And to this understanding was the soul led by love and drawn by might in every Shewing: _that it is thus_ our good Lord shewed, and _how it is thus in truth of His great Goodness_. And He willeth that we desire to learn it--that is to say, as far as it belongeth to His creature to learn it. For all things that the simple soul[4] understood, God willeth that they be shewed and [made] known. For the things that He will have privy, mightily and wisely Himself He hideth them, for love. For I saw in the same Shewing that much privity is hid, which may never be known until the time that God of His goodness hath made us worthy to see it; and therewith I am well-content, abiding our Lord's will in this high marvel. And now I yield me to my Mother, Holy Church, as a simple child oweth. [1] So S. de Cressy has it. There is evidently an omission in the MS. of part of this sentence. See lvi., lxxii. The dim sight of God comes before the dim sight of the Self, but the clear sight of God comes after the clear sight of the Self. [2] "like it." [3] Cressy has: "He is Peace; and His Might, His Wisdom, His Charity, and His Unity," etc. [4] Chap. ii. "a simple creature"; "the soul," xxiv., xiii., etc., and xxxii. p. 64. CHAPTER XLVII "We fail oftentimes of the sight of Him, and anon we fall into our self, and then find we no feeling of right,--nought but contrariness that is in our self" Two things belong to our soul as duty: the one is that we reverently marvel, the other that we meekly suffer, ever enjoying in God. For He would have us understand that we shall in short time see clearly in Himself all that we desire. And notwithstanding all this, I beheld and marvelled greatly: _What is the mercy and forgiveness of God?_ For by the teaching that I had afore, I understood that the mercy of God should be the forgiveness of His wrath after the time that we have sinned. For methought that to a soul whose meaning and desire is to love, the wrath of God was harder than any other pain, and therefore I took[1] that the forgiveness of His wrath should be one of the principal points of His mercy. But howsoever I might behold and desire, I could in no wise see this point in all the Shewing.[2] But how I understood and saw of the work of mercy, I shall tell somewhat, as God will give me grace. I understood this: Man is changeable in this life, and by frailty and overcoming falleth into sin: he is weak and unwise of himself, and also his will is overlaid. And in this time he is in tempest and in sorrow and woe; and the cause is blindness: for he seeth not God. For if he saw God continually, he should have no mischievous feeling, nor any manner of motion or yearning that serveth to sin.[3]