JULIAN OF NORWICH

SHOWING OF LOVE, PART III
 

/S/In our substance we are full, in our sensuality we fail, which God will restore by Mercy and Grace. And how our Nature, which is the higher part, is knit to God in the making, and God Jesus is knit to our nature in the lower part in our flesh taking. And of Faith spring other virtues. And Mary is our Mother. /SP/ The Fifty-Seventh Chapter.
And regards our substance he made us noble and so rich that ever more we work his will and his worship. Where /P/ I /SP/ say 'we,' /SP/ it means 'man who shall be saved'. ¶ For truly I saw that we are whom he loves, and do what he likes lastingly without any stopping. And of the great riches and of the high noble virtues by measure come to our soul, what time it is knit to our body, in which knitting we are made sensual. ¶ And thus in our substance we are full. And in our sensuality we fail. Which failing God will restore and fulfill by working /P/ of /SP/ mercy and grace, plenteously flowing into us of his own natural goodness, and thus his natural /S/ Godhead /P/ goodness /SP/ makes that mercy and grace work in us, and the natural /S/ Godhead /P/ goodness /SP/ that we have of him enables us to receive the working of mercy and grace. I saw that our nature is in God whole in which he makes diverse /S/ satisfactions /SP/ flowing out of him to work his will, whose nature keeps, and mercy and grace restore and fulfill. ¶ And of these none shall perish. For our nature which is the higher part, is knit to God in the making, and God is knit to our nature, which is the lower part of our flesh taking. ¶ And thus in Christ our two natures are oned. For the Trinity is comprehended in Christ in whom our higher part is grounded and rooted, and our lower part the second Person has taken, which nature first to him was ordained. ¶ For I saw full /S/ securely /P/ truly /SP/ that all the works that God has done or ever shall were fully known to him and /P/ truly /SP/ seen before from without beginning. And for love he made mankind and for the same love, himself would /S/ be /P/ become /SP/ man. ¶ The next good that we receive is our faith in which our profiting begins, and it comes of the high riches of our natural substance, into our sensual soul. And it is grounded in us and we in that through the natural goodness of God by the working of mercy and grace, and thereof come all /S/ other /P/ our /SP/ goods by which we are led and saved. For the Commandments of God come therein. In which we ought to have two kinds of understanding. /PN/¶ That one is we owe to understand and know /SPN/ which are his bidding, to love and to keep them. ¶ That other is that we ought to know his forbiddings, to hate and to refuse them. For in these two is all our working comprehended. Also in our faith come the seven Sacraments, each/

following the other in order as God has ordained them to us, and all manner of virtues. For the same virtues that we have received of our substance, given to us in nature by the goodness of God, the same virtues, by the working of mercy, are given to us in grace through the holy Ghost renewed, which virtues and gifts are treasured to us in Jesus Christ. /SP/¶ For in that same time that God knitted him to our body in the Maiden's womb, he took our sensual soul, in which taking, he having us all enclosed in him, he oned it to our substance. In which oneing he was perfect man. For Christ having knit in him /S/ each /P/ all /SP/ man who shall be saved is perfect man. ¶ Thus our Lady is our Mother in whom we are all enclosed, and of her born in Christ, for she who is Mother of our Saviour is mother of all who shall be saved in our Saviour. And our Saviour is our very Mother, in whom we be endlessly born and never shall come out of him. Plenteously and fully and sweetly was this showed. And it is spoken of in the First Showing, where /S/ he /P/ it /SP/ says we are all enclosed in him and he is enclosed in us. ¶ And that is spoken of in the Sixteenth Showing where /S/ it /P/ he /SP/ says he sits in our soul. For it is his liking to reign in our understanding blissfully and sit in our soul restfully, and to dwell in our soul endlessly, us all working into him. In which working he will we be his helpers giving to him all our attention, learning his lore, keeping his laws, desiring that all be done that he does, truly trusting in him. For /S/ soothly /P/ truly /SP/ I saw that our substance is in God.
/S/God was never displeased with his chosen wife, and of three properties in the Trinity, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Lordship, and how our substance is in every Person, but our sensuality is in Christ alone. /SP/The Fifty-Eighth Chapter.
God the blissful Trinity who is ever lasting and being, right as he is endless from without beginning, right so it was in his endless purpose to make mankind. Which fair nature first ordained to his own Son, the second Person. And when he would, by full accord of all the Trinity, he made us all at once. ¶ And in our making he knit us and oned us to himself. By which oneing we are kept as clean and as noble as we were made. By the virtue of that same precious oneing. We love our Maker, and like him, praise him, and thank him and endlessly enjoy in him. ¶ And this is the work which is wrought continually in every soul who shall be saved, which is the godly will beforesaid. ¶ And thus in our making God Almighty is our natural Father, and God All Wisdom is our natural 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 oneing he is our very true spouse. And we his loved wife and his fair maiden, with which wife he is never displeased. For he says 'I love you and you love me, and our love shall never be parted 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 Fatherhood, the property of the Motherhood, and the property of the Lordship in one God. In our Father Almighty we have our keeping and our bliss, as regards our natural substance, which is to us by our making /P/ from /SP/ without beginning. And in the second Person, in wit and wisdom we have our keeping, as regards 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 travail, and endless overpassing all that we desire in his marvelous courtesy of his high plenteous grace. For all our life is in three. ¶ In the first we have our being. ¶ And in the second we have our increasing. ¶ And in the third we have our fulfilling. ¶ The first is nature. ¶ 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 this we have in nature and in our substantial making. And furthermore I saw that the second Person who is our substantial Mother, that same dearworthy Person is /P/ now /SP/ become our sensual Mother. For we are double of God's making, that is to say, substantial and sensual. Our substance is the higher part, which we have in our Father God Almighty. ¶ And the second Person of the Trinity is our Mother in nature in our substantial making, in whom we are grounded and rooted. And he is our Mother in mercy in our sensuality taking /S/ flesh. /SP/ And thus our Mother is working to us in diverse ways in whom our parts are kept undivided. For in our Mother Christ we profit and increase. And in mercy he reforms us and restores. ¶ And, by the virtue of his Passion and his death and Uprising ones us to our substance. ¶ Thus works our Mother in mercy to all his /P/ beloved /SP/ children who are to him humble and obedient. And grace works with mercy and namely in two properties, as it was showed. Which work belongs to the third Person, the holy Ghost. He works, rewarding and giving. Rewarding is a /S/ large giving of truth /P/ gift of trust /SP/ that the Lord does to him who has travailed. ¶ And giving is a courteous working which he does freely of grace fulfilling/

