Continued - - 3

Now let us analyze the links between Guyon’s text Le Moyen court et très facile de faire oraison and A Guide to True Peace. Passages from Guyon’s Moyen court are found in every chapter of A Guide to True Peace, unlike Molinos and Fénelon’s influences, which are more thematic in nature and appear much less frequently as direct translations. With Guyon, we find that her method for finding true peace through contemplative prayer forms the basis of the method proposed in A Guide to True Peace. But, her metaphors and images are also found throughout the Quaker text, and there are lengthy passages that are a direct translation from Le Moyen court. What follows, then, is a description of the many links, which exist between the Le Moyen court and A Guide to True Peace.

Both books claim to be "little works" short and simple, offering seekers a path to follow for spiritual fulfillment. Guyon states in the introduction to Le Moyen court that she never thought of publishing ce petit ouvrage conceived in une grande simplicité but enough people began to ask for copies that she was moved to have the worked published for leur propre satisfaction (their own satisfaction). (57)

In the preface of A Guide to True Peace, we read:

"Whilst some, into whose hands this little treatise may fall, may receive it as a messenger of glad tidings, there will, doubtless, be others, who may not feel disposed to place much dependence on the simple manner here pointed out of drawing near to their Creator. . . ." (xv) (emphasis mine).

This is in contrast to the much longer work of Molinos and the maxim form of Fénelon. Both Le Moyen court and A Guide to True Peace offer the same prescribed steps to spiritual growth and knowing God: "All things should be done in their season: every state has its commencement, its progress, and its consummation; and it is an unhappy error to stop in the beginning" (A Guide to True Peace, 94).

The first stage is to give oneself over to God and follow his will. Second, once a person consents to this, there should be no going back. One is therefore engaged in a progressive method, calling for different types of engagement at different steps in the journey. Both texts claim that contemplative or inner prayer is accessible to everyone and they insist on the fact that all people, the rich and poor, the illiterate and the educated, have the same access to the Spirit of God:

Children draw near to your Father, and he will embrace you in the arms of love. Come, ye poor, stray, wandering sheep, return to your Shepherd. Come, ye who have been seeking happiness in worldly pleasures and pursuits, but have failed to find in them that satisfaction ye expected: come, and learn how to be truly happy here, and eternally happy hereafter. – Come, sinners, to your Saviour. Come, ye dull, ignorant, and illiterate; ye who think yourselves the most incapable of prayer: ye are more peculiarly called and adapted thereto. Let all, without exception, come; for Christ hath called all. (A Guide to True Peace, 14)

Conversely, according to these two works, the well-educated and successful individual would have a much more difficult time establishing this divine union.

 

Le Moyen court and A Guide to True Peace present the idea that perfect union with God is possible through virtuous practices, that prayer relies on the heart, rather than on reason, and that through giving oneself fully to God, with all one’s heart, all vices can be erased:

Prayer is the guide to perfection, and the sovereign good; it delivers us from every vice, and obtains for us every virtue; for the one great means to become perfect is to walk in the presence of Infinite Purity. He himself has said, "Walk in my presence and be thou perfect." (A Guide to True Peace, 15-16)

As is typical within mystical tradition, the method that both propose is to retire from the world in silence, and focus on the divine presence. Distracting thoughts will come to mind, they explain, but the person engaged in worship should do no more than simply turn away from those thoughts: "And should any vain thoughts present themselves, you should gently turn from them; and thus faithfully and patiently wait to feel the Divine Presence" (A Guide to True Peace, 25). This is similar to the advice that both texts give on avoiding temptation: One should simply turn away from it: "A little child, on perceiving a monster, does not wait to fight with it, and will scarcely turn its eyes towards it; but quickly shrinks into the bosom of its mother, in total confidence of safety" (A Guide to True Peace, 55).

This turning away from sin and turning to God, without belaboring the sinful or wayward act, comes from recognition that humans and human nature are flawed, and naturally sinful. Christ’s suffering on the cross functions as an important analogy in both texts, because it offers a tangible example of how human suffering can lead to divine growth. Mortification of self also has a role in their methods: "In the mortification of the eye and ear, which continually supply the busy imagination with new subjects, there is little danger of falling into excess; we have only to follow where the divine Spirit guides" (A Guide to True Peace, 71). Mortification should never be its own primary aim, both texts claim, because this would only exacerbate physical senses and passions. However, mortification represents an important step in the individual’s process away from outward concerns and toward an ongoing focus on the inner life:

The soul has a double advantage by proceeding thus: for, in withdrawing from outward objects, it draws the nearer to God; and the nearer its approaches are made to him, besides the secret sustaining power and virtue it receives, it is farther removed from sin; so that, at length, to have the mind turned inward, becomes, as it were, habitual. (A Guide to True Peace, 71-72)

Each text also explores the phenomenon of periods of dryness, which they accept as part of spiritual growth. This phenomenon of seeking God and not finding Him pushes us to further spiritual growth, both texts assert, as it also serves to prevent us from spiritual complacency:

Though Almighty Goodness hath no other desire than to impart himself to those that love and seek him, yet he frequently conceals himself from us, that we may be roused from sloth, and induced to seek him with fidelity and love. But, with what abundant goodness doth he recompense our faithfulness! and how sweetly are these apparent withdrawings of himself succeeded by the consolations of his love! (A Guide to True Peace, 43)

The solution to this problem is simply to continue to wait for the Spirit to return, trusting that union with God is possible through this process of individual spiritual transformation. As in Le Moyen court, so in A Guide to True Peace, this transformation can only happen if there is complete abandonment of self-will where the ego, in spite of itself, is displaced so that God inhabits the individual. The virtue born out of this relationship to God, these texts assert, only has value because it springs from God, and not the world and its creation.

Perfect conversion is a realizable goal, according to both Guyon and A Guide to True Peace and can become a "natural state":

When the soul is one turned to God, it finds a wonderful facility in continuing steadfast in its conversion; and the longer it remains thus converted, the nearer it approaches, and the more firmly it adheres to God; and the nearer it draws to him, of necessity, the farther it is removed from that spirit, which is contrary to him: thus the soul is so effectually established and rooted in its conversion, that a state of conversion becomes in some measure natural to it. (A Guide to True Peace, 81)

This conversion is ongoing, with the individual remaining in constant prayer, perpetually turned inward toward God. In presenting the more advanced steps toward conversion, A Guide to True Peace relies on Guyon’s analogies to describe the soul’s way of progression at this stage. The converted soul’s relationship to God is compared to a magnetic attraction, with God pulling the seeker forever more powerfully to Him, or like water that is evaporated by the sun, with water vapor representing converted souls, and rising toward the sun, representing God.

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