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Mystic Treatises

St Isaac the Syrian, tr. Wensinck, 1923

1. 1. Treatise 1: Six Treatises on the Behaviour of Excellence
2. Gratefulness on the part of the recipient spurs on the giver to bestow gifts larger than …
3. The soul whose nature is not greatly solicitous for the gathering of possessions, does …
4. 4. The soul that loves God [finds] its rest in God only.
5. God has made great the honour of man, by the twofold teachings he has given him. And from…
6. The fact that a man may fall into accidental faults, proves the weakness of his nature, …
7. Treatise 7: On Other Subjects, Chapter by Chapter, in Short Sections. On the Character of…
8. Treatise 8: What It is that Helps a Man to Come Near Unto God with His Heart and Why It…
9. Treatise 9: On Sins [committed] Intentionally and with Evil Will and on Those [committed]…
10. Treatise 10: On the Words of the Scriptures Being Spoken as It Were to Patients in…
11. Treatise 11: Whereby the Beauty of Solitary Life is to Be Preserved and How It Can Be a…
12. Treatise 12: That It is Not Beautiful for the Servant of God Who Has Renunciated the…
13. Treatise 13: On the Varying States Which Come to Those Who Live in Solitude, as is Justly…
14. Treatise 14: As to When Those Who Live in Solitude Begin to Know, Even to a Slight…
15. Treatise 15: On the Course of the Solitary Career, Succinctly and Without Prolixity. And…
16. Treatise 16: How Profitable It is for the Soul While in Solitude to Be Free from Works…
17. Treatise 17: On the Short Paths Towards God Which are Revealed to One from the Sweet…
18. Treatise 18: Things Which I Have Heard from Old Men and Stories of Holy People, Their…
19. Treatise 19: On the Revelations and Powers Which Happen to the Saints in Images
20. Treatise 20: On Various Intelligible Forces of the Mind in Connection with the Action of…
21. Treatise 21: On that Which Happens During Prayer [unto those who live] in Solitude
22. Treatise 22: On Various [experiences] During Prayer and on the Limits of the Power of the…
23. 23. Treatise 23: On the Speech of True Knowledge
24. Treatise 24: On the Things a Brother is Provided with in His Cell
25. Treatise 25: The Opportunities of the Soul that Seeks Profound Contemplation to Immerse…
26. Treatise 26: Against Those Who Say: If God is Good Wherefore Has He Made These Things?
27. Treatise 27: In How Many Different Ways the Sight of Incorporeal Beings is Received by…
28. Treatise 28: A Symbolical Demonstration Concerning the Theory of Sabbath and Sunday
29. Treatise 29: On the Different Excellent Methods of Wise Providence in Educating Pupils
30. Treatise 30: On the Power and the Evil Action of Sin and Concerning Those in Whom It…
31. Treatise 31: The Struggle or Rather the Danger of Falling that Excellent Works Incur
32. Treatise 32: On the Aim of Guarding the Heart and on Subtle Speculation that Looks into…
33. 33. Treatise 33: On the Action of Divine Love
34. Treatise 34: On the Natural Children of Virtues and the Like
35. Treatise 35: A Treatise in Questions and Answers Concerning Constant Behaviour and Every…
36. Treatise 36: On the Various Ways in Which Satan Wars Against Those Who Tread the Narrow…
37. Treatise 37: On the Things the Exact Use of Which I Have Learnt by the Knowledge of…
38. Treatise 38: Short Sentences Concerning the Distinction of the Mind’s Impulses
39. 39. Treatise 39: Helpful Advice Based on Love
40. Treatise 40: Exposition Concerning the Degrees of the Path, Namely Concerning the Power…
41. Treatise 41: A Letter Which He Wrote to One of the Brethren Who Loved Solitude Concerning…
42. Treatise 42: The Answer He Sent His Natural and Spiritual Brother Who Had Tried to…
43. 43. Treatise 43: Profitable Words Full of Spiritual Wisdom
44. Treatise 44: Concerning How Many Degrees Knowledge Has and Concerning the Degrees of Faith
45. 45. Treatise 45: Profitable Advice
46. 46. Treatise 46: Other Considerations
47. Treatise 47: On the Angelic Emotions Stirring in Us by Divine Providence for the…
48. Treatise 48: On the Varying States of Light and Darkness to Which the Soul is Subject at…
49. Treatise 49: On the Gloomy Darkness Which During Solitude Befalls Those Who Walk in the…
50. Treatise 50: Short Sections Containing Various Considerations in Which is Shown the…
51. Treatise 51: On the Three Degrees of Knowledge and the Discrimination Between Their…
52. Treatise 52: Short Sections on a Different Subject on the Distinction of the Impulses of…
53. Treatise 53: On Prayer and the Other Things Which are Necessarily to Be Sought in…
54. 54. Treatise 54: Other Explanations Concerning Maggenanutha
55. Treatise 55: How the Hidden Alertness Within the Soul is to Be Preserved, How Sleepiness…
56. Treatise 56: Beautiful Considerations Concerning the Life of Man
57. Treatise 57: How Patience for the Sake of the Love of God Acquires Help from God
58. Treatise 58: On Those Who Live in the Neighbourhood of God and Pass All Their Days in a…
59. 59. Treatise 59: A Profitable Discourse
60. Treatise 60: That Without Necessity We Should Not Desire nor Ask that Any Sign Should…
61. Treatise 61: For Which Causes God Admits Temptations to His Friends
62. Treatise 62: That by the Thoughts Which Stir in a Man He Knows to Which Degree He Belongs…
63. Treatise 63: Why It is that People Who are in the Psychic State of Knowledge Consider…
64. Treatise 64: On the Many Varying States Which Cling to the Mind and are Purified by Prayer
65. Treatise 65: Good Advice Giving Instructions Concerning Watchfulness and Directions…
66. Treatise 66: A Letter Which He Sent to His Friend in Which He Expounds Some Things…
67. Treatise 67: An Elucidation with Examples Concerning the Distinctions Between…
68. 68. Treatise 68: Short Sections
69. 69. Treatise 69: How the Intelligent Have to Dwell in Solitude
70. Treatise 70: That We Can Understand the Degree of Our Behaviour by the Varying States of…
71. 71. Treatise 71: On the Influences Proceeding from Grace
72. Treatise 72: On True Knowledge and on Temptations and that It is Becoming to Know Exactly…
73. Treatise 73: The Concise Sense of the [foregoing] Section Together with Explanations of…
74. Treatise 74: On the Discrimination of Virtues and the Scope of the Whole Course and the…
75. Treatise 75: On Hidden States and the Powers and Influences Which are in Them
76. 76. Treatise 76: Short Sayings
77. 77. Treatise 77: This Chapter is Full of Life
78. Treatise 78: On the Profit [arising] from the Flight from the World the Method of Which…
79. Treatise 79: How the Hidden Impulses Vary Along with the Variation of Outward Behaviour
80. Treatise 80: On Vigils and on the Many Different Kinds of Labours During Them and that It…
81. Treatise 81: An Answer to a Brother Who Had Asked Him Why When Our Lord Has Defined Mercy…
82. Treatise 82: How Much Honour Humility Possesses and How High Its Rank is