Revelations of Divine Love · 15 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack
Chapter X-b
And He that made man for love, by the same love He would restore man to the same bliss, and overpassing; and like as we were like-made to the Trinity in our first making, our Maker would that we should be like Jesus Christ, Our Saviour, in heaven without end, by the virtue of our again-making.
Then atwix these two, He would for love and worship of man make Himself as like to man in this deadly life, in our foulness and our wretchedness, as man might be without guilt.
This is that which is meant where it is said afore: it was the image and likeness of our foul black deeds' shame wherein our fair, bright, blessed Lord God was hid.
But full certainly I dare say, and we ought to trow it, that so fair a man was never none but He, till what time His fair colour was changed with travail and sorrow and Passion and dying.
Of this it is spoken in the Eighth Revelation, where it treateth more of the same likeness.
And where it speaketh of the Vernacle of Rome, it meaneth by [reason of] diverse changing of colour and countenance, sometime more comfortably and life-like, sometime more ruefully and death-like, as it may be seen in the Eighth Revelation.
And this [dim] vision was a learning, to mine understanding, that the continual seeking of the soul pleaseth God full greatly: for it may do no more than seek, suffer and trust.
And this is wrought in the soul that hath it, by the Holy Ghost; and the clearness of finding, it is of His special grace, when it is His will.
The seeking, with faith, hope, and charity, pleaseth our Lord, and the finding pleaseth the soul and fulfilleth it with joy.
And thus was I learned, to mine understanding, that seeking is as good as beholding, for the time that He will suffer the soul to be in travail.
It is God's will that we seek Him , to the beholding of Him, for by that He shall shew us Himself of His special grace when He will.
And how a soul shall have Him in its beholding, He shall teach Himself: and that is most worship to Him and profit to thyself, and [the soul thus] most receiveth of meekness and virtues with the grace and leading of the Holy Ghost.
For a soul that only fasteneth it[self] on to God with very trust, either by seeking or in beholding, it is the most worship that it may do to Him, as to my sight.
These are two workings that may be seen in this Vision: the one is seeking, the other is beholding.
The seeking is common,—that every soul may have with His grace,—and ought to have that discretion and teaching of the Holy Church.
It is God's will that we have three things in our seeking:—The first is that we seek earnestly and diligently, without sloth, and, as it may be through His grace, without unreasonable heaviness and vain sorrow.
The second is, that we abide Him steadfastly for His love, without murmuring and striving against Him, to our life's end: for it shall last but awhile.
The third is that we trust in Him mightily of full assured faith.
For it is His will that we know that He shall appear suddenly and blissfully to all that love Him.
For His working is privy, and He willeth to be perceived; and His appearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth to be trusted.
For He is full gracious and homely: Blessed may He be!
THE THIRD REVELATION
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage vividly describes God taking on human form ('like to man'), possessing a 'fair colour' that changes with suffering, and being 'homely,' heavily utilizing human imagery for the divine.
The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. Distinct from mystical_union (the resulting state), fana_annihilation (the ego's unmaking at the path's end), ladder_of_love (eros staged toward Beauty), and prayer (the practice of address): bhakti names devotion as the soteriological road itself.
The passage defines the soul's primary activity as 'seeking' driven by 'love,' 'faith,' 'hope,' and 'charity,' presenting this loving devotion and trust as the path to divine fulfillment.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The text notes that God was 'hid' in the image of human shame and that His working is 'privy,' emphasizing a theme of divine concealment within the material world.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The passage repeatedly asserts that God's actions are guided by a specific 'will' to restore and reveal Himself, indicating an active ordering of human affairs.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
God is portrayed as an active, responsive agent who 'would restore,' 'make Himself like to man,' and 'teach Himself' to the soul, rather than a static principle.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The text explicitly describes the divine will to 'restore man to the same bliss' and return humanity to its original state of being 'like-made to the Trinity,' making the return to origin a central theme.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The passage centrally argues that God's purpose is to restore humanity to a state of likeness with Jesus Christ and the Trinity through an 'again-making,' which aligns perfectly with the doctrine of deification.