To read Julian’s Revelations in order, which is far better, I suggest you begin at the Introduction
Chapter 52
God enjoyeth that He is our fadir, mother, and spouse, and how the chosen have here a medlur of wele and wo, but God is with us in three
manner; and how we may eschew synne but never it perfectly as in heaven.
I saw God treasures being our father, our mother,
our true spouse, and our soul His beloved wife.
Christ treasures being our brother,
Jesus, our Saviour.
I see there are five high joys in which He wishes
us to treasure Him, praising Him, thanking Him, loving Him,
endlessly delighting in all that shall be saved,
In this life we have a marvellous mix:
wealth of our Lord Jesus’ resurrection
and wretched mischief of Adam’s fall and dying.
By Christ we are steadfastly kept,
by His touching grace we are raised
in secure trust of salvation.
By Adam’s fall we are so broken,
made by so many sins and sundry pains,
so dark and blind we can scarce take any comfort.
But in our mind we await God,
faithfully trusting His mercy and grace,
this is His work in us,
in His goodness He opens our mind’s eyes to see
sometimes more, sometimes less, as God makes us able;
now being raised into one,
now falling into the other.
This mixture so astonishes us
we scarcely know which way we,
or our fellow Christians stand,
for the wonder of this divided feeling,
but that same holy assent we give God
when we feel Him, truly wishing to be with Him
with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might.
Then we hate and despise our evil stirrings,
and all that might occasion sin, spiritual and bodily.
Yet nevertheless when this sweetness is hidden,
we fall again into blindness
and divers woes and tribulations.
This is our comfort, that we know in our faith,
that by the virtue of Christ our keeper
we never assent to it, but complain against it,
enduring pain and woe, praying,
until He shows Himself to us again.
So we stand in this medley every day of our life,
but we trust that He is lastingly with us,
and that in three ways:
He is with us in Heaven, truly man,
in His own person, drawing us up,
which was shown in His spiritual thirst.
And He is with us in earth, leading us,
which was in the third showing
where I saw God in a point.
He is with us dwelling endlessly in our soul,
ruling us, caring for us.
as I shall say in the sixteenth showing.
So in the servant was shown the mischief,
the blindness, of Adam’s fall,
and in the servant was shown the wisdom,
the goodness, of God’s Son.
In the lord was shown the regret,
the pity, of Adams woe;
and in the lord was shown the high nobility,
the endless worship mankind receives
by His dear worthy Son’s passion and death.
Therefore He treasures His falling mightily,
for the height, the fullness of bliss mankind receives,
surpassing all we should have had
if He had not fallen.
And thus to see this overpassing nobility
my mind was led to God
when I saw the servant fall.
And so we have now matter of mourning,
for our sin is the cause of Christ’s pains,
And we have lasting joy,
for the endless love which led Him to suffer.
And so the creature that sees and feels love
working by grace hates nothing more than sin.
For of all things to my sight, love and hate are hardest
and most unmeasurable contraries.
nevertheless I saw and understood our Lord’s meaning,
we may not in this life keep ourselves from sin
as holy in fully clean we shall be in Heaven.
But by grace we may avoid sins
which would lead to endless pain
as Holy Church teaches, and avoid pardonable sins
according to our strength.
And if we fall in our blindness and wretchedness,
we rise readily, knowing the sweet touch of grace,
willingly, according to Holy Church’s teaching,
looking back on the sin in grief, going on to God in love;
neither falling over-low inclined to despair,
nor being over reckless as if we did not care,
but nakedly, knowing our frailty,
that we may not stand a twinkling of an eye but by grace,
reverently cleaving to God, trusting Him alone.
For God’s vision differs from man’s,
and man’s vision differs from God’s.
For it belongs to man to meekly accuse himself,
and it belongs to the proper goodness of our Lord God
to courteously excuse man.
These are the two ways the lord beheld
his beloved servant’s fall.
One outward, meekly and mildly
with great regret, pity and endless love.
And rightly our Lord wishes us to accuse ourself,
wilfully, truly seeing and knowing our fall,
and all the harm that comes of it,
and that we may never restore it,
and by this, wilfully and truly see and know
His everlasting love in which He holds us.
and His plenteous mercy.
Graciously seeing and knowing both together
is the meek self-accusing our Lord asks of us,
and He works it; and then it is.
This is the lower part of man’s life,
shown outwardly in the lord’s regard for his servant
which I saw in two parts: one, man’s rueful fall;
the other, the worshipful atonement our Lord made for man.
The other regard was shown inwardly,
higher and all one.
For the life and the virtue we have
in the lower part is of the higher;
it comes down to us in His kindred love of ourself by grace.
there is nothing between one and the other,
it is all one blessed love working double in us.
For in the lower part are pains and passions,
regrets, pities, mercies and forgiveness,
and such other as are profitable.
But in the higher part are none of these,
but all one hey love and marvellous joy,
in which all pains are greatly restored.
In this our good Lord showed not only our excusing,
but also the worshipful nobility He shall bring us to,
turning all our blame into endless worship.
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