Category Archives: Song of Solomon

Richard Sibbes Sermons on Canticles, Sermon 1.4

23 Tuesday Apr 2019

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He comes to the next image: the wind blowing upon the garden so that the spice may disburse:

But to what end must these winds blow upon the garden?

‘That the spices thereof may flow out.’

The end of this blowing is, you see, ‘that the spices thereof may flow out.’ Good things in us lie dead and bound up, unless the Spirit let them out. We ebb and flow, open and shut, as the Spirit blows upon us; without blowing, no flowing. There were gracious good things in the church, but they wanted blowing up and further spreading, whence we may observe, that,

On this he makes three observations:

Obs. 1. We need not only grace to put life into us at the first, but likewise grace to quicken and draw forth that grace that we have. This is the difference betwixt man’s blowing and the Spirit’s. Man, when he blows, if grace be not there before, spends all his labour upon a dead coal, which he cannot make take fire. But the Spirit first kindles a holy fire, and then increases the flame. 

This image of a flame of grace in the Christian’s soul is a conceit which Sibbes uses elsewhere in his writing. He writes of our love being “enflamed,” “Come what will, all is welcome, when we are inflamed with the love of Christ; and the more we suffer, the more we find his love.” Of the flame of faith, “Prayer is the messenger, the ambassador of faith, the flame of faith.”

True faith has a divine “spark”: 

Christ will not quench the smoking flax. First, because this spark is from heaven, it is his own, it* is kindled by his own spirit. And secondly, it tendeth to the glory of his powerful grace in his children, that he preserveth light in the midst of darkness,—a spark in the midst of the swelling waters of corruption.

There is an especial blessing in that little spark; ‘when wine is found in a cluster, one saith, Destroy it not; for there is a blessing in it,’ Isa. 65:8.

This image of true faith and love being a flame or spark is quite common Sibbes and seems to direct his thinking. His sensitivity to the imagery contrasts with the manner in which much contemporary preaching would function in its desire to be “precise”. However, that precision comes at a cost of truncating the text. Yes there is a danger in run-away “allegorization”, but there is also a danger in turning poetical texts in technical manuals.

Obs. 2. Whence we see further, that it is not enough to be good in ourselves, but our goodness must flow out; that is, grow more strong, useful to continue and stream forth for the good of others. We must labour to be, as was said of John, burning and shining Christians, John 5:35. For Christ is not like a box of ointment shut up and not opened, but like that box of ointment that Mary poured out, which perfumes all the whole house with the sweetness thereof. For the Spirit is herein like wind; it carries the sweet savour of grace to others. 

And finally, God’s goodness continues with us. I like Sibbes’ image here, “to trade”, to continue in business:

Obs. 3. Hence we see, also, that where once God begins, he goes on, and delights to add encouragement to encouragement, to maintain new setters up in religion, and doth not only give them a stock of grace at the beginning, but also helps them to trade. He is not only Alpha, but Omega, unto them, the beginning and the ending, Rev. 1:8. He doth not only plant graces, but also watereth and cherisheth them. Where the Spirit of Christ is, it is an encouraging Spirit; for not only it infuseth grace, but also stirs it up, that we may be ready prepared for every good work, otherwise we cannot do that which we are able to do. The Spirit must bring all into exercise, else the habits of grace will lie asleep. We need a present Spirit to do every good; not only the power to will, but the will itself; and not only the will, but the deed, is from the Spirit, which should stir us up to go to Christ, that he may stir up his own graces in us, that they may flow out.

This encouragement is necessary and useful, because in the midst of ministry, in the midst of merely trying to continue in this world as a follower of Christ, we think ourselves forgotten, we feel that we are on our in a land without water; but there in that seemingly forbidden place there is help. Let the wind blow upon the Garden.

Sibbes does not merely give doctrine information, but for use:

Use. Let us labour, then, in ourselves to be full of goodness, that so we may be fitted to do good to all. As God is good, and does good to all, so must we strive to be as like him as may be; in which case, for others’ sakes, we must pray that God would make the winds to blow out fully upon us, ‘that our spices may flow out’ for their good. For a Christian in his right temper thinks that he hath nothing good to purpose, but that which does good to others.

Richard Sibbes Sermons on Canticles, Sermon 1.3 (The Church is a Garden)

11 Thursday Apr 2019

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The previous post on this sermon may be found here. 

Next Sibbes asks

Quest. But, why is the church compared to a garden?

His general answer draws upon a principle which is at use in Jesus’ parables. When Jesus came to provide an example, an illustration of a proposition, he draws on what is available: a sower, a bird, grass, flowers, fishing. In Luke 12:24, Jesus says, “Consider the ravens”. In Matthew 6:26, they are “birds” to consider. 

And so Sibbes says that God here uses “garden” so that when we are in a garden, we can think about heavenly things. And when we are in a field, the same. When we think of a spouse or sister, a father or son, there are things to draw out our meditation. 

