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51 - Autobiography of Madame Guyon by Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon · Autobiography of Madame Guyon

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  Speaker 1: The Autobiography of Madame Chillon by Ginkion, Volume two, chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty one. This Librivoux recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: At this time I had my first acquaintance with the
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  Speaker 1: Bishop of Nieu. I was introduced by an intimate friend,
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  Speaker 1: the Duke of Chevrouse. I gave him the foregoing history
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  Speaker 1: of my life, and he confessed that he had found
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  Speaker 1: therein such an unction as he had rarely done in
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  Speaker 1: other books, and that he had spent three days in
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  Speaker 1: writting it, with an impression of the presence of God
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  Speaker 1: on his mind all that time. I proposed to the
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  Speaker 1: Bishop to examine all my writings, which he took four
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  Speaker 1: or five months to do, and then advanced all his objections,
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  Speaker 1: to which I gave answers. From his unacquaintance with the
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  Speaker 1: interior paths, I could not clear up all the difficulties
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  Speaker 1: which he found in them. He admitted that looking into
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  Speaker 1: the ecclesiastical histories for ages past, we may see that
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  Speaker 1: God has sometimes made use of laymen and of women
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  Speaker 1: to instruct, edify and help souls in their progress to perfection.
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  Speaker 1: I think one of the reasons of God's acting thus
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  Speaker 1: is that glory may not be ascribed to any but
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  Speaker 1: to himself alone. For this purpose, he has chosen the
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  Speaker 1: weak things of this word to confound, such as almighty
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  Speaker 1: first career AtheOS, Chapter one, verse twenty seven. Jealous of
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  Speaker 1: the attributes which men pay to other men, which are
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  Speaker 1: due only to himself, he has made a paradox of
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  Speaker 1: such persons, that ye alone may have the glory of
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  Speaker 1: his own works. I pray God with my whole heart,
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  Speaker 1: sooner to crush me utterly with the most dreadful destruction,
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  Speaker 1: than to suffer me to take the least honor to
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  Speaker 1: myself of anything which He has been pleased to do
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  Speaker 1: by me for the good of others. I am only
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  Speaker 1: a poor nothing. God is all powerful. He delights to
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  Speaker 1: operate and exercise his power by mere nothings. The first
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  Speaker 1: time that I wrote a history of myself, it was
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  Speaker 1: very short. In it, I had particularized my faults and sins,
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  Speaker 1: and said little of the favors of God. I was
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  Speaker 1: ordered to burn it, to write another, and in it
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  Speaker 1: to omit. Nothing any way remarkable that had befallen me.
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  Speaker 1: I did it. It is a crime to publish secrets
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  Speaker 1: of the king, but it is a good thing to
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  Speaker 1: declare the favors of the Lord are God, and to
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  Speaker 1: magnify his mercies. As the outcry against me became more violent,
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  Speaker 1: and Madame Mendanon was moved to declare against me, I
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  Speaker 1: sent to her through the Duke of Beauverre, requesting the
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  Speaker 1: appointment of proper persons to examine my life and doctrines,
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  Speaker 1: offering to retire into any prison until fully exculpated. My
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  Speaker 1: proposal was rejected. In the meantime, one of my most
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  Speaker 1: intimate friends and supporters, Monsieur for God, was called away
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  Speaker 1: by death. I felt his loss very deeply, but rejoiced
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  Speaker 1: in his felicity. He was a true servant of God.
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  Speaker 1: Determined to retire out of the way of giving offense
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  Speaker 1: to any I wrote to some of my friends and
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  Speaker 1: bade them a last farewell, not knowing whether I were
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  Speaker 1: to be carried off by the indisposition which I then had,
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  Speaker 1: which had been a constant fever for forty days past
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  Speaker 1: or to recover from it. Referring to the Counteness of
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  Speaker 1: g and the Duchess of m I wrote, when these
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  Speaker 1: ladies and others were in the vanities of the world,
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  Speaker 1: when they patched and painted, and some of them were
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  Speaker 1: in the way to ruin their families by gaming and
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  Speaker 1: profusion of expense in dress. Nobody arose to say anything
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  Speaker 1: against it. They were quietly suffered to do it. But
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  Speaker 1: when they have broken off from all these, then they
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  Speaker 1: cry out against me as if I had ruined them.
