{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/cou/cou05.htm","path":"chr/cou/cou05.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/cou/cou05.htm","text":"The Cloud of Unknowing, ed. by Evelyn Underhill, [1922]\nOf four degrees of Christian men\u2019s living; and of the course of his calling that this book was made unto\nA short stirring to meekness, and to the work of this book\nHow the work of this book shall be wrought and of the worthiness of it before all other works\nOf the shortness of this work, and how it may not be come to by the curiosity of wit, nor by imagination\nThat in the time of this work all the creatures that ever have been, be now, or ever shall be, and all the works of those same creatures, should be hid under the cloud of forgetting\nA short conceit of the work of this book, treated by question\nHow a man shall have him in this work against all thoughts, and specially against all those that arise of his own curiosity, of cunning, and of natural wit\nA good declaring of certain doubts that may fall in this work, treated by question, in destroying of a man\u2019s own curiosity, of cunning, and of natural wit, and in distinguishing of the degrees and the parts of active living and contemplative\nThat in the time of this work the remembrance of the holiest creature that ever God made letteth more than it profiteth\nHow a man shall know when his thought is no sin; and if it be sin, when it is deadly and when it is venial\nThat a man should weigh each thought and each stirring after that it is, and always eschew recklessness in venial sin\nThat by virtue of this work sin is not only destroyed, but also virtues begotten\nWhat meekness is in itself, and when it is perfect and when it is imperfect\nThat without imperfect meekness coming before, it is impossible for a sinner to come to the perfect virtue of meekness in this life\nA short proof against their error that say that there is no perfecter cause to be meeked under, than is the knowledge of a man\u2019s own wretchedness\nThat by virtue of this work a sinner truly turned and called to contemplation cometh sooner to perfection than by any other work; and by it soonest may get of God forgiveness of sins\nThat a very contemplative list not meddle him with active life, nor of anything that is done or spoken about him, nor yet to answer to his blamers in excusing of himself\nHow that yet unto this day all actives complain of contemplatives as Martha did of Mary. Of the which complaining ignorance is the cause\nA short excusation of him that made this book, teaching how all contemplatives should have all actives fully excused of their complaining words and deeds\nHow Almighty God will goodly answer for all those that for the excusing of themselves list not leave their business about the love of Him\nThe true exposition of this gospel word, \u201cMary hath chosen the best part\u201d\nOf the wonderful love that Christ had to man in person of all sinners truly turned and called to the grace of contemplation\nTHE THREE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER\nHow God will answer and purvey for them in spirit, that for business about His love list not answer nor purvey for themselves\nTHE FOUR AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER\nWhat charity is in itself, and how it is truly and perfectly contained in the work of this book.\nTHE FIVE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER\nThat in the time of this work a perfect soul hath no special beholding to any one man in this life\nThat without full special grace, or long use in common grace, the work of this book is right travailous; and in this work, which is the work of the soul helped by grace, and which is the work of only God\nTHE SEVEN AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER\nWho should work in the gracious work of this book\nTHE EIGHT AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER\nThat a man should not presume to work in this work before the time that he be lawfully cleansed in conscience of all his special deeds of sin\nTHE NINE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER\nThat a man should bidingly travail in this work, and suffer the pain thereof, and judge no man\nWho should blame and condemn other men\u2019s defaults\nHow a man should have him in beginning of this work against all thoughts and stirrings of sin\nOf two ghostly devices that be helpful to a ghostly beginner in the work of this book\nTHE THREE AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER\nThat in this work a soul is cleansed both of his special sins and of the pain of them, and yet how there is no perfect rest in this life\nTHE FOUR AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER\nThat God giveth this grace freely without any means, and that it may not be come to with means\nTHE FIVE AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER\nOf three means in the which a contemplative prentice should be occupied; in reading, thinking, and praying\nOf the meditations of them that continually travail in the work of this book\nTHE SEVEN AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER\nOf the special prayers of them that be continual workers in the work of this book\nTHE EIGHT AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER\nHow and why that short prayer pierceth heaven\nTHE NINE AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER\nHow a perfect worker shall pray, and what prayer is in itself; and, if a man shall pray in words, which words accord them most to the property of prayer\nThat in the time of this work a soul hath no special beholding to any vice in itself nor to any virtue in itself\nThat in all other works beneath this, men should keep discretion; but in this none\nThat by indiscretion in