He then gives a series of 8 reasons why ‘garden’ in particular has been chosen:

First, “Because a garden is taken out of the common waste ground, to be appropriated to a more particular use. So the church of Christ is taken out of the wilderness of this waste world, to a particular use.” The true value of the church is that it has been chose by Christ.

Second, a garden depends upon what is planted — otherwise it will only be weeds (and having a garden I will attest to this truth). “So weeds and passions grow too rank naturally, but nothing grows in the church of itself, but as it is set by the hand of Christ, who is the author, dresser, and pruner of his garden.”

Third, a garden is curated: what is present has been chose for use and delight. “So there is no grace in the heart of a Christian, but it is useful, as occasion serves, both to God and man.”

Fourth, many different things will grow in a garden, a variety of flowers and spices. The Spirit of God raises up many different graces in the heart of a Christian. 

Fifth, a garden is a delightful place to be: and the church is a delight to Christ.

Sixth, “as in gardens there had wont to have fountains and streams which run through their gardens, (as paradise had four streams which ran through it); so the church is Christ’s paradise; and his Spirit is a spring in the midst of it, to refresh the souls of his upon all their faintings, and so the soul of a Christian becomes as a watered garden.” 

Seventh, “So also, ‘their fountains were sealed up,’ Cant. 4:12; so the joys of the church and particular Christians are, as it were, sealed, up. A stranger, it is said, ‘shall not meddle with this joy of the church,’ Prov. 14:10.” Sibbes has also provided sermons “A Fountain Sealed” and “The Fountain Opened”

Eighth, a garden takes attention “weeding and dressing.” The Church needs the constant of Christ. 

Knowing these things, we have some direction on how to live. If a garden is kept separated from a common field and is tended by the gardener, our lives should reflect this separation onto the gardener. We should you labor to produce those things which are most delightful to the gardener.

The third application is quite interesting in light of ethnic contention which seems to be part of the Christian church in America, “And then, let us learn hence, not to despise any nation or person, seeing God can take out of the waste wilderness whom he will, and make the desert an Eden.”

Fourth, we should be thankful that Christ has taken an interest in us, to tend us so.

Fifth, “For it is the greatest honour in this world, for God to dignify us with such a condition, as to make us fruitful.” And as we meditate upon the image of being fruitful, we recall the vast use of this image and the application of it throughout Scripture: from Eden to the vine John 15. The field burned in Hebrews 6 and the tree cut down in Matthew 3.

Finally, if the church is the garden of God, we can rest secure knowing that God will care for his garden. Since the grace which grows in us is of God, we can rest knowing that God will tend to his own. This will bring us comfort and hope. 

In the mean time, let us labour to keep our hearts as a garden, that nothing that defileth may enter. In which respects the church is compared to a garden, upon which Christ commands the north and south wind, all the means of grace, to blow.

 Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet And Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 10–12.

Richard Sibbes Sermons on Canticles, Sermon 1.1 (Why Poetry in the Bible)

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Richard Sibbes, Sanctification, Sanctifictation, Song of Solomon, Uncategorized

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Geitrams på vollen i Grythengen

(Photo by Øyvind Holmstad)

The second volume of Richard Sibbes collected works contains a series of 20 sermons on Canticles, better know as the Song of Solomon. The title of this work is called “Bowels Opened”, which is rather unfortunate to our ears. It means the depth of compassion which was believed to be in the gut. A Greek word for compassion or mercy was “σπλάγχνον”, which means the gut or heart (I have no idea what the word would be in modern Greek).

While these sermons are textual (they are based upon the text), they wouldn’t sound much like a modern expository sermon. Sibbes reads the text in an allegorical manner, but I’m not precisely sure that allegory really covers his understanding. 

He takes a text, draws a generally allegorical reading — and then he proceeds to consider the way in which a image or theme is developed in Scripture.

For instance the first sermon begins by developing this text:

‘Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits,’ Cant. 4:16.

He first draws out a general basis for the allegory, Christ and the Church. And then he asks questions about the “wind” and the Spirit. He meditates upon the garden and spices. He considers the pleasant fruits. The structure is different than what one would learn at a seminary which would still hold to the Gospel which Sibbes preached and which still held Scripture to be inerrant and sufficient, as Sibbes did.

What is quite remarkable in this methodology, is the profundity of Sibbes’ understanding and exegesis. Although he has a generally allegorical reading, he never wanders off into nonsense or speculation. 

And while I am not completely comfortable with an allegorical reading of the text (this being my own admitted prejudice here), I do believe that there is a deep structure between divine and human love — because human love in marriage between a man and woman was given as a basis upon which we could begin to understand divine love.  And while there is certainly no identity between the two loves, there is an analogy which makes the one comprehensible in terms of the other.

