Notes for "Revelations of Divine Love"

Notes for page 1

1: made one, united.
2: precious, honoured.
3: honour-bestowing.

Notes for page 2

1: made glad.
2: MS. "Asseth" = Satisfaction, making-enough.
3: honour, glory.

Notes for page 3

1: "that cowde no letter" = unskilled in letters.

Notes for page 4

1: thought of, designed.
2: MS.. "speed."

Notes for page 5

1: i.e. natural.
2: MS. "wilful"=earnest, with set will.
3: For these wounds see xvii. p. 40, xxvii. p. 56, xxviii., lxxii. and xxxix.
4: "I langorid forth"=languished on.
5: I thought often that I was about to die.

Notes for page 6

1: Or it may be, as in de Cressy's version: May my living be no longer to Thy worship?
2: i.e. could.
3: straight forward.

Notes for page 7

1: MS. "beside."
2: MS. "over."
3: "kinde," true to its nature that was made after the likeness of the Creating Son of God, the type and the Head of Mankind, -- therefore loving, and sympathetic with Him, and compassionate of His earthly sufferings: Who, Himself, for Love's sake, suffered as man.

Notes for page 8

1: intermediary -- thing or person. See vi, xix., xxxv., lv.

Notes for page 9

1: Either: In this sight-- Shewing -- of her; or In this her sight -- insight -- beholding (vii.. xliv, lxv.). See Rev. xi. ch. xxv.,.. "For our Lord shewed me nothing in special but our Lady Saint Mary; and her He shewed three times." The first shewing is here (a sight referred to in ch. vii. and elsewhere); the second, in ch xviii.; the third, in ch. xxv..
2: This word is in S. de Cressy's edition.

Notes for page 10

1: MS. "ghostly," and so, generally, throughout the MS.
2: "Becloseth" and so generally.
3: i.e.in essence united.

Notes for page 11

1: "to nowtyn."
2: "nowtid of." de Cressy: "naughted (emptied)."
3: surpasseth.

Notes for page 12

1: MS. "To make many menys." So in Letter 385 of The Paston Letters,1422-1509 A.D. -- "Our Soverayn Lord hath wonne the feld, & uppon the Munday next after Palmesunday, he was resseved in York with gret solempnyte & processyons. And the Mair & Comons of the said cite mad ther menys to have grace be [by] Lord Montagu & Lord Barenars, which be for the Kyngs coming in to the said cite, which graunted hem [them] grace." Letter 472 (from Margaret Paston).-- " Your ryth wele willers have kounselyd me that I xuld kownsell you to maken other menys than ye have made, to other folks, that wold spede your matyrs better than they have done thatt ye have spoken to therof" (ed by James Gairdner, vol. i.). See ch. iv, p. 8.
2: i.e. trustingly.

Notes for page 13

1: bond as of relationship.

Notes for page 14

1: "the bouke"=the bulk, the thorax.
2: "witten."
3: or, as in S. de Cressy, "unmeasurable." The word, however, looks like "oninestimable " with the "on " blotted or erased.
4: "kindly."

Notes for page 15

1: "to his even cristen " -- fellow-Christians ("even" = equal). Hamlet, Act v. Sc. i. "great folk . . . more than their even Christian."
2: i.e. seen at the same time as, or in comparison with. See the note to ch. iv. p. 9.

Notes for page 18

1: "it is kept, and shall be."
2: "God is althing that is gode, as to my sight, and the godenes that al thing hath, it is he."
3.: i.e. ceased.

Notes for page 19

1: "deemed."
2: "a wretch."

Notes for page 20

1: "sey" = say or tell.

Notes for page 21

1: The teaching of the Faith and the teaching of the special Shewing were both from God and were seen to be at one.

Notes for page 22

1: In de Cressy's version: "I saw Him and sought Him."

Notes for page 23

1: The Handkerchief of St. Veronica.
2: "so discolouring."
3: i.e., according to.

Notes for page 24

1: "for be that" = for by [means of] that; or possibly the Old English and Scottish 'forbye that'=besides that.

Notes for page 25

1: "onskilful"=without discernment or ability; unpractical. S. de Cressy, "unreasonable."
2: "hend" = at hand; (handy, dexterous;) courteous, gentle, urbane.

Notes for page 26

1: See below: " He is in the Mid-point," and lxiii. p. 158, " the blessed Point from which nature came: that is, God." See also xxi. p. 45, "Where is now any point of thy pain?" (least part) and xxi. p. 46, " abiding unto the last point"; and lxiv. p. 161, "set the point of our thought." These uses of the word may be compared with the following: -- From the Banquet of Dante Alighieri; tr. by K. Hillard (Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.), Bk. II xiv. 12 "Geometry moves between the point and the circle"; as Euclid says, " the point is the beginning of Geometry, and according to him, the circle is the most perfect figure, and therefore may be considered its end.... The point by reason of its indivisibility is immeasurable, and the circle by reason of its arc cannot be exactly squared, and therefore cannot be measured with precision." Notes by Miss Hillard: "This is why the Deity is represented by a point." Paradiso, xxviii. 16: 'A point beheld I,' 'Heaven and all nature, hangs upon that point,' etc. Bk. IV, 6, quoting Aristotle's Physics: "The circle can be called perfect when it is a true circle. And this is when it contains a point which is equally distant from every part of its circumference" In the Vita Nuova Love appearing, says -- "I am as the centre of a circle, to which all parts of the circumference bear an equal relation' ('Amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle'.)" From Neoplatonism, by C. Bigg, D.D. (S.P.C.K.), p. 122: "Thus we get a triplet -- Soul, Intelligence, and a higher Intelligence. The last is spoken of as One, as a point, as neither good nor evil because above both."