and overpassing all that is deserved of creatures. ¶ Thus in our Father God Almighty we have our being. And in our Mother of mercy we have our reforming and /P/ our /SP/ restoring in whom our parts are oned, and all made perfect man. And by yielding and giving in grace of the holy Ghost we are fulfilled. And our substance is our Father God Almighty. And our substance is our Mother God All Wisdom. And our substance is in our Lord the holy Ghost, God, all goodness. For our substance is whole in each Person of the Trinity, who is one God. ¶ And our sensuality is only in the second Person, Christ Jesus, in whom is the Father and the holy Ghost. And in him and by him we are mightily taken out of Hell and out of the wretchedness on earth and worshipfully brought up into heaven, and blissfully oned to our substance increased in riches and nobleness by all the virtue of Christ, and by the grace and working of the holy Ghost.
/S/ Wickedness is turned to bliss by mercy and grace in the chosen. For the property of God is to do good against evil by Jesus our Mother in natural grace, and the highest soul in virtue is meekest, of which ground we have other virtues. /SP/ The Fifty-Ninth Chapter.
And all this bliss we have by mercy and grace, which manner of bliss we might never have had nor known, but if the properties of goodness which is /P/ in /SP/ God had been contraried, whereby we might have this bliss. For wickedness has been suffered to arise contrary to the goodness. And the goodness of mercy and grace contraried against the wickedness and turned all to goodness and to worship to all these who shall be saved. For it is the property in God which does good against evil. ¶ Thus, Jesus Christ who does good against evil is our true Mother. We have our being of him where the ground of Motherhood begins with all the sweet keeping of love that endlessly follows. /W/ Also /WSP/ ¶ As truly as God is our Father, as truly God is our Mother, and that showed he in all, and namely in these sweet words where he says, 'I it am', that is to say, 'I it am, the might and the goodness of the Fatherhood, I it am, the wisdom /W/ and the nature /SP/ of the Motherhood, I it am, the light and the grace that is all blessed love, I it am, the Trinity, I it am, the Unity. I am the /W/ high /SP/ sovereign goodness of all manner of things. I am who makes you to love, I am who makes you to long, I it am, the endless fulfilling of all true desires'. ¶ For /WP/ there /S/ then /WSP/ the soul is highest, noblest, and /WP/ worshipfullest /S/ worthiest, /W/ there /S/ when /P/ yet /WSP/ it is lowest, meekest and mildest. ¶ And of this substantial ground we have all our virtues, /W/ in /SP/ and /WSP/ our sensuality by /W/ right /SP/ gift /WSP/ of nature and by helping and aiding of mercy and grace, without which we may not profit./

/SP/ ¶ Our high Father God Almighty who is being, he /S/ knew /P/ knows /SP/ us and loved us from before any time. Of which knowing in his marvelous deep charity by the foreseeing endless counsel of all the blessed Trinity he would that the second Person should become our Mother, our Brother, and our Saviour. ¶ Whereof it follows that as truly as God is our Father, as truly God is our Mother. Our Father /P/ wills, /SP/ our Mother works, our good Lord the holy Ghost confirms. ¶ And therefore it belongs 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, Nature, Mercy and Grace. Whereof we have /S/ meekness, /SP/ mildness, patience and pity, and hating of sin and wickedness. For it belongs properly to virtues to hate sin and wickedness. /W/ Also Jesus the second Person in the Trinity, in whom is the Father and the holy Ghost, he is truly /SP/ ¶ And thus is Jesus /WSP/ our true Mother in nature of our first making. ¶ And he is our true /P/ first /WSP/ Mother in grace, by taking of our created nature. /SP/ All the fair working and all the sweet natural offices of dearworthy Motherhood are proper to the second Person, for in him we have this godly will, whole and saved without end, both in nature and in grace of his own proper goodness. /WSP/¶ I understood three kinds of beholding of Motherhood in God. The first is ground of our nature making. ¶ The second is /S/ taken /P/ taking /WSP/ of our nature, and there begins the Motherhood of grace. ¶ The third is Motherhood of working. And therein is a forth /WS/ spreading /P/ helping /WSP/ by the same grace, of length, and breadth, and of height, and of deepness without end and all is /WP/ one /S/ his own /WSP/ love.
/S/ How we be bought again and forth spread by mercy and grace of our sweet, kind and ever loving Mother Jesus, and of the properties of Motherhood. But Jesus is our true Mother, not feeding us with milk but with himself opening his side on to us and challenging all our love. /SP/ The Sixtieth Chapter. /WSP/
But now I must say a little more of this forth spreading, as I understand in the meaning of our Lord, how that we be /WP/ brought /S/ bought /WSP/ again by the Motherhood of mercy and grace into our natural stead, where we were made by the Motherhood of natural love, which natural love never leaves us. ¶ Our natural Mother, our gracious Mother. For he would all wholly become our Mother in all thing. He took the ground of his work full low, and full mildly in the Maiden's womb, /W/ taking flesh of her./SP/ And that he showed in the First Showing when he brought that meek Maiden before the eye of my understanding in the simple stature as she was when she conceived. That is to say our high God is sovereign wisdom of all. In this low place he went and /WSP/ prepared himself all ready in our poor flesh, himself to do the service and the office of Motherhead in all thing. ¶ The Mother's service is nearest, readiest and securest. /WP/ Nearest for it is most of nature, readiest for it is most of love, and /WSP/ securest for it is most of truth. /SP/ This office might not, nor could ever be done to the full but by /W/ Christ Jesus, God and man, /SP/ him /WSP/ alone. We know /W/ well /WSP/ that all our mothers bear us is to pain and to dying. /SP/ And what is that? /WSP/ But our true Mother Jesus, he /S/ all love /WP/ alone, /WSP/ bears us to joy /W/ and to bliss /SP/ and to endless living, blessed must he be. Thus he sustains us within himself in love and travailed into the full time, that he would suffer the sharpest throes, and the most grievous pains that ever were, or ever shall be, and died at the last. And when he had done and so born us to bliss, yet might not all this make amends /S/ of /P/ to /WSP/ his marvelous love. And that showed he in these high overpassing words of love, 'If I might suffer more I would suffer more'. He might no more die but he would not stop from working. Wherefore he needs to /WS/ feed /P/ find /WSP/ us for the dearworthy love of Motherhead has made him debtor to us. ¶ The Mother may give her Child to suck of her milk, but our precious Mother Jesus, he may feed us with himself. And does most courteously and most tenderly with the blessed Sacrament /W/ of his body and blood, /WSP/ that is precious food of very life and with all the sweet sacraments he sustains us most mercifully and graciously. And so meant he in /W/ these gracious words /SP/ this blessed word /WSP/ where he said, 'I it am whom holy Church preaches to you and teaches you, that is to say all the health and life of the Sacraments, all the virtue and grace of my word, all that goodness that is ordained in holy Church for you, I it am'. The Mother may lay the Child tenderly to her breast, but our tender /W/ Lord /SP/ Mother /WSP/ Jesus, he may homely lead us into his blessed breast by his sweet open side and show /W/ us /WSP/ therein part of the Godhead and the joys of heaven with ghostly secureness of endless bliss. ¶ And that he showed /SP/ in the Ninth Showing, giving the same understanding /WSP/ in this sweet word where he says, 'Lo, how I loved you', beholding into his /P/ blessed /WSP/ side, enjoying. This fair lovely word, 'Mother', it is so sweet and so natural of the self, that it may not truly be said of none, /W/ nor to none /WSP/, but /W/ to /SP/ of /WSP/ him and to /WP/ him /S/ her /WSP/ who is true Mother of /WP/ life /S/ him /WSP/ and of all. ¶ To the property of Motherhood belongs natural love, wisdom and knowing and it is /WP/ God /S/ good. For though it be so that our bodily forth bringing be but little, low and simple in regard to our ghostly forth bringing, yet it is he who does it in the creatures by whom it is done. ¶ The natural loving Mother who understands and knows the need of her child/

