 Chapter 51 of Revelations of Divine Love, read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich Anent certain points in the foregoing fourteen revelations Chapter 51 He is the head, and we be his members Therefore our father nor main or will more blame a sign to us than to his own son, precious and worthy Christ And then our courteous Lord answered, in showing full mystery, a wonderful example of a Lord that hath a servant And he gave me sight to my understanding of both Which sight was showed doubly in the Lord and doubly in the servant The one part was showed spiritually in bodily likeness And the other part was showed more spiritually without bodily likeness For the first sight thus I saw two persons in bodily likeness That is to say a Lord and a servant And therewith God gave me spiritual understanding The Lord sitteth stately in rest and in peace The servant standeth by, afore his Lord reverently, ready to do his Lord's will The Lord looketh upon his servant full lovingly and sweetly And meekly he sendeth him to a certain place to do his will The servant not only he goeth, but suddenly he starteth and runneth in great haste for love to do his Lord's will And anon he falleth into a slade and taketh full great hurt And then he groaneth and moaneth and waileth and struggleeth But he never may rise nor help himself by manner of way And of all this the most mischief that I saw him in was failing of comfort For he could not turn his face to look upon his loving Lord Which was to him full near, in whom is full comfort But as a man that was feeble and unwise for the time He turned his mind to his feeling and endured in woe In which he suffered seven great pains The first was the sore bruising that he took in his falling Which was to him feelable pain The second was the heaviness of his body The third was feebleness following from these two The fourth that he was blinded in his reason and stunned in his mind So far forth that almost he had forgotten his own love The fifth was that he might not rise The sixth was most marvellous to me and that was that he lay all alone I looked all about and beheld and far nor near, high nor low I saw to him no help The seventh was that the place which he lay on was a long, hard and grievous place I marvelled how his servant might meekly suffer there all this woe And I beheld with carefulness to learn if I could perceive in him any fault Or if the Lord should assign to him any blame And in sooth there was none seen For only his good will and his great desire was cause of his falling And he was unloathful and as good inwardly as when he stood her for his Lord Ready to do his will And right thus continually his loving Lord full tenderly beheldeth him But now with a double manner of regard One outward, full meekly and mildly, with great ruth and pity And this was of the first sight, another inward, more spiritually And this was showed with a leading of my understanding into the Lord In the which I saw him highly rejoicing for the worshipful restoring that he will and shall bring to his servant by his plenteous grace And this was of that other showing And now was my understanding led again into the first sight, both keeping in mind Then saith this courteous Lord in his meaning, lo, lo, my lovid servant What harm and distress he hath taken in my service for my love, yea, and for his good will Is it not fitting that I award him for his affright and his dread, his hurt and his maim and all his woe And not only this, but falleth it not to me to give a gift that shall be better to him and more worshipful than his own wholeness should have been Or else me thinketh I should do him no grace And in this an inward spiritual showing of the Lord's meaning descended into my soul In which I saw that it behoveth needs to be by virtue of his great goodness and his own worship That his dear worthy servant, which he loved so much, should be verily and blissfully rewarded, above that he should have been if he had not fallen Yea, and so far forth that his falling and his woe that he hath taken thereby shall be turned into high and overpassing worship and endless bliss And at this point the showing of the example vanished, and our good Lord led forth my understanding in sight and in showing of the revelation to the end But notwithstanding all this forth-leading, the marvelling over the example went never from me, for me thought it was given me for an answer to my desire And yet could I not take therein full understanding to my knees at that time For in the servant that was showed for Adam, as I shall tell, I saw many diverse properties that might in no manner of way be assigned to single Adam And thus in that time I stood for much part in unknowing, for the full understanding of this marvellous example was not given to me in that time In which mighty example three properties of the revelation be yet greatly hid, and notwithstanding this further forth-leading, I saw and understood that every showing is full of secret things left hid And therefore me behoiveth now to tell three properties in which I am somewhat eased The first is the beginning of teaching that I understood therein in the same time The second is the inward teaching that I have understood therein afterward The third, all the whole revelation from the beginning to the end, that is to say of this book, which our Lord God of His Goodness bringeth often times freely to the sight of my ununderstanding And these three are so one'd as to my understanding that I cannot nor may dispart them And by these three as one I have teaching whereby I ought to believe and trust in our Lord God, that of the same goodness of which He showed it, and for the same end, right so of the same goodness and for the same end, He shall declare it to us when it is His will For twenty years after the time of the showing save three months I had teaching inwardly as I shall tell It belongeth to thee to take heed to all the properties and conditions that were showed in the example, though thou think that they be misty and indifferent to thy sight I assented willingly with great desire and inwardly beheld with heedfulness all the points and properties that were showed in the same time, as far forth as my wits and understanding would serve Beginning my beholding at the Lord and at the Servant, and the manner of sitting of the Lord, and the place that He sat on, and the colour of His clothing, and the manner of shape, and His countenance without, and His nobleness and goodness within, At the manner of standing of the Servant, and the place where, and how, at His manner of clothing, the colour and shape, at His outward having, and at His inward goodness, and His unloadfulness The Lord that sat stately in rest and in peace, I understood that He is God The Servant that stood before the Lord, I understood that it was showed for Adam, that is to say one man was showed that time and his falling, to make it thereby understood how God beholdeth all man and his falling And in the sight of God all man is one man, and one man is all man This man was hurt in his might and made full feeble, and he was stunned in his understanding so that he was turned from the beholding of his Lord But his will was kept whole in God's sight, for his will I saw our Lord commend and approve But himself was letted and blinded from the knowing of this will, and this is to him great sorrow and grievous distress For neither doth he see clearly his loving Lord, which is to him full meek and mild, nor doth he see truly what himself is in the sight of his loving Lord And will I what when these two are wisely and truly seen, we shall get rest and peace here in part, and the fullness of the bliss of heaven by his plenteous grace And this was a beginning of teaching, which I saw in the same time, whereby I might come to know in what manner he beholdeth us in our sin And then I saw that only pain, blameeth and punisheth, and our courteous Lord comforteth and sorroweth, and ever he is to the soul in glad cheer, loving and longing to bring us to his bliss The place that the Lord sat on was simple, on the earth, barren and desert, alone in wilderness His clothing was ample and full-seemly, as falleth to a Lord The colour of his cloth was blue as asure, most sad and fair, his cheer was merciful The colour of his face was fair-brown, with full-seemly features His eyes were black, most fair and seamly, showing outward full of lovely pity, and showing within him and high regard, long and broad, all full of endless heavens And the lovely looking, wherewith he looked upon his servant continually, and especially in his falling, me thought it might melt our hearts for love and burst them in two for joy The fair-looking showed itself of a seamly mingledness which was marvellous to behold The one part was Ruth and Pity, the other was Joy and Bliss The Joy and Bliss passeth as far Ruth and Pity as heaven is above earth The pity was earthly, and the bliss was heavenly The Ruth and Pity of the Father was in regard of the falling of Adam, which is his most loved creature The Joy and Bliss was in regard of his dear-worthy son, which is even with the Father The merciful beholding of his countenance of love fulfilled all earth and descended down with Adam into hell, with which continuant pity Adam was kept from endless death And thus mercy and pity dwelleth with mankind unto the time we come up into heaven