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

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  Speaker 1: Volume two, Chapter sixteen of the Autobiography of Madame Quillon.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. The physician of whom I have spoken
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  Speaker 1: was disposed to lay open his heart to me. Our
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  Speaker 1: Lord gave him through me all that was necessary for him.
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  Speaker 1: For though disposed to the spiritual life, yet for want
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  Speaker 1: of courage and fidelity, he had not duly advanced in it.
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  Speaker 1: He had occasion to bring to me some of his
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  Speaker 1: companions who were friars, and the Lord took hold of
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  Speaker 1: them all. It was at that very same time that
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  Speaker 1: the others of the same order were making all the
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  Speaker 1: ravages I have mentioned, and opposing with all they might
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  Speaker 1: the holy Spirit of the Lord. I could not but
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  Speaker 1: admire to see how the Lord was pleased to make
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  Speaker 1: amends for former damages, pouring out his spirit in abundance
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  Speaker 1: on these men, while the others were laboring vehemently against it,
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  Speaker 1: doing all they could to destroy its dominion and efficacy
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  Speaker 1: in their fellow mortals. But those good souls, instead of
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  Speaker 1: being tanger by persecutions, grew the stronger by it. The
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  Speaker 1: Superior and the Master of the novices of the house
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  Speaker 1: in which this doctor was declared against me without gnawing me.
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  Speaker 1: They were grievously chackrin that a woman, as they said,
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  Speaker 1: should be so much flocked to and so much sought
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  Speaker 1: after looking at things as they were in themselves, and
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  Speaker 1: not as they were in the Lord, who does whatever
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  Speaker 1: pleases him. They had condemned for the gift which was
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  Speaker 1: lodged in so mean an instrument, instead of esteeming the
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  Speaker 1: Lord and his grace. Yet this good brother at length
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  Speaker 1: got the Superior to come to see me and thank
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  Speaker 1: me for the good which he said I had done.
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  Speaker 1: Our Lord saw ordered that he found something in my
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  Speaker 1: conversation which reached and took hold of him. At length
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  Speaker 1: he was completely brought over. He it was, who, some
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  Speaker 1: time after being visitor, dispersed such a number of those
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  Speaker 1: books brought at they own church, which the others had
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  Speaker 1: tried utably to destroy. Oh, how wonderful thou my God
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  Speaker 1: in all thy ways, how wise in all thy conduct,
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  Speaker 1: how full of love? How well thou canst frustrate all
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  Speaker 1: the false wisdom of men and triumph over thy vain pretensions.
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  Speaker 1: There aware. In this novitiate many novices, the eldest of them,
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  Speaker 1: grew so very uneasy under his vocation that he knew
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  Speaker 1: not what to do. So great was his trouble that
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  Speaker 1: he could neither read, study, pray, nor do scarcely any
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  Speaker 1: of his duties. His companion brought him to me. Spoke
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  Speaker 1: a while together, and the Lord discovered to me both
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  Speaker 1: the cause of his disorder and its remedy. I told
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  Speaker 1: it to him, and he began to practice prayer, even
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  Speaker 1: that of the heart. He was, on a sudden wonderfully changed,
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  Speaker 1: and the Lord highly favored him. As I spoke to him,
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  Speaker 1: grace wrote in his heart, and his soul drunk it
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  Speaker 1: in as the parched ground does the gentle of rain.
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  Speaker 1: He felt himself relieved of his pain before he left
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  Speaker 1: the room. He then readily, joyfully, and perfectly performed all
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  Speaker 1: his exercises, which before were done with reluctance and disgust.
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  Speaker 1: He now both studied and prayed easily, and discharged all
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  Speaker 1: his duties in such a manner that he was farse
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  Speaker 1: known to himself or to others. What astonished him most
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  Speaker 1: was a remarkable gift of prayer. He saw that there
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  Speaker 1: was readily given him what he could never have before,
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  Speaker 1: whatever pains he took for it. This enlivening gift was
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  Speaker 1: the principle which made him act, gave him grace for
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  Speaker 1: his employments, and an inward fruition of the grace of God,
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  Speaker 1: which brought all good with it. He gradually brought me
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  Speaker 1: all the novices, all of whom partook of the effects
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  Speaker 1: of grace, though differently according to their different temperaments. Never
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  Speaker 1: was there a more flourish novitiate. The Master and Superior
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  Speaker 1: could not forbear admiring so great a change in their novices,
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  Speaker 1: though they did not know the cause of it. One day,
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  Speaker 1: as they were speaking of it to the Collector, for
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  Speaker 1: they esteemed him highly on account of his virtue, he said,
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  Speaker 1: my father's if you will permit me, I will tell
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  Speaker 1: you the reason of it. It is the lady against
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  Speaker 1: whom you have exclaimed so much without knowing her, whom
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  Speaker 1: God has made use of For all of these they
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  Speaker 1: were very surprised, and both the Master, though advanced in age,
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  Speaker 1: and the Superior then submitted humbly to practice prayer after
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  Speaker 1: the manner taught by a little book which the Lord
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  Speaker 1: inspired me to write, and of which I shall say
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  Speaker 1: more Hereafter they reaped such benefit from it that the
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  Speaker 1: Superior said to me, I am become quite a new man.