she keeps it full tenderly as the nature and the condition of Motherhead will. And /PW/ ever /WS/ as it grows in age, /WP/ and in height, /W/ so /WSP/ she changes her working but not her love. And when it is grown of more age she suffers that it be /WS/ bruised /P/ chastised /WSP/ in breaking down of vices to make the child receive virtues and graces. ¶ This working with all /W/ other /WSP/ that be /SP/ fair and /WSP/ good, our Lord does it in them by whom it is done. Thus he is our Mother in nature by the working of grace /W/ in us /WSP/ in the lower part for love of the higher part. ¶ And /W/ which /WSP/ he will that we know it, for he will have all our love fastened to him. And in this I saw that all our debt that we owe by God's bidding, /W/ it is to /S/ by /P/ to /WSP/ Fatherhood and Motherhood, /S/ for God's Fatherhood and Motherhood /WSP/ is fulfilled in true loving of God which blessed love Christ works in us. ¶ And this was showed in all, and namely in the high plenteous words where he says, 'I it am whom you love'.
/S/ Jesus uses more tenderness in our ghostly bringing forth, though he suffers us to fall in knowing of our wretchedness. He hastily raises us, not breaking his love for our trespass, for he may not suffer his child to perish. For he will that we have the property of a child fleeing to him always in our need. /SP/ The Sixty-First Chapter. /WSP/
And in our ghostly forthbringing he uses more tenderness of keeping, without any likeness. By as much as our soul is of more price in his sight, he kindles our understanding, he /W/ aids /S/ directs /P/ prepares /WSP/ our ways, he eases our conscience, he comforts our soul, he lightens our heart, and gives us in part knowing and loving in his blissful Godhead, with gracious mind in his /SP/ sweet /WSP/ manhood and his blessed Passion, with courteous marveling in his high overpassing goodness. And makes us to love all that he loves for his love, and be /P/ well /WSP/ paid with him /W/ with all that he does and in /WSP/ and all his works. ¶ And /PW/ when /WSP/ we fall, hastily he raises us by his lovely calling and gracious touching. And when we be thus strengthened by his sweet working then we wilfully chose him by his /S/ sweet /WSP/ grace, to be his servants and his lovers lastingly without end. ¶ And /WP/ yet /WSP/ after this he suffers some of us to fall harder and more grievously than ever we did before as we think. And then believe we that be not all wise that all were nought that we have begun. But it is not so. For we need to fall, and we need /W/ know it and /WSP/ to see it. For if we fell not, we should not know how feeble and how wretched we are of our self, /SP/ nor also we should not so fullsomely know the marvelous love of our Maker. For we shall truly see in heaven without end that we have grievously sinned in this life. ¶ And notwithstanding this we shall /P/ truly /SP/ see, that we were/

never hurt in his love, nor were /P/ we /SP/ never the less of price in his sight. And by the testing of this falling we shall have a high /P/ and a /SP/ marvelous knowing of love in God without end. For hard and marvelous is that love which may not nor will not be broken for trespass. And this is one understanding of profit. ¶ Another 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. /WSP/ And /W/ also /SP/ therefore /WSP/ we need to see /W/ our falling, /SP/ it, /WSP/ and if we see it not, though we fell, it should not profit us. And commonly first we fall and then we see it, /WP/ through that sight by /SP/ and both /W/ by /P/ is /SP/ of /WSP/ the mercy of God, /W/ we be low and meek. /SP/¶ The Mother may suffer the child to fall sometimes and be discomforted in diverse ways for /P/ the one /S/ its own /SP/ profit. But she may never suffer that any manner of peril come to /S/ the /P/ her /SP/ Child for love./WSP/ ¶ And though our /SP/ earthly /WSP/ mother may allow her Child to perish, our heavenly Mother Jesus may /WP/ never /S/ not /WSP/ suffer us who are his Children to perish. For he is almighty, all wisdom and all love, and so is none but he, Blessed must he be. ¶ But often when our falling, and our wretchedness is showed us, we are so sore adread, and so greatly ashamed of our self, that scarce we know where we may hold us. But then wills not our courteous Mother that we flee away, for him were nothing more loathful. ¶ But he will then that we use the condition of /WP/ a child /S/ Childhood, /WSP/ for when it is diseased or afraid, it runs hastily to the Mother /WP/ and if it may do no more it cries on the mother /WSP/ for help with all its might. So will he that we do as a meek Child, saying thus, 'My kind Mother, my gracious Mother, my dearworthy Mother, have mercy on me, I have made myself foul and unlike you, and I neither may nor can amend it, but with /WP/ your /S/ privy /WSP/ help and grace'. And if we feel us not then eased soon we be secure that he uses the condition of a wise mother. For if he sees that it be /WS/ more /P/ for /WSP/ profit to us to mourn and to weep, he suffers it with ruth and pity into the best time for love. And he will then that we use the property of a Child who evermore naturally trusts to the love of the Mother in weal and in woe. And /W/ our Lord God /SP/ he /WSP/ will that we take us mightily to the faith of holy Church, and find there our dearworthy Mother in solace of true understanding with all the blessed Common. ¶ For one singular person may often be broken as it seems to itself, but the whole body of holy Church was never broken nor ever shall be without end. ¶ And therefore a secure thing it is, a good and a gracious to will meekly, and mightily be /WP/ fastened /S/ sustained /WSP/ and oned to our Mother holy Church who is Christ Jesus./

For the /WP/ flood /S/ food /WSP/ of mercy that is his dearworthy blood and precious water, /W/ it /WSP/ is plenteous to make us fair and clean. The blessed wound of our Saviour be open and enjoy to heal us. ¶ The sweet gracious hands of our Mother be ready and diligent about us. For he in all this working uses the office of a kind nurse and has not /WP/ else /S/ all /WSP/ to do but to attend to the salvation of her Child. It is his office /W/ of our Lord Jesus Christ /WSP/ to save /W/ it /SP/ us, /WSP/ it is his worship to do us, and it is his will we know it. For he will we love him sweetly and trust in him meekly and mightily. And this showed he in these gracious words, 'I keep you most securely'.
/S/ The love of God suffers never his chosen to lose time. For all their trouble is turned into endless joy. And how we are all bound to God for nature and for grace. For all nature is in man, and we need not to seek out to know sundry natures but to holy Church. /SP/ The Sixty-Second Chapter.
For in that time he showed our frailty and our fallings, our breakings and our noughtings, our despites and our /S/ outcastings /P/ chargings, /SP/ and all our woe, so much as I thought it may befall in this life. ¶ And therewith he showed his blessed might, his blessed wisdom, his blessed love that he keeps us in this time, as tenderly and as sweetly to his worship and as surely to our salvation, as he does when we are in most solace and comfort. And thereto he raises us ghostly and highly in heaven, and turns it all to his worship and to our joy without end. For his /P/ precious /SP/ love /P/ he /SP/ allows us never to lose time. And all this is of the natural goodness of God by the working of grace. ¶ God is natural in his being, that is to say, that goodness that is natural, it is God. He is the ground, he is the substance, he is the same thing that is nature. And he is true Father and true Mother of nature. And all natures that he has made to flow out of him to work his will, shall be restored and brought again into him by the salvation of man, through the working of grace. ¶ For of all natures that he has set in diverse creatures in part, in man is all the whole, in fullness and in virtue, in fairness and in goodness, in royalty and in nobility, in all manner of solemnity, of preciousness and worship. ¶ Here may we see that we are all bound to God for nature, and we are all bound to God for grace. Here may we see we need not greatly to seek far out to know sundry natures, but to holy Church into our Mother's breast, that is to say into our own soul where our Lord dwells. And there shall we find all now in faith and in understanding. And after truly in himself clearly in bliss. But no man nor woman take this singularly to himself. For it is not so, it is general, for it is our precious /P/ Mother /SP/ Christ. And to him was this fair nature arranged for the worship and nobleness of man's making, and for the joy and the bliss of man's salvation, right as he saw, understood and knew from without beginning./

