The Autobiography of Madame GuyonGuyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Religion
The Autobiography of Madame Guyon
Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Catholics -- France -- Biography; Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte, 1648-1717
Soon after, the official and doctor came to tell the prioress I must be
closely locked up. She represented to them that the chamber I was in,
was small, having an opening to the light or air, only on one side,
through which the sun shone all the day long, and being the month of
July, it must soon cause my death. They paid no regard. She asked why I
must be thus closely locked up. They said I had committed horrible
things in her house, even within the last month, and had scandalized
the nuns. She protested the contrary, and assured them the whole
community had received great edification from me, and could not but
admire my patience and moderation. But it was all in vain. The poor
woman could not refrain from tears, at a statement so remote from the
truth.
They then sent for me, and told me I had done base things in the last
month. I asked what things? They would not tell me. I said then that I
would suffer as long and as much as it should please God; that this
affair was begun on forgeries against me, and so continued. That God
was witness of everything. The doctor told me, that to take God for a
witness in such a thing was a crime. I replied nothing in the world
could hinder me from having recourse to God. I was then shut up more
closely than at first, until I was absolutely at the point of death,
being thrown into a violent fever, and almost stifled with the
closeness of the place, and not permitted to have any assistance.
In the time of the ancient law, there were several of the Lord's
martyrs who suffered for asserting and trusting in the one true God. In
the primitive church of Christ the martyrs shed their blood, for
maintaining the truth of Jesus Christ crucified. Now there are martyrs
of the Holy Ghost, who suffer for their dependence on Him, for
maintaining His reign in souls and for being victims of the Divine
will.
It is this Spirit which is to be poured out on all flesh, as saith the
prophet Joel. The martyrs of Jesus Christ have been glorious martyrs,
He having drunk up the confusion of that martyrdom; but the martyrs of
the Holy Spirit are martyrs of reproach and ignominy. The Devil no more
exercises his power against their faith or belief, but directly attacks
the dominion of the Holy Spirit, opposing His celestial motion in
souls, and discharging his hatred on the bodies of those whose minds he
cannot hurt. Oh, Holy Spirit, a Spirit of love, let me ever be
subjected to Thy will, and, as a leaf is moved before the wind, so let
me be moved by Thy Divine breath. As the impetuous wind breaks all that
resists it, so break thou all that opposes Thy empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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