Notes for page 28

1: On this subject, with the "Two Deemings" and "the Godly Will," see xlv., xxxv., xxxvii., lxxxii.

Notes for page 29

1: i.e. as it were from.
2: "sene with avisement," so, p. 26. -- " 1 beheld with avisement."
3: i.e. Nature, reality.
4: MS. "licor."

Notes for page 30

1: The appointed number of heavenly citizens.
2: i.e. significance, teaching.

Notes for page 31

1: i.e. in so far as the simplicity of my soul was able to understand it. -- See xxiv.
2: S. de Cressy has "locked " instead of "taken."

Notes for page 32

1: "chere" = expression of countenance.
2: "sadhede."
3: "invye."

Notes for page 33

1: Ms. "solemne" -- ceremonial.
2: See lxxii. and lxxv.

Notes for page 34

1: Throughout this MS. the soul is referred to generally with the masculine pronoun; the feminine pronoun is never used, in any of its cases; the neuter sometimes occurs.

Notes for page 39

1: or shrivelled.

Notes for page 40

1: in sure verity
2: i.e. Natural.

Notes for page 41

1: Dionysius, "the Areopagite," according to the legend of S. Denis.
2: MS.. -- "it was withdrawen from bothe."

Notes for page 42

1: see xxxv. and lv.

Notes for page 45

1: xxii. and xxiii.
2: His "blisful chere," or blessed Cheer; lxxii. and Note.

Notes for page 46

1: "might."
2: i.e. glory.

Notes for page 48

1: "ffor al thynketh him but litil in reward of His love" [in comparison with].
2 and 3: MS. "Reward."
4: See xxi., xxiii.
5: MS. "and," probably here, as in other places, with something of the force of "but."

Notes for page 49

1: "lykyng"; "lykith."

Notes for page 50

1: "Esterne morrow" = Easter morning.

Notes for page 51

1: Experience of loving (?).
2: See note on the passage in lv., "long and broad, all full of endless heavens"; "He hath, beclosed in Him, all heavens and all joy and bliss."

Notes for page 52

1: See xiii., "the simplicity of the soul."
2: MS. "that is to mene the endles love."

Notes for page 54

1: "And he wil that it be knowen that al those that lyke in him should lyken in hir and in the lykyng that he hath in hir and she in him."
2: See (1) iv. (referred to in vii.); (2) xviii.

Notes for page 56

1: "Synne is behovabil, but al shal be wel & al shal be wel & all manner of thyng shal be wele."
2: Being made as nothing, set at nought.
3: S. de Cressy has "this" instead of thus.

Notes for page 57

1: i.e. truth, an actual reality. See lxxxii.
2: As it were, an unreasonable contravention of natural, filial trust.
3: See also chap. lxi. From the Enchiridion of Saint Augustine: -- "All things that exist, therefore, seeing that the Creator of them all is supremely good, are themselves good. But because they are not like their Creator, supremely and unchangeably good, their good may be diminished and increased. But for good to be diminished is an evil, although, however much it may be diminished, it is necessary, if the being is to continue, that some good should remain to constitute the being. For however small or of whatever kind the being may be, the good which makes it a being cannot be destroyed without destroying the being itself.... So long as a being is in process of corruption, there is in it some good of which it is being deprived; and if a part of the being should remain which cannot be corrupted, this will certainly be an incorruptible being, and accordingly the process of corruption will result in the manifestation of this great good. But if it do not cease to be corrupted, neither can it cease to possess good of which corruption may deprive it. But if it should be thoroughly and completely consumed by corruption, there will then be no good left, because there will be no being. Wherefore corruption can consume the good only by consuming the being. Every being, therefore, is a good; a great good, if it cannot be corrupted; a little good, if it can: but in any case, only the foolish or ignorant will deny that it is a good. And if it be wholly consumed by corruption, then the corruption itself must cease to exist, as there is no being left in which it can dwell."
Chap x. "By the Trinity, thus supremely and equally and unchangeably good, all things were created; and these are not supremely and equally and unchangeably good, but yet they are good, even taken separately. Taken as a whole, however, they are very good, because their ensemble constitutes the universe in all its wonderful order and beauty " -- The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, (Edited by the Rev. Marcus Dods, D.D.), vol. ix.

Notes for page 59

1: "Something that is no lak in his syte, whereby thei are lakid & dispisyd in thys world, scornyd" (a word like "rapyd" -- probably "mokyd," as in S. de C.) "& outcasten."
2: "gruching."