/S/Sin is more painful than Hell and vile and hurting nature, but grace saves nature and destroys sin. The children of Jesus be not yet all born, who pass not the stature of childhood, living in feebleness until they come to heaven where joys are ever newly beginning, without end./SP/ The Sixty-Third Chapter.
Here may we see that we have truly of nature to hate sin, and we have truly of grace to hate sin. For nature is all good and fair in the self. And grace was sent out to save nature, and destroy sin, and bring again fair nature to the blessed point from whence it came, that is God, with more nobility and worship by the virtuous working of grace. ¶ For it shall be seen before God of all his holy ones in joy without end, that nature has been assayed in the fire of tribulation, and therein found no lack nor fault. Thus are nature and grace of one accord, for grace is /S/ good /P/ God, /SP/ as /P/ unmade /SP/ nature is /S/ good /P/ God. /SP/ He is two in manner of working, and one in love. And neither of them works without the other, none be separated. ¶ And when we by the mercy of God and with his help accord us to nature and grace, we shall see truly that sin is /S/ truly /P/ worse, /SP/ viler and more painful than Hell without /P/ any /SP/ likeness. For it is contrary to our fair nature, for as truly as sin is unclean, so truly is /S/ it /P/ sin /SP/ unnatural. ¶ And thus /P/ All this is /SP/ a horrible thing to see to the /S/ loved /P/ loving /SP/ soul, that would be all fair and shining in the sight of God, as nature and grace teach. ¶ But be we not afraid of this, but inasmuch as dread may help us, but meekly make we our moan to our dearworthy Mother and he shall all besprinkle us in his precious blood, and make our soul full soft and full mild, and heal us full fair by process of time, right as it is most worship to him and joy to us without end. ¶ And of this sweet fair working he shall never cease nor stop till all his dearworthy children be born and brought forth. And that showed he where he /S/ showed /P/ gave /SP/ understanding of ghostly thirst, that is the love longing, that shall last till Doomsday. ¶ Thus in our true Mother Jesus our life is grounded in the foreseeing wisdom of himself, from without beginning with the high might of the Father, and the high sovereign goodness of the holy Ghost. And in the taking of our nature he quickened us in his blessed dying upon the Cross, he bare us to endless life. ¶ And from that time and now, and ever shall unto Doomsday, he feeds us and nourishes us. And right as that high sovereign nature of Motherhood /P/ wills /SP/ and as the natural need of Childhood asks. Fair and sweet is our heavenly Mother in the sight of our soul, precious and lovely are the gracious children in the sight of our heavenly Mother with mildness and meekness, and all the fair virtues that belong to Children in nature. /WSP/¶ For naturally the Child despairs not of the Mother's love, naturally the Child presumes not of the self, naturally the Child loves the Mother, and each one the other. /SP/ These are the fair virtues, with all others that be like wherewith/

our heavenly Mother is served and pleased. ¶ And I understood no lower stature in this life than Childhood in feebleness and failing of strength and of intellect, until the time that our gracious Mother has brought us up to our Father's bliss. And than shall it truly be made known to us his meaning in these sweet words where he says, 'All shall be well, and you shall see it your self that all manner thing shall be well'. /P/The Fifteenth Revelation. The Sixty-Fourth Chapter./SP/

Paris Manuscript
And then shall the bliss of our Mother in Christ be new to begin in the joys of our /P/ Father /SP/ God, which new beginning shall last without end, newly beginning. Thus I understood that all his blessed Children who be come out of him by nature shall be bought again unto him by grace.
/S/ The Fifteenth Revelation is as it showed, etc. The absence of God in this life is our full great pain, beside other travail, but we shall suddenly be taken from all pain, having Jesus to our Mother, and our patient abiding is greatly pleasing to God. And God will take our disease lightly for love, thinking us always at the point to be delivered. Sixty-Fourth Chapter. /SPA/ ¶ {Before this time /W/ Also /WSPA/ I had great longing and desire of God's gift, to be delivered of this world and of this life. /A/ For I should be with my God in bliss, /WA/ where I hope securely, through his mercy, to be without end. /WSPA/ For often I beheld the woe that is here, and the weal and the /WPA/ blessed /S/ bliss that is /SPA/ being /W/ in heaven /WSPA/ there. And if there had been no pain in this life /A/ on earth /SPA/, but the absence of our Lord, /PS/ I thought /WPS/ it was sometimes more that I might bear. And this made me to mourn and busily to long. /WSP/¶ And also of my own wretchedness, sloth and /W/ disgust /S/ weakness /P/ weariness, /WSP/ so that I desired not to live and to work as I had to do. /WSP/ And to all this our courteous Lord /W/ God /WSP/ answered /A/ Then God said to me, /WSPA/ for comfort and patience and said, /WSP/ these words, /WSPA/ 'Suddenly you shall be taken /WSP/ from all your pain, /WSP/ from all your sickness, /WSPA/ from all your disease, and from all your woe, and you shall come up above. And you shall have me to your reward. And you shall be fulfilled of /WPA/ joy /S/ love /WSPA/ and of bliss. And you shall have no manner of pain, /W/no manner of sickness, /WSPA/ no manner of misliking, no wanting of will, but ever joy and bliss without end. What should it then grieve you to suffer awhile, since it is my will and my worship'. /SP/ And in this word, /A/ Also, in this reason, /SPA/ 'Suddenly you shall be taken', I saw that God rewards man of the patience that he has in abiding God's will and of his time. And that man lengthens his patience over the time of his living. For unknowing of his time of passing. ¶ That is a great profit. For if a man knew his time, he should not have patience over that time. And as God will, while the soul is in the body, it seems to the self, that it is ever at the point to be taken. For all this life and this /SA/ langour /P/ longing /SPA/ that we have here is but a point. And when we are taken suddenly out of pain into bliss, then pain shall be nought. /SP/¶ And in this time I saw a body lying on the earth, which body showed heavy and /S/ ugly /P/ fearful /SP/ without shape and form, as it were, a bloated quagmire of a stinking bog, and suddenly out of this body sprang a full fair creature, a little Child, fully shaped and formed, swift and lively, whiter than a lily, which sharply glided up into heaven. ¶ And the swelling of the body betokens great wretchedness of our deadly flesh, and the littleness of the Child betokens the cleanness of purity in the soul. ¶ And I thought with this/

The Office of the Dying, showing the soul as a child gliding to the heavens rapidly leaving the decaying body, while the people pray, 'Credo in unum Deum', and the Seven Penitential Psalms, then the chaplain and priest speaking of Christ's blood saving his Servant, followed by the Litany of Saints.

