صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

CONTENTS

INI

Of The FIRST PART.

CHA P. I.

NTRODUCTION, fetting forth that God
builds his great works on NOTHING. And
that men must be fo reduced, to be fit for the gracious
defigns of their Creator.

II. Her birth, and most dangerous maladies after
it. At four Years of Age fhe goes with the Dutchefs
of Montbafon to the Benedictines, where fhe wifhes for
martyrdom. A digreffion of Advice to mothers.

III. Good education under the care of an elder
fifter. Her interview, at her father's houfe, with the
Queen of England, confort to King James II. She
daily offers her breakfast, hiding it behind an image of
the child Jefus. She falls into a fink, in great danger
of perifhing in it. She goes with a nun of the order
of St. Dominick into her convent, where fhe fares
hardly, and from thence after fometime returns
home.

>

IV. Her elder brother being her mother's darling,
fhe, little regarded, undergoes great hardships. She
grows tall and beautiful. Several fuitors, afking her
father's confent for her, are refufed. A report given
her of a relation, going on a miffion to the Indies,
affects her much. The turn of her heart to God,
and diligent application to every duty. She conceives
an eager defire to be a nun.

V. She attends her father in his fickness with a
dutiful zeal. A good coufin is of fervice to her. Cha-
racter of her mother. An excurfion into the country

revives

revives her youthful vanity. It also gives her a fondnefs for romances. Advantages of inward prayer, and the fatal harm fuftained through its neglect.

VI. In obedience to her father, fhe enters with a heavy heart into a married state, in the fixteenth year of her age. She meets with great and daily mortifi; cations, from the temper of her husband (who was twenty-two years older than fhe) of his mother, and an unreasonable waiting maid imposed on her by them. She lays afide romances, and returns to her duties.

VII. She difcourfes on the usefulness and neceffity of her fufferings. Her first pregnancy. Death of her good fifter. She writes down her flips and faults in order to avoid them. Some great loffes occasion her husband to go to Paris. After fome time fhe goes to him, and falls dangerously ill there.

VIII. Death of her mother. First a great Lady, afterwards a kinfman of hers, fpeaks to her of prayer and the prefence of God: After which a religious man, from a five years folitude, is inftrumental to make her find God within herself, with wonderful effect; being the beginning of her lafting conversion.

IX. Remarks on fpiritual extafies, raptures and vifions.

X. She dreffes wounds, and gives remedies to the fick. The word of God has its effect in her heart, without the mediation of words. Going to embrace an opportunity of getting indulgences, fhe finds a stop in her own mind thereto. She bids farewell to plays, dancing, diverfions, &c.

XI. When going to confefs, divine love in her foul renders her unable to do it, by drawing her into a profound filence. What purgation fhe had to pass through, A view of the doctrine of purgatory.

[blocks in formation]

XII. Unreasonable and outrageous behaviour of her waiting maid, and of her husband. She makes her waiting maid a prefent for it. Miraculous conduct of providence in her favour. Her first acquaintance with Genevieve Granger; who proved of good fervice to her. Her continual inward attention to God in the spirit of prayer.

XIII. She becomes unable to fay her customary vocal prayers. A journey to Paris. Her regale at St. Cloud ends in remorfe. Her difcourfe with one who had been a beggar, on a bridge,

XIV. She accompanies her husband in a journey to Touraine and Orleans, meets with a vile confeffor. G. Granger encourages her in piety,

XV. A very affecting chapter. She and her three children are dangerously feized with the fmall pox, her husband at the fame time confined in the gout. Death of her younger fon. Barbarous cruelty of her mother-in-law. Violent contest betwixt her and a good natur'd furgeon, who wanted to fave M. GUION's life, by timely bleeding her.

XVI. Her waiting maid endeavours to hinder her from going to her worship. Her mother-in-law continues to thwart her. Her prudent answer to her father thereupon. Her inattention to fights and founds.

XVII. Her husband building in the country, fhe attends him. How fhe was favoured of God in her endeavours to get to places of worship, as also to see or hear from G. Granger. Her fon, encouraged by her husband and mother-in-law, treats her with a rebellious infolence. More of troubles from her husband and mother-in-law,

XVIII. Her first acquaintance with Father la Combe, Converfion of him and of three of his order. Her croffes

croffes at home continue. Her great charity to the poor.

XIX. A grievous malady. A journey to Paris. Death of her father. Early piety of her daughter, and her fudden death.

XX. Converfion and ftability of the governess of a town, who had wanted her to go to the play. A journey with her husband. Birth of a fecond fon. Death of G. Granger. Marriage of her brother at Orleans, attended by her and her husband. She, thro' divine direction and affiftance, feasonably defeats a malicious and deep-laid plot, defigned to ruin her husband.

XXII. Birth of a daughter. Death of her husband, after they had been married twelve years and four months. She regulates all affairs; which, thro' his long indifpofition, had been left in great confufion, She finishes a complicated affair, which is referred to her, to the fatisfaction of all parties. She determines not to leave her mother-in-law, nor to part with her ill-temper'd waiting maid.

XXI.

XXIII.

}

Accounts of her inward condition abridged.

XXIV. Infolence of her waiting maid. Perfecution from a difgufted ecclefiaftic.

XXV. Confiderable fuitors offer to her, but in vain. She falls ill to the last extremity.

XXVI. She is bafely and unworthily treated by fome of her mother-in-law's relations. She and her motherin-law re-united. In her abfence her mother-in-law turns the waiting maid out of doors,

XXVII, The benefits of the obfcure path of privation. GENEVA presented to her, as the place to which fhe must remove, to attend on, and to serve the divine commands.

XXVIII. The happy change, both in her inward condition, and in her perfecutors who now acknowledge their past errors, and testify their high esteem for her.

XXIX. Remarkable occurrence at Paris. A. Dominican, defiring to go on a miffion to Siam, is turned from it to affift her. He firft, and the after him, fpeaks to the Bishop of GENEVA at Paris. Being confirmed in its being her duty, fhe resigns herfelf to go to GENEVA.

XXX. Her mother-in-law's great affection for her: Alfo the waiting maid's, who after her departure dies of grief. Her great charity fhewed in fundry inftances, while fhe is waiting for the right time of fetting off on her intended journey.

APPENDIX to the FIRST PART, Containing memoirs of the lives of two Romih Saints, honoured by M. GUION, viz.

1. St. Teresa, written by herself, by order of her director: Translated from the High Dutch

2. St. Francis de Sales, Bifhop and Prince of Geneva, from the French.

3. A comparative view of the lives of St. TERESA and Lady GUION,

Preliminary

« السابقةمتابعة »