Judgment is coming, the court is set; but the Advocate has been appointed. The poet’s fear that he may be rejected has been met with
nor doth refuse
The vilest sinners case that doth him choose.
What then is left but to retain the attorney? And so we come this final stanza, a prayer as petition. The first two lines state his situation and request:
My case is bad, Lord, be my advocate.
My sin is red: I’m under God’s arrest.
These lines are interesting, because they are in the style of Hebrew poetry, which roughly stated entails to syntactically parallel lines where the second repeats and intensifies the propostion of the first.
The first states the matter generally: My case is bad: a bad case could be any unpleasant situation. The second line repeats the structure: My X is Y. But here, rather than the ambiguous “case” we have the more specific “sin.” Rather than bad, the sin “red.” By red, Taylor is alluding to Isaiah
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:
though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.
Isaiah 1:18 (AV)
The reference to red being the color of sin is explained in 1:15, which speaks of their acts of bloody violence, “your hands are full of blood.” The verse also illustrates well the nature of Hebrew poetry: First clauses in parallel:
Though you sins be as scarlet
Though they be red like crimson.
Second clauses in parallel
They shall be white as snow
They shall be as wool
In our poem the second clause contains more variation in structure.
Line 1, second clause,
Lord, be my advocate.
The second line does not repeat the request but instead intensifies the need:
I’m under God’s arrest.
By repeating the need rather than the request, he intensifies the expression of his desperation.
Thou hast the hit of pleading; plead my state.
Although it’s bad, thy plea will make it best.
“Hit of pleading” is admittedly unclear in the detail, though the general sense is apparent: You have the ability or strength to make such a plea. It sounds idiomatic (“hit the bottle,” “hit the bricks”), but I have not heard it before. You have this ability, plead (make an argument to the court on my behalf).
My state is bad, but you can put it in the best light.
The use of pleading/plea in three consequence lines is quite effective:
Thou hast the hit of pleading; plead my state.
Although it’s bad, thy plea will make it best. 40
If thou wilt plead my case before the king
I’ll wagon loads of love and glory bring
Does the final couplet make for a bribe: If you give them this I will give you that? No. God is no need, and thus is not fulfilled by the praise. But praise and thankfulness is the appropriate response to forgiveness. For instance, David’s great penitential Psalm 51 ends:
Psalm 51:19 (AV)
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
But perhaps it is best understood by its negative, what if there is no thankfulness for a benefit received:
Luke 17:11–19 (AV)
11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
In Matthew 9, a paralytic was brought to Jesus. Rather than immediately heal the man (which we assume the hope of the paralytic’s friends), Jesus says, “Take heart my son; your sins are forgiven.” Matt. 9:2.
This immediately provokes outrage in the scribes. How could Jesus claim to forgive sins?
Jesus then asks them a question, “For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?”
It all depends. If Jesus is a charlatan, then it is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” That spiritual status does not produce a bodily state which is immediately visible to all. Thus, if he is lying, the lie cannot be seen.
However, if Jesus is telling the truth, then the forgiveness is the more difficult status. God alone can forgive sins; and such forgiveness will be purchased by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (“Jesus our Lord, who delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Rom. 4:24-25)
Jesus heals the man, as a demonstration of his power over the effects of sin (since death and disease are the result of sin’s influence in the world). He does so without a prayer that God would work at his request, but upon his own command.
From that display of over the body, one can infer Jesus’ power over the unseen spiritual status of sin.
That parallel exists in the case our life in the church. We Christians so easily profess our love for one-another. Our pastors speak of the “beloved,” when addressing the congregation. We speak of the unmerited and free forgiveness of others, just as we have received ourselves. We say we believe that we will, “forgiv[e] each other, as the Lord has forgiven” us. Col. 3:13
But those ideas which we so praise so often fail to materialize in the body. We say these things, but we do another. We praise humility and say that we would never blow a trumpet that others would see our righteousness, and then proceed to make the world knows our pious intentions and thoughts.
It is easier to be a hypocrite in practice, to profess an unseeable spiritual state, than it is to enact in the body humility and love and forgiveness.
Actual life in the body, both our own bodies, and the Body of Christ is what Paul requires here in Romans 12. We are to enact and embody this humility and love and forgiveness in the most flesh-crossing manner.
