Reflections on
the Life of
Madame Jeanne de la Mothe Guyon.
Her growth in grace. The account she gives of her will, as subdued in its operations, but not wholly renovated in its nature. Remarks on this subject.
Whatever mistakes she may have committed in the period of which we are now speaking, it is evident that she was growing in grace. The world had lost, in an increased degree, its power. Her inward nature had become more conformed to the requisitions of the gospel law. We have evidence of this in various ways. Among other things, speaking of Paris, which had formerly been to her a place of temptation and injury, she remarks, in connection with a visit which she was obliged to make there,
"Paris was a place now no longer to be dreaded. as in times past. It is true, there were the same outward attractions, the same thronging multitudes; but the crowds of people served only to draw me into deeper religious recollection. The noise of the streets only augmented my inward prayer."She adds,
"under the pressure of the daily troubles and afflictions which befell me, I was enabled, by divine grace, to keep my will, O my God! subservient to thine. I could say practically, 'Not my will, but thine be done.' When two well-tuned lutes are in perfect concert, that which is not touched renders the same sound as that which is touched. There is the same spirit in both, the same sound — one pure harmony. It was thus that my will seemed to be in harmony with God's will.
"This was the result of grace. Grace conquered nature; but it was nature in its operations, rather than in its essence. My will was subdued in its operations in particular cases, so that I could praise the Lord for entire acquiescence; but there still remained in it a secret tendency, when a favorable opportunity should present, to break out of that harmony, and to put itself in revolt. I have since found, in the strange conditions I have been obliged to pass through, how much I had to suffer before the will became fully broken down, annihilated, as it were, not only in its selfish operations but in its selfish tendencies, and changed in its very nature. How many persons there are, who think their wills are quite lost when they are far from it. In hard temptations and trials, they would find that a will submissive is not a will lost; a will not rebellious, is not a will annihilated. Who is there, who does not wish something for himself; — wealth, honor, pleasure, conveniency, liberty; something? And he who thinks his mind loose from all these objects, because he possesses them, would soon perceive his attachment to them, if he were once called upon to undergo the process of being wholly deprived of them. On particular occasions, therefore, although the will might be kept right in its operations, so as to be in harmony with the divine will, he would still feel the sharp struggle coming out of the will's life; and his consciousness would testify, that he is rendered victorious, moment by moment, only by divine grace."
These remarks indicate how closely Madame Guyon marked her inward operations. The reality or fact of the distinction which she makes, between a will submissive or lost in its operations and a will lost in its nature, is undeniable. The explanation of it is more doubtful. A will lost, a will annihilated, in the absolute sense of the terms, is an absurdity. A loss of the will in that sense would necessarily imply, not only the loss of moral obligation, but of all moral agency. The explanation, therefore, is in connection with the law of habit. It is a common saying, that habit is a second nature. And it is certainly a remarkable fact, that habit will attach to any of our desires, to any of our propensive and affectional principles, (and the same may be said of the will,) a tendency so deep, so controlling, so impulsive, that it has the appearance, as it has all the results, of being an inherent and original part of our mental constitution. It is this terrible tendency, (the penalty we pay for having been so long in sin,) which plants in the path of the penitent and truly regenerated man a thousand dangers, and which is likely, although it will not necessarily prevent his being victorious, to cause him a struggle, more or less severe, at every step which he takes.
It is this tendency, which Madame Guyon calls the will's life or nature, in distinction from its mere operations. The will has a false nature, a satanic nature, as well as a true, a divine nature. And it is this false and evil nature, which in the unrenewed and unsanctified man continually shows itself. Its original life, such as it had when it came from the hand of God, it is not necessary to destroy, but it is necessary, indispensably necessary, to destroy all that false and vitiating life, which sin, availing itself of the immense influence of the law of habit, has incorporated so strongly with the will's original nature that they now seem to be one.
And hence the distinction, which she properly makes, although it is not often made, between a will subdued and renovated in its operation, and the same will, neither subdued nor renovated in its life. So that the Christian may properly be said to be victorious over his enemy, when he knows that the enemy, until he has experienced the blessing of sanctification in its highest sense, is still sleeping or watching in his own bosom. What she means to say, therefore, in connection with her experience at the present time, is, that she was made victorious over the will's evil operation, but not over its evil nature; that she was kept from sinning, but that there was yet some unconquered law of her nature, which required her to be always watchful, always praying, always struggling. She kept her enemy at bay, hut he was not slain. She was victorious, but still fighting. She was a conqueror, but not at rest. A later period of her experienced witnessed a still greater victory.
— from The Life of Madame Guyon (1877), Volume 1, Chapter 11.
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