Chapter XI
“All thing that is done, it is well done: for our Lord God doeth all.” “Sin is no deed”
AND after this I saw God in a Point,[1] that is to say, in mine understanding,—by which sight I saw that He is in all things.
I beheld and considered, seeing and knowing in sight, with a soft dread, and thought: What is sin?For I saw truly that God doeth all-thing, be it never so little. And I saw truly that nothing is done by hap nor by adventure, but all things by the foreseeing wisdom of God: if it be hap or adventure in the sight of man, our blindness and our unforesight is the cause. For the things that are in the foreseeing wisdom of God from without beginning, (which rightfully and worshipfully and continually He leadeth to the best end,) as they come about fall to us suddenly, ourselves unwitting; and thus by our blindness and our unforesight we say: these be haps and adventures. But to our Lord God they be not so.
Wherefore me behoveth needs to grant that all-thing that is done, it is well-done: for our Lord God doeth all. For in this time the working of creatures was not shewed, but [the working] of our Lord God in the creature: for He is in the Mid-point of all thing, and all He doeth. And I was certain He doeth no sin.
And here I saw verily that sin is no deed: for in all this was not sin shewed. And I would no longer marvel in this, but beheld our Lord, what He would shew.
And thus, as much as it might be for the time, the rightfulness of God’s working was shewed to the soul.
Rightfulness hath two fair properties: it is right and it is full. And so are all the works of our Lord God: thereto needeth neither the working of mercy nor grace: for they be all rightful: wherein faileth nought.
But in another time He gave a Shewing for the beholding of sin nakedly, as I shall tell: where He useth working of mercy and grace.
And this vision was shewed, to mine understanding, for that our Lord would have the soul turned truly unto the beholding of Him, and generally of all His works. For they are full good; and all His doings are easy and sweet, and to great ease bringing the soul that is turned from the beholding of the blind Deeming of man unto the fair sweet Deeming of our Lord God. For a man beholdeth some deeds well done and some deeds evil, but our Lord beholdeth them not so: for as all that hath being in nature is of Godly making, so is all that is done, in property of God’s doing. For it is easy to understand that the best deed is well done: and so well as the best deed is done—the highest—so well is the least deed done; and all thing in its property and in the order that our Lord hath ordained it to from without beginning. For there is no doer but He.
I saw full surely that he changeth never His purpose in no manner of thing, nor never shall, without end. For there was no thing unknown to Him in His rightful ordinance from without beginning. And therefore all-thing was set in order ere anything was made, as it should stand without end; and no manner of thing shall fail of that point. For He made all things in fulness of goodness, and therefore the blessed Trinity is ever full pleased in all His works.[2]
And all this shewed He full blissfully, signifying thus: See! I am God: see! I am in all thing: see! I do all thing: see! I lift never mine hands off my works, nor ever shall, without end: see! I lead all thing to the end I ordained it to from without beginning, by the same Might, Wisdom and Love whereby I made it. How should any thing be amiss?
Thus mightily, wisely, and lovingly was the soul examined in this Vision. Then saw I soothly that me behoved, of need, to assent, with great reverence enjoying in God.
- See below: “He is in the Mid-point,” and lxiii. p. 158, “the blessed Point from which nature came: that is, God.” See also xxi. p. 45, “Where is now any point of thy pain?” (least part) and xxi. p. 46, “abiding unto the last point”; and lxiv. p. 161, “set the point of our thought.” These uses of the word may be compared with the following:—From the Banquet of Dante Alighieri, tr. by K. Hillard (Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.), Bk. II. xiv. 12, “Geometry moves between the print and the circle“; as Euclid says, “the point is the beginning of Geometry, and according to him, the circle is the most perfect figure, and therefore may be considered its end…. The point by reason of its indivisibility is immeasurable, and the circle by reason of its arc cannot be exactly squared, and therefore cannot be measured with precision.” Notes by Miss Hillard: “This is why the Deity is represented by a point. Paradiso, xxviii. 16: ‘A point beheld I,’ ‘Heaven and all nature, hangs upon that point,’ etc. Bk. IV. 6, quoting Aristotle’s Physics: ‘The circle can be called perfect when it is a true circle. And this is when it contains a point which is equally distant from every part of its circumference.’ In the Vita Nuova Love appearing, says—’I am as the centre of a circle, to which all parts of the circumference bear an equal relation’ (‘Amor che muove il sole e l’altre stelle‘).” From Neoplatonism, by C. Bigg, D.D. (S.P.C.K.), p. 122: “Thus we get a triplet—Soul, Intelligence, and a higher Intelligence. The last is spoken of as One, as a point, as neither good nor evil because above both.” ↵
- On this subject, with the “Two Deemings” and “the Godly Will,” see xlv., xxxv., xxxvii., lxxxii. ↵