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Theologia Germanica

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

Historical Introduction

Letter from Chevalier Bunsen to the Translator

Theologia Germanica

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.

Of what Sin is, and how we must not take unto ourselves any good Thing, seeing that it belongeth unto the true Good alone.

How Man's Fall and going astray must be amended as Adam's Fall was.

How Man, when he claimeth any good Thing for his own, falleth, and toucheth God in His Honour.

How we are to take that Saying, that we must come to be without Will, Wisdom, Love, Desire, Knowledge, and the like.

How that which is best and noblest should also be loved above all Things by us, merely because it is the best.

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.

How the Soul of Man, while it is yet in the Body, may obtain a Foretaste of eternal Blessedness.

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 God 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.

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.

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.

Touching that true inward Peace, which Christ left to His Disciples at the last.

How a Man may cast aside Images too soon.

Of three Stages by which a Man is led upwards till he attaineth true Perfection.

How all Men are dead in Adam and are made alive again in Christ, and of true Obedience and Disobedience.

Telleth us what is the old Man, and what is the new Man.

How we are not to take unto ourselves what we have done well: but only what we have done amiss.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How sometimes the Spirit of God, and sometimes also the Evil Spirit may possess a Man and have the mastery over him.

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.

How that four Things are needful before a Man can receive divine Truth and be possessed with the Spirit of God.

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.

Touching Poorness of Spirit and true Humility and whereby we may discern the true and lawful free Men whom the Truth hath made free.

How we are to take Christ's Words when He bade forsake all Things; and wherein the Union with the Divine Will standeth.

How, after a Union with the Divine Will, the inward Man standeth immoveable, the while the outward Man is moved hither and thither.

How a Man may not attain so high before Death as not to be moved or touched by outward Things.

On what wise we may came to be beyond and above all Custom, Order, Law, Precepts and the like.

How we are not to cast off the Life of Christ, but practise it diligently, and walk in it until Death.

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.

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.

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.

How there is deep and true Humility and Poorness of Spirit in a Man who is 'made a Partaker of the Divine Nature.'

How nothing is contrary to God but Sin only; and what Sin is in Kind and Act.

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.'

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.

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.

A good Account of the False Light and its Kind.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Question: Whether, if we ought to love all Things, we ought to love Sin also?

How we must believe certain Things of God's Truth beforehand, ere we can come to a true Knowledge and Experience thereof.

Of Self-will, and how Lucifer and Adam fell away from God through Self-will.

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.

Wherefore God hath created Self-will, seeing that it is so contrary to Him.

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.'

Considereth that other saying of Christ, 'No Man can come unto Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him.'

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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Theologia Germanica

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