The world will stand by like the scribes seeing the paralytic before Jesus. They will say, this is crazy, you do not really love your enemy. You can say that, but unless I see love in action, embodied love, blessing given against your best personal interest, we will not believe you.
But Romans says, your body must be the visible place of this work.
By fully considering the depth of what is meant by the “body,” we will see just how rich a display of God’s glorious work is meant here in Romans.
The Body as a Physical Location
The connection between “body” and “sacrifice” would be immediately known by any First Century reader in a visceral manner that eludes a modern reader. I have known gone to a temple with a garlanded goat and watched a priest slaughter the animal and then divide its body.
I one was taken on a tour of a then-empty slaughterhouse. The steps in dispatching the dismembering the animal were explained and the implements for each task were displayed, but the actual “rendering” of an animal I did not see.
My experience goes no further than cleaning a fish. But there is a fundamentally different experience in slaughtering a large mammal. And that is an experience which all people in Paul’s time would have immediate knowledge.
A sacrifice entails the presentation of a body for slaughter. And so, when Paul says we must “present our bodies,” it would come not with a metaphorical distance but with an immediate revulsion. The sensation to be understood is the ransacking of my skin and bones.
Paul qualifies his instruction with the oxymoronic “living”, a “living sacrifice”. But whatever else Paul is demanding of the Romans, it is a matter not of metaphor or idea, it is a matter of flesh and bones.
What does this matter for us? Whatever Paul commands in this passage is not something we can hold at arms-length. He is commanding that we be physically present in some painful process. The emphasis on the body is a recognition that this will entail more than just thought, but will entail the visceral reactions of the body, the churning of emotion. And when we think of the circumstances which Paul will present in these few verses, we can see this may be a disturbing thing.
In short, I am calling you to be there at the place of potential conflict, at the place of humility, in the place of these other believers. This is not a matter of idea, it is a matter of life.
At this point, Taylor turns to petition in his prayer. The first part of the poem lays the ground for the prayer, the nature of the need, the greatness of the Savior, and praise. But there he comes to ask that this “sovereign solder” come to repair.
It is a rather musical stanza, particularly relying upon alliteration of R: Rod, bRanch, repair, ridge, rib, rafter, gRace, renew, gRace; D: David, deck, do, ridge, guilD; B: Branch, bough, blood bad, ridge, riB.
There is the contrast of the Rod and Branch versus the “flesh and blood bag” (which is a ghastly image).
In line 25, Taylor puts the emphasis on Branch, by placing it immediately after the pause and beginning the second half of the stanza with a trochee rather than iamb: BRANCH of his BOUGH.
Thou Rod of David’s root, Branch of his bough (25)
My Lord, repair thy palace. Deck thy place.
I’m but a flesh and blood bag; Oh! Do thou
Still, plate, ridge, rib, and rafter me with grace.
Renew my soul, and guild it all within:
And hang thy saving grace on every pin. (30)
The prayer is direct, “Repair thy palace.” He gives details of the repair which must be done in lines 28-30:
Still, plate, ridge, rib, and rafter me with grace.
Renew my soul, and guild it all within:
And hang thy saving grace on every pin
Every element is to be remade “hang thy saving grace on every pin.” The revision is to be total.
The reference to Christ as a “branch” has prophetic warrant. In Isaiah 11, we read:
Isaiah 11:1–2 (AV)
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
The Branch from the stem of Jesse (King David’s father) is plainly the Lord.
Jeremiah 33:14–16 (AV)
14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.
The prophetic references to Christ as the “Branch” are in the context of the coming of Christ are both in the context of the restoration and repair the Christ (the anointed one) will bring. The full context of the Isaiah prophecy reads:
Isaiah 11:1–9 (AV)
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
The theme of repair also has prophetic background. The repair comes after there has been a lapse. Thus, Elijah calls the people to repair the altar of the Lord which was torn down in the time of Baal worship (1 Kings 18:30); the repair of the temple by King Jehoash (2 Kings 12) after the usurpation of Athaliah; the repair of the temple by Josiah after the wicked rule of Amon (2 Kings 22); the repair of Jerusalem under Nehemiah after the return from exile.
Thus, this prayer of Taylor has deep biblical roots: He calls upon the Branch to repair the palace of God, the manner of the Kings and prophets who repaired temple and altar.
