Letters of Madam GuyonGuyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Religion
Letters of Madam Guyon
Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte, 1648-1717
Jesus Christ, the embodiment of truth and love, has explained the
Scriptures by fulfilling them. So when the soul has passed into God,
the Word is fulfilled in the soul, as it was in Christ. O Love! thou
art thyself the pure, naked, simple truth, which is expressed, not by
me, but by thyself, through me. Amen.
CONCISE VIEW OF THE INTERIOR WAY.
_The soul seeks God in faith not by the reasonings of the mind and
labored efforts, but by the drawings of love; to which inclinations God
responds, and instructs the soul, which co-operates actively. God then
puts the soul in a passive state, where he accomplishes all, causing
great progress, first by way of enjoyment, then by privation, and
finally by pure Love._
What do we understand by the Interior way? It is to seek the kingdom
of God within us. Luke 17, 21. We find this kingdom only where God
has placed it, _within the soul_. It becomes necessary, then, to
withdraw the eyes of the soul from external landmarks and observations,
which man, in the pride of reason, has located around it, and rest the
eye in faith, on the Word of the Lord,--"_Seek and ye shall find_."
This seeking, involves an interior activity of the soul; a desire, a
determination, and searching after what is hidden.
When the soul has thus earnestly sought the kingdom of God within, this
kingdom is developed little by little. Interior recollection becomes
less difficult, and the presence of God more perceptible and agreeable.
Formerly it was supposed, that the presence of God was only the thought
of God, and that it was necessary to force the mind--to concentrate the
thoughts with violence to find God. This is true in some sense, but,
as the soul cannot long endure this tension, and as the kingdom of God
is not found in the external vestments of the soul, but in its depths,
this labor is of little avail. So little progress is made, the soul
becomes discouraged, and the evil one, who fears nothing so much as the
reign of God in the soul, makes an effort to draw the soul to
externalities.
In order to accomplish this object, he takes two methods, either by
excessive labors, persuading the soul that this is the way to find God,
and thus choking the internal process of the interior life, or, by this
tension of the mind, of which I have spoken. Neither of these methods
open in the soul, the interior way.
You reply, how, then, is this life accomplished? I answer, God, seeing
the heart of him who seeks him within, draws near to him, and teaches
him a just moderation in all things; and, by this retrenchment of all
excess in externals, the soul begins to perceive the peaceful kingdom.
It realizes within itself a guide, who provides for its necessities,
according to divine laws, who takes away the burdens that sin imposes;
a guide who does not foster corrupt nature, nor forbid innocent
pleasures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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