Notes for page 60

1 and 2: "asyeth"; "asyeth making"= asseth., Satisfying, Fulfilment. See p. 2.

Notes for page 61

1: i.e. profit.
2: "It longyth to the ryal Lordship of God to have his privy councell in pece, and it longyth to his servant for obedience and reverens not to wel wetyn his counselye."

Notes for page 65

1: "if"=" that." (Acts xxvi. 8.)
2: Inserted from Serenus de Cressy's version.

Notes for page 66

1: "pecid in love -- levyng the beholdyng of al tempests that might letten us of trew enjoyeng in hym." S. de C.: "let us of true enjoying in him."
2: S. de C., "many."
3: "stondyng al this."

Notes for page 68

1: "I coude of this right nowte."

Notes for page 70

1: "A friendful mene" =intermediary (person or thing), medium: compare chaps. xix., lv.

Notes for page 71

1: See xxxvi. 74.
2: i.e. alloweth.

Notes for page 72

1: "lettyn his goodnes werkyng."

Notes for page 74

1: "wilfuly."
2: "to nowten."
3: "is a perceyvid" (S. de Cressy, "pearced"; Collins, "pierced";) = has perception.

Notes for page 75

1: See v., xlviii., lix., lxi.

Notes for page 76

1: Perhaps the omitted word is 'all'; but de Cressy has "I" as above: "that I should sin."

Notes for page 77

1: S. Thomas and S. Jude. According to tradition the Gospel was carried to India by these Apostles.
2: S. John of Beverley was consecrated Bishop of Hexham in 687, and was afterwards Archbishop of York. "He founded the monastery of Beverley in the midst of the wood called Deira, among the ruins of the deserted Roman settlement of Pentuaria. This monastery, like so many others of the Anglo-Saxons, was a double community of monks and nuns. In 718 John retired for the remaining years of his life to Beverley, where he died in 721 on the 7th of May.... He was canonised in 1037. Henschenius the Bollandist, in the second tome of May, has published books of the miracles wrought at the relicks of St John of Beverley written by eye-witnesses. His sacred bones were honourably translated into the church of Alfric, Archbishop of York, in 1037. A feast in honour of his translation was kept on the 25th of October." -- Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, etc.
Perhaps the fact that the Saint's original Feast Day of the 7th of May occurred on the second day of Julian's illness, had something to do with his being brought to her mind a few days after with so much vividness.

Notes for page 78

1: "and browte to mynd how he is an hende neybor and of our knowyng" -- i.e. he was a countryman of our own. "hende" = near, urbane. gentle.

Notes for page 79

1: "al forbetyth." S. de Cressy: "all to beateth," Judges ix. 53.
2: "otherwhile."
3: S de C.: "Dome's-man, i.e.. Confessarius."

Notes for page 80

1: MS. "will be cast in."
2: letteth not Him to love us.

Notes for page 81

1: See chap. lxviii. In both passages the Brit. Mus. MS. seems to have "him," not "hem" = them. The reading here might be: "For we give Him occasion by our falling" -- occasion to keep and defend us: and so in lxxviii.: "He keepeth us mightily and mercifully in the time that we are in our sin and among all our enemies that are full fell upon us; -- and so much we are in the more peril. For we give Him occasion thereto and know not our own need." Or possibly the sense is (1): He defendeth us "so much [as] our need is the more" [so much more as]; and (2) "so much [more as] we are in the more peril." But S. de Cressy's version has in both passages "them," and this reading agrees with chap. lxxvi.: "We have this [fear] by the stirring of our enemy and by our own folly and blindness" -- we who "fall often into sin."

Notes for page 82

1: "he," that is, the soul.

Notes for page 83

1: A naturally-loving, filial human soul.

Notes for page 84

1: MS.: "And this in our felyng our foly is cause of our wekenes." S. de Cressy: "And thus in our feelings our folly is cause of our weakness "

Notes for page 85

1: "of" = by, from .
2: "inderly " = inwardly -- or from the heart: heartily, as in lxvi.

Notes for page 86

1: i.e.Faculties. -- MS. "Mights."
2: "Grante mercy" = grand-merci.
3: "entrith," leadeth.

Notes for page 87

1: i.e. torment, tire, hinder.

Notes for page 89

1: "rythwis " = right manner of.
2: Or: 'And for these two workings our Lord looketh to us continually.' See above: "so is it not in His beholding," and chap xliii. "for He beholdeth us in love and would make us partners of His good deed."

Notes for page 91

1: "supple and buxum."

Notes for page 92

1: To express the fulness of spiritual perception the mystic seizes on all the five sense-perceptions as symbols, For the last word S. de Cressy gives again the word "smelling" (rendered here, above, by "in-breathing"). Collins reads the Brit. Mus. MS. as "following"; but the word there is "swelowyng "=swallowing.

Notes for page 93

1: See chap. iv.
2: i.e. marvelling.
3: chaps. liv., lv.

Notes for page 94

1: "beknowen."

Notes for page 95

1: Chap. li.

