Chapter I. Of that which is perfect
and that which is in part, and how that which is in part is done away, when
that which is perfect is come.
Chapter II. Of what Sin is, and how we must not take
unto ourselves any good Thing, seeing that it belongeth unto the true Good
alone.
Chapter III. How Man's Fall and going astray must be
amended as Adam's Fall was.
Chapter IV. How Man, when he claimeth any good Thing
for his own, falleth, and toucheth God in His Honour.
Chapter V. How we are to take that Saying, that we
must come to be without Will, Wisdom, Love, Desire, Knowledge, and the like.
Chapter VI. How that which is best and noblest should
also be loved above all Things by us, merely because it is the best.
Chapter VII. Of the Eyes of the Spirit wherewith Man
looketh into Eternity and into Time, and how the one is hindered of the other
in its Working.
Chapter VIII. How the Soul of Man, while it is yet in
the Body, may obtain a Foretaste of eternal Blessedness.
Chapter IX. How it is better and more profitable for a
Man that he should perceive what God will do with him, or to what end He will make
Use of him, than if he knew all that Gad had ever wrought, or would ever work
through all the Creatures; and how Blessedness lieth alone in God, and not in
the Creatures, or in any Works.
Chapter X. How the perfect Men have no other Desire
than that they may be to the Eternal Goodness what His Hand is to a Man, and
how they have lost the Fear of Hell, and Hope of Heaven.
Chapter XI. How a righteous Man in this present Time
is brought into hell, and there cannot be comforted, and how he is taken out of
Hell and carried into Heaven, and there cannot be troubled.
Chapter XII. Touching that true inward Peace, which
Christ left to His Disciples at the last.
Chapter XIII. How a Man may cast aside Images too soon.
Chapter XIV. Of three Stages by which a Man is led
upwards till he attaineth true Perfection.
Chapter XV. How all Men are dead in Adam and are made
alive again in Christ, and of true Obedience and Disobedience.
Chapter XVI. Telleth us what is the old Man, and what
is the new Man.
Chapter XVII. How we are not to take unto ourselves what
we have done well: but only what we have done amiss.
Chapter XVIII. How that the Life of Christ is the noblest
and best Life that ever hath been or can be, and how a careless Life of false Freedom
is the worst Life that can be.
Chapter XIX. How we cannot come to the true Light and Christ's Life, by much
Questioning or Reading, or by high natural Skill and Reason, but by truly
renouncing ourselves and all Things.
Chapter XX. How, seeing that the Life of Christ is
most bitter to Nature and Self, Nature will have none of it, and chooseth a
false careless Life, as is most convenient to her.
Chapter XXI. How a friend of Christ willingly
fulfilleth by his outward Works, such Things as must be and ought to be, and
doth not concern himself with the rest.
Chapter XXII. How sometimes the Spirit of God, and
sometimes also the Evil Spirit may possess a Man and have the mastery over him.
Chapter XXIII. He who will submit himself to God and be
obedient to Him, must be ready to bear with all Things; to wit, God, himself,
and all Creatures, and must be obedient to them all whether he have to suffer
or to do.
Chapter XXIV. How that four Things are needful before a
Man can receive divine Truth and be possessed with the Spirit of God.
Chapter XXV. Of two evil Fruits that do spring up from
the Seed of the Evil Spirit, and are two Sisters who love to dwell together.
The one is called spiritual Pride and Highmindedness, the other is false,
lawless Freedom.
Chapter XXVI. Touching Poorness of Spirit and true
Humility and whereby we may discern the true and lawful free Men whom the Truth
hath made free.
Chapter XXVII. How we are to take Christ's Words when He
bade forsake all Things; and wherein the Union with the Divine Will standeth.
Chapter XXVIII. How, after a Union with the Divine Will,
the inward Man standeth immoveable, the while the outward Man is moved hither
and thither.
Chapter XXIX. How a Man may not attain so high before
Death as not to be moved or touched by outward Things.
Chapter XXX. On what wise we may came to be beyond and
above all Custom, Order, Law, Precepts and the like.
Chapter XXXI. How we are not to cast off the Life of
Christ, but practise it diligently, and walk in it until Death.
Chapter XXXII. How God is a true, simple, perfect Good,
and how He is a Light and a Reason and all Virtues, and how what is highest and
best, that is, God, ought to be most loved by us.
Chapter XXXIII. How when a Man is made truly Godlike, his
Love is pure and unmixed, and he loveth all Creatures, and doth his best for
them.
Chapter XXXIV. How that if a Man will attain to that
which is best, he must forswear his own Will; and he who helpeth a Man to his
own Will helpeth him to the worst Thing he can.
Chapter XXXV. How there is deep and true Humility and
Poorness of Spirit in a Man who is 'made a Partaker of the Divine Nature.'
Chapter XXXVI. How nothing is contrary to God but Sin
only; and what Sin is in Kind and Act.
Chapter XXXVII. How in God, as God, there can neither be
Grief, Sorrow, Displeasure, nor the like, but how it is otherwise in a Man who
is 'made a Partaker of the Divine Nature.'
Chapter XXXVIII. How we are to put on the Life of Christ
from Love, and not for the sake of Reward, and how we must never grow careless
concerning it, or cast it off.
Chapter XXXIX. How God will have Order, Custom, Measure,
and the like in the Creature, seeing that He cannot have them without the
Creature, and of four sorts of Men who are concerned with this Order, Law, and
Custom.
Chapter XL. A good Account of the False Light and its
Kind.
Chapter XLI. Now that he is to be called, and is truly,
a Partaker of the Divine Nature, who is illuminated with the Divine Light, and
inflamed with Eternal Love, and how Light and Knowledge are worth nothing without
Love.
Chapter XLII. A Question: whether we can know God and
not love Him, and how there are two kinds of Light and Love -- a true and a
false.
Chapter XLIII. Whereby we may know a Man who is made a
partaker of the divine Nature, and what belongeth unto him; and further, what
is the token of a False Light, and a False Free-Thinker.
Chapter XLIV. How nothing is contrary to God but
Self-will and how he who seeketh his own Good for his own sake, findeth it not;
and how a Man of himself neither knoweth nor can do any good Thing.
Chapter XLV. How that where there is a Christian Life,
Christ dwelleth, and how Christ's Life is the best and most admirable Life that
ever hath been or can be.
Chapter XLVI. How entire Satisfaction and true Rest are
to be found in God alone, and not in any Creature; and how he who Will be
obedient unto God, must also be obedient to the Creatures, with all Quietness,
and he who would love God, must love all Things in One.
Chapter XLVII. A Question: Whether, if we ought to love
all Things, we ought to love Sin also?
Chapter XLVIII. How we must believe certain Things of
God's Truth beforehand, ere we can come to a true Knowledge and Experience
thereof.
Chapter XLIX. Of Self-will, and how Lucifer and Adam
fell away from God through Self-will.
Chapter L. How this present Time is a Paradise and
outer Court of Heaven, and how therein there is only one Tree forbidden, that
is, Self-will.
Chapter LI. Wherefore God hath created Self-will,
seeing that it is so contrary to Him.
Chapter LII. How we must take those two Sayings of
Christ: 'No Man cometh unto the Father, but by Me,' and 'No Man cometh unto Me,
except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.'
Chapter LIII. Considereth that other saying of Christ, 'No
Man can come unto Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him.'
Chapter LIV. How a Man shall not seek his own, either
in Things spiritual or natural but the Honour of God only; and how he must
enter in by the right Door, to wit, by Christ, into Eternal Life.
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