But man is blinded in this life, and therefore we may not see our Father God as he is And what time that he, of his goodness, willeth to show himself to man, he showeth himself homely as man Notwithstanding, I reason, in verity we ought to know and believe that the Father is not man But his sitting on the earth, barren and desert, is to signify this He made man's soul to be his own city and his dwelling place, which is most pleasing to him of all his works And what time that man was fallen into sorrow and pain, he was not all seemly to serve in that noble office And therefore our Lord Father would prepare himself no other place, but would sit upon the earth, abiding mankind, which is mingled with earth Till what time by his grace his dear-worthy son had brought again his city into the noble fairness with his hard travail The blueness of the clothing may betokeneth his steadfastness The brownness of his fair face, with the seemly blackness of the eyes, was most accordant to show his holy soberness The length and breadth of his garments, which were fair, flaming about, betokeneth that he hath beclosed in him all heavens and all joy and bliss And this was showed in a touch of time where I have said, mine understanding was led into the Lord In which inward showing I saw him highly rejoice for the worshipful restoring that he will and shall bring his servant to by his plenteous grace And yet I marveled, beholding the Lord and the servant aforesaid, I saw the Lord sit stately and the servant standing reverently afore his Lord In which servant there is double understanding, one without, another within Outwardly he was clad simply as a labourer which were got ready for his toil, and he stood full near the Lord, not evenly in front of him but in part to one side on the left His clothing was a white kirtle, single, old, and all defaced, dyed with sweat of his body, straight fitting to him and short, as it were unhandful beneath the knee, threadbare, seeming as it should soon be worn out, ready to be ragged and rent And of this I marveled greatly, thinking, this is now an unseemly clothing for the servant that is so greatly loved to stand in a foreso worshipful a Lord And inwardly in him was showed a ground of love, which love that he had to the Lord was even like to the love that the Lord had to him The wisdom of the servant saw inwardly that there was one thing to do which should be to the worship of the Lord And the servant, for love, having no regard to himself, nor to anything that might befall him, hastily he started and ran at the sending of his Lord to do that thing which was his will and his worship For it seemed by his outward clothing that he had been a continuant labourer of long time, and by the inward sight that I had both of the Lord and the servant it seemed that he was a new one, that is to say new beginning to travail, which servant was never sent out before There was a treasure in the earth which the Lord loved, I marveled and thought what it might be, and I was answered in my understanding, it is a food which is delectable and pleasant to the Lord For I saw the Lord sit as a man, and I saw neither meat nor drink wherewith to serve him. This was one marvel Another marvel was that his majestic Lord had no servant but one, and him he sent out. I beheld, thinking what manner of labour it might be that the servant should do, and then I understood that he should do the greatest labour and hardest travail That is, he should be a gardener, delve and dyke, toil and sweat, and turn the earth upside down, and seek the deepness and water the plants in time And in this he should continue his travail, and make sweet floods to run, and noble and plentious fruits to spring, which he should bring afore the Lord to serve him therewith to his desire And he should never turn again till he had prepared this food already as he knew that it pleased the Lord And then he should take this food with the drink in the food, and bear it full worshipfully afore the Lord And all this time the Lord should sit in the same place abiding his servant whom he sent out And yet I marvelled from whence the servant came, for I saw in the Lord that he hath within himself endless life and all manner of goodness save that treasure that was in the earth And also that treasure was grounded in the Lord in marvellous deepness of endless love, but it was not all to his worship till the servant had thus nobly prepared it and brought it before him in himself present And without the Lord was nothing but wilderness, and I understood not all what this example meant, and therefore I marvelled whence the servant came In the servant is comprehended the second person in the trinity, and in the servant is comprehended Adam, that is to say all man And therefore when I say the Son it meneth the Godhead, which is even with the Father And when I say the servant it meneth Christ's manhood, which is rightful Adam By the nearness of the servant is understood the Son, and by the standing on the left side is understood Adam The Lord is the Father, God, the servant is the Son, Christ Jesus, the Holy Ghost is even love which is in them both When Adam fell God's Son fell Because of the rightful warning which had been made in heaven God's Son might not be disparted from Adam, for by Adam I understand all man Adam fell from life to death into the deep of this wretched world and after that into hell God's Son fell with Adam into the deep of the maidens womb who was the fairest daughter of Adam And for this end to excuse Adam from blame in heaven and in earth and mightily he fetched him out of hell By the wisdom and the goodness that was in the servant is understood God's Son By the poor clothing as a labourer standing near the left side is understood the manhood and Adam With all the scathe and feebleness that followeth For in all this our good Lord showed his own Son and Adam but one man The virtue and the goodness that we have is of Jesus Christ The feebleness and the blindness that we have is of Adam which too were showed in the servant And thus hath our good Lord Jesus taken upon him all our blame And therefore our Father, nor may nor will, more blame assigned to us than to his own Son, dear worthy Christ Thus was he, the servant, before his coming into earth standing ready for the Father in purpose Till what time he would send him to do that worshipful deed by which mankind was brought again into heaven That is to say notwithstanding that he is God even with the Father as anant to the Godhead But in his foreseeing purpose that he would be man to save man in fulfilling of his Father's will So he stood for his Father as a servant willingly taking upon him all our charge And then he started full readily at the Father's will and anon he fell full low into the maiden's womb Having no regard to himself nor to his hard pains The white kirtle is the flesh, the singleness is that there was right nought at which the Godhead and manhood The straightness is poverty, the end is of Adam's wearing, the defacing of sweat of Adam's travail The shortness showeth the servant's labour And thus I saw the Son saying in his meaning, Low, my dear Father, I stand before thee in Adam's kirtle all ready to start and to run I would be in the earth and do thy worship when it is thy will to send me How long shall I desire? Full soothfastly whisked the Son when it would be the Father's will and how long he should desire That is to say he whisked it and ent the Godhead, for he is the wisdom of the Father Wherefore this question was showed with understanding of the manhood of Christ For all mankind that shall be saved by the sweet incarnation and blissful passion of Christ All is the manhood of Christ, for he is the head and we be his members To which members the day and the time is unknown when every passing woe and sorrow shall have an end And the everlasting joy and bliss shall be fulfilled Which day and time for to see all the company of heaven longeth And all that shall be under heaven that shall come hither their way is by longing and desire Which desire and longing was showed in the servant standing before the Lord Or else thus in the Son standing before the Father in Adam's kirtle For the longing and desire of all mankind that shall be saved appeared in Jesus For Jesus is all that shall be saved and all that shall be saved is Jesus And all of the charity of God with obedience, meekness and patience and virtues that belong to us Also in this marvellous example I have teaching with me as it were the beginning of an ABC Whereby I have some understanding of our Lord's meaning For the secret things of the revelation be hid therein Notwithstanding that all the showings are full of secret things The sitting of the Father betokeneth his Godhead That is to say by showing of rest and peace For in the Godhead may be no travail And that he showed himself as Lord betokeneth his governance to our manhood The standing of the servant betokeneth travail On one side and on the left betokeneth that he was not all worthy to stand even right before the Lord His starting was the Godhead and the running was the manhood For the Godhead started from the Father into the maiden's womb Falling into the taking of our kind And in this falling he took great saw The saw that he took was our flesh in which he had also swiftly feeling of deadly pains That he stood adred before the Lord and not even