that he does to us, /P/ but /WP/ his /W/ own /WP/ proper goodness. /WSP/¶ And that showed he truthfully in all these sweet words, when he says, 'I am ground /W/ of your prayer and of your requests'. /WSP/ And our good Lord wills that this be known of /W/ all /WSP/ his lovers on earth. ¶ And the more that we know, the more should we beseech if it be wisely taken and so is our Lord's meaning. /W/ Wise seeking /SP/ Beseeching /WSP/ is a /S/ new /WP/ true /WSP/ gracious lasting will of the soul, oned and fastened into the will of our Lord /SP/ by the sweet privy work of the holy Ghost. ¶ Our Lord /WSP/ himself, he is the first receiver of our prayers as to my sight, and takes it full thankfully and highly enjoying and he sends it up above, and sets it in a treasury where it shall never perish. It is there before God with all his holy /W/ company, /P/ saints, /WSP/ continually received, ever helping our needs. ¶ And when we shall receive/

our bliss, it shall be given us for a degree of joy with endless worshipful thanking of him. Full glad and merry is our Lord of our prayer and he looks thereafter and he will have it. For with his grace he makes us like to himself in condition, as we are in nature. /SP/ And so is his blissful will. /W/ Also he says, /SP/¶ For he says thus, /WSP/ 'Pray /P/ entirely /SP/ inwardly, /WS/ though you think it savours you not./S/For it is profitable, /SP/ though you feel not, though you see nought, Yea, though you think you might not, for in dryness and in barrenness, in sickness and in feebleness, then is your prayer well pleasing to me, though you think it savour you not but little. And so is /SP/ your /S/ believing /P/ living /S/ prayers /P/ prayer /SP/ in my sight'. For the reward and the endless thanks that he will give us, therefore he is covetous to have us pray continually in his sight. ¶ God accepts the good will and the travail of this servant, howsoever we feel. Wherefore it pleases him that we work and in our prayers and in good living by his help, and his grace, reasonably with discretion keeping our mights to him, till when we have him whom we seek in fullness of joy who is Jesus. And that showed he in the /S/ Fifth /P/ Fifteenth /SP/ Showing, before this word, 'You shall have me to your reward'. And /WSP/ also to prayers belong thanksgiving. Thanking is a /S/ new /WP/ true /WSP/ inward knowing with great reverence and lovely dread, turning our self with all our mights into the working that our good Lord stirs us to enjoying and thanking /W/ him /WSP/ inwardly. And sometimes for plenteousness it breaks out with voice and says, 'Good Lord, grant mercy. Blessed must you be'. And sometimes when /W/ your /SP/ the /WSP/ heart is dry and feels nought or else by temptation of the enemy, then it is driven by reason and by grace to cry upon our Lord with voice rehearsing his blessed Passion and his great goodness. And /WP/ so /WSP/ the virtue of our Lord's word turns into the soul, and quickens the heart, and enters /W/ in /S/ it /WSP/ by his grace into true working. And makes it pray well blissfuly and truly to enjoy our Lord. It is a full /S/ blissful /WP/ lovely /WSP/ thanking in his sight.
