Revelations of Divine Love · 113 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter LXXIV-a

"There is no dread that fully pleaseth God in us but reverent dread" For I understand [that there be] four manner of dreads.

One is the dread of an affright that cometh to a man suddenly by frailty.

This dread doeth good, for it helpeth to purge man, as doeth bodily sickness or such other pain as is not sin.

For all such pains help man if they be patiently taken.

The second is dread of pain, whereby man is stirred and wakened from sleep of sin.

He is not able for the time to perceive the soft comfort of the Holy Ghost, till he have understanding of this dread of pain, of bodily death, of spiritual enemies; and this dread stirreth us to seek comfort and mercy of God, and thus this dread helpeth us, and enableth us to have contrition by the blissful touching of the Holy Ghost.

The third is doubtful dread.

Doubtful dread in as much as it draweth to despair, God will have it turned in us into love by the knowing of love: that is to say, that the bitterness of doubt be turned into the sweetness of natural love by grace.

For it may never please our Lord that His servants doubt in His Goodness.

The fourth is reverent dread: for there is no dread that fully pleaseth God in us but reverent dread.

And that is full soft, for the more it is had, the less it is felt for sweetness of love.

Love and Dread are brethren, and they are rooted in us by the Goodness of our Maker, and they shall never be taken from us without end.

We have of nature to love and we have of grace to love: and we have of nature to dread and we have of grace to dread.

It belongeth to the Lordship and to the Fatherhood to be dreaded, as it belongeth to the Goodness to be loved: and it belongeth to us that are His servants and His children to dread Him for Lordship and Fatherhood, as it belongeth to us to love Him for Goodness.

And though this reverent-dread and love be not parted asunder, yet they are not both one, but they are two in property and in working, and neither of them may be had without other.

Therefore I am sure, he that loveth, he dreadeth, though that he feel it but a little.

All dreads other than reverent dread that are proffered to us, though they come under the colour of holiness yet are not so true, and hereby may they be known asunder.—That dread that maketh us hastily to flee from all that is not good and fall into our Lord's breast, as the Child into the Mother's bosom, with all our intent and with all our mind, knowing our feebleness and our great need, knowing His everlasting goodness and His blissful love, only seeking to Him for salvation, cleaving to [Him] with sure trust: that dread that bringeth us into this working, it is natural, gracious, good and true.

And all that is contrary to this, either it is wrong, or it is mingled with wrong.

Then is this the remedy, to know them both and refuse the wrong.

For the natural property of dread which we have in this life by the gracious working of the Holy Ghost, the same shall be in heaven afore God, gentle, courteous, and full delectable.

And thus we shall in love be homely and near to God, and we shall in dread be gentle and courteous to God: and both alike equal.

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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 passage describes a path of salvation rooted in loving devotion, self-surrender ('fall into our Lord's breast'), and trust in God's goodness as the primary means of union.

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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 text affirms that God actively orders human experiences (such as pains and dreads) to purge, wake, and guide the soul toward salvation.

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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 text explicitly frames 'dread' and 'love' as modes of knowing God's nature, stating that understanding comes through the 'blissful touching' and the transformation of emotional states like doubt into love.

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Living Godtheology

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

The passage consistently portrays God as a personal, responsive Father and Lord who interacts with the soul through love, mercy, and comfort.

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