right Betokeneth that his clothing was not seemly to stand in even right before the Lord Nor that he might not nor should not be his office while he was a labourer Nor also he might not sit in rest and peace with the Lord till he had won his peace rightfully with his hard travail And that he stood by the left side betokeneth that the Father left his own son willingly in the manhood To suffer all man's pains without sparing of him By that his kirtle was in point to be ragged and rent His understood the blows, the scourgings, the thorns and the nails The drawing and the dragging his tender flesh rending As I saw in some part before how the flesh was rent from the skull Falling in pieces until the time when the bleeding ceased And then it began to dry again, cleaving to the bone And by the struggling and writhing, groaning and moaning His understood that he might never rise all mightily from the time that he has fallen into the maiden's womb Till his body was slain and dead He yielding the soul into the Father's hands with all mankind for whom he was sent And at this point he began first to show his might For he went into hell, and when he was there he raised up the great root out of the deep deepness Which rightfully was knit to him in high heaven The body was in the grave till Easter morrow, and from that time he lay never more For then was rightfully ended the struggling and the writhing, the groaning and the moaning And our foul deadly flesh that God's son took on him Which was Adam's old curtain, straight, worn bare and short Was then by our Saviour made fair New white and bright, and of endless cleanness Loose and long, fairer and richer than was then the clothing which before I saw on the Father For that clothing was blue, but Christ's clothing is coloured now of a fair, seemingly melder Which is so marvellous that I can it not describe, for it is all of very worships Now sitteth not the Son on earth in wilderness But he sitteth in his noblest seat, which he made in heaven most to his pleasing Now standeth not the Son for the Father as a servant for the Lord dreadingly, mainly clad in part naked But he standeth for the Father even right, richly clad in blissful largeness With a crown upon his head of precious richness For it was showed that we be his crown Which crown is the joy of the Father, the worship of the Son The satisfying of the Holy Ghost and endless marvellous bliss to all that be in heaven Now standeth not the Son for the Father on the left side as a labourer But he sitteth on his Father's right hand in endless rest and peace But it is not meant that the Son sitteth on the right hand side by side as one man sitteth by another in this life For there is no such sitting as to my sight in the Trinity But he sitteth on his Father's right hand, that is to say in the highest nobleness of the Father's joys Now is the spouse, God's Son, in peace with his loved wife, which is the fair maiden of endless joy Now sitteth the Son, very God and man, in his city in rest and peace Which city his Father hath a dite to him of his endless purpose And the Father in the Son, and the Holy Ghost in the Father and in the Son End of chapter 51 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 52 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich Anent certain points in the foregoing fourteen revelations Chapter 52 We have now matter of mourning, for our sin is cause of Christ pains And we have, lastingly, matter of joy, for endless love made him to suffer And thus I saw that God rejoiceth that he is our Father And God rejoiceth that he is our Mother And God rejoiceth that he is our very spouse, and our soul is his loved wife And Christ rejoiceth that he is our brother, and Jesus rejoiceth that he is our Saviour These are five high joys, as I understand, in which he willeth that we enjoy Him praising, Him thanking, Him loving, Him endlessly blessing All that shall be saved, we have in us for the time of this life A marvellous mingling, both of wheel and woe We have in us our Lord Jesus up risen We have in us the wretchedness and the mischief of Adam's falling, dying By Christ we are steadfastly kept And by his grace touching us we are raised into sure trust of salvation And by Adam's falling we are so broken in our feeling In diverse manners by sins and by sondry pains In which we are made dark that scarcely we can take any comfort But in our intent we abide in God and faithfully trust to have mercy and grace And this is his own working in us And of his goodness he openeth the eye of our understanding By which we have sight, sometimes more and sometimes less According as God giveth ability to receive And now we are raised into the one And now we are suffered to fall into the other And thus is this medley so marvellous in us That scarcely we know of ourself or of our even Christian In what way we stand For the marvellousness of this sundry feeling But that same holy assent that we assent to God when we feel Him Truly setting our will to be with Him With all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might And then we hate and despise our evil stirrings And all that might be occasion of sin, spiritual and bodily And yet nevertheless when this sweetness is hid We fall again into blindness and so into woe And tribulation in diverse manners But then is this our comfort That we know in our faith that by virtue of Christ Which is our keeper we assent never there too But we groan there against and dur on in pain and woe Praying unto that time that He showeth Him again to us And thus we stand in this medley all the days of our life But He willeth that we trust that He is lastingly with us And that in three manner He is with us in heaven Very man in His own person, us up drawing And that was showed in the showing of the spiritual thirst And He is with us in earth, us leading And that was showed in the third showing Where I saw God in a point And He is with us in our soul, endlessly dwelling Us ruling and keeping And that was showed in the sixteenth showing, as I shall tell And thus in the servant was showed the scathe And blindness of Adam's falling And in the servant was showed the wisdom and goodness Of God's Son And in the Lord was showed the roof and pity Of Adam's woe And in the Lord was showed the high nobility And the endless worship that mankind is come to By the virtue of the passion and death of His dear worthy Son And therefore mightily He joyeth in His falling For the high raising and fullness of bliss that mankind is come to Overpassing that we should have had if He had not fallen And thus to see this overpassing nobleness Was my understanding led into God in the same time that I saw the servant fall And thus we have now matter of mourning For our sin is cause of Christ's pains And we have, lastingly, matter of joy For endless love made Him to suffer And therefore the creature that seeth and feeleth The working of love by grace, hateeth naught but sin For of all things to my sight, love and hate Are the hardest and most unmeasurable contraries And notwithstanding all this I saw and understood in our Lord's meaning That we may not in this life keep us from sin As holy in full cleanness as we shall be in heaven But we may well by grace keep us from the sins Which would lead us to endless pains As holy church teacheth us And estue venial ones reasonably up to our might And if we by our blindness and our wretchedness any time fall We should readily rise knowing the sweet touching of grace And with all our will amend us upon the teaching of holy church According as the sin is grievous And go forthwith to God in love And neither on the one side fall over low Inclining to despair nor on the other side be overreckless As if we made no matter of it But nakedly acknowledge our feebleness Finding that we may not stand a twinkling of an eye But by keeping of grace and reverently cleave to God On him only trusting For after one wise is the beholding by God And after another wise is the beholding by man For it belongeth to man meekly to accuse himself And it belongeth to the proper goodness of our Lord God Curtiously to excuse man And these be two parts that were showed in the double manner of regard With which the Lord beheld the falling of his loved servant The one was showed outward, very meekly and mildly With great ruth and pity, and that of endless love And right thus willeth our Lord that we accuse ourselves Earnestly and truly seeing and knowing our falling And all the harms that come thereof Seeing and learning that we can never restore it And therewith that we earnestly and truly see and know His everlasting love that he hath to us And his plenteous mercy And thus graciously to see and know both together Is the meek accusing that our Lord asketh of us And himself worketh it where it is And this is the lower part of man's life And it was showed in the Lord's outward manner of regard In which showing I saw two parts The one is the rueful falling of man The other is the worshipful satisfaction That our Lord hath made for man The other manner of regard was showed inward And that was more highly and all fully one For the life and the virtue that we have in the lower part Is of the higher, and it cometh down to us From out of the natural love of the high self By the working of grace A twix the life of the one and the life of the other There is right naught, for it is all one