For the same virtues that we have received of our Substance, given to us in Nature by the Goodness of God,--the same virtues by the working of Mercy are given to us in Grace through the Holy Ghost, _renewed_: which virtues and gifts are treasured to us in Jesus Christ. For in that same[4] time that God knitted Himself to our body in the Virgin's womb, He took our Sensual soul:[5] in which taking He, us all having enclosed in Him, oned it to our Substance: in which oneing He was perfect Man. For Christ having knit in Him each[6] man that shall be saved, is perfect Man. Thus our Lady is our Mother in whom we are all enclosed and of her born,[7] in Christ: (for she that is Mother of our Saviour is Mother of all that shall be saved in our Saviour;) and our Saviour is our Very Mother in whom we be endlessly borne,[8] and never shall come out of Him. Plenteously and fully and sweetly was this shewed, and it is spoken of in the First, where it saith: _We are all in Him enclosed and He is enclosed in us_. And that [enclosing of Him in us] is spoken of in the Sixteenth Shewing, where it saith: _He sitteth in our soul_. For it is His good-pleasure to reign in our Understanding blissfully, and sit in our Soul restfully, and to dwell in our Soul endlessly, us all working into Him: in which working He willeth that we be His helpers, giving to Him all our attending, learning His lores, keeping His laws, desiring that all be done that He doeth; truly trusting in Him. For soothly I saw that our Substance is in God.[9] [1] "kynde godhede." [2] "adyte." [3] or the _first_. [4] "ilk" = "same." [5] Here, as above, the MS. term for the "_Sensual soul_" is the "_Sensualite_." [6] "ilk" = "each." [7] The MS. word is in both cases "borne," which may mean either _born_ or _borne_. S. de Cressy gives "born" both for the first word and the second. See lx. "He sustaineth us within Himself in love," etc.; and lxiii. "In the taking of our nature He quickened us," etc. [8] See preceding note. [9] From _The Scale [or Ladder] of Perfection,_ by Walter Hilton (Fourteenth century), edition of 1659, Part III. ch. ii.:-- "The soule of a man is a life consisting of three powers, _Memory, Understanding,_ and _Will,_ after the image and likeness of the blessed Trinity.... Whereby you may see, that man's soule (which may be called a created Trinity) was in its natural state replenished in its three powers, with the remembrance, sight, and love of the most blessed uncreated Trinity, which is God.... But when Adam sinned, choosing love and delight in himselfe, and in the creatures, he lost all his excellency and dignity, and thou also in him."