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  Speaker 1: I could not practice prayer before because my reasoning faculty
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  Speaker 1: was grown dull and exhausted. And now I do it
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  Speaker 1: as often as I will, with ease, with much fruit,
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  Speaker 1: and a quite different sensation of the presence of God.
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  Speaker 1: And the Master said, I have been a friar these
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  Speaker 1: forty years, and can truly say that I never knew
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  Speaker 1: how to pray, nor have I ever known or tasted
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  Speaker 1: of God as I have done since I read that
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  Speaker 1: little book. Many others were again to God, whom I
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  Speaker 1: looked on to be my children. He gave me three
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  Speaker 1: famous friars of an order by which I have been
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  Speaker 1: and still am, very much persecuted. He made them also
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  Speaker 1: of service to a great number of nuns, of virtuous women,
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  Speaker 1: and even men of the world. Among the rest, a
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  Speaker 1: young man of quality who had quitted the order of
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  Speaker 1: the Knights of Malta to take that of the priesthood.
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  Speaker 1: He was the relation of a bishop near him, who
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  Speaker 1: had other designs of preferment for him. He has been
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  Speaker 1: much favored of the Lord, and is constant in prayer.
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  Speaker 1: I could not describe the great number of souls which
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  Speaker 1: were then given me, as well maids, as wives, priests
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  Speaker 1: and friars. But there were three cures, one canon and
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  Speaker 1: one Grand Vicar, who were more particularly given me. There
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  Speaker 1: was one priest for whom I suffered much through his
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  Speaker 1: not being willing to die to himself and loving himself
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  Speaker 1: too much with a sad regret. I saw him decaying,
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  Speaker 1: falling away. As for the others, there are some of
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  Speaker 1: them who had continued steadfast and immovable, and some whom
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  Speaker 1: the tempest had shaken a little but not torn away.
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  Speaker 1: Those these start aside, yet they still return. But those
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  Speaker 1: who are snatched quite away return no more. There was
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  Speaker 1: one true daughter given me, whom our Lord made use
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  Speaker 1: of to gain many others to him. She was in
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  Speaker 1: a strange state of death when I first saw her,
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  Speaker 1: and by me he gave her life and peace. She
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  Speaker 1: afterwards fell extremely ill. The doctor said she would die,
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  Speaker 1: but I had an assurance of the contrary, and that
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  Speaker 1: God would make use of her to gain souls as
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  Speaker 1: she has done. There was in a monastery a young
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  Speaker 1: woman confined in a state of destruction. I saw her
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  Speaker 1: knew her case that it was not what they thought
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  Speaker 1: it was. As soon as I had spoken to her,
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  Speaker 1: she recovered. But the priors did not like that I
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  Speaker 1: should tell her my thoughts of it, because the person
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  Speaker 1: who had brought her thither was her friend. They plagued
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  Speaker 1: her more than before, and threw her back again into
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  Speaker 1: her destruction. A sister of another monastery had been for
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  Speaker 1: eight years in a deep melancholy, unrelieved by any one,
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  Speaker 1: her director increased by practicing remedies contrary to her disorder.
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  Speaker 1: I had never been in that monastery, for I did
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  Speaker 1: not go into such places unless I was sent for
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  Speaker 1: as I did not think it right to intrude, but
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  Speaker 1: left myself to be conducted of providence. I was very
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  Speaker 1: much surprised that at eight o'clock at night, one came
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  Speaker 1: for me from the prioress. It was in the long
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  Speaker 1: days of summer, and being near I went, I met
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  Speaker 1: with a sister who told me her case. She had
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  Speaker 1: gone to such excess that, seeing no enmity for read,
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  Speaker 1: she had taken a knife to kill herself. The knife
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  Speaker 1: fell out of her hand, and a person coming to
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  Speaker 1: see her had advised her to speak to me, Our
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  Speaker 1: Lord made me know at first what the matter was,
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  Speaker 1: and that he required her to resign herself to him,
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  Speaker 1: instead of resisting him, as they had made her do
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  Speaker 1: for eight years. I was instrumental to draw her into
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  Speaker 1: such a resignation that she entered at once into a
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  Speaker 1: piece of paradise. All her pains and troubles were instantly punished,
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  Speaker 1: and never return again. She was the greatest capacity of
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  Speaker 1: any in the house. She was presently to so change
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  Speaker 1: as to be the admiration of the whole community. Our
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  Speaker 1: Lord gave her a very great gift of prayer and
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  Speaker 1: his continual presence, with a faculty and readiness for everything.
