Chapter 11
THE THIRD SHOWING
fastly, without grumbling and striving against Him, to the end of our lives: for it will only last for a little while.
The third is that we trust very strongly in Him, in the full certainty of faith. For it is His will that we know that He shall appear suddenly and blissfully to all His lovers. His working is in secret, and yet He wills to be perceived; His appearing will be very sudden, and He wills to be trusted, for He is very near at hand, friendly and courteous, blessed may He be!
Chapter 11 THE THIRD SHOWING: how God does all things (except sin) with a purpose forever unchanging, for He has made all things in the fulness of goodness.
And after this I saw God in a point — that is to say, I saw Him in my understanding. In seeing this, I saw that He is in all things. I watched with attention, seeing and knowing in that sight, that He does all that is done. I wondered at that sight with quiet doubt, and thought, "What is sin?" For I saw in truth that God does everything, no matter how little it is.
I also saw for a fact that nothing is done by chance or accident, but everything comes to pass in the foreseeing wisdom of God. If it looks like chance or accident in the sight of man, our blindness and lack of foreseeing the cause is. The things that are in the foreseeing wisdom of God are there eternally.
These He rightly, gloriously and continually leads to their best ends as they occur. These same things come suddenly upon us, who are not expecting them, and thus, because of our blindness and lack of foreseeing, we say they are chance happenings or accidents. But to our Lord God, they aren't.
Therefore, I must and ought to grant that everything that is done is well done, because our Lord God does it all. (At this time, you see, the working of creatures was not shown — just the working of our Lord God in the creatures, for He is in the mid-point of all things and of all He does.) I was certain that God does not sin. And here I saw in truth that sin is not a deed, for sin was not shown in any of this.
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
I no longer wanted to marvel at this, so I looked to our Lord to see what He willed to show me next. And thus the rightfulness of God's working was showed to the soul as clearly as it might be at that time.
Rightfulness has two lovely qualities: it is right, and it is full. All the works of our Lord possess these qualities, without needing the work of either mercy or grace, for they are all rightful and their rightfulness does not fail in any respect.
(At another time, He showed where He uses the working of mercy and grace, when He had me see sin openly, as I shall tell you.) And this vision was showed to my understanding because our Lord wills to have the soul truly turned inward to behold Him and all His works generally, for they are completely good. All His doings are comforting and sweet, and bring great ease to the soul which has turned from beholding the blind judgment of man to contemplating the sweet judgment of our Lord God.
Man sees some deeds as well done, and some deeds as evil, but our Lord doesn't see things that way. For as everything that has natural being is made by God, so everything that is done is done by virtue of God's doing. It is easy to understand that the best deed is well done; just as well as the best and highest deed is done, so well is the least deed done. And everything is done well by the properties and in the order our
Lord has ordained for it from eternity, for there is no doer but He.
I saw with full certainty that God never changes His purpose in the slightest degree, and never shall forever. Because there was nothing unknown to Him in His rightful laws from eternity, all things were set in order before anything was made as it should stand endlessly. No kind of thing shall fail in this regard, for He made all things in the fulness of goodness. Therefore, the blessed Trinity is forever pleased in all
His works.
All this He showed most blissfully, intending this to be understood: "See! I am God. See! I am in all things. See! I do all things. See! I never take my hands off my works, and never shall forever. See! I lead all things to the end I ordained
THE FOURTH SHOWING
for them from eternity, by the same might, wisdom and love by which I made them. How should anything be amiss?"
Thus, mightily, wisely and lovingly was the soul examined in this vision. Then I really saw that I needed and ought to assent with great reverence, rejoicing in God.
Chapter 12 THE FOURTH SHOWING: how it pleases God better rather to wash us clean from sin in His blood than in water, for His blood is most precious.
And after this, looking at the body bleeding as copiously as it had at the scourging, I saw the following. The fair skin was broken all over the sweet body with very deep cuts into the tender flesh, by sharp blows. The hot blood ran out so abundantly that neither skin nor wound could be seen —as if all the body were blood. But when the blood came to where it should have fallen down from the body, it vanished. Notwithstanding, the bleeding continued awhile, until it could be observed with attention. The bleeding was so abundant as I saw it that I thought if it had been actually happening that way in nature and substance at that time, it would have filled the entire bed with blood and spilled over on all sides.
And then it came to my mind that God has made the waters plentiful on earth for our service and bodily ease, because of the tender love He has for us. But it pleases Him even more when we accept in simple, homely fashion His blessed blood to cleanse ourselves from sin. For there is no liquor made that gives Him more pleasure to give us, and it is as precious as it is plentiful, by virtue of the blessed godhead. It is of our own kind, and most blissfully flows over us by virtue of His precious love. As truly as the priceless blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ is most precious, so truly is it most plentiful.
Behold and see the virtue of the precious plenty of His blood, priceless. It descended down into hell, and breaking their bonds, delivered all those there who belonged to the court of heaven. The precious plenty of His most highly val-