Meditation 44
Motto:
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:7–8 (AV)
Taylor references only verse 8; 7 has been included to understand the context better.
Introduction: the motto comes from Paul’s last letter to Timothy, commonly taken to have been written shortly before his death after a second imprisonment in Rome. Paul looks at what will be his execution. But he is not in despair over his circumstance, because he believes he will be rewarded by his Lord. Calvin explains the reference thus:
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. Having boasted of having fought his fight and finished his course, and kept the faith, he now affirms that he has not labored in vain. Now it is possible to put forth strenuous exertion, and yet to be defrauded of the reward which is due. But Paul says that his reward is sure. This certainty arises from turning his eyes to the day of the resurrection, and this is what we also ought to do; for all around we see nothing but death, and therefore we ought not to keep our eye fixed on the outward appearance of the world, but, on the contrary, to hold out to our minds the coming of Christ. The consequences will be, that nothing can detract from our happiness.[1]
A crown, Lord, yea, a crown of righteousness.
Oh! What a gift is this? Give Lord I pray
An holy head, and heart to possess
And I shall give thee glory for the pay.
A crown is brave, and righteousness much more. 5
The glory of them both will pay the score.
Notes:
This poem begins in a different place than most of the others. Rather than commence with a lamentation over his sin and repentance for his own evil, he begins what he hopes to obtain. This is a poem built upon hope of what will come.
A crown, Lord, yea, a crown of righteousness.
The accentuation of this first line places the emphasis heavily upon “Lord”.
a CROWN, LORD, YEA a CROWN of RIGHTeousness
The phrase “a CROWN” will open the second stanza.
The rhythm of the second line again places an emphasis upon the LORD. There is also the alliteration on the “g” of Give and Gift.
Oh! What a gift is this? Give Lord I pray
The effect of these two lines is to emphasize the following thought: Lord give the gift of this crown.
It must be noted that the word “give” does double duty here. At first, “give” points backward toward the gift of the crown. But as we read on to the next line, the word “give” points forward to the “head” to wear the crown. This then expands the work of the Lord in this scene: Both the gift of the crown and the head worthy to wear the crown come from God.
The second and third line make for an interesting temporal element of this poem:
Give Lord I pray
An holy head, and heart to possess
In the passage referenced by Taylor, Paul is looking forward to a ‘crown of righteousness’ to be received as an eternal reward.
“there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day”. We can understand the prayer of the poet in two ways. He may be asking that he receive the crown of righteousness now. This would be based upon the present tense “give” and the prayer that he have a holy head and heart, which would necessarily be present.
The other way to understand the prayer is as a present prayer for holiness to make him fit to receive the eventual eternal reward. I think the second possibility the better reading here.
What then can be the “pay” for such a reward?
And I shall give thee glory for the pay.
How exactly does the poet give God glory by being crowned? It would be understood as the praise, which this poem provides. But it is better to understand the glory as resulting from God saving the poet and crowning him.
The salvation of the believer is not a payment for the believer’s effort. It is better understood as God’s work of redeeming, sanctifying, and then glorifying the believer. The believer is made glorious, and the glory of the believer (in glory) redounds to the glory of God. If you God make me holy and give this crown, I will be glorious which will give you glory.
This understanding is confirmed by the couplet which closes the whole:
A crown is brave, and righteousness much more. 5
The glory of them both will pay the score.
Brave here does not mean courage. It means more something which is splendid or glorious. Shakespeare’s great in The Tempest, “Oh brave new world.”
The crown is splendid. Righteousness is more splendid. They are glorious and by being glorious God will receive the glory.
A crown indeed consisting of fine gold
Adherent, and inherent righteousness
Stuck with their ripe ripe fruits in every fold
Like studded carbuncles they to it dress 10
A righteous life doth ever wear renown
And thrust the head at last up in this crown.
Notes:
“a CROWN inDEED” This is the third use of the phrase “a crown. Here line is regular and flowing. The “C” of “consisting” connects to “crown”. The meditation upon this future crown as commended by Puritan near contemporaries of Taylor, such as Thomas Manton:
Do you send your desires and thoughts as harbingers to prepare a place for you? When the soul thus longs for the sight of God and Christ, we do as it were tell God we long to be at home. As Paul, 2 Tim. 4:8, ‘Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.’ He was reckoning what a happy time it would be when the crown of righteousness should be set upon his head, when he shall get home to his father’s house, and enjoy his inheritance and the happiness God hath provided for him. By these marks you may inquire whether you have this faith, to count yourselves strangers and pilgrims here
Manton, Thomas. The Complete Works of Thomas Manton. James Nisbet & Co., 1973, pp. 320–21.