/S/Of three things that belong to prayer, and how we should pray and of the goodness of God who complements us always in our imperfection and feebleness, when we do what belongs to us to do. /SP/The Forty-Second Chapter. /WSP/
Our Lord /S/ God /WSP/ wills that we have true understanding and namely in three things that belong to our prayers. The first is by whom, and how our prayers spring./

By whom he shows when he says, 'I am ground', and how by his goodness. For he says, 'First it is my will'. For the second, in what manner and how we should /W/ pray /SP/ use our prayers, /WSP/ and that is that our will be turned into the will of our Lord enjoying. And so means he when he says, 'I make you to will it'. For the third, that we know the fruit and the end of our prayers, that is to be oned and like to our Lord in all thing. And to this meaning and for this end was all this lovely lesson showed. And he will help us and /W/ he /SP/ we /WSP/ shall make it so as he says himself, Blessed must he be. ¶ For this is our Lord's will, that our prayers and our trust be both alike large. For if we trust not as much as we pray, we do not full worship to our Lord in our prayers. And also we tarry and pain ourself. And the cause is, as I believe, for we know not truly that our Lord is ground /W/ himself /WSP/ on whom our prayer springs. And also that we know not, that it is given us by the grace of his /W/ great and tender /WSP/ love. For if we knew this, it would make us to trust to have of our Lord's gift all that we desire. ¶ For I am secure, that no man asks mercy and grace, with true meaning but mercy and grace be first given to him. ¶ But sometimes it comes to our mind, that we have prayed a long time, and yet we think, that we have not our asking. But for this we should not be heavy. For I am secure by our Lord's meaning, that either we abide a better time, or more grace, or a better gift. ¶ He will we have true knowing in himself that he is being. And in this knowing he will that our understanding be grounded with all our mights, and all our intent, and all our meaning and in this ground he will that we take our homestead and our dwelling, and by the gracious light of himself, he will we have understanding of /WP/ three /S/ the /SP/ things that follow.¶ The first is /W/ your/SP/ our /WSP/ noble and excellent making. ¶ The second, /W/ the /SP/ our /WSP/ precious and dearworthy again-buying. ¶ The third, all thing that he has made beneath us, to serve us, and /W/ he /WSP/ for our love keeps it. Then means he thus as if he said, ¶ 'Behold and see that I have done all this, before your prayers, and now you are, and pray to me'. And thus /W/ our Lord God /SP/ he /WSP/ means, that it belongs to us to know that the greatest deeds be done as holy Church teaches. /SP/ ¶ And in the beholding of this with thanking we ought to pray for the deed that is now in doing, and that is, that he rule us and guide us to his worship in this life, and bring us to his bliss, and therefore he has done all. ¶ Then means he thus, that we see that he does it. And we pray therefore. For that one is not enough, for if/

we pray and see not that he does it, it makes us heavy, and doubtful, and that is not his worship. And if we see that he does, and we pray not, we do not our /S/ debt /P/ duty, /SP/ and so may it not be, that is to say, so is it not in his beholding. But to see that he does it, and to pray forthwith so is he worshipped and we helped. ¶ All thing that our Lord has ordained to do, it is his will that we pray therefore either in special or in general. And the joy and the bliss that it is to him, and the thanking and the worship that we shall have therefore, it passes the understanding of /P/ all /S/ creatures /P/ in this life /SP/ as to my sight /SP/¶ For prayer is a righteous understanding of that fullness of joy that is for to come with /S/ well /P/ true /SP/ longing and secure trust. /S/ Failing of /P/ Savouring or seeing /SP/ our bliss that we be ordained to naturally makes us to long. For true understanding and love with sweet mind in our Saviour graciously makes us for to trust. /P/ And thus we have of nature to long and of grace to trust /SP/¶ And in these two workings our Lord beholds us continually. For it is our /S/ debt /P/ duty /SP/ and his goodness may no less assign in us. Then it belongs to us to do our diligence. And when we have done it, than shall we yet think that it is nought, and truly it is. But do we as we may and /S/ truly /P/ meekly /SP/ ask mercy and grace, all that fails us we shall find in him. And thus he means where he says, 'I am ground of your beseeching'. And thus in this blissful word with the Showing I saw a full overcoming against all our /S/ weakness /P/ wickedness, /SP/ and all our doubtful dreads.
