Chapter 54
THE FOURTEENTH SHOWING
That is to say, it is made, but not out of anything that has been made in this fashion: when God went to make man's body,
He took the slime of the earth, which is mingled matter, gathered from all bodily things, and He made man's body from it.
But for the making of man's soul, God took absolutely nothing. He simply made it. And thus is human nature rightfully made one with its Maker, Who is substantial, uncreated nature — that is, God. And that is the reason why there can and will be absolutely nothing between God and man's soul.
In this endless love, man's soul is kept whole, as the entire matter of this revelation means and shows. In this same endless Love we are led and preserved by God and we shall never be lost. For He wills that we know that our soul is alive, and its life, by His goodness and His grace, shall last in heaven without end, loving Him, thanking Him and praising Him.
And just exactly as we shall live without end in heaven, so we have been treasured in God — hidden, known and loved from eternity.
Therefore He wills that we realize that the noblest thing that He ever made is mankind, and that the fullest substance and the highest virtue He ever made is the blessed soul of Christ. Furthermore, He wills that we realize that His most valuable soul was preciously knitted to Him in its making.
The knot is so subtle and so powerful that it is made one with God. In this joining it is made endlessly holy. Furthermore,
He wills that we realize that all the souls which shall be saved in heaven without end are knitted in this knot, are made one in this joining, and are made holy in this holiness.
Chapter 54 We ought to rejoice that God dwells in our soul and our soul in God, so that between God and our soul there is nothing, but, as it were, all is God; and how faith is the ground of all virtue in our soul by the Holy Spirit.
And because of the great, endless love that God has for all mankind, He makes no distinction in love between the
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
blessed soul of Christ and the least of the souls that will be saved. It is very easy to believe and trust that the dwelling of the blessed soul of Christ is completely on high, in the glorious godhead. And in truth, as I understood what our Lord meant, where the blessed soul of Christ is, there is the substance of all the souls that will be saved by Christ. We ought to rejoice greatly that God dwells in our soul, and much more greatly that our soul dwells in God. Our soul is made to be
God's dwelling place, and the dwelling place of our soul is God, Who is uncreated. It is a lofty understanding inwardly to see and to know that God, Who is our maker, dwells in our soul, and it is a still loftier and greater understanding inwardly to see and to know that our soul, which is created, dwells in God's substance. Of this substance and made so by God, we are what we are.
I saw no difference between God and our substance, but saw it as God. And yet my understanding accepted the fact that our substance is in God; that is to say that God is God, and that our substance is a creature in God. For the Almighty
Truth of the Trinity is our Father, for he made us and preserves us in himself; the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our mother, in whom we are enclosed; the lofty goodness of the Trinity is our Lord, and in Him we are enclosed and He in us.
We are enclosed in the Father, we are enclosed in the Son, and we are enclosed in the Holy Spirit. The Father is enclosed in us — All-power, All-wisdom, and All-goodness: one God, one Lord.
Our faith is a virtue that comes from our natural substance into our sensual soul by the action of the Holy Spirit, through Whom all our virtues come to us. Without the virtue of faith, no man can receive virtues, because faith is nothing other than a proper understanding of our being, with true belief and certain trust, that we are in God and He is in us, though we do not see it. This virtue, with all the others that God has ordained for us included with it, works great things in us. For Christ's merciful working is within us, and we are graciously being brought into agreement with Him through the gifts and