body is left no fairness of this Child, nor on this Child dwells any foulness of this body. It is full blissful, man to be taken from pain, more than pain to be taken from man. For if pain be taken from us it may come again. Therefore it is a sovereign comfort and a blissful beholding in a /S/ loving /P/ longing /SP/ soul, if we shall be taken from pain. ¶ For in this promise I saw a marvelous compassion that our Lord has in us for our woe and a courteous promising of clean deliverance. For he will that we be comforted in the overpassing /P/ joy. /SP/ And that he showed in these words, 'And you shall come up above, and you shall have me to your reward, and you shall be fulfilled of joy and bliss'. /WSP/ It is God's will that we set the point of our thought in this blissful beholding as often as we may, and as long /SP/ time keep us therein with his grace. For this is a blessed contemplation to the soul that is led of God and full greatly to his worship for the time that it lasts. ¶ And /P/ when /SP/ we fall again to our heaviness and ghostly blindness and feeling of pains ghostly and bodily by our /S/ frailty /P/ fragility, /SP/ it is God's will that we know that he has not forgotten us. And so means he in these words and says for comfort, 'And you shall never more have pain, nor manner of sickness, nor manner of misliking, nor wanting of will, but ever joy and bliss without end. /A/ And therefore said our Lord, /SPA/ What should it then grieve you to suffer a while, seeing it is my will and my worship'. It is God's will we take his promises and his comfortings as largely and as mightily as we may take them. And also he will that we take our abiding and our diseases as lightly as we may take them, and set them at nought. For the lighter we take them, and the less price we set at them for love, the less pain shall we have in the feeling of them, and the more thanks and reward shall we have for them.
/S/ He who chooses God for love with reverent meekness is secure to be saved. Which reverent meekness sees the Lord marvelously great and the self marvelously little. And it is God's will we dread nothing but him, for the power of our enemy is taken in our friend's hand. And therefore all that God does shall be great liking to us. The Sixty-Fifth Chapter. /SP/
And thus I understood /A/ In this blessed Revelation I was truly taught that /SPA/ what man or woman wilfully chooses God in this life for love, he may be secure that he is /SP/ loved without end, which endless love works in him that grace. /A/ chosen. Keep this truly. /SPA/ For /SP/ he will /A/ truly it is God's will /SP/ that we keep this trusting that we be /S/ all /PA/ as /SPA/ secure in /SP/ hope /A/ trust /SPA/ of the bliss of heaven while we are here, as we shall be in secureness when we are there. ¶ And ever the more liking and joy that we take in this sureness with reverence and meekness the better he likes it. /SP/ ¶ As it was showed, this reverence that I mean is a holy courteous dread of our Lord to which meekness is knit, and that is that a creature sees the Lord marvelously great, and /S/ the /P/ her /SP/ self marvelously little. ¶ For these virtues are had endlessly to the beloved of God, and it must now be seen and felt in measure by the gracious presence of our Lord when it is. ¶ Which presence in all thing is most desired, for it works marvelous secureness in true faith and secure hope by greatness of charity in dread that is sweet and delectable. It is God's will that/

I see my self as much bound to him in love, as if he had done for me all that he has done. ¶ And thus should every soul think in regard of his lover, that is to say, the Charity of God makes in us such a Unity, that, when it is truly seen, no man can part himself from another. /A/ For I am secure that if there had been none other but I who should be saved, God would have done all that he has done for me and so should each soul think in knowing of his lover, forgetting if he might all creatures and thinking /SP/ And thus ought /S/ our /P/ each /SP/ soul to think /SPA/ that God has done for him all that he has done. /SP/ ¶ And this he shows /A/ I think should stir a soul /SPA/ to make us love him, /PA/ and like him /SPA/ and nought dread but him. For it is his will that we know that all the might of our enemy is /S/ taken into /PA/ locked in /SPA/ our friend's hand, and therefore the soul who knows this securely, shall not dread but him whom /SA/ he /P/ she /SPA/ loves. All /S/ our /PA/ other /SPA/ dreads /S/ he /P/ she /SPA/ sets among passions and bodily sickness and imaginations. And therefore /SP/ though we /A/ if a man /SPA/ be in so much pain, woe and disease, that /SP/ we /A/ he /SPA/ think /SP/ we /A/ he /SPA/ can think right nought but that /SP/ we are /A/ he is /SPA/ in or that /SP/ we feel /A/ he feels, /SPA/ as soon as we may, /SP/ we /A/ he /SPA/ pass lightly over and we set it at nought. And why? For God will /S/ we know him /PA/ be known. For if we know him and love /SP/ him, reverently dreading him /SPA/ we shall have /S/ peace, /PA/ patience /SPA/ and be in great rest. And it shall be great liking to us, all that he does. And this showed /SPA/ our Lord /A/ me /SPA/ in these words, /A/ that he said, /SPA/ 'What should it then grieve you to suffer a while, since it is my will and my worship'. /A/ And here was an end of all that the Lord showed me that day. /SP/¶ Now I have told you of Fifteen Showings as God vouchsafes to minister them to /P/ my /SP/ mind, renewed by lightings and touchings, I hope of the same spirit that showed them all. Of which Fifteen Showings, the first began early in the morning about the hour of four (or ten o'clock, before noon) and it lasted showing by process full fair and /S/ securely /P/ soberly, /SP/ each following the other, until it was nine (or three o'clock in the afternoon) of the day, overpassed.
The Sixteenth Revelation, /S/etc. And it is conclusion and confirmation to all Fifteen Showings. And of her frailty and mourning in disease, and light speaking after the great comfort of Jesus, saying she had raved, which being her great sickness, I suppose was but venal sin. But yet the devil had great power to vex her near to death. /SP/The Sixty-Sixth Chapter. /SP/
And /SP/ after this /SP/ the good Lord showed the Sixteenth Revelation on the night following as I shall say after, which Sixteenth was conclusion and confirmation to all Fifteen Showings. ¶ But first I needs must tell you, regarding my feebleness, wretchedness and blindness. ¶ I have said in the beginning, /P/ where it says, /SP/ 'And in this all my pain was suddenly taken from me'. Of which pain I had no grief nor disease, as long as the Fifteen Showings lasted /S/ following /P/ in showing. /SP/ And at the end all was close. And I saw no more. And soon I felt that I should live and langour. And immediately my sickness came again, first in my head with a sound and a din, and suddenly all my body was fulfilled with sickness like as it was before, /A/{After this, I fell into my self and into my bodily sickness understanding that I should live. /SPA/ And I was as barren and as dry as if I never had comfort but little, and as a wretch, I moaned and heaved for feeling of my bodily pains, and for failing of comfort ghostly and bodily, /A/ and thought it great anguish that I should live longer. /SPA/ ¶ Then came a monk to me and asked me how I fared, and I said I had raved today, and he laughed out loud and inwardly. ¶ And I said the Cross that stood /SP/ before my face, /A/ at my bed's foot, /SP/ I thought /SPA/ it bled fast, and with this word, the person I spoke to became all grave and marveled. And immediately I was sore ashamed/