The next three stanzas add more detail to the prayer of repair.
In this next stanza, the musical effect is upon the assonance, particularly the “o’s”: soul, Lord, floor, o’re, orient, o’re, gold, glorious; and alliteration of p’s and g’s. The words of this stanza must be voiced to be appreciated.
My soul, Lord, make thy shining temple, pave
Its floor all o’re with orient grace: thus gild
It o’re with heaven’s gold: its cabins have
Thy treasuries with choicest thoughts up filled
Portray thy glorious image all about (35)
Upon thy temple wall within and out.
The general tenor of the prayer is plain: make this a golden palace. But of special interest are lines 34-36. Asking to be gilded by God does not have a plain reference in the life of a man. What does it mean to be “gilded”. He gives details here: First, it concerns the nature of his psychological life: it is to be filled with choice thoughts. He is asking specifically for a rational revision of his thought life.
Second, he asks that the image of God by made plain in him. This prayer is from Colossians:
Colossians 3:9–10 (AV)
9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
The Christian is being renewed after the image of God – which is in in Christ. He is asking to be like Jesus. The renewal is a life which is wholly remade in the image of God, which here would be seen in the way in which he thinks (and thus lives).
The next specific prayer is taken from Ephesians 6 in a well-known passage about “spiritual warefare”:
Ephesians 6:10–17 (AV)
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Taylor reworks that imagery into a prayer as follows:
Garnish thy hall with gifts, Lord, from above
With that rich coat of mail thy righteousness
Truth’s belt, the Spirit’s sword, the buckler love
Hope’s helmet, and the shield of faith kept fresh.
The scutcheons of thy honor my sign.
As garland tuns are badges made of wine.
The last line is a bit difficult: a “tun” is a large barrel of wine. A garland tun would be a garlanded barrel. I assume this is a reference to festivity.
The last stanza partakes of two biblical allusions. First, the motto for the poem, 2 Corinthians 5:17 (AV) “Therefore if any man bein Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
The second reference is from David’s great prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:
Psalm 51:9–11 (AV)
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Note the repeated use of the word “new/renew” in this stanza:
New mold, new make me thus, me new create
Renew in me a spirit right, pure, true.
Lord make me thy new creature, then new make
All things of thy new creature here anew.
New heart, new thoughts, new words, new ways likewise.
New glory then shall to thyself arise.
A new heart is the great promise of the new covenant (which the Branch brings about). And all things “new” is the great eschatological promise:
Revelation 21:1–5 (AV)
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And so the renewal of one’s spirit in this life points to the eschatological new creation when all is made new.
These two stanzas go together. Each stanza begins with “I being graft in thee.” From that follows the nature of the relationship which now exists between the two. The first of these stanzas speaks of the particular relationships which have come into being. The poet primarily takes on the feminine role; the Lord the masculine. Hence he is sister, mother, spouse. Dove is neutral but in the allusion to Canticles, dove is feminine:
Song of Solomon 6:9 (KJV 1900) 9 My dove, my undefiled is but one; She is the only one of her mother, She is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.
The ESV translates “undefiled” here as “my perfect one.”
The one characteristic which is unambiguously male is “son”. But in this context, it is the diminutive position, because the Lord is “father.”
Sister is likewise from Canticles (or Song of Solomon). Before reading this it should be noted that “sister” carries the emphasis of the intense closeness of the relationship is not meant to suggest something untoward:
Song of Solomon 4:9–12 (KJV 1900) 9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, With one chain of thy neck. 10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than wine! And the smell of thine ointments than all spices! 11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: Honey and milk are under thy tongue; And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
As for “mother”, one may ask how the poet could be in the position of “mother” toward the Lord. The answer is from the Lord himself. When Jesus’ family heard he was in a house teaching, “his family heard of it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, ‘He is out of his mind.’” Mark 2:20-21.
As the family pressed for admittance, the matter came to Jesus’ attention:
Mark 3:31–35 (KJV 1900) 31 There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him. 32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. 33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? 34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.
This also being another reference to “sister.”
As spouse:
Isaiah 54:5 (KJV 1900) 5 For thy Maker is thine husband; The Lord of hosts is his name; And thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
The most extensive discussion of marriage in the New Testament, Ephesians 5:21-33, speaks directly of human marriage and then applies the same to Christ and the church.