love Which one blessed love hath now in us Double working, for in the lower part Are pains and passions, mercies and forgiveness And such other that are profitable But in the higher part are none of these But all one high love and marvellous joy In which joy all pains are highly restored And in this time our Lord showeth Not only our excusing from blame That is beholding of our higher part But the worshipful nobility That he shall bring us to By the working of grace in our lower part Turning all our blame that is therein From our falling into endless worship When we be oneed to the high self above End of Chapter 52 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 53 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich Announced certain points in the foregoing Fourteen Revelations, Chapter 53 In every soul that shall be saved Is a godly will that never assented to sin Nor ever shall, ere that he made us He loved us, and when we were made We loved him. And I saw that he willeth That we understand he taketh not harder The falling of any creature that shall be saved Than he took the falling of Adam Which we know was endlessly loved And securely kept in the time of all his need And now is blissfully restored In high over-passing joy For our Lord is so good, so gentle And so courteous that he may never assign default In those in whom he shall ever be blessed And praised. And in this that I have now told Was my desire in part answered And my great difficulty some deal eased By the lovely, gracious showing of our good Lord In which showing I saw and understood Fall surely that in every soul that shall be saved Is a godly will that never assented to sin Nor ever shall. Which will is so good That it may never will evil But evermore continually it willeth good And worketh good in the sight of God Therefore our Lord willeth that we know this In the faith and the belief And especially that we have all this Blessed will, whole and safe In our Lord Jesus Christ. For that same kind that heaven shall be filled With behoveth needs of God's rightfulness So to have been knit and wand'd to him That therein was kept a substance Which might never, nor should, be parted from him And that through his own good will In his endless foreseeing purpose. But not withstanding this rightful knitting And this endless wanting, yet the redemption And the again buying of mankind Is needful and speedful in everything As it is done for the same intent And to the same end that holy church In our faith us teacheth. For I saw that God began never To love mankind, for right the same That mankind shall be in endless bliss Fulfilling the joy of God as anent his works Right so the same mankind hath been In the foresight of God Known and loved from without beginning In his rightful intent. By the endless assent of the full accord Of all the trinity, the midperson Willed to be ground and head of this fair kind Out of whom we be all come In whom we be all enclosed Into whom we shall all wend In him finding our full heaven In everlasting joy By the foreseeing purpose Of all the blessed trinity From without beginning. For ere that he made us, he loved us And when we were made, we loved him And this is a love that is made To our kindly substance By virtue of the kindly substantial goodness Of the Holy Ghost, mighty in reason By virtue of the might of the Father And wise in mind By virtue of the wisdom of the Son And thus is man's soul made by God And in the same point knit to God. And thus I understand that man's soul Is made of naught. That is to say it is made But of naught that is made. And thus when God should make man's body He took the clay of earth Which is a matter mingled and gathered Of all bodily things And thereof he made man's body. But to the making of man's soul He would take right naught, but made it. And thus is the nature made Rightfully one to the maker Which is substantial nature not made That is God. And therefore it is That there may nor shall be Right naught at which God and man's soul. And in this endless love Man's soul is kept whole As the matter of the revelations Signifyeth and showeth In which endless love We be led and kept of God And never shall be lost For he willeth we be aware That our soul is a life Which life of his goodness And his grace shall last In heaven without end Him loving, Him thanking, Him praising. And write the same That we shall be without end The same we were treasured In God and hid, known And loved from without beginning. Wherefore he would have us understand That the noblest thing That ever he made is mankind And the fullest substance And the highest virtue Is the blessed soul of Christ. And furthermore he would have us understand That his dear worthy soul of manhood Was preciously knit to him In the making by him Of manhood's substantial nature Which not is so subtle and so mighty That it, man's soul, is wonned into God In which warning it is made endlessly holy Furthermore he would have us know That all the souls that shall be saved In heaven without end Are knit and wonned in this warning And made holy in his holiness. End of chapter 53 This recording is in the public domain. Faith is not else but a right understanding With true belief and sure trust of our being That we are in God and God is in us Whom we see not. And because of this great, endless love That God hath to all mankind He maketh no disparting in love Between the blessed soul of Christ And the least soul that shall be saved For it is full easy to believe And to trust that the dwelling Of the blessed soul of Christ Is full high in the glorious Godhead And verily, as I understand in our Lord's signifying Where the blessed soul of Christ is There is the substance of all the souls That shall be saved by Christ Highly ought we to rejoice That God dwelleth in our soul And much more highly ought we to rejoice That our soul dwelleth in God Our soul is made to be God's dwelling place And the dwelling place of the soul is God Which is unmade And high understanding it is Inwardly to see and know That God, which is our maker Dwelleth in our soul And and higher understanding it is Inwardly to see and to know That our soul that is made Dwelleth in God's substance Of which substance, God, we are That we are And I saw no difference between God and our substance But as it were all God And yet my understanding took That our substance is in God That is to say, that God is God And our substance is a creature in God For the almighty truth of the Trinity Is our Father, for he made us And keepeth us in him And the deep wisdom of the Trinity Is our mother, in whom we are all enclosed The high goodness of the Trinity Is our Lord, and in him we are Enclosed, and he in us We are enclosed in the Father And we are enclosed in the Son And we are enclosed in the Holy Ghost And the Father is enclosed in us And the Son is enclosed in us And the Holy Ghost is enclosed in us All mightiness, all wisdom, all goodness One God, one Lord And our faith is a virtue That cometh of our nature substance Into our sense soul by the Holy Ghost In which all our virtues come to us For without that No man may receive virtue For it is nought else but a right understanding With true belief and sure trust of our being That we are in God and God in us Whom we see not And this virtue, with all other That God hath ordained to us coming therein Worketh in us great things For Christ's merciful working is in us And we graciously accord to him Through the gifts and the virtues of the Holy Ghost This working maketh that we are Christ's children And Christian in living End of chapter 54 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 55 Christ is our way Mankind shall be restored from double death And thus Christ is our way Us surely leading in his laws And Christ in his body Mightily beareth us up into heaven For I saw that Christ Us all having in him That shall be saved by him Worshipfully presenteth his father In heaven with us Which present fall thankfully His father receiveth And courteously giveth it to his son Jesus Christ Which gift and working is joy to the father And bliss to the son And pleasing to the Holy Ghost And of all things that belong to us to do It is most pleasing to our Lord That we enjoy in this joy Which is in the blessed trinity In virtue of our salvation And this was seen in the ninth showing Where it speaketh more of this matter And notwithstanding all our feeling of woe or wheel God willeth that we should understand And hold by faith That we are more verily in heaven Than in earth Our faith cometh of the natural 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 what time that our soul is inspired into our body In which we are made sensual So soon mercy and grace begin to work Having of us care and keeping with pity and love In which working the Holy Ghost Formeth in our faith Hope that we shall come again Up above to our substance Into the virtue of Christ Increased and fulfilled through the Holy Ghost Thus I understood that the sense soul Is grounded in nature, in mercy and in grace Which ground enableth us to receive gifts That lead us to endless life For I saw full assuredly That our substance is in God And also I saw that in our sense soul God is For in the self-same point That our soul is made sensual In the self-same point Is the city of God ordained to him From without beginning Into which seat he cometh And never shall