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  Speaker 1: A domestic also, who troubled her for twenty two years past,
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  Speaker 1: was delivered from her troubles. That produced a close tie
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  Speaker 1: of friendship between the Prioress and me. As the wonderful
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  Speaker 1: change and the peace of this sister surprised her, she
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  Speaker 1: having so often seen her in her terrible sorrow. I
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  Speaker 1: also contracted others such ties in the monastery where there
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  Speaker 1: are souls under the Lord's special regard, whom he drew
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  Speaker 1: to himself by the means he had been pleased to
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  Speaker 1: make choice. I was specially moved to read the poly Scriptures.
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  Speaker 1: When I began, I was envoiled to write the passage,
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  Speaker 1: and instantly its explication was given me, which I also wrote,
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  Speaker 1: going on with inconceivable expicion, light being poured in upon
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  Speaker 1: me in such a manner that I found I had
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  Speaker 1: in myself latent treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which I
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  Speaker 1: had not yet known of. Before I wrote, I knew
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  Speaker 1: not what I was going to write, And after I
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  Speaker 1: had written, I remembered nothing of what I had panned,
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  Speaker 1: nor could I make use of any part of it.
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  Speaker 1: For the help of souls, the Lord gave me at
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  Speaker 1: the time I spoke to them, without any study or
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  Speaker 1: reflection of mine, all that was necessary for them. Thus
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  Speaker 1: the Lord made me go on with an explanation of
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  Speaker 1: the holy internal sense of the Scripture. I had no
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  Speaker 1: other book but the Bible, nor ever made use of
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  Speaker 1: any but that, without even seeking for any. When in
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  Speaker 1: writing on the Old Destinent I made use of passages
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  Speaker 1: of the New to support what I had said, it
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  Speaker 1: was without seeking them. They were given me along with
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  Speaker 1: the explication, And in writing on the New Testament the
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  Speaker 1: ring making use of passages of the Old, they were
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  Speaker 1: given me in like manner without my seeking anything. I
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  Speaker 1: had scarce any time for writing, But in the night,
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  Speaker 1: allowing only one or two hours to sleep, the Lord
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  Speaker 1: made me write with so much purity that I was
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  Speaker 1: obliged to leave off or be kin again as he
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  Speaker 1: was pleased to order. When I wrote by day, often
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  Speaker 1: suddenly interrupted, I left the word unfinished, and he afterward
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  Speaker 1: gave me what he pleased. If I gave way to reflection,
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  Speaker 1: I was punished for it and could not proceed. Yet
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  Speaker 1: sometimes I was not duly attentive to the Divine Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: thinking I did well to continue when I had time,
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  Speaker 1: even without feeling his immediate impulse or enlightening influence. From
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  Speaker 1: hence it is easy to see some places clear and consistent,
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  Speaker 1: and others which have neither taste nor unction. Such is
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  Speaker 1: the difference of the Spirit of God from the human
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  Speaker 1: and natural spirit. Although they are left just as I
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  Speaker 1: wrote them, Yet I am ready if order to adjust
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  Speaker 1: them according to my present light. Didst thou not, o,
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  Speaker 1: my God, turn me a hundred ways to prove whether
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  Speaker 1: I was without any reserve through every kind of trial,
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  Speaker 1: or whether I had not yet some little interest for myself.
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  Speaker 1: My soul became hereby readily too pliable to every discovery
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  Speaker 1: of the divine will, and whatever kind of humiliations attended
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  Speaker 1: me to counterbalance my lord's favors, till everything igh or
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  Speaker 1: low was rendered alike to me. Methinks the Lord acts
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  Speaker 1: with his dearest friends as the sea with its waves.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it pushes them against the rocks, where they break
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  Speaker 1: in pieces. Sometimes it rolls them on the sand, or
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  Speaker 1: dashes them on the mire. Then instantly it retakes them
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  Speaker 1: into the depths of its own bosom, where they are
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  Speaker 1: absorbed with the same repidity that they were first ejected.
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  Speaker 1: Even among the good, the far greater part are souls
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  Speaker 1: only of mercy. Surely that is well. But to appertain
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  Speaker 1: to divine justice, oh, how rare, and yet how great.