/S/ What prayer does, ordained to God's will. And how the goodness of God has great liking in the deeds that he does by us, as he were beholden to us, working all things sweetly. Forty-Third Chapter. /SPA/
Prayer ones the soul to God. For though the soul be ever like to God in nature and substance /SP/ restored by grace, /SPA/ it is often unlike in condition by sin on man's part. /SPA/ Then /SP/ is prayer a witness that /A/ makes prayer the soul like God when /SPA/ the soul will as God will, /A/ and then it is like to God in condition as it is in kind. /SP/ And comforts the conscience and enables man to grace. /SPA/ And thus he teaches us to pray, and mightily to trust that we shall have it /A/ that we pray for. For all thing that is done, should be done though we never pray it. /SP/ For he beholds us in love, and /A/ But the love of God is so much that he /SPA/ will make us partner of his good /P/ will and /SPA/ deed. ¶ And therefore he stirs us to pray, that which he delights to do. ¶ For which prayers and good will that /S/ he /PA/ we /SPA/ will have of his gift, he will reward us, and give us endless reward. And this was showed /A/ me /SPA/ in this word, 'And you pray it'. ¶ In this word God showed /A/ me /SPA/ so great pleasance and so great liking as he were much beholden to us for every good deed that we do, and yet it is he who does it. And for that we beseech him /SP/ mightily /A/ busily /SPA/ to do all thing that he likes. As if he said, 'How might you then please me more, than to beseech /SP/ mightily /A/ busily, /SPA/ wisely and wilfully to do that thing that I /SA/ shall do /P/ will have done'. ¶ And thus the soul/

by prayer accords between God /A/ and man's soul. /SP/¶ But when our courteous Lord of his grace shows himself to our soul, /W/ And in your self, to our souls /WSP/ we have what we desire. And then we see not for the time that we should pray more, but all our intent with all our might is set wholly to the beholding of him. ¶ And this is a high unperceivable prayer as to my sight. For all the cause wherefore we pray it is /P/ to be /WSP/ oned into the sight and beholding of him to whom we pray, marvelously enjoying with reverent dread, and so great sweetness and delight in him, that we can pray right nought but as he stirs us for the time. /A/ For what time a man's soul is homely with God he needs not to pray but behold reverently what he says. For in all this time that this was showed me I was not stirred to pray, but always to have this well in my mind for comfort. That when we see God, we have what we desire and then we need not pray. /WSP/ ¶ And well I know the more the soul sees of God, the more /WS/ it /P/ she /WSP/ desires him by his grace. /WSPA/ But when we see him not so, then feel we need and cause to pray for failing, for enabling ourself to Jesus. ¶ For when the soul is tempested, troubled and left to /S/ him /P/ her /A/ it /SPA/ self by unrest, /WSPA/ then it is time to pray to make /WSA/ him /P/ her /WSPA/ self /WSP/ supple /A/ simple /WSPA/ and pliant to God. But /SA/ he /P/ she /SPA/ by no manner of prayer makes God supple to him, for he is ever /S/ alike /P/ unlike /SP/ in love. /A/ But in the time that man is in sin he is so weak, so unwise, and so unloving, that he can neither love God nor himself. The most mischief that he has is blindness. For he sees not all this. Then the whole love of God Almighty who ever is one, gives him sight to himself. Then he understands that God was wroth with him for his sin and then he is stirred to contrition and by confession and other good deeds to slake the wrath of God until the time he finds rest in the soul and softness in conscience. And then he thinks that God has forgiven him his sins and it is true. And then is God (in the sight of the soul), turned into the beholding of the soul as if it had been in pain or prison, saying thus, 'I am glad that you are come to rest. For I have ever loved you and now love you and you me'. And thus with prayers, as I have said before and with other good works that are customary by the teaching of holy Church is the soul oned to God'. /WSP/¶ And thus I saw that what time we see needs wherefore we pray, then our good Lord follows us, helping our desire. And when we of his special grace plainly behold him, seeing no other needs, then we follow him, and he draws us into him by love. For I saw and felt that his marvelous and fulsome goodness fulfills all /W/ other /SP/ our /WSP/ mights. ¶ And then I saw that his continual working in all manner thing is done so godly, so wisely, and so mightily, that it /W/ pleases /SP/ overpasses /WSP/ all our imagining, and all that we can understand and think. And then we can do no more but behold him, enjoying with a high mighty desire to be all oned into him and /S/ entered to his dwelling /WP/ attend to his /W/ wooing /P/ motion /WSP/ and enjoy in his loving, and delight in his goodness. And then shall we with his sweet grace, in our own meek continuing prayers, come into him now in this life by many privy touchings of sweet ghostly sights and feeling measured to us as our simpleness may bear it. ¶ And this /WP/ is /WSP/ wrought, and shall, by the grace of the holy Ghost so long till we shall die in longing for love. And then shall we all come into our Lord, ourself clearly knowing and God fullsomely having. ¶ And we endlessly be all /WS/ had /P/ hid /WSP/ in God, him truly seeing, and fulsomely feeling, him ghostly /W/ feeling and him ghostly /WSP/ hearing, and him delectably smelling, and him sweetly swallowing, and then shall we see God face to face homely and fulsomely. The creature who is made shall see and endlessly behold God who is the Maker. ¶ For thus may no man see God and live after, that is to say, in this deadly life. But when he of his special grace will show him here, he strengthens the creature/

above the self, and he measures the Showing after his own will as it is profitable for the time.
