Reflections on
the Life of
Madame Jeanne de la Mothe Guyon.
The inordinate action of all parts of the mind to be subdued — Austerities may be practiced without the idea of expiation — The monks of La Trappe — Temptations to go back to the world
I doubt not that the distinction which separates the idea of expiation from austere and self-mortifying acts, and makes them merely disciplinary, would be found to hold good in many instances; but, without pretending to say how far this may be the case, I will relate here a single incident which will illustrate what I mean.
The monks of the celebrated monastery of La Frappe, in France, after the reform effected there by M. De Race, were exceedingly strict in their mode of life. The deprivations they endured, and the austerities they imposed upon themselves, seemed to be as great as human nature is well capable of enduring. A person visited the monastery, and witnessing the austerities practiced, he expressed his admiration of their self denial in rejecting those indulgences so common among other persons. The monks, laying their hands on their hearts, with a look of deep humiliation, replied in words to this effect:—
"We bless God that we find Him all-sufficient without the possession of those things to which you have referred. We reject all such possessions and indulgences, but without claiming any merit for it. Our deepest penances are proper subjects of repentance. We should have been here to little purpose, had we not learned that our penitential acts, performed with too little feeling, are not such as they should be; and that our righteousness is not free from imperfection and pollution. Whatever we may endure, or for whatever reason it may be done, we ascribe all our hopes of mercy and acceptance to the blood of Christ alone." — Account of the Monastery of La Trappe, and of the Institution of Port Royal, by Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, vol. i. p.140.
The subjection of the appetites, which has a close connexion with mental purity, and is exceedingly important, constitutes but a small part of that physical and mental contest and victory to which the Christian is called. His whole nature, every thought and every feeling, every act of the desires and of the will, is to be brought into subjection to the law of Christ. Madame Guyon, with the great powers of analysis and reflection she possessed, fully understood this. It was her desire and purpose, both in body and in spirit, to be wholly the Lord's. But she found that the contest, which she was summoned to carry on with other and higher parts of her nature, was more trying and less successful than that which she had prosecuted in other respects.
Under the influence of principles which are good when they are not inordinate, she found to her great grief that she still loved to hear and to know more than a sanctified Christianity would allow. Man, under the influence of the natural life, is disposed to diffuse himself—to overleap the humbling barriers of God's providence, and to mingle in what is not his own. The principle of curiosity, always strong, but especially so in a mind like hers, was not only not dead, but what is still more important, it ceased to be properly regulated. It was still a matter of interest with her to see and be seen, and to experience the pleasures of worldly intercourse and conversation.
— edited from The Life of Madame Guyon (1877), Volume 1, Chapter 9.
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