Revelations of Divine Love · 78 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter LII-b

And therefore mightily He joyeth in his falling for the high raising and fulness of bliss that Mankind is come to, overpassing that we should have had if he had not fallen.—And thus to see this overpassing nobleness was mine understanding led into God in the same time that I saw the Servant fall.

And thus we have, now, matter of mourning: for our sin is cause of Christ's pains; and we have, lastingly, matter of joy: for endless love made Him to suffer.

And therefore the creature that seeth and feeleth the working of love by grace, hateth nought but sin: for of all things, to my sight, love and hate are [the] hardest and most unmeasureable contraries.

And notwithstanding all this, I saw and understood in our Lord's meaning that we may not in this life keep us from sin as wholly in full cleanness as we shall be in Heaven.

But we may well by grace keep us from the sins which would lead us to endless pains, as Holy Church teacheth us; and eschew venial [ones] reasonably up to our might.

And if we by our blindness and our wretchedness any time fall, we should readily rise, knowing the sweet touching of grace, and with all our will amend us upon the teaching of Holy Church, according as the sin is grievous, and go forthwith to God in love; and neither, on the one side, fall over low, inclining to despair, nor, on the other side, be over-reckless, as if we made no matter of it ; but nakedly acknowledge our feebleness, finding that we may not stand a twinkling of an eye but by Keeping of grace, and reverently cleave to God, on Him only trusting.

For after one wise is the Beholding by God, and after another wise is the Beholding by man.

For it belongeth to man meekly to accuse himself, and it belongeth to the proper Goodness of our Lord God courteously to excuse man.

And these be two parts that were shewed in the double Manner of Regard with which the Lord beheld the falling of His loved Servant.

The one was shewed outward, very meekly and mildly, with great ruth and pity; and that of endless Love.

And right thus willeth our Lord that we accuse our self, earnestly and truly seeing and knowing our falling and all the harms that come thereof; seeing and learning that we can never restore it; and therewith that we earnestly and truly see and know His everlasting love that He hath to us, and His plenteous mercy.

And thus graciously to see and know both together is the meek accusing that our Lord asketh of us, and Himself worketh it where it is.

And this is the lower part of man's life, and it was shewed in the [Lord's] outward manner of Regard.

In which shewing I saw two parts: the one is the rueful falling of man, the other is the worshipful Satisfaction that our Lord hath made for man.

The other manner of Regard was shewed inward : and that was more highly and all [fully] one .

For the life and the virtue that we have in the lower part is of the higher, and it cometh down to us [from out] of the Natural love of the [high] Self, by [the working of] grace.

Atwix [the life of] the one and [the life of] the other there is right nought: for it is all one love.

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Themes

Bhaktisoteriology

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 emphasizes 'endless love' and the necessity of going to God 'in love' as the primary response to sin and the path to restoration.

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Divine Providencetheology

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 centrally argues that the Fall was not a mistake but part of a divine plan that results in a 'high raising' and 'fulness of bliss' surpassing what would have existed without it.

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Emotional Epistemologysoteriology

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

The author explicitly states that 'the creature that seeth and feeleth the working of love by grace' gains understanding, positioning feeling as a primary mode of knowing divine reality.

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Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The passage presents the paradox that the Fall leads to a 'high raising' and 'fulness of bliss' that surpasses the original state, using this contradiction to reveal divine nobleness.

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Self Examinationpraxis

Daily review of thought and action as spiritual practice.

The passage instructs that it 'belongeth to man meekly to accuse himself,' detailing a practice of earnestly seeing and knowing one's own falling and harms.

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