remove from it For God is never out of the soul In which he dwelleth blissfully without end And this was seen in the sixteenth showing Where it saith The place that Jesus taketh in our soul He shall never remove from it And all the gifts that God may give to creatures He hath given to his son Jesus for us Which gifts he, dwelling in us Hath enclosed in him Unto the time that we be waxen and grown Our soul with our body And our body with our soul Either of them taking help of other Till we be brought up into stature As nature worketh And then, in the ground of nature With working of mercy The Holy Ghost graciously inspired into us Gifts leading to endless life And thus was my understanding led of God To see in him and to understand To perceive and to know That our soul is made trinity Like to the unmade blissful trinity Known and loved from without beginning And in the making oneed to the maker As it is aforesaid This sight was full sweet and marvellous to behold Peaceable, restful, sure, and delectable And because of the worshipful warning That was thus made by God Betwixt the soul and body It behoveth needs to be That mankind shall be restored from double death Which restoring might never be Untill the time that the second person in the trinity Had taken the lower part of man's nature To whom the highest part was oneed in the first making And these two parts were in Christ The higher and the lower Which is but one soul The higher part was one in peace with God In full joy and bliss The lower part, which is sense nature Suffered for the salvation of mankind And these two parts in Christ Were seen and felt in the eighth showing In which my body was fulfilled with feeling And mind of Christ's passion and his death And furthermore with this was a subtle feeling And privy inward sight of the high part Which I was showed in the same time When I could not, even for the friendly proffer Made to me, look up into heaven And that was because of that mighty beholding That I had of the inward life Which inward life is that high substance That precious soul of Christ Which is endlessly rejoicing in the Godhead End of Chapter 55 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 56 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich Announced certain points in the foregoing 14 revelations Chapter 56 God is nearer to us than our own soul We can never come to full knowing of God Till we know first clearly our own soul And thus I saw full surely That it is readyer to us to come to the knowing of God Than to know our own soul For our soul is so deep grounded in God And so endlessly treasured That we may not come to the knowing thereof Till we have first knowing of God Which is the maker to whom it is won But notwithstanding I saw that we have For fullness to desire wisely And truly to know our own soul Whereby we are learned to seek it where it is And that is in God And thus by gracious leading of the Holy Ghost We should know them both in one Whether we be stirred to know God or our soul Both these stirrings are good and true God is nearer to us than our own soul For he is the ground in whom our soul standeth And he is the mean that keepeth the substance And the sense nature together So that they shall never dispart For our soul sitteth in God in very rest And our soul standeth in God in very strength And our soul is kindly rooted in God In endless love And therefore if we will have knowledge of our soul And communing and dalliance therewith It behovedeth to seek unto our Lord God In whom it is enclosed And of this enclosement I saw and understood More in the sixteenth showing as I shall tell And as an end to our substance And our sense part Both together may rightly be called our soul And that is because of the wanting that they have in God The worshipful city that our Lord Jesus sitteth in Is our sense soul in which he is enclosed And our kindly substance is enclosed in Jesus With the blessed soul of Christ sitting in rest In the Godhead And I saw full surely that it behovedeth needs to be That we should be in longing and in penance Unto the time that we be led so deep into God That we verily and truly know our own soul And truly I saw that into this high deepness Our good Lord himself leadeth us In the same love that he made us And in the same love that he bought us By mercy and grace through virtue of his blessed passion And notwithstanding all this We may never come to full knowing of God Till we know first clearly our own soul For until the time that our soul is in its full powers We cannot be all fully holy And that is until the time that our sense soul By the virtue of Christ's passion Be brought up to the substance With all the profits of our tribulation That our Lord shall make us to get By mercy and grace I had in part experience of the touching of God in the soul And it is grounded in nature That is to say our reason is grounded in God Which is substantial naturehood Out of this substantial naturehood Mercy and grace springeth and spreadeth into us Working all things in fulfilling of our joy These are our ground in which we have our increase And our fulfilling These be three properties in one goodness And where one worketh all work in the things Which be now belonging to us God willeth that we understand this Desiring with all our heart To have knowing of them more and more Unto the time that we be fulfilled For fully to know them is not else But endless joy and bliss that we shall have in heaven Which God willeth should be begun here In knowing of his love For only in our reason we may not profit But if we have evenly therewith mind and love Nor only in our nature-ground that we have in God We may not be saved But if we have coming of the same ground Mercy and grace For of these three working altogether We receive all our goodness Of the which the first gifts are goods of nature For in our first making God gave us as full goods As we might receive in our spirit alone And also greater goods But his foreseeing purpose in his endless wisdom Willed that we should be double Chapter 56 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 57 Of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Bounds Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich Anent certain points in the foregoing 14 Revelations Chapter 57 In Christ our two natures are united And anent our substance he made us noble And so rich that evermore we work his will And his worship Where I say we, it meneth man that shall be saved For soothly I saw that we are that which he loveth And do that which him pleaseth Lastingly without any stinting And that by virtue of the great riches 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 sense soul we fail Which failing God will restore and fulfil By working of mercy and grace Plentyously flowing into us out of his own nature goodness And thus his nature goodness Maketh that mercy and grace work in us And the nature goodness that we have of him Enableeth us to receive the working of mercy and grace I saw that our nature is in God whole In which whole nature of manhood He maketh diversities flowing out of him To work his will Whom nature keepeth and mercy and grace Restoreeth and fulfileth And of these none shall perish For our nature that is the higher part Is knit to God in the making And God is knit to our nature that is the lower part In our flesh-taking And thus in Christ our two natures are one For the Trinity is comprehended in Christ Whom our higher part is grounded and rooted And our lower part the second person hath taken Which nature first to him was made ready For I saw full surely that all the works That God hath done or ever shall Were fully known to him And are foreseen from without beginning And for love he made mankind And for the same love would be man The next good that we receive is our faith In which our profiting beginneth And it cometh out of the high riches of our nature substance Into our sensual soul And it is grounded in us through the nature goodness of God By the working of mercy and grace And thereof come all other goods By which we are led and saved For the commandments of God come therein In which we ought to have two manners of understanding The one is that we ought to understand and know Which are his biddings to love and to keep them The 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 other in order as God hath 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 For in that same time that God knitted himself to our body In the Virgin's womb He took our sensual soul In which taking he, us all having enclosed in him Wondered to our substance In which wanting he was perfect man For Christ having knit in him each man that 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 that is mother of our Saviour Is mother of all that 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 Plentiously and fully and sweetly was this showed And it is spoken of in the first where it saith We are all in him enclosed and he is enclosed in us And that enclosing of him in us is spoken of in the sixteenth showing Where it saith he sitteth in our soul For it is his good pleasure 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 willeth that we be his helpers Giving to him all our attending Learning his laws Keeping his laws Desiring that all be done that he doeth Truly trusting in him For soothly I saw that our substance is in God End of Chapter 