Chapter LXVIII
"He said not: You shall not be tempested, you shall not be travailed, you shall not be afflicted; He said You shall not be overcome
THIS was a delectable Sight and a restful Shewing, that it is so without end. The seeing of this while we are here is pleasing to God and great profit to us; and the soul that thus beholds, it makes it like to Him that is saw, and ones it in rest and peace by His grace. And this was a singular joy and bliss to me that I saw Him sitting: for the quiet secureness of sitting shews endless dwelling.
And He gave me to know truly that it was He that shewed me all before. And when I had saw this with heedfulness, then shewed our good Lord words meekly without voice and without opening of lips, right as He had before done, and said sweetly: Wit it now well that it was no raving that you saw to-day: but take it and believe it, and keep you in it, and comfort you with it, and trust you thereto: and you shall not be overcome.
These Last Words were said for believing and true sureness that it is our Lord Jesus that shewed me all. And right as in the first word that our good Lord shewed, signifying His blissful Passion, - Herewith is the devil overcome, - right so He said in the last word, with true secureness, meaning us all: You shall not be overcome.
And all this teaching in this true comfort, it is general, to all my fellowChristians, as it is aforesaid: and so is God's will.
And this word: You shall not be overcome, was said clearly and mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. He said not: You shall not be tempested, you shall not be travailed, you shall not be afflicted; but He said: You shall not be overcome. God wills that we take heed to these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in well-being and woe. For He loves and enjoys us, and so wills He that we love and enjoy Him and mightily trust in Him; and all shall be well.
And soon after, all was close and I saw no more.
CHAPTER LXIX
"I was delivered from the Enemy by the virtue of Christ's Passion"
AFTER this the Fiend came again with his heat and with his stench, and gave me much ado, the stench was so vile and so painful, and also fearful and travailous. Also I heard a bodily jangling, as if it had been of two persons; and both, to my thinking, jangled at one time as if they had holden a parliament with a great busy-ness; and all was soft muttering, so that I understood nothing that they said. And all this was to stir me to despair, as I thought, seeming to me as though they mocked at praying of prayers which are said boisterously with the mouth, lacking devout attending and wise diligence: the which we owe to God in our prayers.
And our Lord God gave me grace mightily for to trust in Him, and to comfort my soul with bodily speech as I should have done to another person that had been travailed. I thought that busy-ness might not be likened to no bodily busy-ness. My bodily eye I set in the same Cross where I had been in comfort before that time; my tongue with speech of Christ's Passion and rehearsing the Faith of Holy Church; and my heart to fasten on God with all the trust and the might. And I thought to myself, saying: You have now great busy-ness to keep you in the
Faith for that you shouldst not be taken of the Enemy: wouldst you now from this time evermore be so busy to keep you from sin, this were a good and sovereign occupation! For I thought in truth were I safe from sin, I were safe from all the fiends of hell and enemies of my soul.
And thus he occupied me all that night, and on the morn till it was about prime day. And soon they were all gone, and all passed; and they left nothing but stench, and that lasted still awhile; and I scorned him.
And thus was I delivered from him by the virtue of Christ's Passion: for with it is the Fiend overcome, as our Lord Jesus Christ said before.