Jeannie Marie Mothe, the maiden name of Madam Guyon, was born at
Montargis, in France, April 13, 1648. She was married to M. J. Guyon,
in 1664, and became the mother of four children. In July, 1676, she
was separated from her husband by death. Madam Guyon was one of that
number, who, in advance of the common standard of piety, are called to
be _Reformers_; and on this account, she suffered great persecutions.
She was several times imprisoned. At one time eight months; and
subsequently four years in one of the towers of the celebrated Bastile.
After her release from prison, she was banished for the remainder of
her days to Blois, on the river Loire. At the time of her release from
the Bastile, she was fifty-four years of age. Her sufferings from the
cold, damp walls of the prison, in winter, and the confined air in
summer, with other privations and hardships, greatly impaired her
constitution, and rendered her a sufferer to the close of her days.
She died June 9, 1717, aged sixty-nine years.
During her imprisonment, she wrote her Autobiography, which has been
translated into English. Another work of hers, "The Torrents," has
recently been translated, very happily, by Mr. Ford. Also two essays,
"Method of Prayer," and "Concise View of the Way of God," by J. W.
Metcalf. It is not known by the writer, that her other works have been
translated, with the exception of some of her poems by William Cowper;
and "The Life and Experience of Madam Guyon," in two volumes, written
by my husband.