Notes for page 96

1: So S. de Cressy has it. There is evidently an omission in the MS. of part of this sentence. See lvi., lxxii. The dim sight of God comes before the dim sight of the Self, but the clear sight of God comes after the clear sight of the Self.

Notes for page 97

1: "like it."
2: Cressy has: "He is Peace; and His Might, His Wisdom, His Charity, and His Unity," etc.

Notes for page 98

1: Chap. ii. "a simple creature"; "the soul," xxiv., xiii., etc., and xxxii. p. 64.

Notes for page 99

1: understood -- took it.
2: "But for nowte that I myte beholden and desyrin I could not se."
3: ne no manner steryng ne [or ye = the] yernyng."

Notes for page 100

1: i.e. contrariness, springing from the beginning of sin in the first fall of man
2: "traveylid and tempested."
3: "buxum"=ready to bend or obey.

Notes for page 101

1: "lovely chere," loving Look. See li., lxxi., etc.
2: "I cowth not a perceyven of."
3: "But in all this the swete eye of pite and love cumith never of us, ne the werkyng of mercy cesyth not."

Notes for page 102

1: or largeness.

Notes for page 103

1: "a touch."

Notes for page 104

1: "buxumhede."
2: "liketh."

Notes for page 105

1 and 2: "sothly," "sothe."

Notes for page 106

1: "awer,"p. 127.
2: "soth" and "sothnes."
3: "trueths."

Notes for page 107

1: i.e. a steep hollow place; a ravine.

Notes for page 108

1: i.e. injury, harm.
2: "entended."

Notes for page 110

1: "aret"=reckoned.
2: i.e. not of definite purport, indistinct.

Notes for page 111

1: "avisement."

Notes for page 112

1: MS. "within him an heyward long and brode, all full of endless hevyns." Cressy and Collins transcribe this word without explanation, but give "heavenliness" for "heavens " It seems most likely that "hey" has been written as if affixed to "ward" (i.e. "regard," "deeming," or "reward"), or else to "reward" meaning, as usual, regard ("Beholding"). See pp. 108 and 113. Cf. note at the end of this chapter.

Notes for page 113

1: "lofly cher."
2: "I reson sothly we owen."
3: See p. 112, the "high reward"

Notes for page 114

1: "which wer disposed to travel."
2: "even fornempts" = straight opposite.
3: i.e. equal (MS "even like").

Notes for page 115

1: S. de Cressy: "anaved"; MS. "anew."

Notes for page 116

1: i.e. equal -- see p. 114. "All of the Charity of God," the mutual love that also embraces created souls, p. 118.
2 and 3: "the slade."

Notes for page 117

1: "mischief."
2: "wilfully"= voluntarily, of His own Will as God.
3: purpose, intent, thought or speech.

Notes for page 118

1: "langor."

Notes for page 119

1: i.e. painful toil. "He sitteth... in peace and rest. And the Godhead ruleth and careth for heaven and earth and all that is" (lxvii.).
2: "honest."
3: "wilfully."

Notes for page 120

1: "wyde and syde" = wide and long.

Notes for page 121

1

But see also xxxix. p. 81, lxxx. p. 194.

Note: -- If "an heyward" -- "long and brode all full of endless hevyns," p. 112, -- were to be rendered as "an high reward," revealed for the future along with, though less clearly than, the divine pity for the pains of the present, reference might be made to Revelation ix. pp. 47, 50: "It is a joy, a bliss, an endless satisfying to me that ever suffered I Passion for thee." ... "In this feeling mine understanding was lifted up into Heaven: and there I saw three heavens"; and to Rev. x. p. 51: "then with a glad Cheer our Lord looked into His Side and beheld, rejoicing. With His sweet looking He led forth the understanding of His creature by the same wound into His Side within. And then He shewed a fair delectable place, and large enough for all mankind that shall be saved to rest in peace and in love."

But "Regard " (scope of true, continuing, divine Sight, Insight, All-comprehending sight) seems more likely to be the true rendering. "Long and broad" go strangely with the word, but on p. 113 the length and breadth of the garments is interpreted immediately after the colour of the eyes, and is said to betoken that "He hath in Him, all Heavens, and all Joy and Bliss," and indeed these words but fill out the idea of the more frequently used "high" to signify the "enclosing" of "endless heavens:" that Sphere of "fulness" which is infinite. With this passage may be compared one below, on p. 113: "The Merciful Beholding of His loving Cheer fulfilled all earth and descended down with Adam into hell, ... and thus Mercy and Pity dwelleth with mankind unto the time we come up into Heaven." The other, the Inward, the high Beholding or Regard is not said to "fill" Heaven, but to be "full of" endless Heavens. So elsewhere it is said that in our Sense-soul, the lower part of human nature, God dwells, but that our Substance, the higher part, dwells in God. The regard of Mercy and Pity is with the Sense-soul; the high Regard of Joy and Bliss is with the Substance.) P. 132, chap. lv.: "I saw that our Substance is in God, and also I saw that in our Sense-soul God is." lvi. p. 135: "The worshipful City that our Lord Jesus sitteth in, it is our Sense-part, in which He is enclosed; and our Nature-Substance is beclosed in Jesus, with the blessed Soul of Christ sitting in rest in the Godhead."