Having said the crown is “fine gold” (a not surprising although appropriate image), Taylor moves on to the adornment of the crown. It is called a “crown of righteousness.” Righteousness would be the right standing before God.
He lists two different types of righteousness. First ‘adherent righteousness.” This seems to be Taylor’s own construction for what is usually termed “imputed righteousness.” “Finally, the Bible teaches that, as a result of his atoning work, Christ’s righteousness is set to the believer’s account. Although not yet perfectly holy or morally righteous, believers nevertheless are justified before the law of God, and they are “clothed” with the imputed righteousness of Christ.” Elwell, Walter A., and Philip Wesley Comfort. Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Tyndale House Publishers, 2001, p. 630. This corresponds to Protestant understanding of justification.
Taylor next raises “inherent righteousness.” This would be the holy life of the believer. The righteousness is not merely counted to the believer, but it is made part of transforms the believer. “And if you would give evidence of your interest in imputed righteousness, you must do it by inherent righteousness. Shew your faith by your works. Faith without works is dead, being alone. Amen.” Boston, Thomas. The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: Sermons, Part 2. Edited by Samuel M’Millan, vol. 4, George and Robert King, 1849, p. 195. This corresponds to the doctrine of sanctification.
The relationship of righteousness in the life of the believer as a condition precedent to receiption of the crown of righteousness is found in Paul’s letter to Timothy. Paul does not begin with merely the crown being “laid up”, that is, awaiting him. Paul begins the thought with an affirmation that he has continued in the faith until his death. His life of righteousness precedes his attaining the crown of righteousness.
Adherent, and inherent righteousness
Stuck with their ripe ripe fruits in every fold
Like studded carbuncles they to it dress 10
A righteous life doth ever wear renown
This righteousness is an adornment of the believer’s life and thus adorns the crown. I admit the idea of a crown with “folds” seems odd, but I looked at pictures of crowns with rubies and the late Queen wore a crown with rubies which one could say has “folds”.
The righteousness of the believer’s life becomes the embellishment of the believer’s crown. This is a striking way to understand the relationship between life and reward. With the protestant emphasis on imputed righteousness it is can sometimes be hard to understand the relationship of life and reward. From experience, most contemporary Protestants I know seem to think there is some sort of complete division between this world and the world to come such that nothing of this life except perhaps the barest elements of my identity and perhaps the power to recognize some others survives.
Here, Taylor seems to pick up an idea which seems similar to the morality play Everyman where Good Deeds alone can accompany him to heaven after death. His righteous life now becomes adornment in the future because it continues with him.
The final line of this stanza contains a remarkable image: The righteous life is not merely an adornment of that crown, it actually thrusts one up into the crown:
And thrust the head at last up in this crown.
A milkwhite hand sets ‘t on a righteous head.
An hand unrighteousness cant’ dispose it nay
It’s not in such a hand. Such hands would bed 15
Black smuts on’t should they fingers on it lay.
Who can the crown of righteousness suppose
In an unrighteous hand for to dispose?
Notes:
This stanza makes a simple point: The one who gives a crown of righteousness must himself be righteous. If someone unrighteous were to bear the crown, the crown itself would be damaged.
This is a principle of the Law of Moses. If something clean touches something unclean, they both become unclean:
Haggai 2:10–14 (AV )
10 In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, 11 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, 12 If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No. 13 Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. 14 Then answered Haggai, and said,
So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord;
And so is every work of their hands;
And that which they offer there is unclean.
Such an idea would have been well-known by a Puritan pastor in the 17th Century. It perhaps is interesting to observe that this rule did not apply to Jesus. When touched someone clean, they became clean:
Mark 1:40–42 (AV 1873)
40 And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. 42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
The rhythm of this stanza is largely regular.
The most interest effectcomes in the second line of the stanza (line 14):
An hand unrighteousness cant’ dispose it nay
The more common construction is adjective – noun.