/S/ Of the properties of the Trinity and how man's soul, a creature, has the same properties doing that it was made for, beholding and marveling his God so by that it seems as nought to the self./SP/ The Forty-Fourth Chapter.
God showed in all the Revelations often, that man works evermore his will and his worship lastingly without any stinting. And what this work is was showed in the First Showing, and that in a marvelous ground. ¶ For it was showed in the working of the soul of our blissful Lady Saint Mary, by Truth and Wisdom. And how I hope by the grace of the holy Ghost, I shall say as I saw. /WSP/¶ Truth sees God, and Wisdom beholds God, and of these two comes the third, that is a holy marvelous delight in God who is Love. Where Truth and Wisdom are verily there is Love, truly coming of them both, and all of God's making. ¶ For /W/ God /SP/ he /WSP/ is endless sovereign truth, endless sovereign wisdom, endless sovereign love unmade. And man's soul is a creature in God, who has the same properties made. And evermore it does as it was made for. It sees God, it beholds God, and it loves God. Whereof God enjoys in the creature, and the creature /W/ enjoys /WSP/ in God endlessly marveling. ¶ In which marveling he sees his God, his Lord, his Maker, so high, so great, and so good in regard of him who is made, that scarce the creature seems ought to the self, but the /WS/ clearness and the cleanness /P/ brightness and clearness /WSP/ of truth and wisdom makes him to see, and to /WS/ be known /P/ know /WSP/ that he is made for love, in which God endlessly keeps him.
/S/ Of the form and deep judgement of God and the variant judgement of man. /SP/ The Forty-Fifth Chapter.
God judges us upon our natural substance which is ever kept one in him, whole and saved without end. And this judgment is of his rightfulness. And man judges upon our changeable sensuality, which seems now one, now another, after it takes of the parties and shows outward. And this /S/ wisdom /P/ judgment /SP/ is mixed, for sometimes it is good and easy, and sometimes it is hard and grievous. ¶ And inasmuch as it is good and easy it belongs to rightfulness. And in as much as it is hard and grievous, our good Lord Jesus reforms it by mercy and grace, through the virtue of his blessed Passion, and so brings it into the rightfulness. ¶ And though these two be thus accorded and oned, yet it shall be known both /S/ in heaven without end. /SP/¶ The first judgment, which is of God's rightfulness, and that is of his high/

endless /S/ life /P/ love. /SP/ And this is that fair sweet judgment that was showed in all the fair Revelation in which I saw him assign to us no manner of blame. ¶ And though this was sweet and delectable, yet only in the beholding of this I could not be full eased. And that was for the judgment of holy Church, which I had before understood, and was continually in my sight. ¶ And therefore by this judgment, I thought I needed to know myself a sinner, and by the same judgment, I understood that sinners are worthy sometimes of blame and wrath. And these two I could not see in God. ¶ And there my /P/ advice and /SP/ desire was more than I can or may tell. For the higher judgment God showed himself in the same time. And therefore /S/ I /P/ we /SP/ needed to take it. And the lower judgment was taught me before in holy Church, and therefore I might in no way leave the lower judgment. ¶ Then was this my desire, that I might see in God, in what manner that the judgment of holy Church herein /S/ teaches /P/ on earth, /SP/ is true in his sight, and how it belongs to me truly 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 had no other answer but a marvelous example of a Lord and of a servant, as I shall say after, and that full /S/ mightily /P/ mistily /SP/ showed. And yet I stand in desire and will unto my /P/ life's /SP/ end, that I might by grace know these two judgments, as it belongs to me. ¶ For all heavenly and all earthly things that belong to heaven are comprehended in these two judgments. ¶ And the more /P/ knowing and /SP/ understanding by the gracious leading of the holy Ghost that we have of these two judgments, the more we shall see and know our /S/ failings /P/ feelings. /SP/ And ever the more that we see them, the more naturally by grace we shall long to be fulfilled of endless joy and bliss for we are made thereto, and our natural substance is now blissful in God and has been since it was made, and shall be without end.
/S/ We cannot know ourself in this life, but by faith and grace, but we must know ourself sinners. And how God is never wroth, being most near the Soul, keeping it. /SP/The Forty-Sixth Chapter.
