Stanza Six

Oh, that the sweets of all these windings, spout

Might, and these influences strait and cross

Upon my soul, to make thy shine break out

That Grace might in get and get out my dross!

My soul up locked then in this clod of dust

Would lock up in’t all heavenly joys most just.

Summary: While the expression become a bit tangled in places, this stanza is a prayer that God would work out all the contrary and difficult means of providence for God’s glory, the poet’s sanctification, and ultimate joy.

This is major theme of Christian theology and was a particular note among the Puritans: Trial, Sanctification, Joy.

Note

The principal allusion which stands behind this stanza seems to be 1 Peter:

1 Peter 1:3–9 (AV) 

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

⁶ Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: ⁷ That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: ⁸ Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: ⁹ Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 

The elements of this passage which appear in the stanza are as follows:

That Grace might in get and get out my dross

There are difficult and contrary aspects to life:

all these windings, spout

Might, and these influences strait and cross

Upon my soul, to make thy shine break out

Peter: ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations

The purpose of trials is sanctification:

That Grace might in get and get out my dross!

Peter: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

The particular image of God removing “dross” is found in 

Proverbs 25:4 (AV)

4 Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.

Isaiah 1:25 (AV) 

And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross.

The image of “dross” refers to the process of purifying melt. The “dross” is the impurity mixed with the ore.

This concept is a commonplace in Puritan theology: As Thomas Watson writes, “But how shall we attain to heart-purity?..[By] fire, Acts 2:3. Fire is of a purifying nature; it doth refine and cleanse metals; it separates the dross from the gold; the Spirit of God in the heart doth refine and sanctify it; it burns up the dross of sin.”

Thomas Watson: “The goldsmith loves his gold when it is in the furnace, and so does God love his children when he places them in the crucible of affliction; it is only to separate the dross, not to consume the gold. “Whom he loveth, he loveth to the end.”

The end is joy:

Oh, that the sweets of all

My soul up locked then in this clod of dust

Would lock up in’t all heavenly joys most just.

Jonathan Edwards, the son of Taylor’s fellow pastor, was to write in Religious Affections in a manner quite consistent with Taylor’s sixth stanza: God brings trial to bring about sanctification which ends in joy:

It has been abundantly found to be true in fact, by the experience of the Christian church; that Christ commonly gives, by his Spirit, the greatest, and most joyful evidences to his saints, of their sonship, in those effectual exercises of grace, under trials, which have been spoken of; as is manifest in the full assurance, and unspeakable joys of many of the martyrs. Agreeable to that, 1 Pet. 4:14: “If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory, and of God resteth upon you.” And that in Rom. 5:2–3: “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and glory in tribulations.” And agreeable to what the apostle Paul often declares of what he experienced in his trials. And when the apostle Peter, in my text, speaks of the “joy unspeakable, and full of glory,” which the Christians to whom he wrote, experienced; he has respect to what they found under persecution, as appears by the context. Christ’s thus manifesting himself, as the friend and Saviour of his saints, cleaving to him under trials, seems to have been represented of old, by his coming and manifesting himself, to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the furnace

Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, ed. John E. Smith and Harry S. Stout, Revised edition., vol. 2, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 454.

Particular clauses:

Oh, that the sweets of all these windings: The sweet end of all the various trials, the “windings” of life.

Spout/Might, I will admit this phrase is obscure. I take it mean something like a waterspout, or a pouring out of something strong and, here, dangerous. But it is not clear to me.

these influences strait and cross

Upon my soul, Strait: narrow, difficult. Cross, painful, contrary.

to make thy shine break out: Here “shine” is a synonym for “glory” or light. Taylor uses the image of light frequently to refer to God.

That Grace might in get and get out my dross!: The prayer here is that the transformative grace of God would enter his soul expel the sinful dross, the impurity in his heart.

My soul up locked then in this clod of dust

Would lock up in’t all heavenly joys most just. 

He here transforms the Platonic/Neo-platonic idea of the body being a bare trap for the soul. The soul is in a clod of dust, for the body will die, and return to dust. But here something happens: into this body is locked-up heavenly joy.  The concept of heavenly joy being locked up also comes from the passage in 1 Peter quoted above: ^{4 “}To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ Who are kept by the power of God” The words “reserved” and “kept” are fairly strong terms in the Greek. In particular, the word “kept” has the idea of an actual military guard. These joys are indeed “lock up” safely.