57 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 58 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich And in certain points in the foregoing 14 Revelations Chapter 58 All our life is in three Nature, Mercy, Grace 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 God, the Blessed Trinity which is everlasting being Right as he is endless from without beginning Right so it was in his purpose endless to make mankind Which fair kind first was prepared to his own son, the second person And when he word by full accord of all the Trinity He made us all at once And in our making he knit us and warned us to himself By which warning we are kept as clear and as noble as we were made By the virtue of the same precious warning We love our maker and seek him, praise him and thank him And endlessly enjoy him And this is the work which is wrought continually In every soul that shall be saved Which is the godly will aforesaid And thus in our making God Almighty is our nature's Father And God All Wisdom is our nature's Mother With the love and the goodness of the Holy Ghost Which is all one God, one Lord And in the knitting and the warning he is our very true spouse And we his loved wife, his fair maiden With which wife he is never displeased For he saith, I love thee and thou lovest me And our love shall never be disparted 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 lordhood in one God In our Father Almighty we have our keeping and our bliss As an in our natural substance Which is to us by our making without beginning And in the second person, in skill and wisdom We have our keeping as an in our sense soul Our restoring and our saving He is our mother, brother and saviour And in our good Lord, the Holy Ghost We have our rewarding and our mead-giving For our living and our travail And endless over-passing of all that we desire In his marvellous courtesy of his high, plentious grace For all our life is in three In the first we have our being In the second we have our increasing And in the third we have our fulfilling The first is nature, the second is mercy And the third is grace For the first I 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 the making of our substance And furthermore I saw that the second person Which is our mother as an in the substance That same dear worthy person Is become our mother as an in the sense soul For we are double by 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 making of our substance In whom we are grounded and rooted And he is our mother in mercy In taking of our sense part And thus our mother is to us in diverse manners working In whom our parts are kept undisparted For in our mother Christ we profit and increase And in mercy he reformeth us and restoreeth And by the virtue of his passion and his death And uprising oneeth us to our substance Thus worketh our mother in mercy to all his children Which are to him yielding and obedient And grace worketh with mercy And specially in two properties as it was showed Which working belongeth to the third person, the Holy Ghost He worketh rewarding and giving Rewarding is a large giving of truth That the Lord doeth to him that hath travailed And giving is a courteous working Which he doeth 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 restoring In whom our parts are one and all made perfect man And by reward yielding and giving in grace Of the Holy Ghost we are fulfilled And our substance is in our Father, God Almighty And our substance is in 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 Which is one God And our sense soul 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 in earth Worshipfully brought up into heaven And blissfully wonned to our substance Increased in riches and in nobleness By all the virtues of Christ And by the grace and working of the Holy Ghost End of chapter 58 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 59 Of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich And end certain points in the foregoing 14 revelations Chapter 59 Jesus Christ That doeth good against evil Is our very mother We have our being of him Where the ground of motherhood begineth With all the sweet keeping by love That endlessly followeth And all this bliss we have by mercy and grace Which manner of bliss we might never have had nor known But if that property of goodness Which is God had been contraried Whereby we have this bliss For wickedness hath been suffered to rise 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 that shall be saved For it is the property in God Which doeth good against evil Thus Jesus Christ That doeth good against evil Is our very mother We have our being of him Where the ground of motherhood begineth With all the sweet keeping of love That endlessly followeth As verily as God is our father So verily God is our mother And that showed he in all And especially in these sweet words Where he sayeth, I it am That is to say, I it am The might and the goodness of the fatherhood I it am the wisdom 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 sovereign goodness Of all manner of things I am that maketh thee to love I am that maketh thee to long I it am the endless fulfilling Of all true desires For there the soul is highest Noblest and worthiest Where it is lowest, meekest and mildest And out of this substantial ground We have all our virtues In our sense part By gift of nature By helping and speeding Of mercy and grace Without the which we may not profit Our high father, God Almighty Which is being, he knew and loved us From afore any time Of which knowing in his marvellous Deep charity and the foreseeing Council of all the blessed trinity He willed that the second person Should become our mother Our father Willeth Our mother Worketh Our good Lord, the Holy Ghost Confirmeth And therefore it belongeth to us To love our God In whom we have our being Him reverently thanking And praising for our making Mightily praying to our mother For mercy and pity And to our Lord the Holy Ghost For help and grace For in these three Is all our life Nature, mercy, grace Whereof we have meekness and mildness Patience and pity And hating of sin and of wickedness For it belongeth properly to virtue To hate sin and wickedness And thus is Jesus our very mother In nature by virtue of our first making And he is our very mother in grace By taking our nature made All the fair working And all the sweet natural office Of dear worthy motherhood Is appropriated to the second person For in him we have this godly will Whole and safe without end Both in nature and in grace Of his own proper goodness I understood three manners Of beholding of motherhood in God The first is grounded in our nature's making The second is taking of our nature And there begineth the motherhood of grace The third is motherhood of working And therein is a fourth spreading By the same grace Of length and breadth and height And of deepness without end And all is one love End of chapter 59 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 60 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich And in certain points in the foregoing 14 Revelations Chapter 60 The kind, loving mother But now be hoveth to say a little more Of this fourth spreading As I understand in the meaning of our Lord How that we be brought again By the motherhood of mercy and grace Into our nature's place Where that we were made By the motherhood of nature love Which kindly love it never leaveeth us Our kind mother, our gracious mother For that he would all wholly Become our mother in all things He took the ground of his works Full low and full mildly In the maiden's womb And that he showed in the first showing Where he brought that meek maid For the eye of mine 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 arrayed And dite him full ready In our poor flesh Himself to do the service And the office of motherhood In all things The mother's service Is nearest, readyest and surest Nearest, for it is most of nature Readyest, for it is most of love And surest, for it is most of truth This office none might nor could Nor ever should do to the full But he alone We know that all our mother's bearing Is bearing of us to pain and to dying And what is this But that our very mother Jesus He, all love, beareth us to joy And to endless living Blessed may he be Thus he sustaineth us within himself In love, and travailed unto 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 finished And so borne us to bliss Yet might not all this make full content To his marvellous love And that showeth he in these High over-passing words of love If I might suffer more I would suffer more He might no more die But he would not stint of working Wherefore, then, it behoved him to feed us For the dear worthy love of motherhood Hath made him debtor to us The mother may give her child Suck of her milk But our precious mother Jesus He may feed us with himself And doeth it, fall courteously And fall tenderly With the blessed sacrament That is precious food of my life And with all the sweet sacraments He sustaineth us full mercifully And graciously And so meant he in this blessed word Where that he said It is I that Holy Church Preacheth thee and teacheth thee That is to say all the health And life of sacraments All the virtue and grace of my word All the goodness that is ordained In Holy Church for thee It is I The mother may lay the child