Notes for page 122

1: "medlour," "medle."

Notes for page 123

1: "menyng."
2: "And thus is this medle so mervelous in us that onethys we knowen of our selfe or of our evyn Cristen in what way we stonden for the marveloushede of this sundry felyng. But that ilke holy assent that we assenten to God when we feel hym truly willand to be with him with al our herte, with al our soule and with al our myte, and than we haten and dispisen our evil sterings and al that myte be occasion of synne gostly and bodily."

Notes for page 125

1: "gove no fors" = gave it no force.
2: "of."
3: "witand" = witting.

Notes for page 126

1: "Asseth."
2: "and al on" -- perhaps for all is one.
3: "in" = in, into, or unto.
4: i.e. Exculpating -- as in Romans ii 15.
5: "Man, -- seeing he is not a simple nature -- in one aspect of his being, which is the better, and that I may speak more openly what I ought to speak, his very self, is immortal; but on the other side, which is weak and fallen, and which alone is known to those who have no faith except in sensible things, he is obnoxious to mortality and mutability." -- From the Didascolon of Hugo of St Victor, as quoted in F. D. Maurice's Mediaeval Philosophy, p. 147.

Notes for page 127

1: "awer" = awe, travail of perplexity, dilemma -- see p 106.
2: Man's nature.

Notes for page 128

1: Or (it may be): "In His Rightful Intent . . . the Mid-Person willed. . ."
2: "wynden."

Notes for page 129

1: "wetyn" = wit.
2: S. de Cressy has "this"; the word in the MS. is more like "his."
3: The pronoun "it" given by S. de Cressy is omitted in the MS. The meaning is, perhaps, that the Manhood-Substance, or Soul of Christ, was in its making, by the Second Person in the Trinity, so united to Himself that Man's Substance and each man's soul (in salvation), being one with it, are one with God the Son. See li. p. 117.

Notes for page 132

1: "feythyn."
2: "of."

Notes for page 133

1: "sensualite."
2: Wisdom, Truth, Love or Goodness, p. 93.

Notes for page 134

1: the Sense-soul.
2: the Substance.
3: "sensualite."
4: "wher I myte not for the mene profir lokyn up on to hevyn." "mene" = medium, is perhaps a sub. in the gen. = intervenor's, intermediary's. See xix. p. 42 and xxxv. p. 70, S. de Cressy has: "Where I might not for the mean profer look up"; Collins: "for the meanwhile."

Notes for page 136

1: "& anempts our substance and sensualite it may rytely be clepid our soule."
2: "the full myts."
3: "I had in partie touching and it is grounded in kynd: that is to sey, our reson is groundid in God, which is substantial kyndhede."

Notes for page 137

1: "ffor in our first makyng God gaf us as ful goods and also greter godes as we myte receivin only in our spirite." In the MS. the word "spirit" is used only here, where it means "the Substance."

Notes for page 138

1: "kynde godhede."
2: "adyte."
3: or the first.

Notes for page 139

1: "ilk" = "same."
2: Here, as above, the MS. term for the "Sensual soul" is the "Sensualite."
3: "ilk" = "each."
4: The MS. word is in both cases "borne," which may mean either born or borne. S. de Cressy gives "born" both for the first word and the second. See lx. "He sustaineth us within Himself in love," etc.; and lxiii. "In the taking of our nature He quickened us," etc.

Notes for page 140

1

See foot-note 4, p. 139.

2

From The Scale [or Ladder] of Perfection, by Walter Hilton (Fourteenth century), edition of 1659, Part III. ch. ii.:--

"The soule of a man is a life consisting of three powers, Memory, Understanding, and Will, after the image and likeness of the blessed Trinity.... Whereby you may see, that man's soule (which may be called a created Trinity) was in its natural state replenished in its three powers, with the remembrance, sight, and love of the most blessed uncreated Trinity, which is God.... But when Adam sinned, choosing love and delight in himselfe, and in the creatures, he lost all his excellency and dignity, and thou also in him."

Ch. III. Sec. i. "And though we should prove not to be able to recover it fully here in this life, yet should we desire and endeavour to recover the image and likeness of the dignity we had, so that our soul might be reformed as it were in a shadow by grace to the image of the Trinity which we had by nature, and hereafter shall have fully in bliss..." Sec ii. "Seeke then that which thou hast lost, that thou mayest finde it; for well I wote. whosoever once hath an inward sight, but a little of that dignity and that spirituall fairness which a soul hath by creation, and shall have again by grace, he will loath in his heart all the blisse, the liking, and the fairnesse of this world.... Nevertheless as thou hast not as yet seen what it is fully, for thy spiritual eye is not yet opened, I shall tell thee one word for all, in the which thou shalt seeke, desire, and finde it; for in that one word is all that thou hast lost. This word is Jesus.... If thou feelest in thy heart a great desire to Jesus . . . then seekest thou well thy Lord Jesus. And when thou feelest this desire to God, or to Jesus (for it is all one) holpen and comforted by a ghostly might, insomuch that it is turned into love, affection, and spiritual fervour and sweetnesse, into light and knowing of truth, so that for the time the point of thy thought is set upon no other created thing, nor feeleth any stirring of vain-glory, nor of selfe-love, nor any other evill affection (for they cannot appear at that time) but this thy desire is onely enclosed, rested, softened, suppled, and annoynted in Jesus, then hast thou found somewhat of Jesus; I mean not him as he is, but a shadow of him; for the better that thou findest him, the more shalt thou desire him. Then observe by what manner of Prayer or Meditation or exercise of Devotion thou findest greatest and purest desire stirred up in thee to him, and most feeling of him, by that kind of prayer, exercise, or worke seekest thou him best, and shalt best finde him....

