"The Enemy is overcome by the blessed Passion and Death of our Lord
Jesus Christ"
And after this, ere God shewed any words, He suffered me for a
convenient time to give heed unto Him and all that I had seen, and all
intellect[1] that was therein, as the simplicity of the soul might
take it.[2] Then He, without voice and opening of lips, formed in my
soul these words: _Herewith is the Fiend overcome_. These words said
our Lord, meaning His blessed Passion as He shewed it afore.
On this shewed our Lord that the Passion of Him is the overcoming
of the Fiend. God shewed that the Fiend hath now the same malice
that he had afore the Incarnation. And as sore he travaileth, and
as continually he seeth that all souls of salvation escape him,
worshipfully, by the virtue of Christ's precious Passion. And that is
his sorrow, and full evil is he ashamed: for all that God suffereth
him to do turneth [for] us to joy and [for] him to shame and woe. And
he hath as much sorrow when God giveth him leave to work, as when he
worketh not: and that is for that he may never do as ill as he would:
for his might is all taken[3] into God's hand.
But in God there may be no wrath, as to my sight: for our good Lord
endlessly hath regard to His own worship and to the profit of all that
shall be saved. With might and right He withstandeth the Reproved,
the which of malice and wickedness busy them to contrive and to do
against God's will. Also I saw our Lord scorn his malice and set at
nought his unmight; and He willeth that we do so. For this sight I
laughed mightily, and that made them to laugh that were about me, and
their laughing was a pleasure to me. I thought that I would that all
mine even-Christians had seen as I saw, and then would they all laugh
with me. But I saw not Christ laugh. For I understood that we may
laugh in comforting of ourselves and joying in God for that the devil
is overcome. And when I saw Him scorn his malice, it was by leading
of mine understanding into our Lord: that is to say, it was an inward
shewing of verity, without changing of look.[4] For, as to my sight, it
is a worshipful property of God's that [He] is ever the same.
And after this I fell into a graveness,[5] and said: _I see three
things: I see game, scorn, and earnest. I see [a] game, in that the
Fiend is overcome; I see scorn, in that God scorneth him, and he shall
be scorned; and I see earnest, in that he is overcome by the blissful
Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ that was done in full
earnest and with sober travail._
When I said, _he is scorned_,--I meant that God scorneth him, that
is to say, because He seeth him now as he shall do without end. For
in this [word] God shewed that the Fiend is condemned. And this
meant I when I said: _he shall be scorned_: [he shall be scorned] at
Doomsday, generally of all that shall be saved, to whose consolation
he hath great ill-will.[6] For then he shall see that all the woe and
tribulation that he hath done to them shall be turned to increase of
their joy, without end; and all the pain and tribulation that he would
have brought them to shall endlessly go with him to hell.
[1] _i.e._ significance, teaching.
[2] _i.e._ in so far as the simplicity of my soul was able to
understand it.--See xxiv.
[3] S. de Cressy has "locked" instead of "taken."
[4] "chere" = expression of countenance.
[5] "sadhede."
[6] "invye."
_THE SIXTH REVELATION_