The Autobiography of Madame Guyon

The Autobiography of Madame
Guyon, by

Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon This eBook is for the use of
anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Autobiography of Madame Guyon
Author: Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon
Release Date: August 8, 2007 [EBook #22269]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MADAME GUYON ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team at http://www.pgdp.net

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
Chapter 5
242
Chapter 6
248
Chapter 7