But our passing /S/ life /P/ living /SP/ that we have here in our sensuality knows not what our self is /P/ but in our faith. And when we know and see truly and clearly what our self is, /SP/ then shall we truly and clearly see and know our Lord God in fullness of joy. ¶ And therefore it is needful that the nearer we be to our bliss, the more we shall long, and that both by nature and by grace. ¶ We may have knowing of our self in this life, by continual help and virtue of our high nature, in which knowing we may increase and grow by nurturing and helping of mercy and grace, But we may never fully know our self into the last point. In which point this passing life and /P/ all /SP/ manner of pain and woe shall have an end. And therefore it belongs properly to us/

both by nature and by grace to long and desire with all our mights to know ourself, /P/ in which knowing we shall truly and clearly know our God /SP/ in fulness of endless joy. ¶ And yet in all this time from the beginning to the end I had two manner of beholding. That one was endless continual love with secureness of keeping and blissful salvation. For of this was all the Showing. ¶ That other was the common teaching of holy Church in which I was before informed and grounded, and wilfully having in use and understanding. And the beholding of this came not from me. For by the Showing I was not stirred nor led there from in any point, but I had therein teaching to love it and like it, whereby I might, by the help of our Lord and his grace, increase and rise to more heavenly knowing and higher loving. ¶ And thus in all this beholding I thought it needful to see and to know that we are sinners, and do many evil deeds that we ought to leave, and leave many good deeds undone that we ought to do, wherefore we deserve pain, /P/ blame /SP/ and wrath. And notwithstanding all this, I saw truly that our Lord was never wroth and never shall be. ¶ For he is God, /P/ he is good, he is truth, he is love, he is peace, and his might, his wisdom /S/ good, life, truth, love, peace. /SP/ His charity, and his unity, suffer him not to be wroth. ¶ For I saw truly that it is against the property of /P/ his /SP/ might to be wroth, and against the property of his wisdom, and against the property of his goodness. ¶ God is the goodness who may not be wroth, for he is nought 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 /P/ so /SP/ fulsomely oned to God of his own goodness, that between God and our soul may be right nought. ¶ And to this understanding was the soul led by love, and drawn by might in every Showing. That it is thus, our good Lord showed, and how it is thus, truly of his great goodness, and he will we desire to know, that is to say as it belongs to his creature to know it. ¶ For all thing that the simple soul understands, God wills that it be showed and known. For the things that he will have privy, mightily and wisely he himself hides them for love. ¶ For I saw in the same Showing that much privity is hid, which may never be known until the time that God of his goodness has made us worthy to see it. And therewith I am well paid, abiding our Lord's will in this high marvel. And now I yield me to my mother holy Church as a simple child ought.
/S/We must reverently marvel and meekly suffer, ever enjoying in God, and how our blindness in that we see not God is cause of sin./SP/ The Forty-Seventh Chapter. /

Two points belong to our soul by debt. ¶ One is that we reverently marvel. ¶ That other is that we meekly suffer, ever 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 marveled greatly, what is the mercy and forgiveness of God? For by the teaching that I had before, I understood that the mercy of God should be the forgiveness of his wrath after the time that we have sinned. ¶ For I thought 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 principle points of his mercy. ¶ But for /S/ nought /P/ ought /SP/ that I might behold and desire I could not see this point in all the Showing. ¶ But how I understood and saw of the works of mercy I shall say something as God will give me grace. I understood this, ¶ Man is changeable in this life, and by /S/ frailty and overcoming /P/ simpleness and unknowing /SP/ falls into sin. He is weak and unwise of himself, and also his will is overlaid, and in this time he is in tempest and in sorrow and woe. And the cause is blindness, for he sees not God. For if he saw God continually, he should have no mischievous feeling, nor any manner /S/ of stirring /P/ nor sorrowing /S/ of the yearning /SP/ that serves to sin. ¶ Thus I saw and felt in the same time. And I thought that the sight and the feeling was high and plenteous, and gracious in regard that our common feeling is in this life. But yet I thought it was but small and low in regard of the great desire that the soul has to see God. ¶ For I felt in myself five ways of working, which be these: enjoying; mourning; desire; dread; and /S/ secure/P/ true /SP/ hope. ¶ Enjoying, for God gave me understanding, and knowing that it was himself that I saw. ¶ Mourning, and that was for failing. ¶ Desire, and that was that I might see him ever more and more. ¶ Understanding, and knowing, that we shall never have full rest, till we see him truly and clearly, in heaven. ¶ Dread was, for it seemed to me in all that time, that that sight should fail, and I be left to myself. ¶ /S/ Secure /P/ True /SP/ hope was in the endless love that I saw I should be kept by his mercy, and brought to his bliss. ¶ And the joying in his sight with this /S/ secure /P/ true /SP/ hope of his merciful keeping made me to have feeling and comfort, so that mourning and dread were not greatly painful. ¶ And yet in all this I beheld in the Showing of God, that this kind of sight of him may not be continual in this life, and that for his own worship, and for increase of our endless joy. And therefore we fail often of the sight of him, and soon we fall/

into our self and then we find no feeling of right nought, but contrariousness that is in our self. ¶ And that of the elder root of our first sin with all that follows of our contrivance and in this we are travailed, and tempested with feeling of sins and of pains, in many diverse ways, ghostly and bodily, as known to us in this life.