Another thing about Sibbes’ sermons must be noted: the sheer volume of insight and beauty he mines and reveals. Spurgeon’s comment on Sibbes is certainly true, “Sibbes never wastes the student’s time, he scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands.”

Sibbes begins his discussion of Canticles with the general observation that the book concerns the most profound love between Christ and the Church. He deals with the obvious topic of a prurient reading of the text (as was infamous done by a preacher of some note who has taken up shop in a new city and of whom I will nothing more to say).

He then comes to the purpose of the book of Canticles. Why was this discourse written in a such a beautiful manner? Why doesn’t the Scripture just tell us plainly that Christ loves the Church, rather than give us this drama and poetry? The purpose of the Spirit inspiring the text 

is by stooping low to us, to take advantage to raise us higher unto him, that by taking advantage of the sweetest passage of our life, marriage, and the most delightful affection, love, in the sweetest manner of expression, by a song, he might carry up the soul to things of a heavenly nature. We see in summer that one heat weakens another; and a great light being near a little one, draws away and obscures the flame of the other. So it is when the affections are taken up higher to their fit object; they die unto all earthly things, whilst that heavenly flame consumes and wastes all base affections and earthly desires. Amongst other ways of mortification, there be two remarkable—

    1. By embittering all earthly things unto us, whereby the affections are deaded* to them.
    2. By shewing more noble, excellent, and fit objects, that the soul, issuing more largely and strongly into them, may be diverted, and so by degrees die unto other things. The Holy Spirit hath chosen this way in this song, by elevating and raising our affections and love, to take it off from other things, that so it might run in its right channel. It is pity that a sweet stream should not rather run into a garden than into a puddle. What a shame is it that man, having in him such excellent affections as love, joy, delight, should cleave to dirty, base things, that are worse than himself, so becoming debased like them! Therefore the Spirit of God, out of mercy and pity to man, would raise up his affections, by taking comparison from earthly things, leading to higher matters, that only deserve love, joy, delight, and admiration. Let God’s stooping to us occasion our rising up unto him.
  • That is, ‘deadened.’—G.

 Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet And Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 5–6.

And so ends the introduction to this sermon.

Edward Taylor’s Meditation Upon Isaiah 63:1

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in 1 Peter, Edward Taylor, Isaiah, Jonathan Edwards, Love, Meditation, Praise, Puritan, Samuel Rutherford, Song of Solomon

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Isaiah 63:1–2 (ESV)

63 Who is this who comes from Edom,

in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,

                        he who is splendid in his apparel,

marching in the greatness of his strength?

                        “It is I, speaking in righteousness,

mighty to save.”

            2           Why is your apparel red,

and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

 

Edward Taylor looked and marveled.  He sees Christ, “all glorious in apparel” – his robes stained with blood in the glory of having conquered his enemies.  The glory of Christ is such that the sky “blanced with sunlight” is “black as sackcloth” when compared to Christ.  He brings image upon image, this language failing in its attempts to describe a beauty beyond words:

One shining sun gilding the skies with light
Benights all candles with their flaming blaze
So doth the glory of this robe benight 

Ten thousand suns at once ten thousand ways. 


This beauty overwhelms Taylor’s sense.  Now plainly Taylor has not had an actual vision of Christ; rather Taylor has taken a description of the conquering Christ and drawn out the beauty.

By the conquering Christ, Taylor would have understood this as a reference to his death upon the cross. We can know this by looking to contemporary uses of this passage.  John Meriton in his sermon on Christ’s Humiliation wrote:

III. Upon what grounds Christ thus humbled himself to death; what cogent necessity was upon him.—For we may not conceive that Christ thus humbled himself to death upon trivial and impertinent considerations. As David said once of Abner, “Died Christ as a fool dieth?” (2 Sam. 3:33.) No, sure! It was upon these six weighty grounds:—

1. That scripture-prophecies and predictions might be accomplished.—All which represent him as coming in “dyed garments from Bozrah.” (Isai. 63:1.) The first scripture that ever mentions Christ, shows him a bleeding and crucified Saviour. (Gen. 3:15.). Now Christ was to make good to a tittle every thing that had been before written of him.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 5 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 223. Richard Steele in his sermon, “The Right of Every Believer to the Blessed Cup in the Lord’s Supper” likewise ties Bozrah to Christ’s victory on the cross:

When this blessed cup is poured out, let thy eyes pour down a flood of tears mixed of grief and joy: to see such a person pouring out his life by thy procurement,—this should melt thee with grief: to see the price paid by that blood for thee, should lift thee up into a trance of joy. When thou takest that cup of salvation, think, “ ‘What shall I render to the Lord for this his benefit to me?’ (Psalm 116:12.) ‘Who is this that comes with dyed garments from Bozrah? how glorious is he in his apparel!’ (Isai. 63:1.) How bitter was his passion! how sweet his compassion to poor sinners! ‘Be ye lift up, O my everlasting doors, and let the King of glory come in.’ ” (Psalm 24:7.) Bring him into thy soul, and there feed upon him by faith, and let his fruit be savoury to thy taste. (Canticles 2:3.) Inward communion is the crown of an ordinance; it is “the cup of the new testament in Christ’s blood, which was shed for you;” (Luke 22:20;) receive it with reverence, receive it with thankfulness, receive it with application: remember his death, remember his love more than wine. (Canticles 1:2.)