"See then the mercy and courtesie of Jesus. Thou hast lost him, but where? soothly in thy house, that is to say, in thy soul, that if thou hadst lost all thy reason of thy soule, by its first sinne, thou shouldst never have found him again; but he left thee thy reason and so he is still in thy soule, and never is quite lost out of it.

"Nevertheless, thou art never the nearer him, till thou hast found him. He is in thee, though he be lost from thee, but thou art not in him, till thou hast found him. This is his mercy also, that he would suffer himself to be lost onely where he may be found, so that thou needest not run to Rome, nor to Jerusalem to seeke him there, but turne thy thoughts into thy owne soule, where he is hid, as the Prophet saith; Truly thou art the hidden God, hid in thy soule, and seek him there Thus saith he himselfe in the Gospel; The kingdome of heaven is likened to a treasure hid in the field, the which when a man findeth, for joy thereof, he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field "As long as Jesus findeth not his image reformed in thee, he is strange, and the farther from thee: therefore frame and shape thyself to be arrayed in his likenesse, that is in humility and charity, which are his liveries, and then will he know thee, and familiarly come to thee, and acquaint thee with his secrets. Thus saith he to his Disciples; Who so loveth me, he shall be loved of my Father, and I will manifest my selfe unto him. There is not any vertue nor any good work that can make thee like to our Lord, without Humility and Charity, for these two above all other are most acceptable ('most leyf') to him, which appeareth plainly in the Gospel, where our Lord speaketh of humility thus; Learn of me, for I am meeke and humble in heart. He saith not, learn of me to go barefoot, or to go into the desart, and there to fast forty dayes, nor yet to choose to your selves Disciples (as I did) but learne of me meeknesse, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Also of charity he saith thus; This is my Commandment, that ye love one another as I loved you, for by that shall men know you for my Disciples. Not that you worke miracles, or cast out Devills, or preach, or teach, but that each one of you love one another in charity. If therefore thou wilt be like him, have humility and charity. Now thou knowest what charity is, viz. To love thy neighbour as thy selfe."

Chap. IV. Sec. i. ... "Now I shall tell thee (according to my feeble ability) how thou mayest enter into thy selfe to see the ground of sin, and destroy it as much as thou canst, and so recover a part of thy souls dignity.... Draw in thy thoughts ... and set thy intent and full purpose, as if thou wouldst not seek nor find any thing but onely the grace and spiritual presence of Jesus."

"This will be painful; for vaine thoughts will presse into thy heart very thick, to draw thy minde down to them. And in doing thus, thou shalt find somewhat, but not Jesus whom thou seekest, but onely a naked remembrance of his name. But what then shalt thou finde? Surely this; A darke and ill-favoured image of thy owne soule, which hath neither light of knowledge nor feeling of love of God.... This is not the image of Jesus, but the image of sin, which St Paul calleth a body of sinne and of death.... Peradventure now thou beginnest to thinke with thy selfe what this image is like, and that thou shouldst not study much upon it, I will tell thee. It is like no bodily thing; What is it then saist thou? Verily it is nought, or no reall thing, as thou shalt finde, if thou try by doing as I have spoken, that is, draw in thy thoughts into thy selfe from all bodily things, and then shalt thou find right nought wherein thy soule may rest.

"This nothing is nought else but darknesse of conscience, and a lacking of the love of God and of light; as sin is nought but a want of good, if it were so that the ground of sin was much abated and dryed up in thee, and thy soule was reformed right as the image of Jesus; then if thou didst draw into thy selfe thy heart, thou shouldst not find this Nought, but thou shouldst find Jesus; not only the naked remembrance of this name, but Jesus Christ in thy soule readily teaching thee, thou shouldst there find light of understanding, and no darknesse of ignorance, a love and liking of him; and no pain of bitternesse, heavinesse, or tediousenesse of him....

"And here also thou must beware that thou take Jesus Christ into thy thoughts against this darknesse in thy mind, by busie prayer and fervent desire to God, not setting the point of thy thoughts on that foresaid Nought, but on Jesus Christ whom thou desirest. Think stiffly on his passion, and on his Humility, and through his might thou shalt arise. Do as if thou wouldst beate downe this darke image, and go through-stitch with it. Thou shalt hate ('agryse') and loath this darknesse and this Nought, just as the Devill, and thou shalt despise and all to break it ('brest it').