this, men shall keep discretion in all other things; and surely else never\nTHE THREE AND FORTIETH CHAPTER\nThat all writing and feeling of a man\u2019s own being must needs be lost if the perfection of this work shall verily be felt in any soul in this life\nHow a soul shall dispose it on its own part, for to destroy all witting and feeling of its own being\nA good declaring of some certain deceits that may befall in this work\nA good teaching how a man shall flee these deceits, and work more with a listiness of spirit than with any boisterousness of body\nTHE SEVEN AND FORTIETH CHAPTER\nA slight teaching of this work in purity of spirit; declaring how that on one manner a soul should shew his desire unto God, and on ye contrary, unto man\nTHE EIGHT AND FORTIETH CHAPTER\nHow God will be served both with body and with soul, and reward men in both; and how men shall know when all those sounds and sweetness that fall into the body in time of prayer be both good and evil\nThe substance of all perfection is nought else but a good will; and how that all sounds and comforts and sweetness that may befall in this life be to it but as it were accidents\nWhich is chaste love; and how in some creatures such sensible comforts be but seldom, and in some right oft\nThat men should have great wariness so that they understand not bodily a thing that is meant ghostly; and specially it is good to be wary in understanding of this word in, and of this word up\nHow these young presumptuous disciples misunderstand this word in, and of the deceits that follow thereon\nTHE THREE AND FIFTIETH CHAPTER\nOf divers unseemly practices that follow them that lack the work of this book\nHow that by virtue of this work a man is governed full wisely, and made full seemly as well in body as in soul\nHow they be deceived that follow the fervour of spirit in condemning of some without discretion\nHow they be deceived that lean more to the curiosity of natural wit, and of clergy learned in the school of men than to the common doctrine and counsel of Holy Church\nTHE SEVEN AND FIFTIETH CHAPTER\nHow these young presumptuous disciples misunderstand this other word up; and of the deceits that follow thereon\nTHE EIGHT AND FIFTIETH CHAPTER\nThat a man shall not take ensample of Saint Martin and of Saint Stephen, for to strain his imagination bodily upwards in the time of his prayer\nThat a man shall not take ensample at the bodily ascension of Christ, for to strain his imagination upwards bodily in the time of prayer: and that time, place, and body, these three should be forgotten in all ghostly working\nThat the high and the next way to heaven is run by desires, and not by paces of feet\nThat all bodily thing is subject unto ghostly thing, and is ruled thereafter by the course of nature, and not contrariwise\nHow a man may wit when his ghostly work is beneath him or without him and when it is even with him or within him, and when it is above him and under his God\nTHE THREE AND SIXTIETH CHAPTER\nOf the powers of a soul in general, and how Memory in special is a principal power comprehending in it all the other powers and all those things in the which they work\nOf the other two principal powers, Reason and Will, and of the work of them before sin and after\nOf the first secondary power, Imagination by name; and of the works and of the obedience of it unto Reason, before sin and after\nOf the other secondary power, Sensuality by name; and of the works and of the obedience of it unto Will, before sin and after\nTHE SEVEN AND SIXTIETH CHAPTER\nThat whoso knoweth not the powers of a soul and the manner of her working, may lightly be deceived in understanding of ghostly words and of ghostly working; and how a soul is made a God in grace\nTHE EIGHT AND SIXTIETH CHAPTER\nThat nowhere bodily, is everywhere ghostly; and how our outer man calleth the work of this book nought\nHow that a man\u2019s affection is marvelously changed in ghostly feeling of this nought, when it is nowhere wrought\nThat right as by the defailing of our bodily wits we begin more readily to come to knowing of ghostly things, so by the defailing of our ghostly wits we begin most readily to come to the knowledge of God, such as is possible by grace to be had here\nTHE ONE AND SEVENTIETH CHAPTER\nThat some may not come to feel the perfection of this work but in time of ravishing, and some may have it when they will, in the common state of man\u2019s soul\nTHE TWO AND SEVENTIETH CHAPTER\nThat a worker in this work should not deem nor think of another worker as he feeleth in himself\nTHE THREE AND SEVENTIETH CHAPTER\nHow that after the likeness of Moses, of Bezaleel and of Aaron meddling them about the Ark of the Testament, we profit on three manners in this grace of contemplation, for this grace is figured in that Ark\nTHE FOUR AND SEVENTIETH CHAPTER\nHow that the matter of this book is never more read or spoken, nor heard read or spoken, of a soul disposed thereto without feeling of a very accordance to the effect of the same work: and of rehearsing of the same charge that is written in the prologue\nTHE FIVE AND SEVENTIETH CHAPTER\nOf some certain tokens by the which a man may prove whether he be called of God to work in this work\nAND HERE ENDETH THE TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS\nGHOSTLY FRIEND IN GOD, I pray thee and I beseech thee that thou wilt have a busy beholding to the course and the manner of thy calling. And thank God heartily so that thou mayest through help of His grace stand stiffly in the state, in the degree, and in the form of living that thou hast entirely purposed against all the subtle assailing of thy bodily and ghostly enemies, and win to the crown of life that evermore lasteth. Amen.","title":"The Cloud of Unknowing: Table of the Chapters","type":"page"}