Here are the examples in this poem
An unholy head
Inherent righteousness
Ripe fruit
Studded carbuncles
Righteous life
Milkwhite hand
Black smuts
The poem does contain the phrase: crown of righteousness, where a noun + of + noun construction creates an adjectival use of the second noun. This is an effect borrowed from Hebrew. Paul uses it in his letter, and the structure has been brought over to the English translation which Taylor takes up.
But in line 14 we have construction: indefinite article + noun + adjective. The construction makes sense, but it is unusual. Perhaps Taylor only used for the force or meter:
an HAND unRIGHTeous versus an unRIGHTeous HAND
But the result is to throw the concept of “unrighteous” to the foreground: the unworthiness of such a hand is the point of the stanza. This phrase, by being put forth in an unusual manner makes that plain.
When once upon the head it’s evergreen
And altogether used in righteousness, 20
Where blessed bliss, and blissful peace is seen
And where no jar, nor brawler hath access.
Oh! Blessed crown what hold the breadth of all
The state of happiness in heaven’s hall.
Notes:
Here, Taylor places the reception of the crown in the world to come, “In heaven’s hall”. (line 24)
The nature of this crown: When it given, it is perpetual in its glory, “When once upon the head it’s evergreen.” This relates to Augustine’s four-fold state of the human will:
“Augustine argued that there are four states, which are derived from the Scripture, that correspond to the four states of man in relation to sin: (a) able to sin, able not to sin (posse peccare, posse non peccare); (b) not able not to sin (non posse non peccare); (c) able not to sin (posse non peccare); and (d) unable to sin (non posse peccare). The first state corresponds to the state of man in innocency, before the Fall; the second the state of the natural man after the Fall; the third the state of the regenerate man; and the fourth the glorified man.” https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/augustinewill.html
To be in heaven is to not be able to sin. Incidentally, one might ask how one could be free and be able to not sin. You can think of freedom in many ways. One way to understand freedom is freedom from, here freedom from sin. God is the more free than any creature and God cannot sin. When sin is understood as a limitation, than freedom, than the choice to sin is not freedom.
The crown, once gained, is not merely eternal but it perpetuates righteousness.
Next comes the best line in the poem:
Where blessed bliss, and blissful peace is seen
The rhythm of the line is perfectly regular. Taylor’s use of irregular lines would spoil the effects
Where
Blessed
Bliss
And
Blissful
Peace
Is seen.
We have the alliteration on B (with a matching P). We have bliss, noun; and blissful (adverb): the same concept in two forms. The line makes a sort of chiasm with Bliss/Blissful in the center. The bliss is blessed and the peace is blissful.
The state of righteousness is a state of evergreen bliss.
The state of peace and bliss is marked by what is not present:
And where no jar, nor brawler hath access.
Jar does not mean the container; think, “jarring”, upsetting.
No one can come here to fight, ‘no brawler”
In the KJV (which would likely have been Taylor’s Bible) twice has Paul rejecting “brawlers:”
1 Timothy 3:2–3 (AV 1873)
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; 3 not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
Titus 3:1–2 (AV 1873)
Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, 2 to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
If upon earth, brawlers are to be excluded from the church, how much more in heaven.
He then turns to address the crown directly:
Oh! Blessed crown what hold the breadth of all
I am not sure how to understand, “what hold the breadth of all”. There are two interesting points of this line: First, “what hold”. I think I should take “what” as a relative pronoun, something along the lines of “that holds”. Second, the crown entails the breadth of all – what? The second question is answerd in the next line
The state of happiness in heaven’s hall.
I would take idea here to be that the crown is sufficient and entails, encompasses all the happiness of heaven. Righteousness thus being a supreme joy of heaven.
A crown of righteousness, a righteous head, 25
Oh naughty man! My brain pan turret is
Where swallows build and hatch: sins black and red.
My head and heart do ache, and throb at this.
Lord were my turret cleansed made by thee
The grace’s dovehouse turret much might be. 30
Notes
The gap between what the poet hopes to become and the life he now inhabits opens as he meditates upon this crown.
A crown of righteousness would be most fitting upon a righteous. It is as if he is musing on this:
A crown of righteousness, a righteous head,
And then struck by the incongruence between his head and that crown:
Oh naughty man!
The connotations of the word “naughty” are only serious for Taylor. The modern diminishment of this particular word as denoting serious wrongdoing was not then present. The uses of the word previously create an interesting combination of concepts. First, the word would reference something profane, evil, lewd. Second, the word would denote something empty or unworthy.
