Fifty-fourth chapter.
We ought to enjoye that God wonyth in our soule and our soule in God, so that atwix God and our soule is nothing, but as it were al God; and how feith is ground of al vertue in our soule be the Holy Gost.
For that great and endless love
that God has for all mankind,
He makes no difference in His love
between the blessed soul of Christ
and the least soul that shall be saved.
For it is easy to believe
and trust Christ’s blessed soul
dwells in the very height
of the glorious Godhead
as I truly understand Him:
that where Christ’s blessed soul is,
is in the nature of all the souls
that shall be saved by Him.
We ought to highly enjoy God dwelling in our soul,
and much more highly enjoy our soul dwelling in God.
Our soul is made God’s dwelling place,
and the soul’s dwelling place is God,
who is not made.
It is high understanding to see inwardly and know
that God our maker dwells in our soul.
And higher still to see inwardly and know
that our soul, which is made, dwells in Gods nature,
and that of God’s nature we are what we are.
I saw no difference between God and our nature,
as though it were all God;
yet I understood that our nature is in God;
that God is God,
and our nature is a creature in God.
For the almighty truth of the Trinity is our father,
He made us and keeps us in Him.
And the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our mother
in whom we are all enclosed.
And the high goodness of the Trinity is our lord,
in Him we are enclosed,
and He in us.
We are enclosed in the Father,
we are enclosed in the Son,
we are enclosed in the Holy Ghost;
the Father is enclosed in us,
the Son is enclosed in us,
the Holy Ghost is enclosed in us –
All-might, All-wisdom, All-goodness:
one God, one Lord.
And our faith is a virtue
coming of our kindred substance
into our sensual soul
by the Holy Ghost in whom
all our virtues come to us;
without whom no man may receive virtue.
It is only right understanding,
with true belief,
and secure trust in our being,
that we are in God,
and God, which we do not see, is in us.
And this virtue,
with all else that God has ordained to us,
works great things in us.
Christ’s mercifull working is graciously in us;
we are of one mind with Him
through the gifts and virtues of the Holy Ghost.
This makes us Christ’s children,
living Christian lives.
Fifty-fifth chapter.
Christ is our wey, ledand and presenting us to the Fader; and forwith as the soule is infusid in the body, mercy and grace werkyn. And how the Second Person toke our sensualite to deliver us from duble deth.
And so Christ is our way,
securely leading us in His laws,
and in His body bearing us mightily up into Heaven.
For I saw that Crist,
us al havand in Him that shal be savid be Him,
worshipfully presentith His Fader in Hevyn with us;
which present ful thankfully His Fader receivith
and curtesly gevith it to His Son Jesus Criste,
which geft and werkyng is joye to the Fader
and bliss to the Son
and pleasure to the Holy Gost.
For I saw that Christ,
having us all in Him that shall be saved by Him,
worshipfully presents us to His Father in Heaven;
which present His Father receives, fully, thankfully,
and courteously gives it to His Son Jesus Christ,
which gift brings joy to the Father,
bliss to the Son,
and pleasure to the Holy Ghost.
And of all things that we should do,
our Lord likes most that we delight in this joy
which is in the blisfull Trinity because of our salvation.
This was seen in the ninth shewing,
where it speaks more of it.
And notwithstanding all our feeling, woe or well,
God wishes us to understand and to trust
that we are more truly in Heaven
than in earth.
Our faith comes of the kind love of our soul,
and of the clear light of our reason,
and of the steadfast mind
which we have from God in our first making.
And when our soul is breathed into our body,
in which we are made sensual,
at once mercy and grace begin to work,
having care and keeping of us with pity and love;
in this the Holy Gost forms in our faith
the hope that we shall come again in Heaven
in the virtue of Christ,
increased and fulfilled throough the Holy Ghost.
Thus I understood that the sensual soul is grounded
in the Father’s kindred, mercy, and grace,
which ground enables us to receive gifts
that lead us to endless life.
For I saw full securely
that our substance is in God
and God is in our sensual soul;
for just as our soul is made sensual,
just so it is the city of God,
ordained by Him from outside the beginning,
into which city He comes
and shall never leave it.
For God is never out of the soul
in which He dwells blissfully without end.
And this was seen in the sixteenth shewing
where it said,
the place that Jesus takes in our soul,
He shall never leave.
And all the gifts that God may give to creatures,
He hath given for us to His Son, Jesus,
which gefts he, dwelling in us,
has enclosed in Him
until the time that we have waxed and grown –
our soul with our body,
and our body with our soul,
neither of them taking help from the other,
until we are fully grown.
And then in ground of our nature,
with the working of mercy,
the Holy Ghost graciously breathing into us
gifts leading to endless life.
And thus was my understanding led by God
to see in Him and understand,
to perceive and know,
that our soul is made a trinity –
like to the unmade blisfull Trinity,
known and loved from outwith beginning,
and in the making, unitedto the Maker,
as has been said.
This sight was full sweet and marvelous to behold,
peaceful and restfull, secure and delectable.
And for the worshipfull union between the soul and body,
that was made by God,
mankind shall be surely restored from double death.
This restoration could never be
until the Second Person in the Trinity
had taken man’s lower nature,
in which the highest was united to Him in that first making.
And these two parts were in Christ,
the higher and the lower,
one soul.
The higher part was one in peace with God
in full joy and bliss.
The lower part, the sensual nature,
suffered for the salvation of mankind.
These two parts were seen and felt in the eighth shewing
in which my body was filled with the sense
of Christ’s passion and death.
And furthermore, with this
was a subtle feeling, a private inward sight
of the high part that I was shown then,
where, for the common nature of that offer,
I need not look up to Heaven.
It was a mighty sight of the inward life,
the inward life of that high substance,
that precious soul,
which endlessly enjoys the Godhead.
anthonyinuk 