The Autobiography of Madame Guyon

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

MADAME GUYON



IN TWO PARTS



MOODY PRESS
CHICAGO


_Printed in the United States of America_




INTRODUCTION


In the history of the world few persons have attained that high degree
of spirituality reached by Madame Guyon.

Born in a corrupt age, in a nation marked for its degeneracy; nursed
and reared in a church, as profligate as the world in which it was
embedded; persecuted at every step of her career; groping as she did in
spiritual desolation and ignorance, nevertheless, she arose to the
highest pinnacle of pre-eminence in spirituality and Christian
devotion.

She lived and died in the Catholic Church; yet was tormented and
afflicted; was maltreated and abused; and was imprisoned for years by
the highest authorities of that church.

Her sole crime was that of loving God. The ground of her offense was
found in her supreme devotion and unmeasured attachment to Christ. When
they demanded her money and estate, she gladly surrendered them, even
to her impoverishment, but it availed nothing. The crime of loving Him
in whom her whole being was absorbed, never could be mitigated, or
forgiven.

She loved only to do good to her fellow-creatures, and to such an
extent was she filled with the Holy Ghost, and with the power of God,
that she wrought wonders in her day, and has not ceased to influence
the ages that have followed.

Viewed from a human standpoint, it is a sublime spectacle, to see a
solitary woman subvert all the machinations of kings and courtiers;
laugh to scorn all the malignant enginery of the papal inquisition, and
silence, and confound the pretensions of the most learned divines. She
not only saw more clearly the sublimest truths of our most holy
Christianity, but she basked in the clearest and most beautiful
sunlight while they groped in darkness. She grasped with ease the
deepest and sublimest truths of holy Writ, while they were lost in the
mazes of their own profound ignorance.

One distinguished divine was delighted to sit at her feet. At first he
heard her with distrust; then with admiration. Finally he opened his
heart to the truth, and stretched forth his hand to be led by this
saint of God into the Holy of Holies where she dwelt. We allude to the
distinguished Archbishop Fenelon, whose sweet spirit and charming
writings have been a blessing to every generation following him.

We offer no word of apology for publishing in the Autobiography of
Madame Guyon, those expressions of devotion to her church, that found
vent in her writings. She was a true Catholic when protestantism was in
its infancy.

There can be no doubt that God, by a special interposition of His
Providence, caused her to commit her life so minutely to writing. The
duty was enjoined upon her by her spiritual director, whom the rules of
her church made it obligatory upon her to obey. It was written while
she was incarcerated in the cell of a lonely prison. The same all-wise
Providence preserved it from destruction. We have not a shadow of doubt
that it is destined to accomplish tenfold more in the future than it
has accomplished in the past. Indeed, the Christian world is only
beginning to understand and appreciate it, and the hope and prayer of
the publisher is, that thousands may, through its instrumentality, be
brought into the same intimate communion and fellowship with God, that
was so richly enjoyed by Madame Guyon.

E. J.




CONTENTS


PART ONE

Chapter  1                           13
Chapter  2                           19
Chapter  3                           25
Chapter  4                           30
Chapter  5                           38
Chapter  6                           49
Chapter  7                           60
Chapter  8                           68
Chapter  9                           76
Chapter 10                           79
Chapter 11                           84
Chapter 12                           89
Chapter 13                          100
Chapter 14                          108
Chapter 15                          113
Chapter 16                          121
Chapter 17                          128
Chapter 18                          134
Chapter 19                          140
Chapter 20                          148
Chapter 21                          156
Chapter 22                          160
Chapter 23                          167
Chapter 24                          173
Chapter 25                          178
Chapter 26                          185
Chapter 27                          191
Chapter 28                          197
Chapter 29                          205


PART TWO

Chapter  1                          219
Chapter  2                          225
Chapter  3                          231
Chapter  4                          236
Cha