Revelations of Divine Love · 52 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter XLa

"True love teacheth us that we should hate sin only for love." "To me was shewed no harder hell than sin." "God willeth that we endlessly hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it" This is a sovereign friendship of our courteous Lord that He keepeth us so tenderly while we be in sin; and furthermore He toucheth us full privily and sheweth us our sin by the sweet light of mercy and grace.

But when we see our self so foul, then ween we that God were wroth with us for our sin, and then are we stirred of the Holy Ghost by contrition unto prayer and desire for the amending of our life with all our mights, to slacken the wrath of God, unto the time we find a rest in soul and a softness in conscience.

Then hope we that God hath forgiven us our sins: and it is truth.

And then sheweth our courteous Lord Himself to the soul—well-merrily and with glad cheer—with friendly welcoming as if it had been in pain and in prison, saying sweetly thus: My darling I am glad thou art come to me: in all thy wo I have ever been with thee; and now seest thou my loving and we be oned in bliss .

Thus are sins forgiven by mercy and grace, and our soul is worshipfully received in joy like as it shall be when it cometh to Heaven, as oftentimes as it cometh by the gracious working of the Holy Ghost and the virtue of Christ's Passion.

Here understand I in truth that all manner of things are made ready for us by the great goodness of God, so far forth that what time we be ourselves in peace and charity, we be verily saved.

But because we may not have this in fulness while we are here, therefore it falleth to us evermore to live in sweet prayer and lovely longing with our Lord Jesus.

For He longeth ever to bring us to the fulness of joy; as it is aforesaid, where He sheweth the Spiritual Thirst.

But now if any man or woman because of all this spiritual comfort that is aforesaid, be stirred by folly to say or to think: If this be true, then were it good to sin [so as] to have the more meed ,—or else to charge the less [guilt] to sin,—beware of this stirring: for verily if it come it is untrue, and of the enemy of the same true love that teacheth us that we should hate sin only for love.

I am sure by mine own feeling, the more that any kind soul seeth this in the courteous love of our Lord God, the lother he is to sin and the more he is ashamed.

For if afore us were laid [together] all the pains in Hell and in Purgatory and in Earth—death and other—, and [by itself] sin, we should rather choose all that pain than sin.

For sin is so vile and so greatly to be hated that it may be likened to no pain which is not sin.

And to me was shewed no harder hell than sin.

For a kind soul hath no hell but sin.

And [when] we give our intent to love and meekness, by the working of mercy and grace we are made all fair and clean.

As mighty and as wise as God is to save men, so willing He is.

For Christ Himself is [the] ground of all the laws of Christian men, and He taught us to do good against ill: here may we see that He is Himself this charity, and doeth to us as He teacheth us to do.

§ Ask Guru about this passage →

Themes

◆Anthropomorphismtheology

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

God is described with human emotions and actions, such as being 'wroth', feeling 'glad', and offering a 'friendly welcoming'.

All passages →

◆Bhakti

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 text centers on a path of 'lovely longing' and loving devotion to a personal deity (Jesus) as the means to joy and salvation.

All passages →

◆Divine Lighttheology

The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.

The text mentions God showing sin to the soul 'by the sweet light of mercy and grace', using light as a metaphor for divine revelation.

All passages →

◆Emotional Epistemologysoteriology

The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition.

The author claims to understand truth 'by mine own feeling' and emphasizes that love and shame are the primary ways of knowing sin and God.

All passages →

◆Evil As Privationtheology

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

The passage defines sin as the 'harder hell' and something 'vile' to be hated, contrasting it with God's goodness, implying sin is a lack of divine love rather than a positive substance.

All passages →

◆Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

The passage depicts God as a 'courteous Lord' who actively speaks, welcomes, and interacts with the soul in a personal, dynamic relationship.

All passages →

◆Mystical Unionsoteriology

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

The text explicitly describes the soul being 'oned in bliss' with God and receiving the soul 'in joy like as it shall be when it cometh to Heaven'.

All passages →

◆Prayerpraxis

Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.

The passage identifies 'sweet prayer' and 'lovely longing' as the necessary state for the soul while on earth to maintain connection with God.

All passages →

◆Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

The narrative arc describes the soul moving from the 'prison' of sin back to God's welcoming presence, restoring the original unity.

All passages →

◆Separation From Sourcesoteriology

The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.

The passage describes the state of sin as being in 'pain and in prison' and feeling that God is angry, representing a felt exile from divine love.

All passages →

Related passages · 0 parallels · 1 contrast

◆jewish_mysticism|The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation)|Chapter XCVIICONTRASTS

“XCVII. The Evils in Store for Sinners and the Possessors of unrighteous Wealth . CHAPTER XCVII. 1. Believe, ye righteous, that the sinners will become a shame And perish in the day of unrighteousness. 2. Be it known unto you (ye sinners) th…”

Both passages address the theme of sin and its consequences, but from opposite perspectives. Passage A emphasizes God's love and mercy in forgiving sin, while Passage B focuses on the judgment and punishment of sinners.