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  Speaker 1: Had I drawn them from piety into luxury, they would
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  Speaker 1: not make such an outcry. The Duchess of m at
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  Speaker 1: Her giving herself up to God, though herself obliged to
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  Speaker 1: quit the court, which was to her like a dangerous rock,
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  Speaker 1: in order to bestow her time on the education of
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  Speaker 1: her children and the care of her family, which till
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  Speaker 1: then she had neglected. I beseech you, therefore, to gather
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  Speaker 1: all the memorials you can against me. If I am
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  Speaker 1: found guilty of the things they accused me of, I
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  Speaker 1: ought to be punished more than any other, since God
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  Speaker 1: has brought me to know Him and love Him, and
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  Speaker 1: I am well assured that there is no communion between
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  Speaker 1: Christ and Belial. I send them my two little printed
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  Speaker 1: books with my commentaries on the Holy Scriptures. I also,
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  Speaker 1: by the order, wrote a work to facilitate the examination
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  Speaker 1: and to spare them as much time and trouble as
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  Speaker 1: I could, which was to collect a great number of
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  Speaker 1: passages out of approved writers, which show the conformity of
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  Speaker 1: my writings with those used by the Holy Penmen. I
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  Speaker 1: caused them to be transcribed by the Choir as I
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  Speaker 1: had written them, in order to send them to the
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  Speaker 1: three Commissioners. I also, as occasion presented, clear up the
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  Speaker 1: dubious and obscure places I had written them at a
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  Speaker 1: time when the affairs of Molinus had not broken out.
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  Speaker 1: I used the less precaution in expressing my thoughts, not
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  Speaker 1: imagining that they would ever be turned into an evil sense.
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  Speaker 1: This work was entitled The Justifications. It was composed in
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  Speaker 1: fifty days and appeared to be very sufficient to clear
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  Speaker 1: up the matter. But the Bishop of Nyu would never
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  Speaker 1: suffer it to be read. After all the examine nations
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  Speaker 1: and making nothing out against me, who would not have thought,
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  Speaker 1: but they could have left me to rest in peace.
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  Speaker 1: Quite otherwise, the more my innocence appeared, the more did they,
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  Speaker 1: who had undertaken to render me criminal, put every spring
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  Speaker 1: in motion to effect it. I offered the Bishop of
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  Speaker 1: Mew to go to spend some time in any community
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  Speaker 1: within his diocese, that he might be better acquainted with me.
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  Speaker 1: He proposed to me that of Saint Mary Demeue, which
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  Speaker 1: I accepted. But in going in the depth of winter,
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  Speaker 1: I had liked to have perished in the snow, being
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  Speaker 1: stopped four hours the coach having enter into it, and
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  Speaker 1: being almost buried in it in a deep hollow. I
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  Speaker 1: was taken out at the door with one maid. We
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  Speaker 1: sat upon the snow, resigned to the mercy of God,
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  Speaker 1: and expected nothing but death. I never had more tranquility
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  Speaker 1: of mind, though chilled and soaked with the snow which
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  Speaker 1: melted on us. Occasions like this are such as show
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  Speaker 1: whether we are perfectly resigned to God or not. This
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  Speaker 1: poor girl and I were easy in our minds, in
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  Speaker 1: a state of entire resignation, though sure of dying if
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  Speaker 1: we passed the night there, and seeing no likelihood of
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  Speaker 1: any one coming to our succor. At length, some wagoners
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  Speaker 1: came up, who with difficulty drew us through the snow.