From thinking of his head, Taylor moves to the idea of top of a tower. The picture of a crown on a head becomes the image of a tower with turrets. His own body standing erect is the tower and his head the top of the tower. This image of a man as a tower and a tower as a man is the scene of the remainder of this stanza:
My brain pan turret is
Where swallows build and hatch: sins black and red.
My head and heart do ache, and throb at this.
Lord were my turret cleansed made by thee
The grace’s dovehouse turret much might be.
The brain pain is the skull. The tower is envisioned as ill-kempt place. The turrets are not clean, but rather birds are building nests and raising young. While bird and their young can be quite lovely, the space around and beneath the nest quickly become filthy. A tower overrun by birds would be disgusting.
Now why he chooses swallows for the undesirable bird, I do not know. A search of the King James Bible does not help much. Psalm 86: 3, “Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.” Which hardly explains the use of swallow here.
The word “Sins” in line 28 receives a tremendous emphasis. First, the word follows a colon in the middle of the line. This brings the line to a pause following an accent on the word “hatch.” Second, rather than an unaccented syllable to keep the line regular iambic, the word “sins” receives an emphasis. Third, it is an “extra” accent in this line.
where SWALlows BUILD and HATCH: SINS BLACK and RED
The swallows in his brain are raising upon sins to live where crown should be.
He bemoans the effect of the realization of his:
My head and heart do ache, and throb at this.
He then ends the stanza with a prayer:
Lord were my turret cleansed made by thee
The grace’s dovehouse turret much might be.
The switch to Doves is likely suggested by the image of the Holy Spirit as a Dove at the baptism of Jesus. A dovehouse would be the place the Spirit resides.
“It is the Spirit of God in the saints that is the spirit of prayer: now God’s Spirit is a dove-like, meek, quiet, and peaceable spirit.” Burroughs, Jeremiah. Causes, Evils, and Cures of Heart and Church Divisions. Carlton & Phillips, 1855, p. 65.
But the switch between birds is admittedly not wholly successful. If the first bird were peculiarly loathsome (say a vulture), then the emphasis would be on the particular kind of bird. The switch from vulture to dove would be effective.
But since the first bird is a swallow, the usage must imply that it is being a place of bird nests which is in view The switch to doves does not help much here. Perhaps it is a Dove house rather than a tower with bird perched willy-nilly which is in view.
But if God were to cleanse this tower, it would be lovely. If God were to cleanse his head, it would be fit for the crown.
Now for the prayer
Oh! Make it so: then righteousness pure, true,
Shall roost upon my boughs, and in my heart
And all its fruits that obedience grew
To stud this crown like gems in every part.
Is then garnished for this crown, and thou 35
Shalt have my songs to diadem thy brow.
Notes: Here we see the image of a tree, which was hinted at in the second stanza with the reference to righteousness as fruit. We do have the direct repetition of the image of “fruit” in line 33. Also, we have a return of the word “stud”, but here obedience is the fruit which studs the crown.
This stanza brings the prayer: “Make it so.”
What does he hope to be made so? Make me righteous in my life, make my heart pure and true. Righteousness appears here like birds:
Make … righteousness … roost upon my boughs. The birds of the previous stanza have returned, but these are no longer the disruptive swallows. Apparently, these are the doves he hoped to receive.
As noted above, fruit has returned, but this time of obedience. The fruit does not grow upon the boughs but in the heart. This seems to be an allusion to a passage from the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 7:16–20 (AV)
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
The life of the heart demonstrates itself in the life of obedience. Obedience beautifies righteousness, like jewels upon a crown.
Obedience then produces praise:
And all its fruits that obedience grew
To stud this crown like gems in every part.
Is then garnished for this crown, and thou 35
Shalt have my songs to diadem thy brow.
This is a connection I cannot say that I have well thought of before. Surely, it is hard to praise when disobedient. And praise is often connected in the Psalms as the result of repentance and forgiveness. But here he says (1) obedience is itself praise, and (2) obedience is intimately connected with expressed praised.
This poem is thus also a jewel, because it is a song which sits like a crown upon his Lord:
and thou 35
Shalt have my songs to diadem thy brow.
Oh! Happy me, if thou wilt crown me thus.
Oh! Naughty heart! What swell with sin? Fie, fie
Oh! Gracious Lord, me pardon: do not crush
Me all to mammocks; crown and not destroy. 40
I’ll tune thy praises while this crown doth come
Thy glory bring I tucked up in my song.
