Revelations of Divine Love · 110 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter LXXIIb

And if we were in all the pain that heart can think and tongue may tell, if we might in that time see His fair Blissful Cheer, all this pain should not aggrieve us.

Thus is that Blissful Sight [the] end of all manner of pain to the loving soul, and the fulfilling of all manner of joy and bliss.

And that shewed He in the high, marvellous words where He said: I it am that is highest; I it am that is lowest; I it am that is all .

It belongeth to us to have three manner of knowings: the first is that we know our Lord God; the second is that we know our self: what we are by Him, in Nature and Grace; the third is that we know meekly what our self is anent our sin and feebleness.

And for these three was all the Shewing made, as to mine understanding.

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Themes

◆Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

The passage explicitly outlines three specific 'knowings' (of God, of self in grace, and of self in sin) as the central purpose of the divine revelation.

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◆Paradox As Teachingethics

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

The statement that God is simultaneously the 'highest' and the 'lowest' uses paradox to convey a theological truth beyond ordinary logic.

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◆Self Knowledgesoteriology

The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.

Two of the three required knowings focus directly on understanding one's own nature in relation to God and one's own sinfulness.

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◆Unity Of Beingtheology

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

The declaration 'I it am that is all' suggests a non-dual reality where the divine encompasses all existence.

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Related passages · 1 parallel

◆renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori)|Fifth Dialoguek

“That is a maxim of the Epicureans which, being well understood, would not be considered so unworthy as the ignorant hold it to be, seeing that it does not detract from what I have called virtue, nor does it impair the perfection of firmness…”

Both passages explore the concept of transcendent bliss or divine love that overcomes all pain and suffering. They share a structural parallel in describing a state of being where divine connection or virtue eliminates the experience of pain, though they use different traditions and vocabularies.