"It is God's will that we have great regard to all His deeds that He
hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what the
Deed shall be"
And yet in this I desired, as [far] as I durst, that I might have full
sight of Hell and Purgatory. But it was not my meaning to make proof of
anything that belongeth to the Faith: for I believed soothfastly that
Hell and Purgatory is for the same end that Holy Church teacheth, but
my meaning was that I might have seen, for learning in all things that
belong to my Faith: whereby I might live the more to God's worship and
to my profit.
But for [all] my desire, I could[1] [see] of this right nought, save
as it is aforesaid in the First Shewing, where I saw that the devil is
reproved of God and endlessly condemned. In which sight I understood
as to all creatures that are of the devil's condition in this life,
and therein end, that there is no more mention made of them afore God
and all His Holy than of the devil,--notwithstanding that they be of
mankind--whether they be christened or not.
For though the Revelation was made of goodness in which was made
little mention of evil, yet I was not drawn thereby from any point
of the Faith that Holy Church teacheth me to believe. For I had
sight of the Passion of Christ in diverse Shewings,--the First, the
Second, the Fifth, and the Eighth,--wherein I had in part a feeling
of the sorrow of our Lady, and of His true friends that saw Him in
pain; but I saw not so properly specified the Jews that did Him to
death. Notwithstanding I knew in my Faith that they were accursed and
condemned without end, saving those that converted, by grace. And I
was strengthened and taught generally to keep me in the Faith in every
point, and in all as I had before understood: hoping that I was therein
with the mercy and the grace of God; desiring and praying in my purpose
that I might continue therein unto my life's end.
And it is God's will that we have great regard to all His deeds that
He hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what
the Deed shall be. And let us desire to be like our brethren which
be saints in Heaven, that will right nought but God's will and are
well pleased both with hiding and with shewing. For I saw soothly in
our Lord's teaching, the more we busy us to know His secret counsels
in this or any other thing, the farther shall we be from the knowing
thereof.
[1] "I coude of this right nowte."