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 6 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 503.  Indeed, Steele’s usage is particularly appropriate to understand Taylor’s usage, in that Taylor was contemplating the Lord’s Supper in his poem. The coming of coming is a coming encounter with Christ.

Now what is it that Taylor sees, when he looks at this coming Christ? A Christ who comes for his bride:

[Christ]

Comes glorious in’s aparel forth to woo. 

 Oh! if his glory ever kiss thine eye,
Thy love will soon enchanted be thereby. 

 

In making such usage, Taylor is moving within the existing use of his fellows. Samuel Rutherford in his sermon “The Church Seeking Her Lord” writes:

Fair things delight us much, and perfect white and perfect red make a beautiful person. Beauty be a great conqueror of love, and will take a castle in the heart. We love fair things, as fair sun, fair moon, fair roses, lilies, men, women, &c. But put out all the beauty of the creatures in one; they are all but caff1 and sand to fair-faced Jesus. I had far rather have one look of fair-faced Jesus as have all the world, and ten worlds, with sevenfold more beauty than they have. See Isa. 63:1: “Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength?” The Kirk, wondering at Christ’s beauty to see Him go so manly-like, says, “O, who is yon goes so manly and so sonsy-like? [Prosperous, happy] He is a lucky-like person.” It would rejoice one’s heart to see Him go in the greatness of His strength. Is not yon fair, glorious Jesus, in red scarlet, having all His clothes dyed in blood?

 

Samuel Rutherford, Quaint Sermons of Samuel Rutherford (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1885), 147.

Jonathan Edwards, whose father was friends with Edward Taylor, likewise sees the image of Christ coming from Bozrah as one of love and delight:

Christ and the true Christian have desires after each other. Canticles 7:10, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me.”7 And the desire of the Christian’s soul is after Christ. Canticles 3:1–2, “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets and broad ways. I will seek him whom my soul loveth.” The true Christian has an admiration of Jesus Christ; he admires his excellencies. Isaiah 63:1, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with died garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?” And so Christ is represented as admiring the excellency and beauty of the churCanticles 6:10, “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”

Christ and the believer do glory in each other. The believer glories in Christ. Canticles 5:16, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend.” Canticles 6:3, “I am [my] beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” Christ glories in his people: he looks on them as his armor and his crown. Isaiah 62:3, “Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” Zechariah 9:16, “And they shall be as the stones of a crown”.

Edwards, Collected Works, vol. 19, Sermons and Discourses, “The Sweet Harmony of Christ”, p. 442 (edwards.yale.edu).

Thus, in coming to communion, Taylor sees Christ coming to him mystically, if you will, in beauty seeking to woo his bride – the entire church. The combination of elements, the conquering hero coming in love is not so far disparate – even for us. The one who overcomes the enemies and rescues the beloved is a common image in movies and stories.

How here is the trouble: Such beauty should overwhelm Taylor and draw him out in love; but, Taylor finds his soul too small to swell with such love as is right:

Then grieve, my soul, thy vessel is so small

And holds no more for such a lovely he.

That strength’s so little, love scarce acts at all.

 

At this point, Taylor expresses the gravest sorrow of the Christian.  When we consider the love and unbending courage and grace of Christ – whose love was “strong as death” (Canticles 8:6) – it should engender a love as profound and deep within our hearts.  To see the love of Christ should conform us utterly to his image and glory:

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV)

When Christ comes from Bozrah, when he comes to woo, he comes to one who deserves no mercy. Indeed, as the quotation from Hosea (found in  1 Peter 2:10) shows, we are actively enemies of God. Indeed, Hosea portrays the people of God as prostitutes who have strayed from the marriage vow.

It is in this place that Christ comes. Taylor knows this  — and knows that it is his purpose and joy to “proclaim the excellencies” of Christ – the one who by his death drew us out of darkness.   Notice also, a point well developed by Taylor, that the “marvelous light” is not beyond Christ is Christ, “his marvelous light”.

It is into this place that Taylor knows despair – none of our love and praise approximates that which is deserved.

Think of a wedding day.  The bride comes down the aisle, resplendent in her youth and beauty. Her husband to be looks at her and says, “Hey not bad!” After a few moments of looking, he turns to his friends and starts in a videogame on his phone.

Such is the gravity of our flesh, that even after conversion, even when we know the magnificence of Christ, it drags us down.

