but by times,
when God will vouchsafe for to give it to a working[107] soul, the
whiles it is in the battle of this deadly life; but after this life
it shall be everlasting. This light shone in the soul of David, when
he said thus in the psalm: "Lord, the light of Thy face is marked
upon us; Thou hast given gladness within mine heart."[108] The light
of God's face is the shining of His grace, that reformeth in us His
image that hath been disfigured with the darkness of sin; and
therefore a soul that brenneth in desire of His sight,[109] if it
hope for to have that that it desireth, wete it well it hath
conceived Benjamin. And, therefore, what is more healfull[110] than
the sweetness of this sight, or what softer thing may be felt?
Sikerly, none; and that woteth Rachel full well. For why, reason
saith that, in comparison of this sweetness, all other sweetness is
sorrow, and bitter as gall before honey. Nevertheless, yet may a man
never come to such a grace by his own slight.[111] For why, it is
the gift of God without desert of man. But without doubt, though it
be not the desert of man, yet no man may take such grace without
great study and brenning desires coming before; and that woteth
Rachel full well, and therefore she multiplieth her study, and
whetteth her desires, seeking desire upon desire;[112] so that at
the last, in great abundance of brenning desires and sorrow of the
delaying of her desire, Benjamin is born, and his mother Rachel
dieth;[113] for why, in what time that a soul is ravished above
itself by abundance of desires and a great multitude of love, so
that it is inflamed with the light of the Godhead, sikerly then
dieth all man's reason.

And therefore, what so thou be that covetest to come to
contemplation of God, that is to say, to bring forth such a child
that men clepen in the story Benjamin (that is to say, sight of
God), then shalt thou use thee in this manner. Thou shalt call
together thy thoughts and thy desires, and make thee of them a
church, and learn thee therein for to love only this good word Jesu,
so that all thy desires and all thy thoughts are only set for to
love Jesu, and that unceasingly as it may be here; so that thou
fulfill that is said in the psalm: "Lord, I shall bless Thee in
churches";[114] that is, in thoughts and desires of the love of
Jesu. And then, in this church of thoughts and desires, and in this
onehead of studies and of wills, look that all thy thoughts, and all