Fifty-sixth chapter.
It is esier to know God than our soule, for God is to us nerer than that, and therfore if we will have knowing of it, we must seke into God; and He will we desir to have knowledge of kynde, mercy, and grace. Fifty-sixth chapter.
And thus I saw fully, securely,
that it is easier for us
to know God than to know our own soul.
Our soul is so deep and grounded in God,
so endlesly treasured,
that we may not come to know it
until we first know God,
the Maker to whom it is united.
I saw we must fully desire to know our own soul wisely and truly,
whereby we are taught to seek it where it is:
in God.
So we should known them both in one
by the gracious leading of the Holy Ghost.
Whether we be stirred to know God or our soul,
they are both good and true.
God is nearer to us than our own soul.
He is the ground in whom our soul stands.
He is the mean,
keeping our substance and sensuality together
so they shall never be parted from one another in God.
Our soul sits in God in true rest.
Our soul stands in God in true strength.
Our soul is rooted in God in endles love.
So, if we will have knowledge and communion in our soul,
we must seek it in our Lord God in whom it is enclosed.
I saw and understood more of this in the sixteenth showing.
Our substance and sensuality may rightly be called our soul,
by the union it has in God.
The worshipfull city in which our Lord Jesus sits
is our sensual soul in which He is enclosed;
and our kindly substance is enclosed in Jesus
sitting with the blessed soul of Christ,
in rest in the Godhead.
I saw fully, securely,
that we should be in longing and penance
until the time that we are led so deep into God
that we really and truly know our own soul.
truly I saw that into this high depth,
our good Lord Himself leads us
in the same love that He made us,
the same love that He bought us
by mercy and grace
through virtue of His blessed passion.
Notwithstanding all this,
we may never fully know God
util we first know clearly our own soul.
For we may not be fully holy
until our soul has its full strength.
That is when our sensuality
is brought to its substance
by virtue of Christ’s passion,
with the profits of our tribulation
that our Lord shall grant us
by mercy and grace.
I had, in part, a touching contact with God;
grounded in our kindred nature.
Our reason is grounded in God,
a substantial highness,
from which mercy and grace spring and spread in us
to fulfill our joy.
For we have our life and our being in nature;
and our increase and fulfillment in mercy and grace .
These are three propertes in one goodness;
where one works, all work,
in those things which now belong to us.
God wishes us to understand,
desiring to know Him more and more,
with all our heart and all our strength
until we are fulfilled.
For to fully know him
and to clearly see him,
is endless joy and bliss,
that we shall have in Heaven,
which God wishes to begin here
by knowledge of His love.
For we may not profit by reason alone,
unless we hold it in desire and love;
we may not only be saved in our nature,
which is grounded in God,
but if we acknowledge,
from that same ground,
mercy and grace.
For of these three workings altogether
we receive all our goodness,
of the which the first are goods of nature.
For in our creation God gave us
goods fully for our needs
and also greater goods
that we might receive only in spirit.
But His forseeing purpose
in His endles wisdom
would that we were double.
Fifty-seventh chapter.
In our substance we aren full; in our sensualite we faylyn, which God will restore be mercy and grace. And how our kinde which is the heyer part is knitt to God in the makyng, and God, Jesus, is knitt to our kind in the lower part in our flesh takyng. And of feith spryngyn other vertues; and Mary is our Moder.
And concerning our substance,
He made us noble, and so rich
that we evermore work His will
and His worship.
Here “we” means man that shall be saved.
For truly I saw
that we are those He loves,
doing what He likes,
lastingly, without any stinting.
And of the great riches
and the high, noble virtues,
come by measure to our soul
when it is knitted to our body,
and 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 mercy
and grace, plenteously flowing into us
out of the goodness of His own nature.
And so the nature of His goodness
makes that mercy and grace work in us,
and the kindred goodness that we have of Him
enables us to receive the working of mercy and grace.
I saw our nature is whole in God,
in which He makes diverseties
flow out of Him to work His will,
which is kept in nature ,
and mercy and grace restore and fulfill,
and none of these shall perish.
For our higher nature is knit to God in its making,
and God is knit to our lower nature,
in taking part in our flesh,
so in Christ our two natures are joined.
For the Trinity is understood in Christ
in whom our higher part is grounded and rooted;
and our lower partie,
taken by the Second Person,
was first fulfilled in Him.
For I saw with full certainty
that all the works that God has done,
or ever shall do,
were fully known to Him,
and forseen from outside the beginning.
And He made mankind for love,
and for that same love
became Man Himself.
The next good we receive is our faith,
in which our profit begins.
It comes from the high riches of our nature
into our sensual soul.
It is grounded in us, and we in it,
through God’s good nature by mercy and grace;
from it come all other goodness
by which we are led and saved,
for the commandements of God come therein.
In these we ought to have two ways of understanding:
first, to love and keep His bidding.
second, we ought to know His forbiddings,
to hate and to refuse them.
For in these two all our work is comprehended.
Also in our faith come the seven sacraments,
each following in order as God hath ordained them to us,
and all manner of virtues.
For the same virtues we have received of our substance,
given us in kind by the goodness of God,
the same virtues by the working of mercy
are given us in grace through the Holy Ghost,
renewed,
which virtues and gifts are given to us as treasure
in Jesus Christ.
For in that very moment that God knitted Him
to our body in the Maiden’s womb,
He took our sensual soul;
in which taking, having enclosed us all in Him,
He united into our substance,
in which union He was perfect man.
For Christ, having knit in Him every man that shall be savd,
is perfect man.
Thus our Lady is our Mother
in whom we are all enclosed
and born of her in Christ,
for she that is mother of our Savior,
is mother of all that shall be saved
in our Savior.
And our Savior is our true mother
in whom we are endlessly born
and never shall come out of Him.
Plenteously and fully and sweetly was this shown.
And it is spoken of in the first showing,
where he says we are all enclosed in Him,
and He is enclosed in us,
and it is spoken of in the sixteenth showing
where it 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,
working us all into Him,
in which working He wills us to be His helpers,
giving Him all our intention,
learning His sayings,
keeping His laws,
desiring that all that be done
be done by Him,
truly trusting in Him.
For I saw truly, our substance is in God.
anthonyinuk 