It is here that Taylor’s poem shines. For rather than resolve to merely bear his dullness, he strives for something still more:

My lovely one, I fain would love thee much
But all my love is none at all I see,
Oh! let thy beauty give a glorious touch
Upon my heart, and melt to love all me.
Lord melt me all up into love for thee
Whose loveliness excels what love can be. 

Now to some, Taylor may seem grim and sour, for he sees plainly the inability of the human being. Yet, when we think of him fairly, there is no sour despair.  In seeing his need for grace and glory from Christ, he exhibits the grandest hope. It is a strange sort of “optimism” which settles for little. No one who knows human beings well can think that we – even at our best – live up to what we know as best. This is a statement which can be made even by one who denies Christ.

No for the Christian, who sees the end of humanity in the greatest possible manner, it is unquestionable that we are far sort of what we were created to be. In fact, we know human beings to be such a grand thing that nothing in the universe will suffice for us. Only the Creator of the universe is a grand enough object for our love. Yet, when we recognize this, we know also that we fall sort (Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). We know this falling short to be sin.

Hence, we know our trouble lie with our sin: sin is an infection, a foreign strain, an abnormality that trails along death and misery. Thus, to fit us for our true greatness, Christ conquers sin and then woos our soul. It is this misery and rescue which Taylor sees. He knows Christ to be more magnificent than all the world; precisely what Taylor has always hoped would be. And it is at this point that knows his love falls short.

 

But also notice the faith and hope which drive Taylor on. He does not think to settle for an insufficient love. Christ is such a great husband that he cannot merely engender love but he can create love.

Edward Taylor, What a Feast is This.2

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by in Discipleship, Edward Taylor, Literature, Meditation, Proverbs, Puritan, Song of Solomon

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(Analysis of the first stanza of this poem is found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/edward-taylor-what-feast-is-this-1/)

7 A feast, a feast, a feast of spiced wine
8 Of wines upon the lees, refined well
9 Of fat things full of marrow, things divine
10 Of heavens blest cookery which doth excel.
11 The smell of Lebanon, and Carmel sweet
12 Are earthly damps unto this heavenly reek.

Taylor looking to the Lord’s Supper, continues in his praise for the glory of what is offered in Christ. He alludes to the feasts of wisdom in Proverbs and the bride in Canticles, both of which would be standard sources of imagery and mediation on the matter of the Christian and Christ.

Christ is such a great feast that nothing in the world – not even Lebanon and Carmel – with their highest offerings could offer something which would tempt him away.

Such praise is not hyperbole but rather the true aim of the spiritual life. Christians will often seem songs with language which aims in this direction (“you are the treasure that I seek”), but the profound passion and desire of Taylor is missing in both expression and in life.

Another element of Taylor’s poetry and meditation can be seen when this is compared to Jesus’ injunction:

34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Mark 8:34–38 (KJV 1900). When seen in isolation, Jesus’ call to discipleship sounds wholly negative – yet, as shown by Taylor’s poem, the rejection of the world comes about due to the desire for something better. Deny this world, follow me – because you will get me, and I am worth more than all the world.

We miss the radical and delightful nature of Christ and discipleship when we seek to mix Christ with the world – adding Christ as a good thing, a spice; rather than seeing Christ as worth more than all of Lebanon and Carmel (I was speaking a couple of days ago about Lebanon with a man from there – and even now, despite its hardships, the place is one of great beauty).

Such meditation upon the beauty and greatness of Christ makes leaving the world behind not a burden but a joy.

A feast, a feast, a feast: A figure of amplification/repetition like this has effect of increasing the emotional content: A feast, a feast, a feast ! – of spiced wine. “Spiced” should be pronounced as two syllables: spic-ed (as should “refined” in the next line).

A feast of spiced wine: The narrow phrase “spiced wine” occurs in Canticles 8:2

I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me:

I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

Song of Solomon 8:2 (KJV 1900). Fredericks comments on this phrase, “The rare word ‘asis probably refes to stronger win, comparable to the Gr. gleuka in Acts 2:13 ….This drink is probably intended by Shulmmith to stimulate sexual arousal in Solomon.

Another possible reference is to the mixed wine offered at Wisdom’s feast:

Wisdom hath builded her house,

She hath hewn out her seven pillars:

2 She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine;

She hath also furnished her table.

3 She hath sent forth her maidens:

She crieth upon the highest places of the city,

4 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither:

As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

5 Come, eat of my bread,

And drink of the wine which I have mingled.

Proverbs 9:1–5 (KJV 1900). The correspondence of Christ and Wisdom is a common motif (See, e.g. 1 Cor. 1:30), thus the allusion to wisdom’s feast would not be beyond Taylor’s reference.

Wine upon the lees: wine may be left upon the “lees” to development the taste. http://www.wineweekly.com/wine-basics/wine-terms/wine-term-lees/

Earthly damps: Damp had a common usage which revolved around the concept of stopping or lessening a good.