/S/Of mercy and grace and their properties, and how we shall enjoy that we ever suffered woe patiently. /SP/The Forty-Eighth Chapter.
But our good Lord the holy Ghost who is endless life, dwelling in our soul, full /S/ securely /P/ truly /SP/ keeps us and works therein a peace and brings it to ease, by grace, and accords it to God and makes it pliant. And this is the mercy and the way that our Lord continually leads us in as long as we be here in this life, which is changeable. ¶ For I saw no wrath but in man's part, and that he forgives in us. For wrath is not else but a forwardness and a contrariousness to peace and to love. And either it comes of failing of might or of failing of wisdom or of failing of goodness, which failing is not in God, but it is on our part, for we by sin and /S/ wretchedness /P/ wrath /SP/ have in us a /S/ wretched /P/ wrath /SP/ and continuous contrariousness to peace and to love. And that showed he most often in his lovely cheer of ruth and pity. ¶ For the ground of mercy is love, and the working of mercy is our keeping in love. And this was showed in such manner, that I could not perceive of the property of mercy otherwise, but as it were /S/ alone /P/ all love /SP/ in love, that is to say as to my sight. ¶ Mercy is a sweet gracious working in love mixed with plenteous pity. For mercy works keeping us, and mercy works turning to us all thing to good. Mercy by love suffers 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 we must die, in as much as we fail sight and feeling of God who is our life. ¶ Our failing is dreadful, our falling is shameful, and our dying is sorrowful. ¶ But in all this the sweet eye of pity and love never leaves us nor ceases the working of mercy. For I beheld the property of mercy. And I beheld the property of grace, which have two ways of working in one love. Mercy is a pitiful property which belongs to the Motherhood in tender love. And grace is a worshipful property, which belongs to the royal Lordship in the same love. Mercy works, keeping, suffering, quickening and healing. And all is of tenderness of love. And grace works, /P/ with mercy /SP/ raising, rewarding and endlessly overpassing, that our loving and our travail deserve spreading abroad, and showing the high plenteous generousness of/

God's royal Lordship in his marvelous courtesy. And this is of the abundance of love. For grace works our dreadful failing into plenteous endless solace. ¶ And grace works our shameful falling into high worshipful rising. And grace works our sorrowful dying into holy blissful life. ¶ For I saw full /S/ securely /P/ truly /SP/ that ever as our contrariousness works to us here on earth pain, shame and sorrow, right so on the contrary wise, grace works to us in heaven, solace, worship and bliss, and overpassing, so much that when we come up and receive the sweet reward which grace has wrought to us, /S/ then /P/ there /SP/ we shall thank and bless our Lord endlessly joying, 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 I needed to grant that the mercy of God and the forgiveness is to slacken and lessen our wrath.
/S/ Our life is grounded in love, without which we perish, but yet God is never wroth, but in our wrath and sin he mercifully keeps us, and treats us to peace, rewarding our tribulations. /SP/The Forty-Ninth Chapter.
For this was a high marvel to the soul who was continually showed in all and with great diligence beholds that our Lord God regarding himself, may not forgive, /P/ for he may not be wroth. ¶ For it were impossible that /S/ he be wroth. /SP/ For this was showed 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 sees so much of the high marvelous goodness of God, and that we are endlessly oned to him in love. It is the most impossible that may be that God should be wroth. ¶ For wrath and friendship be two contraries. For he who lessens and destroys our wrath, and makes us meek and mild, it must needs /S/ be /P/ I believe /SP/ that he be ever in one love, meek and mild, which is contrarious to wrath. ¶