"For within this Nought is Jesus hid in his joy, whom thou shalt not finde with all thy seeking, unlesse thou passe this darknesse of conscience.

"This is the ghostly travel I spake of, and the cause of all this writing is to stir thee thereto, if thou have grace. This darknesse of conscience, and this Nought is the image of the first Adam: St Paul knew it well, for he said thus of it; As we have before borne the image of the earthly man, that is the first Adam, right so that we might now beare the image of the heavenly man, which is Jesus, the second Adam. St Paul bare this image oft full heavily, for it was so cumbersome to him, that he cryed out of it, saying thus; O who shall deliver me from this body and this image of death. And then he comforted himselfe and others also thus: The grace of God through Jesus Christ."

Notes for page 142

1
MS. "adyte to" = ordained to, made ready for.
Notes for page 144

1
MS. "Witt."
Notes for page 145

1
"in our substantiall makyng."
2
"buxum."
Notes for page 146

1
S. de Cressy gives the "in" twice missed in the Brit. Mus. MS.
Notes for page 147

1
It is I.
Notes for page 148

1
MS "of."
2
Or "appropriated to"; MS. "impropried" = made to be the property of; assigned and consigned to.
Notes for page 149

1
Our Mother by Nature, our Mother in Grace.
2
These clauses, probably omitted by mistake, are in S. de Cressy's version.
Notes for page 150

1
S. de Cressy has "sustained." See lvii. p. 139.
2
"I it am."
Notes for page 151

1
"so kynd of the self."
2
"kynde," "kind."
3
"bristinid."
Notes for page 152

1
"clepyng."
2
From the Ancren Riwle (Camden Society's version, edited by J. Morton, D.D.), p. 231: "The sixth comfort is, that our Lord, when He suffereth us to be tempted, playeth with us, as the mother with her young darling: she flies from him, and hides herself, and lets him sit alone, and look anxiously around, and call Dame! Dame! and weep awhile; and then she leapeth forth laughing, with outspread arms, and embraceth and kisseth him, and wipeth his eyes. In like manner, our Lord sometimes leaveth us alone, and withdraweth His grace, His comfort, and His support, so that we feel no delight in any good that we do, nor any satisfaction of heart; and yet, at that very time, our dear Father loveth us never the less, but doth it for the great love that He hath to us."
p. 235: "The fourth reason why our Lord hideth Himself is, that thou mayest seek him more earnestly, and call, and weep after Him, as the little baby doth after his mother" ("ase deth thet lutel baban "-- in another manuscript 'lite barn' -- "efter his moder").
Notes for page 153

1
i.e. could.
Notes for page 155

1
"entend about."
2
S. de Cressy has here "to do it." This MS. seems to have: "to don us," possibly for to work at us, carry out our salvation to perfection, or, to take in hand for us, "to do for us." See The Paston Letters, vol. ii. (Letter 472), May 1463, "he prayid hym that he wold don for hym in hys mater, and gaf hym a reward; and withinne ryth short tym after, his mater sped."
3
"our brekyngs and our nowtyngs."
Notes for page 156

1
"kynde."
2
"kindhede."
3
"kyndes."
Notes for page 157

1
i.e. made ready, prepared, appointed.
2
"no lak (blame), no defaute."
3
"as sothly as sin is onclene as sothly is it onkinde."
Notes for page 158

1
S. de Cressy has "the loving soul."
Notes for page 159

1
"Our fader bliss."
Notes for page 160

1
"disese."
2
"uggley."
3
a "bolned quave of styngand myre."
4
"swifte" = agile, quick.
Notes for page 161

1: "sharply."
2: "beleveth."
3: "full blissful .... mor than."
4

Notes for page 162

1: See foot-note 4, p. 161.
2: "diseases" = discomforts, distresses.
3: "wilfully."

Notes for page 163

1: "bounden" = beholden.
2: "his."
3: "him."
4: i.e. the soul.

Notes for page 164

1: "langiren."

Notes for page 165

1: "inderly" = inwardly; so de Cressy; (Collins has "drolly ").
2: "sadly" = solidly, soberly.

Notes for page 166

1: "evisid aforn with syde lokks hongyng on the thounys" (or thowngs, or thoungs). Bradley's Dictionary of Middle English -- thun(?)wange = temple, evesed p. ple of efesian = to clip the edges (cf. eaves). The Paris MS. however reads: "His hair was rede as rust not scoryd afore, with syde lockes hangyng on the thouwonges." S. de Cressy gives this as: "his hair was red as rust not scoured; afore with side locks hanging down in flakes."

Notes for page 167

1: "solemnest"; "solemnly" = in state.
2: i.e. straight-set.
3: "gemeth."
4: "woning."

Notes for page 168

1: "enjoyen."

Notes for page 169

1: See lxx. "He shewed it all [the Revelation] again within in my soul."

Notes for page 170

1: "sharply" = decisively.
2: "made me full besy."
3: i.e. gabbling.