/SP/ and astonished /SPA/ for my recklessness. And I thought this man takes seriously the least word that I might say. Then I /SP/ saw /A/ said /SPA/ no more thereof. ¶ And when I saw that he took it so sadly /SP/ and with so great reverence I /S/ wept /PA/ grew /SPA/ full greatly ashamed, and would have made my confession, but at that time I could tell it to no priest. For I thought, how should a priest believe me, /P/ when I /P/ by saying 'I raved.' I showed myself /SA/ I believed /P/ to believe /SPA/ not our Lord God. /SA/ This /P/ Notwithstanding /SPA/ I believed /P/ him /SPA/ truly for the time that I saw him, and so was then my will and my meaning ever to do without end, but as a fool, I let it pass from my mind. ¶ Ah, lo, I, a wretch, this was a great sin, a great unnaturalness, that I for folly of feeling a little bodily pain so unwisely /S/ lost /PA/ left /SPA/ for the time the comfort of all this blessed Showing of our Lord God. ¶ Here may you see what I am of my self. But herein would our courteous Lord not leave me. And I lay still till night, trusting in his mercy, and then I began to sleep. /P/ The Sixty-Seventh Chapter. /SPA/
And in /S/ the /PA/ my /SPA/ sleep at the beginning I thought the fiend set him at my throat /SP/ thrusting forth a face near mine like a young man, and it was long and wonderfully lean, I never saw none such. The color was red like the tilestone when it is new burnt, with black spots therein, like black freckles fouler than the tile stone. His hair was red as unscored rust, with side locks hanging on the jowls. He grinned on me with a shrewd semblance showing /P/ me /SPA/ white teeth, and so much I thought it the more ugly. ¶ Body nor hands had he none shapely, but with his paws he held me in the throat, /SPA/ and would have /SA/ strangled me, /P/ stopped my breath and killed me, /SPA/ but he might not. /SP/ This ugly Showing was made sleeping, and so was none other. And in all this time I trusted to be saved and kept by the mercy of God. /SP/¶ And our courteous Lord gave me grace to wake, /A/ Then I woke out of my sleep, /SPA/ and scarcely had I my life. ¶ The persons who were with me beheld me and wet my temples, and my heart began to strengthen. And soon a little smoke came in the door with a great heat and a foul stink. ¶ I said, 'Benedicite /S/ Domine /PA/ Dominus, /SPA/ is it all on fire that is here?' And I believed it had been a bodily fire that should have burnt us all to death. ¶ I asked them who were with me if they felt any stink. They said, 'No', they felt none. I said, 'Blessed be God'. ¶ For then I knew well it was the fiend, who was come to /SA/ tempest /P/ only to tempt /SPA/ me. And anon I took to that our Lord has showed me on the same day, with all the faith of holy Church. For I beheld it both as one. And fled thereto as to my comfort. And immediately all vanished away and I was brought to great rest and peace without sickness of body or dread of conscience.
/S/ Of the worshipful sight of the soul who is so nobly created, that it might no better have been made, in which the Trinity joys everlastingly. And the soul may have rest in nothing but in God, who sits therein ruling all things. Sixty-Seventh Chapter./A/ {But then I was left still awake /SPA/
And then our Lord opened my ghostly eye and showed me my soul in the midst of my heart. I saw /SP/ the /A/ my /SPA/ soul so large as it were an /SP/ endless /S/ world /P/ ward /SP/ and as it were a blissful /SPA/ kingdom. And by the condition I saw therein I /SP/ understood, /A/ thought /SPA/ /

that it is a worshipful city. ¶ In the midst of that city sits our Lord Jesus, /PA/ true /SA/ God and /PA/ true /SA/ man, a fair person and of large stature, highest /SP/ Bishop, solemnest King, worshipfullest /SPA/ Lord. And I saw him clad solemnly, and worshipfully he sits in the soul, even right in peace and rest. And /S/ the Godhead /PA/ he /SPA/ rules and guards heaven and earth and all that is, /PA/ ¶ The manhood with the Godhead sits in rest. The Godhead rules and governs without any instrument or busyness. ¶ And /P/ the /A/ my /PA/ soul is all occupied with the blessed Godhead, who is /SP/ sovereign might, sovereign wisdom, and sovereign goodness. /SPA/ ¶ The place that Jesus takes in our soul he shall never remove it without end /SP/ as to my sight. /SPA/¶ For in us is his homeliest home /SP/ and his endless dwelling, and in this he showed the liking that he has of the making of man's soul, /A/ and most liking to him to dwell in. /SP/¶ For as well as the Father might make a creature, and as well as the Son could make a creature, so well would the holy Ghost that man's soul were made, and so it was done. ¶ And therefore the blessed Trinity enjoys without end in the making of man's soul. For he saw from without beginning what should delight him without end. ¶ All thing that he has made shows his Lordship, as understanding was given at the same time, by example of a creature, who is /P/ led /SP/ to see great nobleness and kingdoms belonging to a Lord. And when it had seen all the nobleness beneath, there marveling, it was stirred to seek /P/ up /SP/ above to the high place where the Lord dwells, knowing by reason that his dwelling is in the worthiest place. ¶ And thus I understood truly that our soul may never have rest in things that are beneath it self, and when it comes above all creatures into the self, yet may it not abide in the beholding of the self. ¶ But all the beholding is blissfully set in God who is the Maker, dwelling therein. For in man's soul is his true /S/ home /P/ dwelling. ¶ And the highest light and the brightest shining of the City is the glorious love of our Lord, as to my sight. ¶ And what may make us more to enjoy in God, than to see in him, that he enjoys /P/ in us /SP/ highest of all his works. ¶ For I saw in the same Showing that if the blissful Trinity might have made man's soul any better, any fairer, any nobler than it was made, he should not have been fully pleased with the making of man's soul. /P/ But for he made man's soul as fair, as good, as precious as he might make it a creature, therefore the blessed Trinity is full pleased without end in the making of man's soul. /SP/¶ And he will that our hearts be mightily raised above the deepness of the earth and all vain sorrows, and enjoy in him.
/S/ Of true knowing that it is Jesus who showed all this. And it was no raving. And how we ought to have secure trust in all our tribulation that we shall not be overcome. Sixty-Eighth Chapter. /SPA/
{This was a delectable sight and a restful Showing that it is so /A/ in truth /SPA/ without end. And the beholding of this while we are here it is full pleasant to God, and full great speed to us. And the soul who thus beholds it, makes it like to him who is beheld and ones it in rest and peace by his grace. ¶ And this was a singular joy and bliss to me, that I saw him sit. For the /S/ secureness /P/ truth /A/ beholding /SP/ of the sitting shows /A/ to me securenessof his /SPA/ endless dwelling. And /SP/ he gave me knowing /A/ I knew /SPA/ truly, that it was he, who showed me all before. And when I had beheld this/

