¶ Here beginneth a short treatise of contemplation taught by our lord Jhesu christ/ or taken out of the book of Margery kempe of lin.  
She desired many times that her heed might be smitten of with an axe upon a block for the love of our lord Ihesu. Then said our lord Ihesu in her mind. I thank the daughter that thou wouldest die for my love/ for as often as thou thinkest so thou shalt stave the same meed in heaven/ as if thou sufferedest the same death/ & yet there shall no man slay the.  
¶ I assure the in thy mind/ if it were possible me to suffer pain again/ as I have done afore/ me were liefer to suffer as much pain as ever I died for thy soul alone/ rather than thou shouldest depart fro me everlasting.  
¶ Daughter thou mayst no better please god than to think continually in his love. Than she asked our lord Ihesu christ/ how she should best love him  
¶ And our lord said/ have mind of thy wickedness and think on my goodness.  
¶ Daughter if thou were the haberyon/ or the here fasting breed & water/ & if thou saydeste every day a thousand pater nr̄. thou should not please me so well as thou dost when thou art in silence/ & sufferest me to speak in thy soul  
¶ Daughter for to bid many beads/ it is good to them that cannot better do/ & yet it is not profit. But it is a good way toward perfection. For I tell the daughter/ they that be great fasters/ & great doers of penance. they would that it should be hold the best life/ And they that give them to many devotions/ they would have that the best life. And though that given moche alms/ they would that it were holden the best life. And I have often told the daughter/ that thinking/ weeping/ & high contemplation is the best life in earth/ & thou shalt have more merit in heaven for one year thinking in thy mind than for an hundred year of praying with thy mouth & yet thou wilt not believe me. for thou wilt bid many beads.  
¶ Daughter if thou knew how sweet thy love is to me/ thou wouldest never do other thing but love me with all thy heart.  
¶ Dought if thou wilt be high with me in heaven keep me always in thy mind as much as thou mayst & forget not me at thy meet/ but think always that I fit in thy heart & know every thought that is therein both good and bad.  
¶ Daughter I have suffered many pains for thy love/ therefore thou hast great cause to love me right well for I have bought thy love full dear.  
¶ Dear lord I pray the late me never have other joy in earth but mourning & weeping for thy love/ for me thinketh lord/ though I were in hell/ if I might weep there & mourn for thy love as I do here/ hell should not noye me/ but it should be a manner heaven/ for thy love putteth away all manner of dread of our ghostly enemy/ for I had liefer be there as long as thou wouldest & please thee/ than to be in this world & displease thee/ therefore good lord as thou wilt so moat it be.  
¶ She had great wonder that our lord would become man/ & suffer so grievous pains for her that was so unkind a creature to him. And than with great weeping she asked our lord Ihu how she might best please him. & he answered to her soul saying daughter have mind of thy wickedness & think on my goodness/ than she prayed many times & often these words. Lord for thy goodness have mercy on my great wickedness/ as certainly as I was never so wicked as thou art good ne never may be though I would. for thou art so good that thou mayst no better be & therefore it is great wonder that ever any man should be departed fro the without end.  
¶ When she saw the crucifix/ or if she saw a man had a wound or a best. Or if a man beat a child afore her/ or smote an horse/ or an other best with a whype/ if she might see it or here it. she thought she saw our lord beaten or wounded like as she saw in the man or in the best.  
¶ The more she increased in love & in devotion/ the more she increased in sorrow & contrition/ in lowness & meekness/ & in holy dread of our lord Ihesu & in knowledge of her own frailty. So that if she saw any creature be punished/ or sharply chastised/ she would think that she had been more worthy to be chastised than that creature was for her unkindness against god. Than would she weep for her own sin. & for compassion of that creature.  
¶ In no thing that thou dost or sayest daughter thou mayst no better please god/ than believe that he loveth the. For if it were possible that I might weep with the. I would weep with the for the compassion that I have of the.  