Notes:
There is an interesting movement in the discussion of this last stanza. He addresses God, if you will grant by prayer, I will be happy:
Oh! Happy me, if thou wilt crown me thus.
He addresses himself. The sinful tendency of his heart is seen as an irrational intruder: I would be happy without sin and yet here it is:
Oh! Naughty heart! What swell with sin? Fie, fie
Having rebuked himself, he turns to God for pardon:
Oh! Gracious Lord, me pardon:
The lines continue in a manner seen in many Psalms, such as:
Psalm 6:1 (AV)
O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger,
Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Oh! Gracious Lord, me pardon: do not crush
Me all to mammocks; crown and not destroy.
Do not level upon me the punishment which I deserve.
A mammock is an archaic English dialect word meaning a shard, a scrap, anything very small.
The English Dialect Dictionary gives his quaint usaged, “Aw never seed sitch a little mommick” (https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi06wriguoft/page/n751/mode/2up?view=theater) See also the OED for additional meaning and background.
Do not make me nothing.
Finally, he ends:
I’ll tune thy praises while this crown doth come
Thy glory bring I tucked up in my song.
One could utterly misunderstand the nature of what happens here. He is not saying, Don’t hurt me and I’ll do something nice for you. That is often how we understand ourselves in God; as if God needs our praise; or if God is arbitrarily cruel. If only I could be good enough, he’d like me.
But consider then the entire poem: he is longing for an eternal blessing which God will bestow. The trouble lies in the poet’s own rebellion: Here is this thing I desire and yet I irrationally am sabotaging my own happiness. Oh God, forgive me and also make me sane. I will bless for healing me.
This can be seen if notice that Taylor is working with a bit of a chiasm here. I am going to reorder the stanzas, matching first and last; second and penultimate; …
A crown and praise.
A1
A crown, Lord, yea, a crown of righteousness.
Oh! What a gift is this? Give Lord I pray
An holy head, and heart to possess
And I shall give thee glory for the pay.
A crown is brave, and righteousness much more. 5
The glory of them both will pay the score.
A2
Oh! Happy me, if thou wilt crown me thus.
Oh! Naughty heart! What swell with sin? Fie, fie
Oh! Gracious Lord, me pardon: do not crush
Me all to mammocks; crown and not destroy. 40
I’ll tune thy praises while this crown doth come
Thy glory bring I tucked up in my song.
Adorning the Crown
B1
A crown indeed consisting of fine gold
Adherent, and inherent righteousness
Stuck with their ripe ripe fruits in every fold
Like studded carbuncles they to it dress 10
A righteous life doth ever wear renown
And thrust the head at last up in this crown.
B2
Oh! Make it so: then righteousness pure, true,
Shall roost upon my boughs, and in my heart
And all its fruits that obedience grew
To stud this crown like gems in every part.
Is then garnished for this crown, and thou 35
Shalt have my songs to diadem thy brow.
Sin Defiles the Crown
C1
A milkwhite hand sets ‘t on a righteous head.
An hand unrighteousness cant’ dispose it nay
It’s not in such a hand. Such hands would bed 15
Black smuts on’t should they fingers on it lay.
Who can the crown of righteousness suppose
In an unrighteous hand for to dispose?
C2
A crown of righteousness, a righteous head, 25
Oh naughty man! My brain pan turret is
Where swallows build and hatch: sins black and red.
My head and heart do ache, and throb at this.
Lord were my turret cleansed made by thee
The grace’s dovehouse turret much might be. 30
The center of the poem: The Happiness of Righteous Heaven
When once upon the head it’s evergreen
And altogether used in righteousness, 20
Where blessed bliss, and blissful peace is seen
And where no jar, nor brawler hath access.
Oh! Blessed crown what hold the breadth of all
The state of happiness in heaven’s hall.
The key to this poem is the “blessed bliss and blissful peace” which exists when no sin tarnishes; nor irrational desires invade. We can sometimes be coy about sin and think this or that small thing would be too much to lose. But what evil in this world is not the fault of sin. The thing hoped for is joy and bliss and peace. These are not boring. We have never experienced them as they are meant to be. And we have never experienced them with a crown of righteousness upon our head.
[1] Calvin, John. 2 Timothy. Electronic ed., Ages Software, 1998, p. 2 Ti 4:8.
memoirandremains 