attentively, then showed /A/ me /SPA/ our good Lord words full meekly without voice, and without opening of lips, right as he had done /PA/ before, /SPA/ and said full /SP/ sweetly /A/ soberly, /SPA/ 'Know it well that it was no raving that you saw today, but take it and believe it, and keep you therein, /SP/ and comfort you therewith, and trust you thereto, /SPA/ and you shall not be overcome'. These last words were said for teaching of true secureness, that it is our good Lord /A/ Jesus /SPA/ who showed me  all, right as in the first word that our Lord showed /A/ me, /SPA/ meaning his blessed Passion, 'Herewith is the devil overcome', Right so, he said, in the last word with full true /SA/ secureness /P/ faithfulness, /SP/ meaning us all, /SPA/ 'You shall not be overcome'. And all this teaching in this true comfort, it is general to all my even Christians as /SP/ it is /A/ I have /SPA/ said before. And so is God's will. ¶ And these words, 'You shall not be overcome', were said full sharply, and full mightily for secureness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. ¶ He said not, 'You shall not be /SA/ tempested /P/ troubled, /SPA/ you shall not be travailed, you shall not be diseased', but he said, 'You shall not be overcome'. God wills that we take heed at these words, and that we be ever mighty in /S/ secure /P/ faithful /SP/ trust /A/ secureness /SPA/ in weal and woe, for he loves and likes us. And so wills he that we love him and like him, and mightily trust in him. And all shall be well. And soon after all was closed and I saw no more.
/S/Of the second long temptation of the devil to despair. But she mightily trusted to God, and to the faith of holy Church, rehearsing the Passion of Christ by which she was delivered. /P/ The Sixty-Ninth Chapter. /SA/ {After this /SPA/
The fiend came again with his heat and with his stink, and made me full busy. The stench was so vile and so painful and /PA/ bodily heat /SPA/ also dreadful and travailous. Also I heard a bodily /SA/ jangling /P/ talking, /A/ and a speech, /SPA/ as it had been of two bodies, and both to my thinking /SA/ jangled /P/ talked /SPA/ at one time, as if they had held a parliament with a great business and all was soft /SA/ muttering /P/ whispering, /SPA/ as I understood nought of what they said. And all this was to stir me to despair, as I thought, /SP/ seeming to me as if they scorned bidding of beads which are said boisterously with /S/ mouth /P/ much, /SP/ failing devout concentration and wise diligence, which we owe to God in our prayers. ¶ And our Lord God gave me grace mightily to trust in him and /A/ I trust busily in God /SPA/ to comfort my soul with bodily speech as I should have done to another person /A/ than myself /SPA/ who had been /A/ so /SPA/ travailed. I thought that business might not be likened to any bodily business. /P/The Seventieth Chapter. /SPA/
My bodily eye I set in the same cross where I had /S/ been in /P/ seen /SPA/ comfort before that time, my tongue /A/ I occupied /SPA/ with speech of Christ's Passion, and rehearsing the faith of holy Church, and my heart to fasten on God with all the trust and my might /A/ that was in me. /SPA/ And I thought to my self meaning,/

'You have now great business /SP/ to keep yourself in the faith, for you should not be taken of your enemy. /SPA/ Would you now for this time evcrmore be so busy to keep yourself from sin, this were a good and sovereign occupation'. ¶ For I thought /SA/ truly /P/ faithfully /SP/ were I safe from sin, I were fully saved from all the fiends of Hell and enemies of my soul. ¶ And thus /SP/ he /A/ they /SPA/ worried me all that night, and on the morn till it was about prime day (dawn). And anon they were all gone and all passed, and then left nothing but stink, and that lasted still awhile. And I scorned /SP/ him /A/ them. /SPA/ And thus was I delivered of them by the virtue of Christ's Passion. For therewith is the fiend overcome as our Lord Jesus Christ said before, /A/ to me. Ah, wretched sin. What are you? You are nought. For when I saw that God is all things, I saw you not. And when I saw that God has made all things, I saw you not. And when I saw that God is in all things, I saw you not. And when I saw that God does all things that are done, less and more, I saw you not. And when I saw our Lord Jesus sit in our soul so worshipfully and love and like and rule and govern all that he has made, I say you not. And thus I am secure that you are nought and all who love you and like you and follow you and wilfully end in you, I am secure they shall be brought to nought with you and endlessly confounded. God shield us all from you. Amen. For charity. And what wretchedness is, I will say as I am taught by the Showing of God. Wretchedness is all thing that is not good, the ghostly blindness that we fall into in the first sin and all that follows of that wretchedness, passions and pains, ghostly or bodily, and all that is on earth or in other place which are not good. And then may be asked of this,' What are we?' And I answer to this, if all were taken from us that is not good, we should be good. When wretchedness is taken from us, God and the soul is all one, and God and man all one. What is all thing on earth that twins us? I answer and say, 'In that it serves us, it is good. And in that it shall perish it is wretchedness, and in that a man sets his heart upon it otherwise than thus, it is sin'. And for that time that man or woman loves sin, if any be such, he is in pain that passes all pains. And when he loves not sin, but hates it and loves God, all is well. And he who truly does thus, though he sin sometime by frailty or ignorance in his will, he falls not, for he will mightily rise again and behold God, whom he loves in all his will. God has made them to be loved of him or her who has been a sinner. But ever he loves and ever he longs to have our love. And when we mightily and wisely love Jesus, we are in peace.
/S/ In all tribulation we ought to be steadfast in the faith, trusting mightily in God. For if our faith had no enmity it should deserve no reward. And how all these Showings are in the faith. Seventieth Chapter. /SP/
¶ In all this blessed Showing our good Lord gave understanding that the sight should pass. Which blessed Showing the faith keeps with his own good will and his grace. For he left with me neither sign nor token whereby I might know it. ¶ But he left with me his own blessed word in true understanding, bidding me full mightily that I should believe it. And so I do, Blessed must he be. I believe that he is our Saviour who showed it, and that it is the faith that he showed, and therefore I /S/ believe /P/ love /SP/ it, enjoying. And thereto I am bound by all his own meaning with the next words that follow, 'Keep you therein, and comfort you therewith and trust you thereto'. Thus I am /S/ bound /P/ beholding /SP/ to keep it in my faith. For on the self same day that it was showed, what time that the sight was passed, as a wretch I forsook it and openly I said that I had raved. ¶ Then our Lord Jesus of his mercy would not let it perish, but he showed it all again within in my soul, with more fullness, with the blessed light of his precious love, saying these words full mightily and full meekly, 'Know it now well, it was no raving that you saw this day'. As if he had said, 'Because the sight passed from you, you lost it and could not keep it. But know it now'. That is to say, 'Now that you see it'. This was said not only for the same time but also to set thereupon the ground of my faith, where he said immediately the following, 'But take it, /S/ believe /P/ and learn /SP/ it and keep you therein, and comfort you therewith and trust you thereto, and you shall not be overcome'. /P/The Seventy-First Chapter./SP/
In these six words that follow /P/ where he says, 'Take it', /SP/ his meaning is to fasten it faithfully in our heart. For he will that it dwell with us in faith to our life's end and after in fullness of joy, willing that we have ever /S/ secure /P/ faithful /SP/ trust in his blissful promises, knowing his goodness. For our faith is contraried in divers manners by our own blindness and our ghostly enemy within and without. And therefore our precious lover helps us with ghostly /S/ sight /P/ light /SP/ and true teaching on sundry manners, within and without, whereby/

