Chapter XXXVII
"In every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to sin, nor ever shall." - "For lacking Love on our part, for that is all our travail"
GOD brought to my mind that I should sin. And for pleasure that I had in seeing of Him, I attended not readily to that shewing; and our Lord mercifully abode, and gave me grace to attend. And this shewing I took singularly to myself; but by all the gracious comfort that follows, as you shall see, I was learned to take it for all my fellow-Christians: all in general and nothing in special: though our Lord shewed me that I should sin, by me alone is understood all.
And in it I conceived a soft fear. And to this our Lord answered: I keep you surely. This word was said with more love and secureness and spiritual keeping than I can or may tell. For as it was shewed that I should sin, right so was the comfort shewed: secureness and keeping for all my fellow-Christians.
What may make me more to love my fellow-Christians than to see in God that He loves all that shall be saved as it were all one soul?
For in every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to sin, nor ever shall. Right as there is a beastly will in the lower part that may will no good, right so there is a Godly Will in the higher part, which will is so good that it may never will evil, but ever good. And for that we are that which He loves and endlessly we do that which Him pleases.
This shewed our Lord in shewing the wholeness of love that we stand in, in His sight: yea, that He loves us now as well while we are here, as He shall do while we are there before His blessed face. But for failing love on our part, for that is all our travail.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
In Heaven "the token of sin is turned to worship." Examples about it; ALSO God shewed that sin shall be no shame to man, but worship. For right as to every sin is answering a pain by truth, right so for every sin, to the same soul is given a bliss by love: right as diverse sins are punished with diverse pains according as they be grievous, right so shall they be rewarded with diverse joys in Heaven according as they have been painful and sorrowful to the soul in earth. For the soul that shall come to Heaven is precious to God, and the place so worshipful that the goodness of God suffers never that soul to sin that shall come there without that the which sin shall be rewarded; and it is made known without end, and blissfully restored by overpassing worship. For in this Sight my understanding was lifted up into Heaven, and then God brought merrily to my mind David, and others in the Old Law without number; and in the New Law He brought to my mind first Mary Magdalene, Peter and Paul, and those of Inde; and Saint John of Beverley ; and others also without number: how they are known in the Church in earth with their sins, and it is to them no shame, but all is turned for them to worship. And for that our courteous Lord shews it thus for them here in part like as it is there in fulness: for there the token of sin is turned to worship. And Saint John of Beverley, our Lord shewed him highly, in comfort to us for homeliness; and brought to my mind how he is a dear neighbour, and of our knowing. And God called him Saint John of Beverley plainly as we do, and that with a most glad sweet cheer, shewing that he is a high saint in Heaven in His sight, and a blissful. And with this he made mention that in his youth and in his tender age he was a precious servant to God, greatly God loving and fearing, and yet God suffered him to fall, mercifully keeping him that he perished not, nor lost no time. And afterward God raised him to manifold more grace, and by the contrition and meekness that he had in his living, God has given him in Heaven manifold joys, overpassing that which he should have had if he had not fallen. And that this is truth, God shews in earth with plenteous miracles doing about his body continually. And all this was to make us glad and merry in love.