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  Speaker 1: The Beesho, when he heard of it, was astonished and
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  Speaker 1: had no little self complacency to think that I had
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  Speaker 1: thus risked my life to obey him so punctually. Yet
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  Speaker 1: afterward he denounced it as artifice and hypocrisy. There were times, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: when I found nature overcharg'd, But the love of God
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  Speaker 1: and his grace rendered sweet to me to the very
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  Speaker 1: worst of bitters. His invisible hands supported me. Else I
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  Speaker 1: had sunk under so many propations. Sometimes I said to myself,
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  Speaker 1: all thy waves and thy blows are gone over me
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  Speaker 1: some forty two, verse seven. Thou hast been thy ball
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  Speaker 1: and set me as a mark for the arrow. Thou
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  Speaker 1: hast caused all the arrows of thy quiver to enter
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  Speaker 1: into my veins Lamentations three, twelve thirteen. It seemed to
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  Speaker 1: me as if every one thought if he was in
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  Speaker 1: the right to treat me ill, and rendered service to
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  Speaker 1: God in doing it. I then comprehended that it was
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  Speaker 1: the very manner in which Jesus Christ suffered. He was
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  Speaker 1: numbered with the transgressors Mark fifteen twenty eight. He was
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  Speaker 1: condemned by the suffering pontiff, chief priests, doctors of the law,
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  Speaker 1: and judges deputed by the Romans who value themselves on
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  Speaker 1: doing justice. Happy are they who, by suffering for the
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  Speaker 1: will of God under all the like circumstances, have so
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  Speaker 1: near a relation to the sufferings of Jesus Christ. For
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  Speaker 1: six weeks after my arrival at knew I was in
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  Speaker 1: a continual fever, nor had I recovered from my disposition.
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  Speaker 1: When I was waited on by the Bishop, who would
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  Speaker 1: fain have compelled me to give it under my hand
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  Speaker 1: that I did not believe the word incarnate or Christ
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  Speaker 1: manifest in the flesh. I answered him that, through the
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  Speaker 1: grace of God, I know how to suffer even to death,
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  Speaker 1: but not how to sign such a falsehood. Several of
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  Speaker 1: the nuns, who overheard this conversation, perceiving the sentiments of
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  Speaker 1: the bishop, joined with the prioress in giving a testimonial
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  Speaker 1: not only of my good conduct, but of their belief
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  Speaker 1: in the soundness of my faith. The Bishop, some days
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  Speaker 1: after brought me a confession of faith and a request
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  Speaker 1: to submit by books to the Church that I may
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  Speaker 1: sign it, promising to give me a certificate which he
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  Speaker 1: had prepared on my delivering my submission sign he, notwithstanding
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  Speaker 1: his promise, refused to give the certificate. Some time after,
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  Speaker 1: he endeavored to make me sign his pastoral letter and
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  Speaker 1: acknowledge that I had fallen into those errors which he
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  Speaker 1: there lays to my charge, and made many demands of
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  Speaker 1: me of the like absurd and unreasonable nature, threatening me
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  Speaker 1: with those persecutions I afterward endure in case of no compliance. However,
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  Speaker 1: I condinue resolute in refusing to put my name to falsehoods.
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  Speaker 1: At length. After I had remained about six months, at noon,
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  Speaker 1: he gave me the certificate. Finding Madame Maindenon disapproved of
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  Speaker 1: the certificate he had granted, he wanted to give me
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  Speaker 1: another in place of it. My refusal to deliver up
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  Speaker 1: the first certificate enraged him, and as I understood, they
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  Speaker 1: intended to push matters with the utmost violence. I thought
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  Speaker 1: that although I was resigned to whatever might fall out,
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  Speaker 1: yet I ought to take prudent measures to avoid the
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  Speaker 1: threatening storm. Many places of retreat were offered me, but
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  Speaker 1: I was not free in my mind to accept of
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  Speaker 1: any nor to embarrass anybody, nor involve in trouble my
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  Speaker 1: friends and my family to whom they might attribute my escape.