Tenderly to her breast But our tender mother Jesus He may homely lead us Into his blessed breast By his sweet open side And show therein Part of the Godhead And the joys of heaven With spiritual sureness Of endless bliss And that showed he in the tenth showing Giving the same understanding In this sweet word where he saith Lo, how I loved thee Looking unto the wound in his side Rejoicing This fair lovely word mother It is so sweet and so close in nature of itself That it may not verily be said of none but of him And to her that is very mother of him and of all To the property of motherhood Belongeth natural love, wisdom and knowing And it is good For though it be so that our bodily forth-bringing Be but little, low and simple In regard of our spiritual forth-bringing Yet it is he that doeth it In the creatures by whom that is done The kindly loving mother That witteth and knoweth the need of her child She keepeth it full tenderly As the nature and condition of motherhood will And as it waxeth in age She changeth her working but not her love And when it is waxen of more age She suffereth that it be beaten In breaking down of vices To make the child receive virtues and graces This working with all that be fair and good Our Lord doeth it in them by whom it is done Thus he is our mother in nature By the working of grace in the lower part For love of the higher part And he willeth that we know this For he will have all our love fastened to him And in this I saw that all our duty that we owe By God's bidding to fatherhood and motherhood For reason of God's fatherhood and motherhood Is fulfilled in true loving of God Which blessed love Christ worketh in us And this was showed in all the revelations And especially in the high plenteous words Where he saith, it is I that thou lovest End of chapter 60 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 61 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich An end certain points in the foregoing 14 Revelations Chapter 61 By the assay of this falling We shall have an high marvellous knowing of love in God Without end For strong and marvellous is that love May not nor will not be broken for trespass And in our spiritual forth bringing He useth more tenderness of keeping Without any likeness By as much as our soul is of more price in his sight He kindleth our understanding He directedh our ways He easeth our conscience He comforteth our soul He lighteneth our heart And giveth us in part Knowing and believing in his blissful God-head With gracious mind in his sweet manhood And his blessed passion With reverent marvelling in his high over-passing goodness And maketh us to love all that he loveth For his love And to be well pleased with him and all his works And when we fall Hastily he raiseth us by his lovely calling And gracious touching And when we be thus strengthened by his sweet working Then we with all our will Choose him by his sweet grace To be his servants and his lovers Lastingly without end And after this He suffereth some of us to fall more hard And more grievously than ever we did afore As us thinketh And then wean we Who be not all wise That all were not that we have begun But this is not so For it needeth us to fall And it needeth us to see it For if we never fell We should not know how feeble And how wretched we are of ourself And also we should not fully know That marvellous love of our maker For we shall see verily in heaven without end That we have grievously sinned in this life And notwithstanding this We shall see that we were never hurt in his love We were never the less of price in his sight And by the assay of this falling We shall have an high, marvellous knowing Of love in God without end For strong and marvellous is that love Which may not nor will not be broken for trespass And this is one understanding of our 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 raising we might never have come Without that meekness And therefore it needeth us to see it And if we see it not, though we fell It should not profit us And commonly first we fall And later we see it And both by the mercy of God The mother may suffer the child to fall sometimes And to be hurt in diverse manners for its own profit But she may never suffer that any manner of peril To the child, for love And though our earthly mother may suffer her child to perish Our heavenly mother, Jesus, may not suffer us That are his children to perish For he is almighty, all wisdom, and all love And so is none but he, blessed may he be But often times when our falling And our wretchedness he showed us So sore a dread and so greatly ashamed of ourselves That scarcely we find where we may hold us But then willeth not our courteous mother That we flee away For him were nothing loather But he willeth then that we use the condition of a child For when it is hurt or a dread It runeth hastily to the mother for help With all its might So willeth he that we do As a meek child, saying thus My kind mother, my gracious mother My dear worthy mother, have mercy on me I have made myself foul and unlike to thee And I nor may nor can amend it But with thine help and grace And if we feel us not then eased forthwith Be we sure that he useeth the condition of a wise mother For if he see that it be more profit to us to mourn And to weep, he suffereth it With Ruth and pity, unto the best time for love And he willeth then that we use the property of a child That ever more of nature trusteth to the love of the mother In wheel and in woe And he willeth that we take us mightily to the faith of Holy Church And find there our dear worthy mother In solace of true understanding With all the blessed common For one single person may often times be broken As it seemeth to himself But the whole body of Holy Church was never broken Nor never shall be without end And therefore a sure thing it is A good and a gracious To will meekly and mightily To be fastened and won'd to our mother Holy Church, that is Christ Jesus For the food of mercy that is his dear worthy blood And precious water Is plenteous to make us fair and clean The blessed wounds of our Saviour be open And enjoy to heal us The sweet gracious hands of our mother Be ready and diligently about us For he in all this working Useth the office of a kind nurse That hath nought else to do but to give heed About the salvation of her child It is his office to save us It is his worship to do for us And it is his will that we know it For he willeth that we love him sweetly And trust in him meekly and mightily And this showed he in these gracious words I keep thee full surely End of chapter 61 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 62 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich Anent certain points in the foregoing 14 Revelations Chapter 62 God is very Father and very Mother of Nature And all natures that he hath made to flow out of him To work his will shall be restored And brought again into him by the salvation of mankind Through the working of grace For in that time he showed our frailty And our fallings Our afflictings and our settings at nought Our despites and our outcastings And all our woe so far forth As me thought it might befall in this life And therewith he showed his blessed might His blessed wisdom, his blessed love That he keepeth us in this time as tenderly And as sweetly to his worship And as surely to our salvation As he doeth when we are in most solace and comfort And there too he raiseth us spiritually And highly in heaven And turneth it all to his worship And to our joy without end For his love sofreth us never to lose time And all this is of the nature goodness of God By the working of grace God is nature in his being That is to say that goodness that is nature It is God He is the ground, he is the substance He is the same thing that is naturehood And he is very Father and very Mother of Nature And all natures that he hath 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 hath set in diverse creatures By part in man is all the whole In fullness and in virtue In fairness and in goodness In royalty and nobleness In all manner of majesty Of preciousness and worship Here may we see that we are all beholden to God for nature And we are all beholden to God for grace Here may we see us needeth not greatly to seek far out To no sundry natures But to Holy Church On to our Mother's breast That is to say on to our own soul Where our Lord dwelleth And there shall we find all now in faith and understanding And afterward verily in himself clearly in bliss But let no man nor woman take this singularly to himself For it is not so It is general For it is of our precious Christ And to him was this fair nature a dite For the worship and nobility of man's making And for the joy and the bliss of man's salvation Even as he saw it, wist and new from without beginning End of Chapter 62 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 63 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich And in certain points in the foregoing 14 Revelations Chapter 63 As verily as sin is unclean, so verily is it unkind A disease or monstrous thing against nature He shall heal us full fair Here may we see that we have verily of nature to hate sin And we have verily of grace to hate sin For nature is all good and fair in itself 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 nobleness and worship By the virtuous working of grace