I being graft in Thee, there up do stand In us relations all that mutual are. I am Thy patient, pupil, servant, and Thy sister, mother, dove, spouse, son, and heir. Thou art my priest, physician, prophet, king, Lord, brother, bridegroom, father, everything.
The relationship of prophet, priest, king are considered to be the formal offices of Christ, as set forth in the Westminster Confession.
It pleased God, in his eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only-begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man,1 the Prophet,2 Priest,3 and King;4 the Head and Saviour of his Church,5 the Heir of all things,6 and Judge of the world;7 unto whom he did, from all eternity, give a people to be his seed,8 and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.9 As for Father, there is the refrain made famous in Messiah:
Isaiah 9:6 (KJV 1900) 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: And the government shall be upon his shoulder: And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
In the next stanza on relationship, Taylor says that by being brought into relationship with Christ, he is brought into all of Christ’s relationships. Being in Christ, the relationships an angel has toward Christ are now Taylor’s relationship: “I thy relations my relations name.”
I being graft in Thee I am grafted here Into Thy family, and kindred claim To all in heaven, God, saints, and angels there. I Thy relations my relations name. Thy father’s mine, Thy God my God, and I With saints and angels draw affinity.
The relating of my God-your God, my Father, your Father comes Jesus’s words as he takes leave of Mary Magdalene following the Resurrection:
John 20:17 (KJV 1900) 17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
And so these two stanzas work out the nature of the new relationships gained by the poet upon his union with Christ. First, there are the transformation of the relationships between himself and Christ; and then the transformation of his relationships to others, because he is in Christ.
It cannot be developed here, but at the Fall in Genesis 3, the totality of relationships between the humans and Creation have fundamentally changed for the worse. But here, in God’s Garden, by being brought into relationship in Christ, there is a complete restoration of relationship between God and human; human and all other creatures.
Thou! Thou! my dear dear Lord, art this rich tree, The tree of life within God’s Paradise. I am a withered twig, dried fit to be A chat cast in Thy fire, writh off by vice. Yet if Thy milk-white gracious hand will take me And graft me in this golden stock, Thou’lt make me.
The first line of the poem breaks the structure of iambic feet with a series of accented syllables:
THOU THOU my DEAR DEAR LORD art this RICH TREE
The repetition and emphasis is emphatic the Lord is the tree. Why the need for this emphasis, what is the effect of it?
The poet (in his wooling imagination) goes through the Garden of God and comes upon the tree of life, but then something happens to him. The divine tree he realizes to be more than a tree. The tree is already something unreal, it is divine, it is gold – but now something new comes upon his realization: The Lord is the Tree. This tree of life upon which saints and angels live is the Lord himself.
In this image, Taylor seems to be borrowing a conceit from the book of Daniel. In the fourth chapter we read of the King of Babylon Nebuchadezzar has a dream a great tree in which all the kingdoms of the world rest is the king (“it is thou O king”). Taylor seems to take that image and rework it to apply to the Lord who is the tree of life which upholds the people of God and the divine beings.
And so the poet finds something he did not expect to find: it was one thing to find the tree, but to learn the Lord is the tree has taken him back.
This begins a rhetoric turn which Taylor will use though out this poem: the repetition of a phrase:
This rich tree
The tree of life.
The repetition of the phrase with slight variation is a feature of Hebraic poetry (it is more complex than mere repetition) which would be familiar to Taylor from the Bible.
The phrase “God’s Paradise” harkens back to “God’s Garden” in the first stanza. Paradise equaling a garden.
Next he brings up “withered twig”. This brings in two allusions. First is the man with the withered hand whom Jesus heals as recounted in Mark 3. Second is the dead branches which are cast in Jesus’s parable of the vine and branches. I will quote it a length because it’s imagery of vines and branches and fruit underlies a great deal of this poem:
John 15:1–8 (KJV 1900)
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Here Taylor begins as a withered branch. But rather than being cast into the fire, he seeks to be grafted into the tree.
He is asking to have the life of the tree flow into his dead life. Which is also a picture from the Gospel of John, “In him was life.”