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  Speaker 1: Mercy is all distributive in favor of the creature. But
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  Speaker 1: justice destroys everything of the creature, without sparing anything. The
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  Speaker 1: lady who was my particular friend began to conceive some
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  Speaker 1: jealousy on the applause given me, so permitting it for
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  Speaker 1: the further purification of your soul through this weakness and
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  Speaker 1: the pain it caused. Here also some confessors began to
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  Speaker 1: be uneasy, saying that it was none of my business
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  Speaker 1: to invade their province and to mandle in the helps
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  Speaker 1: of souls. But there were some of the penitents which
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  Speaker 1: had a great affection for me. It was easy for
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  Speaker 1: me to observe the difference between those confessors who, in
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  Speaker 1: the conducting of souls seek nothing but God, and those
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  Speaker 1: who seek themselves. Therein, the first came to see me
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  Speaker 1: and rejoiced greatly at the grace of God bestowed on
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  Speaker 1: they penitence, without fixing their attention on the instrument. The others,
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  Speaker 1: on the contrary, try underhand to stir up the town
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  Speaker 1: against me. I saw that they would be in the
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  Speaker 1: right to oppose me if I had intruded of myself.
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  Speaker 1: But I could do nothing but what the Lord made
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  Speaker 1: me do. At times there came some to dispute and
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  Speaker 1: oppose me. Two friars came, one of them a man
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  Speaker 1: of profound learning and a great preacher. They came separately,
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  Speaker 1: after having studied a number of difficult things, to propose
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  Speaker 1: to me. Though they were matters far out of my reach,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord made me answer as justly as if I
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  Speaker 1: had studied them all my life. After which I spoke
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  Speaker 1: to them as He inspired me. They went away not
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  Speaker 1: only convinced and satisfied, but affected with the love of God.
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  Speaker 1: I still continued writing with a prodigious swiftness, for the
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  Speaker 1: hand could scarcely follow fast enough the spirit which dictated
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  Speaker 1: through the whole progress of so long a work. I
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  Speaker 1: never alter my manner, nor made use of any other
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  Speaker 1: book than the Bible itself. The transcriber, whatever diligence he used,
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  Speaker 1: could not copy in five days what I wrote in
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  Speaker 1: one night. Whatever is good in it comes from God only.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever is otherwise comes from myself. I mean from the
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  Speaker 1: mixture which I have made without duly attending to it
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  Speaker 1: of my own impurity. With His pure and chaste doctrine.
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  Speaker 1: In the day, had scarcely time to eat by reason
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  Speaker 1: of the vast numbers of people which came throning to me.
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  Speaker 1: I wrote the Canticles in a day and a half,
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  Speaker 1: and received several visits. Besides, here I may add to
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  Speaker 1: what I have said about my writings, that a considerable
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  Speaker 1: part of the Book of Judges happened by some means
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  Speaker 1: to be lost. Being desired to render that book complete,
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  Speaker 1: I wrote again the places lost. Afterward, when the people
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  Speaker 1: were about leaving the house, they were found. My former
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  Speaker 1: and latter explications on comparison were found to be perfectly
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  Speaker 1: conformable to each other, which greatly surprised persons of knowledge
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  Speaker 1: and merit who attested the truth of it. There came
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  Speaker 1: to see me a counselor of the Parliament, a servant
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  Speaker 1: of God, who, finding on my table a tract on
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  Speaker 1: prayer which I had written long before, desired me to
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  Speaker 1: lend it. Having read it and liked it much, he
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  Speaker 1: lent it to some friends to whom he thought it
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  Speaker 1: might be of service. Every one wanted copies of it.
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  Speaker 1: He resolved therefore to have it printed. The impression was begun,
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  Speaker 1: and proper approcations given to it. They requested me to
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  Speaker 1: write a preface, which I did, and that was that
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  Speaker 1: little book printed. This counselor was one of my intimate friends,
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  Speaker 1: and a pattern of piety. The book has already passed
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  Speaker 1: through five or six editions, and our Lord has given
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  Speaker 1: a very great benediction to it. Those good friars took
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  Speaker 1: fifteen hundred of them. The devil became so enraged against
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  Speaker 1: me on account of the conquest which got made by me,
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  Speaker 1: that I was assured he was going to stare up
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  Speaker 1: against me, a violent persecution. All that gave me no trouble,
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  Speaker 1: let him stare up against me. Ever, so strange persecutions,
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  Speaker 1: I know they will all serve to the glory of
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  Speaker 1: my God. D of Chapter sixteen, Athens, Greece, May of
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  Speaker 1: two thousand nine.