Chapter LXVII
"The place that Jesus taketh in our soul He shall never remove from, without end: - for in us is His homeliest home and His endless dwelling." "Our soul can never have rest in things that are beneath itself - yet may it not abide in the seeing of its self"
AND then our Lord opened my spiritual eye and shewed me my soul in midst of my heart. I saw the Soul so large as it were an endless world, and as it were a blissful kingdom. And by the conditions that I saw in it I understood that it is a worshipful City. In the midst of that City sits our Lord Jesus, God and Man, a fair Person of large stature, highest Bishop, most majestic King, most worshipful Lord; and I saw Him clad majestically. And worshipfully He sits in the Soul, even-right in peace and rest. And the Godhead rules and sustains heaven and earth and all that is, - sovereign Might, sovereign Wisdom, and sovereign Goodness, - but the place that Jesus taketh in our Soul He shall never remove it, without end, as to my sight: for in us is His homeliest home and His endless dwelling.
And in this sight He shewed the satisfying that He has of the making of Man's Soul. For as well as the Father might make a creature, and as well as the Son could make a creature, so well would the Holy Spirit that Man's Soul were made: and so it was done. And for that the blessed Trinity enjoys without end in the making of Man's Soul: for He saw from without beginning what should please Him without end. All thing that He has made shews His Lordship, - as understanding was given at the same time by example of a creature that is to see great treasures and kingdoms belonging to a lord; and when it had seen all the nobleness beneath, then, marvelling, it was moved to seek above to the high place where the lord dwells, knowing, by reason, that his dwelling is in the worthiest place. And thus I understood in verity that our Soul may never have rest in things that are beneath itself. And when it cometh above all creatures into the Self, yet may it not abide in the seeing of its Self, but all the seeing is blissfully set in God that is
the Maker dwelling in it. For in Man's Soul is His very dwelling; and the highest light and the brightest shining of the City is the glorious love of our Lord, as to my sight.
And what may make us more to enjoy in God than to see in Him that He enjoys in the highest of all His works? For I saw in the same Shewing that if the blessed Trinity might have made Man's Soul any better, any fairer, any nobler than it was made, He should not have been pleased with the making of Man's Soul. And He wills that our hearts be mightily raised above the deepness of the earth and all vain sorrows, and rejoice in Him.