Chapter xvii Lord revealed to me that I should sin, I Aunderstood everything to apply only to me. In this I conceived a gentle fear, and in answer to this our Lord said: protect you very safely. This was said to me with more love and assurance of protection for my soul than I can or may tell. For just as it was first revealed to me that I should sin, so was consolation revealed to me- -assurance of protection for all my fellow Christians. What can make me love my fellow Christians more than to see in God that he loves all who will be saved, all of them as it were one soul? And in each soul which will be saved there is a good will which never assented to sin and never will. For as there is an animal will in the lower part which cannot will any good, so there is a good will in the higher part which cannot will any evil, but always good, just as the persons of the blessed Trinity. And our Lord revealed this to me in the completeness of his love, that we are standing in his sight, yes that he loves us now whilst we are here as well as he when we are there, before his blessed face. God also showed me that sin is no shame, but honour to man, for in this vision my understanding was lifted up into heaven; and then there came truly to my mind David, Peter and Paul, Thomas of India and Mary Magdalen, how they are known, with their sins, to their honour in the Church on earth. And it is to them no shame that they have sinned-shame is no more in the bliss of heaven-for there the tokens of sin are turned into honours. Just so our Lord showed them to me as examples of all who will come there. Sin is the sharpest scourge with which any chosen soul can be beaten, and this scourge belabours and breaks men and women, and they become so despicable in their own sight23 that it seems to them that they are fit for nothing but as it were to sink into hell; but when by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit contrition seizes them, then the Spirit turns bitterness into hope of God's mercy. And then the wounds begin to heal and the soul to revive, restored to the life of Holy Church. The Holy Spirit leads him to confession, willing to reveal his sins, nakedly and truthfully, with great sorrow and great shame that he has so befouled God's fair image. Then he accepts the penance for every sin imposed by his confessor, for this24 is established in Holy Church by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Every sinful soul must be healed by this medicine, especially of the sins which are mortal to him. Though he be healed, his wounds are not I seen by God as wounds but as honours. And as sin is punished here with sorrow and penance, in contrary fashion it will be rewarded in heaven by the courteous love of our Lord God almighty, who does not wish anyone who comes there to lose his labours. That reward, which we shall receive there, will not be small, but it will be high, glorious and honourable. And so all shame will be turned into honour and into greater joy. And I am sure by what I feel myself that the more that every loving soul perceives this in the gentle and courteous love of God, the more he will hate to sin. 23. From this point on the pronouns, singular and plural, are much confused, perhaps as result of translation from a ‘hem' to 'them' dialect of Middle English. But Julian's intentions are clear. 24. Or for he'.