But there is yet another passage which lies behind Taylor’s prayer to be grafted into the tree. This comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans. In his image, Paul is describing the relationship of Gentile believers who are coming to relationship with the Jewish Messiah. Paul says the wild branches of Gentiles are being grafted into the existing tree:
Romans 11:16–21 (KJV 1900)
16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; 18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. 20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Taylor has done something interesting with these various allusions. By using the allusion of a tree and the King of Babylon, the Lord’s position is pastoral and political: he is a protective ruler. The use of “withered” brings to mind Jesus healing the withered arm, which reverses the use of withered in John 15, where the withered branch is burned: Do not burn me, heal me. By then using a branch being grafted onto a tree, Taylor takes the personal prayer and makes it ecclesiastical: To be grafted into the Olive Tree is to be in the Church.
This also alludes back to the final line of the first stanza where the tree holds angels and saints (and again supports the use of the tree as the King).
By piling up allusions, he creates greater depth in the meaning of the poem.
The third line is well constructed:
I am a withered twig, dried fit to be
The withered in the first half of the line becomes dried in the second half. The repetition again being Hebraic, but also AngloSaxon in the alliterative first and second half of the lines with the rhythm being more of equal stresses than iambs or other regular feet:
I and WITHERed TWIG, DRIED FIT to be
The pause between twig and dried puts even more emphasis on dried. I am … DRIED.
What has caused his trouble: vice. He has fallen into this state due to sin. This is useful because sin is more than a mere action: it has an ontological component: it is not merely breaking a law it is also to be dead.
The stanza then ends with the incomplete idea: Thou’ll make me.
This stanza begins with two stressed syllables separated by a pause: THOU — THOU my LORD…. The emphasis thus falls most heavily upon the addressee. This functions almost as a new invocation: he has asked to fill him, and here he repeats and makes even more emphatic the call for grace.
In the second half of the line, Taylor does something similar where he repeats “full” with an emphasis falling on the second full (which is not merely full, but is “top full”).
Although it is a “fault” with the line, it ends with an emphasized “grace”. The fault is that Taylor has put 6 stresses in a 5 stress line. Yet even though it is a technical fault, it helps underscore the desire of the poet. I truly need this.
The second line smooths out with a fine alliteration of “g” from the end of the first line: grace … golden … grace.
The springs are rising up from the depth of the sea: the sea is so completely filled with grace, and grace wells-up continually so that the surface is “boiling” with rising streams of grace. And so matches the nature of the gospel of our grace: Our need is continual, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ is greater, inexhaustible. No matter the depth of our need, it cannot begin to exhaust the supply.
A hymn has it
Grace, grace, God’s grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin.
The theology which underlies Taylor’s prayer in this poem: his own inability and need vs. Christ’s inexhaustive grace owes much to Luther’s statement in the Heidelberg Disputations no 18, “It is certain that one must utterly despair of oneself in order to be made fit to receive the grace of Christ.” Whether Taylor ever read the disputations, I do not know. But the theology set forth there was much developed by Lutheran and Reformed theologians and showed up theology which Taylor would have known.
He then uses the image of a cask filled with wine: He asks that the cask be tapped and that the grace flow into the empty, earthen vessel, until it is full:
The 28th Meditation of Edward Taylor takes as its text John 1:16. In context, the passage (as it would have stood in Taylor’s Bible) reads as follows:
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. 16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
John 1:14–18
The poem will center upon the receipt of the grace which is in the Word made Flesh. However, as is a consistent theme in Taylor, it begins with the distance from God and the disorder of mind. Although not discussed in this place, the noetic effect of sin – the disordering effect of sin upon the thoughts, affections and behavior – lies behind his description of his sense as “bewildered” and his “befogged dark fancy”.
It should be noted that the effects are not simply in a cause-and-effect relationship with some particular sinful action, but are inherent in any human being on this earth. The damage done by Adam’s fall is not completely removed prior to one’s death and personal resurrection.
The poem begins with a self-conscious discussion of the poem itself as a matter of praise, sending some “glory home”. But this glory is returned in small sums, “bits” rather than in “lumps.” (Incidentally, “lumps” does not have the negative connotations it does in contemporary vernacular.) The first stanza reads:
When I Lord, send some bits of glory home
(For lumps I lack) my messenger, I find,
Bewildered, lose his way being alone
In my befogged dark fancy, clouded mind.