The serving of God with cheerfulness strengtheneth both body and mind; whereas excess of grief damps the spirit and enfeebles the body, unfitting us for the service of either God or man.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 4 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 189. “How May we Give Christ a Satisfying Account, Why we Attend Upon the Ministry of the Word?” by Rev. Samuel Annesley, LL.D. Several such examples could be given.

Reek: Reek has no negative connotations. Thomas Brooks (an English Puritan, and thus a bit earlier than Taylor) records the following similar usage:

By all these instances, it is most evident that no earthly portions can satisfy the souls of men. Can a man fill up his chest with air? or can he fill up the huge ocean with a drop of water? or can a few drops of beer quench the thirst of a man in a burning fever? or can the smell of meat, or the reeking fume of a ladle, or dreaming of a banquet, satisfy an hungry stomach? No! no more can any earthly portions fill or satisfy the heart of man. If emptiness can fill the soul, if vanity can satisfy the soul, or if vexation can give content to the soul, then may earthly portions satisfy the soul, but not till then. When a man can gather grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles, and turn day into night, and winter into summer, then shall he find satisfaction in the creatures; but not before. All earthly portions are weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, and they are found to be lighter than the dust of the balance; and this will rather inflame the thirst than quench it.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 2, ed. “A Matchless Portion”, Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 34-35.

By this time, Taylor’s usage would be old fashioned: by the 1650’s the negative sense of the word was recorded (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=reek&allowed_in_frame=0). Two possible explanations for the old fashioned usage ( beyond the near rhyme): 1) Poetry tends toward old language; and 2) living in New England, his personal vocabulary would not necessarily track the most “modern” usage of England.

Edward Taylor, “Thy Human Frame, My Glorious Lord, I Spy”

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Meditation, Psalms, Puritan, Song of Solomon

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Thy human frame, my glorious Lord, I spy
A golden still with heavenly choice drugs filled;
Thy holy love, the glowing heat whereby,
The Spirit of grace is graciously distilled.
Thy mouth the neck through which these spirits still.
My soul thy vial make and therewith fill.

Thy speech the liquor in thy vessel stands,
Well tinged with grace a blessed tincture, lo,
Thy words distilled, grace in thy lips poured, and,
Give Grace’s tincture in them where they go.
Thy words in Grace’s tincture stilled, Lord, may
The tincture of thy grace in me convey.

That golden mint of words, thy mouth divine,
Doth tip these words, which by my Fall were spoiled;
And dub with gold dug out of Grace’s mine
That they thine image might have in them foiled.
Grace in thy lips poured out as as liquid gold.
They make my soul, Lord, to it hold.

1683

Taylor works the distillation of medicine (drugs, line 2) in a still as the basic conceit. The distillation process works on words from God which are heated by “holy love” and poured through and into the poet’s soul. The entire process is marked by Grace.

By grace (personified in the poem) Taylor means both the condescension of God to human beings to show and do them good. It means both the kind intention of God and the actual work of God in the human life to transform one into the image of God (Romans 8:29). Puritans often distinguished various elements of God’s work in the human soul as several types of grace. Such types of grace would be “drugs” which remedy the soul.

The need of Taylor stems from the fault of original sin, “my Fall” (line 14).

The imagery of gold alludes to both the pre-Fall world and the New Creation.

Taylor’s imagery derives from the Song of Solomon 5 (a description of the bridegroom by the bride):

10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand. 11 His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven. 12 His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool. 13 His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. 14 His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires. 15 His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. 16 His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

And Psalm 45 (which provides in part): [note, this Psalm is applied to the incarnate Son in Hebrews 1]:

1 My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. 2 You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever. 3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! 4 In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! 5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you. 6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; 7 you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; 8 your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; 9 daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.

The Church at Ephesus and Canticles 3

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, 1 John, James, Revelation, Song of Solomon

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In Revelation 2, Jesus commends and then rebukes the church at Ephesus. He commends their good works and care for correct doctrine, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.” He also commends their “patient endurance”. Yet, there is a fault, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

Now James explains that a faith which has no work is no true faith:

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

John in his first epistle explains that one who claims love and yet does not actually conduct acts of love has no true love from God:

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:16-18

Thus, “faith” and “love” which exist only as words, are not faith or love; yet work — even good work of charity, and endurance and right doctrine — without love means nothing:

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

What does all this mean? At times Christians of this time and place speak of a personal relationship with Jesus. Unfortunately, it seems that such words usually mean a self-centered self-defined vague Jesus as the guy who paid for my get out of hell card. Yet there
is a sense in which the phrase is quite correct: Jesus is a persons : he is a man and the Son of God incarnate and is a person. He is a person with whom a relationship may and must be cultivated.