we may know him. ¶ And therefore in what manner he teaches us he will we perceive him wisely, receiving him sweetly, and keeping us in him faithfully. ¶ For above the faith is no goodness kept in this life, as to my sight. And beneath the faith is no /S/ help /P/ health /SP/ of soul. ¶ But in the faith, there will the Lord that we keep us, for we have by his goodness and his own working to keep us in the faith. And by his suffrance, by ghostly enmity, we are assayed in the faith and made mighty. For if our faith had no enmity, it should deserve no reward, as to the understanding that I have in all our Lord's meaning.
/S/ Jesus wills our souls be in glad cheer to him. For his cheer is to us merry and lovely. And how he shows to us three kinds, cheer of passion, compassion and blissful cheer. Seventy-First Chapter. /SP/
¶ Glad and merry and sweet is the blissful, lovely cheer of our Lord to our souls. /S/ For we must needs ever live /P/ For he beheld us ever living /SP/ in love longing. And he will our soul be in glad cheer to him to /S/ give /P/ yield /SP/ him his reward. ¶ And thus I hope with his grace he has, and more, shall draw the outer cheer to the inner cheer, and make us all at one with him, and each of us with other in true lasting joy, that is Jesus. I have meaning of three kinds of cheer of our Lord. ¶ The first is cheer of Passion, as he showed while he was /S/ here /P/ with us /SP/ in this life dying, though this beholding be mournful and grieving, yet it is glad and merry, for he is God. ¶ The second manner of cheer is pity, ruth and compassion, and this shows he to all his lovers with secureness of keeping who have /P/ need /SP/ to his mercy. ¶ The third is the blissful cheer as it shall be without end, and this was oftenest and longest continued. ¶ And thus in the time of our pain and our woe he shows us cheer of his Passion and of his Cross, helping us to bear it by his own blessed virtue. And in the time of our sinning, he shows to us cheer of ruth and pity, mightily keeping and defending us against all our enemies. ¶ And these two be the common cheer which he shows to us in this life, therewith meddling the third and that is his blissful cheer like in part as it shall be in heaven. And that is a gracious touching and sweet lighting of the ghostly life, whereby we are kept in sure faith, hope and charity, with contrition, devotion, and also with contemplation, and all manner of true /S/ solace /P/ joys /SP/ and sweet comforts. ¶ The blissful cheer of our Lord God works it in us by grace.
/S/Sin in the chosen soul is deadly for a time. But they be not dead in the sight of God. And how we have here matter of joy and mourning, and that for our blindness and weight of flesh. And of the most comfortable cheer of God. And why these Showings were made. Seventy-Second Chapter. /SP/
{But now I need to tell in what manner I saw sin deadly in the creatures who shall not die for sin, but live in the joy of God without end. /M/ ¶ I saw that two contraries should never be /S/ to God /P/ together /SP/ in one place. The most contrarious are the highest bliss and the deepest pain. ¶ The highest bliss that is, is to have /S/ him /P/ God /SP/ in clearness of endless life, him truly seeing, sweetly feeling, all /S/ perfectly /P/ peaceably /SP/ having, in fullness of joy. And thus was the blissful cheer of our Lord showed in /S/ pity /P/ part. /SP/ In which Showing I saw that sin is most contrary, so much that as long as we be meddled with any part of sin we shall never see clearly the blissful cheer of our Lord. And the more horrible and more grievous/

that our sins be, the deeper are we for that time from this blissful sight. ¶ And therefore it seems to us oftentimes as we were in peril of death in a part of Hell, for the sorrow and pain that the sin is to us. And thus we are dead for the time, from the very sight of our blissful life. But in all this I saw /S/ truly /P/ faithfully /SPA/ that we be not dead in the sight of God nor does he ever pass from us. But he shall never have his full bliss in us, till we have our full bliss in him. ¶ Truly seeing his fair blissful cheer, for we are ordained thereto in nature and get there by grace. ¶ Thus I saw how sin is deadly for a short time in the blessed creatures of endless life. And ever the more clearly that the soul sees this blissful cheer by grace of loving, the more it longs to see it in fullness, /P/ that is to say, in his own likeness. /SP/¶ For notwithstanding /S/ if /P/ that /SP/ our Lord God dwells in us and is here with us and he calls us and encloses us for tender love, that he may never leave us and is more near to us than tongue can tell or heart can think. ¶ Yet may we never cease from mourning nor weeping /P/ nor of seeking /SP/ nor longing till when we see him clearly in his blissful cheer. For in that precious blissful sight there may no woe abide, nor any weal fail. ¶ And in this I saw matter of mirth and matter of mourning. Matter of mirth for our Lord, our Maker, is so near to us, and in us, and we in him by /S/ secureness /P/ faithfulness /SP/ of keeping of his great goodness. ¶ Matter of mourning for our ghostly eye is so blind and we be so borne down by weight of our deadly flesh and darkness of sin that we may not see our Lord God clearly in his fair blissful cheer. ¶ No, and because of this darkness scarce we can believe and trust his great love and our /S/ sureness /P/ faithfulness /SP/ of keeping. ¶ And therefore it is that I say, we may never cease of moaning nor of weeping. This weeping means not all in pouring out of tears by our bodily eye, but also to more ghostly understanding. For the natural desire of our soul is so great and so unmeasurable, that if it were given us to our /S/ solace /P/ joy /SP/ and to our comfort, all the nobility that ever God made in heaven and in earth, and we saw not the fair blissful cheer of himself, yet we should not stint of moaning nor of ghostly weeping, that is to say of painful longing, till when we see truly the fair blissful cheer of our Maker. ¶ And if we were in all the pain that heart can think and tongue may tell, if we might in that time see his fair blissful cheer, all this pain should not grieve us. ¶ Thus is that blissful sight end of all manner of pain to a loving soul and fulfilling all manner of joy and bliss. And that showed he in the high marvelous words where he said, 'I it am who is highest, I it am /S/who is lowest, /P/ whom you love, /SP/ I it am who is all'. It belongs to us to have three kinds of knowings. ¶ This first is that we know our Lord God./

¶ The second is that we know our self, what we are by him in nature and grace. ¶ The third that we know meekly what our self is regarding our sin and against feebleness. And for these three was all the Showing made as to my understanding.
/S/These Revelations were showed in three ways. And of two ghostly surenesses, of which God will we amend us, remembering his Passion, knowing also he is all love. For he will we have secureness and liking in love, not taking on unreasonable heaviness for our past sins./SP/ The Seventy-Third Chapter. /SPA/
All the blessed teaching of our Lord God was showed /A/ to me /SPA/ by three parts, /A/ as I have said before, /SPA/ that is to say, by bodily sight, and by word formed in my understanding, and by ghostly sight. For the bodily sight I have said as I saw as truly as I can. ¶ And for the words /A/ formed, /SPA/ I have said them right as our Lord showed them to me. ¶ And for the ghostly sight I have said somewhat, but I may never fully tell it. And therefore of this /PA/ ghostly /SPA/ sight, I am stirred to say more, as God will give me grace. ¶ {God showed /A/ me /SPA/ two kinds of sickness that we have, /A/ of which he will we be amended. /SPA/¶ That one is impatience /SP/ or sloth. /SPA/ For we bear our travail and our pains heavily. ¶ That other is despair or doubtful dread, as I shall say after. ¶ /SP/ Generally he showed sin wherein that all is comprehended. But in particular he showed not but these two. /SPA/ And these two are they that most travail and /S/ tempest /P/ trouble /SP/ us. As by that our Lord showed me. ¶ Of which he will we be amended. I speak of such men and women who, for God's love, hate sin and dispose themselves to do God's will. /SP/ Then by our ghostly blindness and bodily heaviness we are most inclined to these. /A/ Then are these two privy sins and most busy about us. /SPA/¶ And therefore it is God's will they be known, and then shall we refuse them, as we do other sins. ¶ And for full help /S/ of /P/ against /SP/ this, full meekly our Lord showed /A/ me /SPA/ the patience that he had in his hard Passion. And also the joying and the liking that he has of that Passion for love. ¶ And this he showed /A/ me /SPA/ in example, that we should gladly and /S/ wisely /PA/ easily /SPA/ bear our pains, for that is greatly pleasing to him and endless profit to us. And the cause why we are travailed with them, is for unknowing