Chapter 57
THE FOURTEENTH SHOWING
love. Nor can we be saved only in the natural grounding we have in God, unless we have, from the same grounding, skill, mercy and grace. For from these three together, we receive all the good things that are ours, of which the first are the good things of nature. For in our first making, God gave us good things — as many, as full, and as great as we could receive in our spirit alone — but His foreseeing purpose in His endless wisdom willed that we have double the capacity.
Chapter 57 In our substance we are full, in our sensuality we fail; this God will restore by mercy and grace; how our nature, which is the highest part, is knitted to God in the making; Christ Jesus is knitted to our nature in the lower part, in taking our flesh; that from faith spring other virtues; and how Mary is our mother.
And as far as our substance is concerned, He made us so noble and so rich that we may evermore accomplish His will and His honor. Where I say "we" it means "men who will be saved." For in truth I saw that we are what He loves and we do what delights Him continuously, without any holding back. And from this great richness and from this lofty nobility, virtues in their measure come into our soul at the time it is knitted to our body. In this knitting we are made sensual.
And thus in our substance we are full, and in our sensuality we fail. This failure God wills to restore and fulfill, by the working of mercy and grace plenteously flowing into us from His own natural goodness. Thus His natural goodness brings it about that mercy and grace work in us, and the natural goodness that we have from Him enables us to receive the working of mercy and grace.
I saw that our nature is whole in God. In it He causes diversities flowing out of Him to work His will; He keeps nature whole, and He restores and fulfills mercy and grace. Of these, none shall perish, for the higher part of our nature is knitted to God in the making and God is knitted to the lower part of our nature in taking flesh. And thus, in Christ our two
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
natures are joined: For the Trinity is included in Christ, in Whom our higher part is grounded and rooted, and the Second Person of the Trinity has taken on our lower part, which nature was first prepared for Him.
I saw most certainly that all the works that God has done or ever shall do were completely known to Him and previously seen from all eternity. For love He made mankind, and for the same love He willed to become man Himself.
The next good that we receive is our faith, in which our profiting begins. Faith comes from the noble richness of our natural substance into our sensual soul, and it is grounded in us and we in it, through the natural goodness of God, by the working of mercy and grace. From faith comes all the good things by which we are led and saved.
For the commandments of God come from faith. In these we ought to have two kinds of understanding. The first is that we ought to understand and know the things He commands in order to love them and keep them. The second is that we ought to know the things He forbids, in order to hate them and reject them. For in these two [choices] all our working is encompassed.
The seven sacraments also come from our faith. They follow one another in order, as God has ordained them for us.
And all kinds of virtues come from faith, for the same virtue that we have received from our substance, given to us in nature by the goodness of God, by the working of mercy is given to us in grace and renewed through the Holy
Spirit. These virtues and gifts are treasured for us in Jesus Christ. For at the same time that God knitted Himself to our body in the maiden's womb, He took on our sensual soul. In this taking, having enclosed us entirely within Himself, He joined it to our substance. In this joining He was perfect man, for Christ, having knitted each man who will be saved into Himself, is perfect man.
Thus, our Lady is our mother, in whom we are entirely enclosed and of whom we are born in Christ. For she who is the mother of our Savior is the mother of all who are saved in