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  Speaker 1: I took the resolution of continuing in Paris, of living
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  Speaker 1: there in some private place with my maids who were
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  Speaker 1: trusty and sure, and to hide myself from the view
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  Speaker 1: of the world. I continued that for five or six months,
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  Speaker 1: I passed the day alone in reading, in praying to God,
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  Speaker 1: and in working. But on December twenty seventh, sixteen ninety five,
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  Speaker 1: I was arrested, though exceedingly indisposed at that time, and
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  Speaker 1: conducted to Vincennes. I was three days in the custody
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  Speaker 1: of Monsieur de Grace, who had arrested me. Because the
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  Speaker 1: King would not consent to my being put into prison,
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  Speaker 1: saying several times over that the convent was sufficient. They
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  Speaker 1: deceived him by still stronger calumnists. They painted me in
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  Speaker 1: his eyes in colors so black that they made him
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  Speaker 1: scruple his goodness and equity. He then consented to my
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  Speaker 1: being taken to Vincent's. I shall not speak of that
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  Speaker 1: long persecution which has made so much noise for a
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  Speaker 1: series of ten years, imprisonments in all sorts of prisons,
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  Speaker 1: and of a punishment almost as long and not yet ended,
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  Speaker 1: through crosses, calumnies, and all imaginable sorts of sufferings. There
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  Speaker 1: are facts too odious on the part of the diverse persons,
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  Speaker 1: which charity induces me to cover. I have borne long
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  Speaker 1: and sore languishings and oppressive and painful maladies without relief.
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  Speaker 1: I have been also inwardly under great desolations for several
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  Speaker 1: months in such sort that I could only say these words,
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  Speaker 1: My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? All
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  Speaker 1: creatures seemed to be against me. I then put myself
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  Speaker 1: on the side of God against myself. Perhaps some will
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  Speaker 1: be surprised at my refusing to give the details of
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  Speaker 1: the greatest and strongest crosses of my life, after I
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  Speaker 1: have related those which were less. I thought it proper
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  Speaker 1: to tell something of the crosses of my youth, to
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  Speaker 1: show the crucifying conduct which God held over me. I
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  Speaker 1: thought myself obliged to relate certain facts to manifest their falsehood,
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  Speaker 1: the conduct of those by whom they had passed, and
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  Speaker 1: the authors of those persecutions of which I have been
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  Speaker 1: only the accidental object, as I was only persecuted in
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  Speaker 1: order to involve there in persons of great merit, whom,
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  Speaker 1: being out of their reach by themselves, they therefore could
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  Speaker 1: not personally attack, but by confounding they affairs with mine.
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  Speaker 1: I thought I own this to religion, piety, my friends,
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  Speaker 1: my family, and myself. While I was prisoner at Vincense
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  Speaker 1: and Monsieur de larraine e summing me, I passed my
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  Speaker 1: time in great peace, condemned to pass the rest of
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  Speaker 1: my life there, if such were the will of God,
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  Speaker 1: I sang songs of joy, which the maid who served
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  Speaker 1: me learnt by heart. As fast as I made them.
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  Speaker 1: We together sank thy praises, O, My God. The stones
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  Speaker 1: of my prison looked in my eyes like rubies. I
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  Speaker 1: esteemed them more than all the gauty brilliances of a
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  Speaker 1: vain word. My heart was full of that joy which
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  Speaker 1: thou givest to them who loved thee in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of they greatest crosses, when things were carried to the
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  Speaker 1: greatest extermities, being then in the best till I said, O,
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  Speaker 1: my God, if thou art at least to render me
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  Speaker 1: a new spectacle to me men and angels, thy will
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  Speaker 1: be done. December seventeen nine. Here she left off her narrative,
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  Speaker 1: though she lived a retired life above seven years after
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  Speaker 1: this date, what she had written being only done in
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  Speaker 1: obedience to the commands of her director. She died June ninth,
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventeen. Employees in her seventeenth year and of the
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  Speaker 1: Book of the Autobiography of Madame Chillon Athens, Greece, July
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  Speaker 1: of two thousand nine,