"In every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented
to sin, nor ever shall." "Ere that He made us He loved us, and when we
were made we loved Him"
And I saw that He willeth that we understand He taketh not harder the
falling of any creature that shall be saved than He took the falling of
Adam, which, we know, was endlessly loved and securely kept in the time
of all his need, and now is blissfully restored in high overpassing
joy. For our Lord is so good, so gentle, and so courteous, that He may
never assign default [in those] in whom He shall ever be blessed and
praised.
And in this that I have now told was my desire in part answered, and my
great difficulty[1] some deal eased, by the lovely, gracious Shewing of
our good Lord. In which Shewing I saw and understood full surely that
in every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented
to sin, nor ever shall: which Will is so good that it may never will
evil, but evermore continually it willeth good; and worketh good in the
sight of God. Therefore our Lord willeth that we know this in the Faith
and the belief; and especially that we have all this blessed Will whole
and safe in our Lord Jesus Christ. For that same Kind[2] that Heaven
shall be filled with behoveth needs, of God's rightfulness, so to have
been knit and oned to Him, that therein was kept a Substance
which might never, nor should, be parted from Him; and _that_ through
His own Good Will in His endless foreseeing purpose.
But notwithstanding this rightful knitting and this endless oneing, yet
the redemption and the again-buying of mankind is needful and speedful
in everything, as it is done for the same intent and to the same end
that Holy Church in our Faith us teacheth.
For I saw that God _began_ never to love mankind: for right the same
that mankind shall be in endless bliss, fulfilling the joy of God as
anent His works, right so the same, mankind hath been in the foresight
of God: known and loved from without beginning in his[3] rightful
intent. By the endless assent of the full accord of all the Trinity,
the Mid-Person willed to be Ground and Head of this fair Kind: out of
Whom we be all come, in Whom we be all enclosed, into Whom we shall
all wend,[4] in Him finding our full Heaven in everlasting joy, by the
foreseeing purpose of all the blessed Trinity from without beginning.
For ere that He made us He loved us, and when we were made we loved
Him. And this is a Love that is _made_, [to our Kindly Substance], [by
virtue] of the Kindly Substantial _Goodness_ of the Holy Ghost; Mighty,
in Reason, [by virtue] of the _Might_ of the Father; and Wise, in Mind,
[by virtue] of the _Wisdom_ of the Son. And thus is Man's Soul made by
God and in the same point knit to God.
And thus I understand that man's Soul is made of nought: that is to
say, it is made, but of nought that is made. And thus:--When God
should make man's body He took the clay of earth, which is a matter
mingled and gathered of all bodily things; and thereof He made man's
body. But to the making of man's Soul He would take right nought, but
made it. And thus is the Nature-made rightfully oned to the Maker,
which is Substantial Nature not-made: that is, God. And therefore it is
that there may nor shall be right nought atwix God and man's Soul.
And in this endless Love man's Soul is kept whole, as the matter of the
Revelations signifieth and sheweth: in which endless Love we be led
and kept of God and never shall be lost. For He willeth we[5] be aware
that our Soul is a life, which life of His Goodness and His Grace shall
last in Heaven without end, Him loving, Him thanking, Him praising. And
right the same that we shall be without end, the same we were treasured
in God and hid, known and loved from without beginning.
Wherefore He would have us understand that the noblest thing that ever
He made is mankind: and the fullest Substance and the highest Virtue is
the blessed Soul of Christ. And furthermore He would have us understand
that His[6] dear worthy Soul [of Manhood] was preciously knit to Him in
the making [by Him of Manhood's Substantial Nature] which knot is so
subtle and so mighty that (it)[7]--[man's soul]--is oned into God: in
which oneing it is made endlessly holy. Furthermore He would have us
know that all the souls that shall be saved in Heaven without end, are
knit and oned in this oneing and made holy in this holiness.
[1] "awer" = awe, travail of perplexity, dilemma--see l. note 3.
[2] Man's nature.
[3] Or (it may be): "In His Rightful Intent ... the Mid-Person
willed...."
[4] "wynden."
[5] "wetyn" = wit.
[6] S. de Cressy has "this "; the word in the MS. is more like "his."
[7] The pronoun "it" given by S. de Cressy is omitted in the MS. The
meaning is, perhaps, that the Manhood-Substance, or Soul of Christ,
was in its making, by the Second Person in the Trinity, so united to
Himself that Man's Substance and each man's soul (in salvation), being
one with it, are one with God the Son. See li. p. 117.