But the relationship may not be a matter of mere words like “faith” or “love”. Were I to tell my wife “I love you” and yet keep a mistress, my wife would rightly question (to say the very least!) the word “love”. I perhaps may feel an emotion of some sort — but I would not demonstrate love. That would be a “dead” love or faith. My wife seeks the words, but she really seeks my life. When words and conduct, when the entire life renders a true love, then the marriage exists.

Conversely, if I were to do things because I thought she wanted me to, but I did not care for her out of love, there would still be no true love.

Conduct without love and words without conduct are both nothing more than manipulation. Work without love and faith is rank paganism: I have sacrificed X and so the deity owes me Y. Words without corresponding conduct are fraud. A confidence man promises an interest in an oil well in North Dakota — he may even deliver a piece of paper claiming the same — but he only delivers words without meaning, because he words correspond to nothing in reality.

How then must the church at Ephesus respond? Canticles (Song of Solomon) 3 pictures the bride who seeks her love:

1 On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.
2 I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not.
3 The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

This passage pictures the desire of the bride for the bridegroom — and thus the desire of the Church for Christ. In Revelation 2, Jesus has told the Ephesians, You must come seek me — and seek until you find: just as the bride in Canticles must seek her love. James Durham’s comment on verse 4 helps us to understand the application to the soul:

The second thing here, is her success, which is according to her desire, ‘I found him’ (saith she); when I had pressed but a little further, he sensibly and surprisingly made himself known to me. Observe. 1. Christ is not far off from his people when they are seeking him, whatever they may think when he hides himself. 2. They who love Christ, and conscionably follow all means for obtaining him are not far from finding, nor he far from manifesting himself to them. 3. They who sincerely press forward to the life of ordinances beyond the form, and by faith take themselves to Christ himself for the blessing, not resting on their performances will not long miss Christ, yea, it may be, he will give them a sensible manifestation of himself sooner than they are aware; for, ‘the Spirit is obtained, not by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith,’ Gal. 3:2. 4. A soul that sincerely loves Christ, should not, and when in a right frame will not give over seeking Christ till it find him, whatever disappointment it meets with; and sure such will find him at last. 5. Christ found after much search, will be very welcome, and his presence then will be most discernible. 6. Believers should no less observe, and acknowledge their good success in the means, than their disappointments; there are many who often make regrets of their bonds, that are deficient in acknowledging God’s goodness when they get liberty.

Edward Taylor, My blessed Lord, art thou a lily flower?

29 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in 1 Peter, Colossians, Edward Taylor, Meditation, Puritan, Song of Solomon

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My blessed Lord, art thou a lily flower?

My blessed Lord, art thou a lily flower?
Oh, that my soul thy garden were, that so
Thy bowing head root in my heart and pour
Might of its seeds, that they therein might grown.
Be thou my lily, make thou me thy knot:
Be thou my flowers, I’ll be thy flower pot.

My barren heart thy fruitful valley make:
Be thou my lily flourishing in me:
Oh lily of the valleys, for thy sake,
Let me thy valley, and thou my lily be.
Then nothing shall me of thyself bereave.
Thou must not me, or must my valley leave.

How shall my valley’s spangling glory spread,
Thou lily of the valley’s spangling
There springing up? Upon thy bowing head
All heaven’s bright glory hangeth dangling.
My valley then with blissful beams shall shine,
Thou lily of the valleys, being mine.

The significant aspect of Taylor’s meditation is not a bare desire for Jesus. Such desire is certainly present:

My blessed Lord, art thou a lily flower?
Oh, that my soul thy garden were

However, it is not a mere desire to somehow possess Jesus (the lily flower) but to be transformed by Jesus. He first expresses this desire with the imagery of seeds scattered:

that so
Thy bowing head root in my heart and pour
Might of its seeds, that they therein might grown.

The imagery of seeds is used in the NT of the Word of God as “seed”. Jesus famously gives the parable of the sower in which the scattered seed is the gospel proclamation (Mark 4:1-20). James, while not expressing saying “seed” writes of the “implanted word, which is able to save your souls” James 1:21. Peter writes of being born of seed:

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:23-25.

Thus, scattering of “seed” would be seeking a transformation.

Taylor then speaks of the lily making the valley (the poet) fruitful (line 7).

The reason he desires the transformation is given in line 9, “for thy sake”. This seems to come from nowhere and may easily be missed in importance.

The Christian seeks to be “conformed to the image of” Christ (Romans 8:29). This process will lead to “glory” (Romans 8:30). This transformation process is wrought by Father through the Spirit to glorify the Son, “that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). This doctrine could be drawn elsewhere, but the point is plain: Taylor seeks transformation to glorify the Son, hence this is sought “for thy sake”.

