"There be deeds evil done in our sight, and so great harms taken, that
it seemeth to us that it were impossible that ever it should come to
good end." "That Great Deed ordained ... by which our Lord God shall
make all things well"
One time our good Lord said: _All thing shall be well_; and another
time he said: _Thou shalt see thyself that all_ MANNER _[of] thing
shall be well_; and in these two [sayings] the soul took sundry
understandings.
One was that He willeth we know that not only He taketh heed to noble
things and to great, but also to little and to small, to low and to
simple, to one and to other. And so meaneth He in that He saith: ALL
MANNER OF THINGS _shall be well_. For He willeth we know that the least
thing shall not be forgotten.
Another understanding is this, that there be deeds evil done in our
sight, and so great harms taken, that it seemeth to us that it were
impossible that ever it should come to good end. And upon this we look,
sorrowing and mourning therefor, so that we cannot resign us unto the
blissful beholding of God as we should do. And the cause of this is
that the use of our reason is now so blind, so low, and so simple, that
we cannot know that high marvellous Wisdom, the Might and the Goodness
of the blissful Trinity. And thus signifieth He when He saith: THOU
SHALT SEE THYSELF _if[1] all manner of things shall be well_. As if He
said: _Take now heed faithfully and trustingly, and at the last end
thou shalt verily see it in fulness of joy_.
And thus in these same five words aforesaid: _I may make all things
well_, etc., I understand a mighty comfort of all the works of our Lord
God that are yet to come. There is a Deed the which the blessed Trinity
shall do in the last Day, as to my sight, and when the Deed shall be,
and how it shall be done, is unknown of all creatures that are beneath
Christ, and shall be till when it is done.
["The Goodness and the Love of our Lord God will that we wit [know]
that it shall be; And the Might and the Wisdom of him by the same Love
will hill [conceal] it, and hide it from us what it shall be, and how
it shall be done."][2]
And the cause why He willeth that we know [this Deed shall be], is for
that He would have us the more eased in our soul and [the more] set at
peace in love[3]--leaving the beholding of all troublous things that
might keep us back from true enjoying of Him. This is that Great Deed
ordained of our Lord God from without beginning, treasured and hid in
His blessed breast, only known to Himself: by which He shall make all
things well.
For like as the blissful Trinity made all things of nought, right so
the same blessed Trinity shall make well all that is not well.
And in this sight I marvelled greatly and beheld our Faith, marvelling
thus: Our Faith is grounded in God's word, and it belongeth to our
Faith that we believe that God's word shall be saved in all things;
and one point of our Faith is that many creatures shall be condemned:
as angels that fell out of Heaven for pride, which be now fiends; and
man[4] in earth that dieth out of the Faith of Holy Church: that is
to say, they that be heathen men; and also man[5] that hath received
Christendom and liveth unchristian life and so dieth out of charity:
all these shall be condemned to hell without end, as Holy Church
teacheth me to believe. And all this [so] standing,[6] methought it was
impossible that all manner of things should be well, as our Lord shewed
in the same time.
And as to this I had no other answer in Shewing of our Lord God but
this: _That which is impossible to thee is not impossible to me: I
shall save my word in all things and I shall make all things well._
Thus I was taught, by the grace of God, that I should steadfastly hold
me in the Faith as I had aforehand understood, [and] therewith that I
should firmly believe that all things shall be well, as our Lord shewed
in the same time.
For this is the Great Deed that our Lord shall do, in which Deed He
shall save His word and He shall make all well that is not well. How it
shall be done there is no creature beneath Christ that knoweth it, nor
shall know it till it is done; according to the understanding that I
took of our Lord's meaning in this time.
[1] "if" = "that." (Acts xxvi. 8.)
[2] Inserted from Serenus de Cressy's version.
[3] "pecid in love--levyng the beholdyng of al tempests that might
letten us of trew enjoyeng in hym." S. de Cressy: "let us of true
enjoying in him."
[4] S. de Cressy, "many."
[5] S. de Cressy, "many."
[6] "stondyng al this."