Part Second. How is a man to attain to a perfect, poor life?

How is a man to attain to a perfect, poor life?

1.

The second part of this book treats of how a man shall come to a perfect, poor life, in which man seizeth hold on the highest and closest (perfection), and what things a man must consider in order that he become poor. First, man must consider the teaching and the life of Jesus Christ, for He hath taught poverty and lived it. And a man should follow the teaching and the life, if he wisheth to be perfect, for He saith, “Whoso loveth Me keepeth My commandments and My counsels, and heareth My word.”⁹¹⁹¹   John xiv. 23. The love to our Lord, in the lowest degree, is that we keep the Ten Commandments, which are necessary for everlasting life. The second degree of love to Jesus is, that we keep His counsels, that is, His teaching of the Holy Gospels, in which He hath counselled us to follow Him in .a poor life, as when He said. “Whoso cometh after Me, let him deny himself.”