For it shall be seen of for God By all his holy in joy without end That nature hath been assayed in the fire of tribulation And therein hath been found no flaw, no fault Thus are nature and grace of one accord For grace is God, as nature is God He is two in manner of working and one in love And neither of these worketh without other They be not disparted And when we by mercy of God and with his help Accord us to nature and grace We shall see verily that sin is insoothe vile And more painful than hell without likeness For it is contrary to our fair nature For as verily as sin is unclean So verily is it unnatural And thus an horrible thing to see For the lovid soul that would be all fair And shining in the sight of God As nature and grace teacheth Yet be not a dread of this Savin' as much as dread may speed us But meekly make we our moan to our dear worthy mother And he shall be sprinklers in his precious blood And make our soul full soft and full mild And heal us full fair by process of time And write as it is most worship to him And joy to us without end And of this sweet fair working He shall never cease nor stint Till all his dear worthy children be born And forthbrought And that showed he where he showed me Understanding of the ghostly thirst That is the love longing That shall last till doomsday Thus in our very mother Jesus Our life is grounded in the foreseeing wisdom Of himself from without beginning With the high might of the Father 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 bear us to endless life And from that time and now And evermore unto doomsday He feedeth us and furthereth us Even as that high sovereign kindness of motherhood And as kindly need of childhood asketh Fair and sweet is our heavenly mother In the sight of our souls 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 For of nature the child despaireth not Of the mother's love Of nature the child presumeth not of itself Of nature the child loveth the mother And each one of the other children These are the fair virtues With all other that be like Where with our heavenly mother Is served and pleased And I understood none higher stature In this life than childhood In feebleness and failing of might and of wit Unto the time that our gracious mother Hath brought us up to our father's bliss And then shall it verily be known to us His meaning in those sweet words Where he saith, all shall be well And thou shalt see thyself That all manner of things shall be well And then shall the bliss of our mother In Christ be new to begin In the joys of our God Which new beginning shall last without end New beginning Thus I understood that all his blessed children Which become out of him by nature Shall be brought again into him by grace End of chapter 63 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 64 of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich The 15th Revelation Chapter 64 Thou shalt come up above Before this time I had great longing And desire of God's gift To be delivered of this world and of this life For often times I beheld the woe that is here And the will and the bliss that is being there And if there had been no pain in this life But the absence of our Lord Me thought it was some time more than I might bear And this made me to mourn And eagerly to long And also from my own wretchedness Sloth and weakness Me liked not to live and to travail As me fell to do And to all this our courteous Lord Answered for comfort and patience And said these words Suddenly thou shalt be taken From all thy pain, from all thy sickness From all thy distress and from all thy woe And thou shalt come up above And thou shalt have me to thy mead And thou shalt be fulfilled of love and of bliss And thou shalt never have no manner of pain No manner of misliking, no wanting of will But ever joy and bliss without end What should it then agree thee to suffer a while Seeing that it is my will and my worship? And in this word Suddenly thou shalt be taken I saw that God rewardeth man for the patience that he hath In abiding God's will And for his time And for that man lengtheneth his patience Over the time of his living For not knowing 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 But as God willeth, while the soul is in the body It seemeth to itself that it is ever at the point to be taken For all this life and this languor That we have here is but a point And when we are taken suddenly out of pain into bliss Then pain shall be naught For in this time I saw a body lying on the earth Which body showed heavy and horrible Without shape and form As it were a swollen quag of stinking mire And suddenly out of this body Sprang a full fair creature, a little child Fully shapen and formed, nimble and lively Whiter than lily, which swiftly glided up into heaven And the swollenness of the body Betokeneth great wretchedness of our deadly flesh And the littleness of the child Betokeneth the cleanness of purity in the soul And me thought, with this body Abideth no fairness of this child And on this child Dwelleth no foulness of this body It is more blissful that man be taken from pain Than that pain be taken from man For if pain be taken from us it may come again Therefore it is a sovereign comfort And blissful beholding in a loving soul That we shall be taken from pain For in this behest I saw a marvellous compassion That our Lord hath in us for our woe And a courteous promising of clear deliverance For he willeth that we be comforted In the over-passing And that he showed in these words And thou shalt come up above And thou shalt have me to thy mead And thou shalt be fulfilled of joy and bliss 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 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 lasteth And when we fall again to our heaviness And spiritual blindness And feeling of pains Spiritual and bodily by our frailty It is God's will that we know that he hath not forgotten us And so signifyeth he in these words And thou shalt never more have pain No manner of sickness No manner of misliking No wanting of will But ever joy and bliss without end What should it then agreeeth thee to suffer a while Seeing it is my will and my worship? It is God's will that we take his behests And his comfortings as largely and as mightily As we may take them And also he willeth that we take our abiding And our troubles as lightly as we may take them And set them at naught For the more lightly we take them And the less price we set on them for love The less pain we shall have in the feeling of them And the more thanks and mead we shall have for them End of chapter 64 This recording is in the public domain Chapter 65 Of Revelations of Divine Love Read for LibriVox.org by David Barnes Revelations of Divine Love By Julian of Norwich The 15th Revelation Chapter 65 The charity of God Maketh in us such a unity That when it is truly seen No man can part himself from other And thus I understood That what man or woman with firm will Chooseeth God in this life for love He may be sure that he is loved without end Which endless love worketh in him that grace For he willeth that we be as assured In hope of bliss of heaven while we are here As we shall be in sureness while we are there And ever the more pleasant's and joy That we take in this sureness With reverence and meekness The better pleaseth him as it was showed This reverence that I mean Is a holy, courteous dread of our Lord To which meekness is united And that is that a creature seeth the Lord Marvelous great and itself marvellous little For these virtues are had endlessly By the love of God and this may now be seen And felt in measure through the gracious Presence of our Lord when it is seen Which presence in all things is most desired For it worketh marvellous assuredness In true faith and sure hope By greatness of charity in dread That is sweet and delectable It is God's will that I see myself As much bound to him in love As if he had done for me all that he hath done And thus should every soul think inwardly Of its lover. That is to say The charity of God makeeth in us such a unity That when it is truly seen No man can part himself from other And thus ought our soul to think That God hath done for it all that he hath done And this showed he to make us to love him And not dread but him For it is his will that we perceive That all the might of our enemy Is taken into our friend's hand And therefore the soul that knoweth Assuredly this he shall not dread But him that he loveth. All other dread he setteth among passions And bodily sickness and imaginations And therefore though we be in so much pain Woe and distress that it seemeth to us We can think of right naught But of that which we are in Or of that which we feel Yet as soon as we may Pass we light over and set we it at naught And why? For that God willeth we know him And if we know him and love him And reverently dread him We shall have peace and be in great rest And it shall be great pleasant to us All that he doeth. And this showed our Lord in these words What should it then agreeeth thee To suffer a while, Sith it is my will and my worship? Now have I told you of fifteen revelations As God vouchsafed to minister them to my 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 morn About the hour of four And they lasted, showing by process Full fare and steadily each following another Till it was nine of the day over past End