¶ Our merciful lord Ihesu christ drew this creature unto his love/ & to the mind of his passion/ that might not endure to behold a leper/ or an other seek man/ specially if he had any wounds appearing on him. So she wept as if she had seen our lord Ihesu with his wounds bledynge: & so she died in the sight of the soul/ for through the beholding of the seek man/ her mind was all ravished in to our lord Ihesu/ that she had great mourning and sorowynge that she might not kiss the leper when she met them in the way for the love of our lord which was all contrary to her disposition in the years of her youth & prosperity/ for than she abhorred them most.  
¶ Daughter thou haste desired in thy mind to have many priests in the town of lin/ that might sing & read night and day for to serve me/ worship me/ & praise me/ and thank me for the goodness that I have do to the in earth/ & therefore daughter I promise the thou shalt have meed & reward in heaven for the good wills & good desires/ as if thou hadst done them in deed.  
¶ Daughter thou shalt have as great meed & as great reward with me in heaven. for thy good service & thy good deeds that thou haste do in thy mind as if thou hadst do the same with thy bodily wits without forth.  
¶ And daughter I thank thee/ for the charity that thou haste to all lecherous men & women/ for thou prayest for them & weepest for them many atere desiring that it should deliver them out of sin/ & be as gracious to them as I was to Mary maudeleyne/ that they might have as much grace to love me as Mary maudeleyne had/ & with this condition thou wouldest that everich of them should have twenty li. a year to love & praise me/ & daughter this great charity which thou hast to them in thy prayer pleaseth me right well/ And daughter also I thank the for the charity which thou hast in thy prayer when thou prayest for all jews & sarazens/ & all heathen people that they should come to christian faith/ that my name might be magnified in them Furthermore daughter I thank the for general charity that thou hast to all people that be now in this world/ & to all though that. are to come unto the worlds end/ that thou wouldest be hacked as small as flesh to the pot for their love/ so that I would by thy death save them all fro damnation if it pleased me. And therefore daughter/ for all these good wills and desires thou shalt have full meed & reward in heaven believe it right well & doubt never a deal.  
¶ She said good lord I would be laid naked upon an hurdle for thy love all men to wonder on me & to cast filth & dirt on me: & be drawn fro town to town every day my life time if thou were pleased thereby/ & no man's soul hindered/ thy will be fulfilled and not mine.  
¶ Daughters as oftentimes as thou sayest or thinkest worshipped be all the holy places in Iherusalem where christ suffer bitter pain & passion in thou shalt have have the same pardon as if thou were with thy bodily presence/ both to thyself & to all the that thou wilt give to.  
¶ The same pardon that was granted the afore time. it was confirmed on saint Nycolas day/ that is to say/ plain remission/ & it is not only granted to thee/ but also to all though that believe/ & to all though that shall believe unto the worlds end/ that god loveth thee/ & shall thank god for the if they will forsake their sin/ & be in full will no more to turn again thereto. But be sorry & heavy for that they have done & will do due penance therefore/ they shall have the same pardon that is granted to thyself. & that is all the pardon that is in jerlm/ as was granted the when thou were at Rafnys.  
¶ That day that she suffered no tribulation for our lords sake she was not merry ne glad/ as that day when she suffered tribulation.  
¶ patience is more worth than miracles doing  
¶ Daughter it is more pleasure to me that thou suffer despites/ scorns/ shames/ & reproves/ wrongs/ diseases/ than if thine heed were stricken three times a day every day in seven year.  
¶ Lord for thy great pain have mercy on my little pain.  
¶ When she was in great trouble/ our lord said/ daughter I must needs comfort thee. for now thou haste the right way to heaven/ By this way came I & all my disciples/ for now thou shalt know the better what sorrow & shame I suffered for thy love/ & thou shalt have the more compassion when thou thinkest on my passion.  
¶ O my dear worthy lord: these graces thou shouldest show to religious men & to priests.  
¶ Our lord said to her again/ nay nay daughter/ for that I love best that they love not/ & that is shames/ reproves/ scorns/ & despites of the people/ & therefore they shall not have this grace/ for daughter he that dreadeth the shames of this world may not parfyghtly love god.  
¶ Here endeth a short treatise called Margery kempe de Lyn. imprinted in Fleetstreet by Wynkyn de word.