The glory and beauty of the Christian is all of Christ. In forensic terms, it is an “alien righteousness”, that is, a righteousness which derives from and belongs to Christ. In Colossians 3:3-4, the image is that our life and glory are in Christ:

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Thus, the life and glory of Christ becomes ours and make us radiant to the glory of Christ:

Upon thy bowing head
All heaven’s bright glory hangeth dangling.
My valley then with blissful beams shall shine,
Thou lily of the valleys, being mine.

Thus, Taylor’s desire is not merely for himself, but rather for the glory of Christ, in which glory Taylor may participate.

Of Communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Part 2, Chapter 3c.3 (Desiring the Beauty of Christ)

28 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Desire, Discipleship, John Owen, Meditation, Mortification, Puritan, Romans, Song of Solomon

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However, in Romans 8:13, Paul explains that it is by the Spirit that sin is put to death. What does the Spirit do? The Spirit causes us to see sin as filthy and Christ as beautiful:

 

The third reason why God denies assurance to his most precious ones, is that they may be the more clearly and fully convinced of that exceeding sinfulness and bitterness that is in sin, Jer. 2:19.1 Ah, Lord, says the soul that [is] sighing and mourning under the want of assurance, I see now that sin is not only evil, but the greatest evil in the world, in that it keeps me from an assurance of my interest in thee, who art the greatest good in the world, and from an assurance of that favour of thine that is better than life, and from the light of thy sweet countenance, that is better than corn, and wine, and oil; and from those joys and comforts that can only make a paradise in my soul, Ps. 4:7, 63:3, 4. Ah, Lord! now I find sin not only to be bitter, but to be the very quintessence of bitterness. Ah! no bitterness so bitter as sin, that keeps my soul from that sweet assurance, that is not only the top and crown of mercy, but also the sweetener of all mercy, misery, and glory.2 Oh what unspeakable evil do I now see in that evil that keeps me from the most desirable good! Oh what bitterness do I now find in that which Satan, the world, and my own deluded heart told me I should find sweetness in! Ah, now I find by experience, that to be true, which long since the faithful messengers of the Lord have told me; viz., that sin debaseth the soul of man, that it defiles and pollutes the soul of man, that it renders the soul most unlike to God, who is optimum maximum, the best and greatest, who is omnia super omnia, all, and above all, and renders it most like to Satan, who is a very sea and sink of sin.4 That it hath robbed the soul of the image of God, the holiness of God, the beauty of God, the glory of God, the righteousness of God, and that keeps the soul from wearing this golden chain of assurance.

 

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 2, “A Serious Discourse Touching a Well-Grounded Assurance”,  ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 332.

 

Thus, holiness is the nature outflow of desire for Christ. Christ is desired above all rivals.

 

Of Communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Part 2, Chapter 3c.2 (Desiring the Beauty of Christ)

28 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Desire, Discipleship, Edward Taylor, John Owen, Meditation, Mortification, Puritan, Romans, Song of Solomon

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The idea developed by Owen – and found through the theology of this period — is that Christ is of such great beauty, that one will desire him above all rivals. As Taylor wrote in Meditation on Canticle 2.1:

 

The gawdy world me courts t’unlock the box,

A motion made where love may pick and choose

….

Love pausing on’t, these clayey faces she

Disdains to court ….

       And there doth see

The Rose of Sharon which with beauty shines.

Her chest unlocks; the spark of love outbreathes

To court this Rose: and lodgeth in its leaves.

 

Owen explains it thus:

 

The liking of Christ, for his excellency, grace, and suitableness, far above all other beloveds whatever, preferring him in the judgement and mind above them all. In the place above mentioned, Song of Solomon 5:9, the spouse being earnestly pressed, by professors at large, to give in her thoughts concerning the excellency of her Beloved in comparison of other endearments, answereth expressly, that he is “the chiefest of ten thousand, yea,” verse 16, “altogether lovely,” infinitely beyond comparison with the choicest created good or endearment imaginable. The soul takes a view of all that is in this world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” and sees it all to be vanity, — that “the world passeth away, and the lust thereof,” 1 John 2:16,17. These beloveds are no way to be compared unto him. It views also legal righteousness, blamelessness before men, uprightness of conversation, duties upon conviction, and concludes of all as Paul does, Philippians 3:8,

 

“Doubtless, I count all these things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”

 

So, also, does the church, Hosea 14:3, reject all appearing assistance whatever, — as goodly as Asshur, as promising as idols, — that God alone may be preferred. And this is the soul’s entrance into conjugal communion with Jesus Christ as to personal grace, — the constant preferring him above all pretenders to its affections, counting all loss and dung in comparison of him. Beloved peace, beloved natural relations, beloved wisdom and learning, beloved righteousness, beloved duties, [are] all loss, compared with Christ.

 

This desire for Christ is the true key in understanding the Puritan concept of mortification of sin and striving for holiness.  Often times holiness can be understood as refraining from some thing which I want. Such a method of “holiness” is bitterness and pain. It requires one’s self-will to combat sin. It is Romans 7 living.