Notes for page 171

1: "bidding of bedes."
2: see above, "made me full busy."

Notes for page 172

1: see ch. lxviii.

Notes for page 173

1: "couthest not."
2: i.e. learn, perceive, know for certainty by the conviction of reason and consciousness -- grasp once for all the truth beheld.

Notes for page 174

1: "Cher," in earlier chapters rendered by manner of Countenance or Regard.
2: The word of the MS. might be: "he havith " (possibly "draweth''), or "behadith" or "behavith." There is a verb "bi-hawen" to behold -- in other forms bihabben, bi-halden --; and "behave" had the meaning of to manage, govern. Elsewhere in the MS. to regard, if not to fix the eyes upon, is expressed (e.g. in xxxix.) simply by to "holden" without the prefix. S. de Cressy has here "he beheld."
3: "that have to"; S de C., "have need to."

Notes for page 175

1: That is: in the Shewing of Pity (Rev. ii.) ch. x., in which it was shewed darkly. S. de Cressy has "in party" = part, but the word seems to be "pite" = pity.

Notes for page 176

1: halsith; beclosith.
2: levyn; tellen; thynken; stint; see.
3: "abiden. ne no wele failen."

Notes for page 177

1: "myrkehede, unethes we can leven and trowen."
2: "sekirnes."
Note. -- The words "Blissful Cheer" cannot be rendered by the more beautiful and familiar BLESSED COUNTENANCE, and even "Blissful Countenance" might fail to bring out the reference to one Aspect of the Divine Face, one part of the threefold Truth.

Notes for page 179

1: "for unknowing."
2: seen as Might, Wisdom, Love.
3: i.e. equal.
4: i.e. Julian (xiii., xxiv., xlvi.)
5: "astynten."
6: S. de Cressy: "a wickedness"; but the MS. word is "waykenes."

Notes for page 180

1: Here the transcriber of the B. Mus. MS. repeats (by mistake, no doubt) "to seek," etc. S. de Cressy: "helpeth us as an entry."

Notes for page 181

1: S. de Cressy: "Mothers Arme," but MS. (B.M.) "Moder barme."

Notes for page 182

1: "kinde."

Notes for page 184

1: i.e. permitted; "all that is good our Lord doeth, and that which is evil our Lord suffereth," xxxv.

Notes for page 185

1: "kindness."

Notes for page 186

1: "noyith."
2: S de Cressy -- "thy Covenant."
3: "on bakke."

Notes for page 187

1: S. de Cressy, "likeness "; Collins, "business." The word may be "Lifenes" = lefness, pleasure; lif = lef = lief = (Morris' Specimens of Early English) pleasing, dear.
2: "neyghen him."

Notes for page 189

1: ch. xix.
2: "sekir."

Notes for page 190

1: See ch. xxxix. p.81.
2: "chere" = manner of looking on us, mien.
3: S. de Cressy: "wasted," but the indistinct word of the Brit. Mus. MS. is probably "castid" for "cast," or "casten" = conjectured.

Notes for page 191

1: ch. xxxvii.
2: i.e. in gratitude.

Notes for page 192

1: See xxxvii., xl., xlviii., lxi., lxxxii.

Notes for page 193

1: "ben it aknowen." S. de Cressy, "be it a knowen."
2: MS. "wretchful of our selfe." S. de Cressy, "wretchful on our self."
3: i.e. helped onwards.

Notes for page 195

1: ch. xi.

Notes for page 196

1: "solemne."
2: "entenden to" = turn our attention, respond to.
3: or, as in S. de Cressy, "For kind longing in us to him is a lasting penance in us."
4: "cometh."
5: The exceeding Bliss. "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." -- 2 Cor. iv. 17.

Notes for page 197

1: i.e. truth. See xxvii., "It is sooth that sin is cause of all this pain."
2: ch. li.
3: i.e. "demandeth not that we live."

Notes for page 198

1: i.e. truth, trueness. "Both these ben soth, as to my syte. But the beholdyng of our Lord God is the heyest sothnes." See chaps. xlv., lii., etc., the two "Deemings": the Beholding by God of the higher Self and the Beholding by man of the lower self.
2: in gratitude, obligation.

Notes for page 199

1: Cf. chs. lxxxv. and lxxxvi. These words might be (as Life, Light, and Love) for the Trinity of Might ("the Father willeth"), Wisdom ("the Son worketh"), Love ("the Holy Ghost confirmeth"): one Goodness: or as it is sometimes denoted, the Trinity of Might, Wisdom, Goodness: one Love. But here the thought seems to be centred in Light as the manifestation of Being (of Kyndhede = relationships, correspondences of nature): of the Triune Divine Light which in Man is corresponding Reason, Faith, Charity: Charity keeping man, while here, in Faith and Hope; Charity leading him from and through and into the Eternal Divine Love.

Notes for page 200

1: i.e. earning the endless praise.

Notes for page 202

1: "merkness" = dimness.
2: "witten" = to see clearly.
3: "lerid."

Notes by Grace Warrack

Transcribed by John Ockerbloom (spok@cs.cmu.edu)