Ecstasies

Ecstasies arise from a perceptible delight. They may be termed a kind of spiritual sensuality, wherein the soul, letting itself go too far by reason of the sweetness it finds in them, falls imperceptibly into decay. The crafty Enemy presents such interior elevations and raptures for baits to entrap the soul, to fill it with vanity and self-love, to fix its esteem and attention on the gifts of God, and to hinder it from following Jesus Christ in the way of renunciation and of death to all things.


Jeanne Guyon: An Autobiography. Witaker House, New Kensington, PA (1997). Page 48
(Madame Guyon lived from 1647 to 1717)