Thy bits of glory packed in shreds of praise
My messenger doth lose, losing his ways.
The first line creates an interesting rhythmic effect by beginning with a Bacchic foot: “when I LORD” followed by a pause. The unusual English rhythm ending on a stress followed by a pause is difficult to read. The awkwardness creates an emphasis on the words. The vocative, Lord, would normally stand at the beginning of a clause, “Lord, when I send ….” Thus, the relationship between “I” and “Lord” is foregrounded.
The remainder of the first line and the second then flow along more easily. However, the poem introduces a puzzling reference, “my messenger”. The messenger is the means by which he is returning glory to the Lord. The precise identity of the messenger is not otherwise clarified. What is the means by which he is sending glory home: the messenger is the poem itself.
And so, as is common in Taylor, his poem is in part about the poem itself. His thinking which creates the poem is bewildered. His “befogged dark fancy” would be the weakness of his ability to conceive and create the poem.
And here comes the problem: he seeks to return some glory to the Lord within the praise which is the poem itself, but the glory falls out (is lost) from the poem:
Charnock first introduces his text, Romans 8:13, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” He makes the point that, “You must not imagine you shall be justified without being sanctified.” There is a strange belief that (using an image from Dallas Willard) salvation is sort of like an arbitrary barcode slapped onto a product. The scanner reads the code and ignores the item. If a “soap” barcode is put on a box of cereal, the scanner reads “soap.” We believe that if we receive the barcode “saved” that will read by the scanner on judgment day, no matter who we are.
Charnock then defines “flesh” and “body”: “Some, by flesh, understand the state under the law; others, more properly, corrupted nature. Ye shall die, without hopes of a better life. But if you mortify the deeds of the body: the deeds of the body of sin, which is elsewhere called the body of death; the first motions to sin and passionate compliances with sin, which are the springs of corrupt actions. Corrupt nature is called a body here, morally, not physically; it consisting of divers vices, as a body of divers members.”
The verse consists of a threat and a promise; an act and an object. A great deal of Puritan precision is simply a matter of paying attention to the text. Exegesis is a matter of paying attention, asking questions and thinking. When people first hear someone carefully exegete a text is sounds like magic; when in fact it is merely carefully reading.
Charnock then makes a few deductions from the text. “Sin is active in the soul of an unregenerate man.” Second, “Nothing but the death of sin must content a renewed soul. The sentence is irreversible: die it must.” This is a present tense, continual action.
“The knife must still stick in the throat of sin, till it fall down perfectly dead. Sin must be kept down though it will rage the more, as a beast with the pangs of death is more desperate.”
This rampage against sin must be universal, from all actions and intentions, from the first motion to the last completion.
“The greatest object of our revenge is within us. Our enemies are those of our own house, inbred, domestic adversaries; our anger is then a sanctified anger when set against our own sins. Our enemy has got possession of our souls, which makes the work more difficult.”
How then is this done? “Man must be an agent in this work. We have brought this rebel into our souls, and God would have us make as it were some recompence by endeavouring to cast it out; as in the law, the father was to fling the first stone against a blasphemous son.”
And how, “Through the Spirit. (1.) Mortification is not the work of nature; it is a spiritual work. Every man ought to be an agent in it, yet not by his own strength.”
And here a bit of summary, “The difficulty of this work is hereby declared. The difficulty is manifested by the necessity of the Spirit’s efficacy. Not all the powers on earth, nor the strength of ordinances, can do it; omnipotency must have the main share in the work.”
And from this the “doctrine”, the thesis statement:
The doctrine to be hence insisted on is this: Mortification of sin is an universal duty, and the work of the Spirit in the soul of a believer, without which there can be no well-grounded expectations of eternal life and happiness.
Embrace Your Defamations, as affording you precious opportunities to exemplify a patience that shall glorify God; and imitate the exemplary patience of your admirable Savior.
Usually defamations are little more than provocations. Nothing so unusually easily and provokes Men to intemperate passion as to be reproached. The old pagans and Stoics that could bear everything else found reproach to be insupportable. This would make them roar as load as waves on the Aegean shore.[1]
He was a great and a strong man and a scholar, yea, a master of better philosophy who yet complained, Reproach has broken my heart. For patience to get the upper hand of passion on this occasion, and moderate it, and regulate it, verily this is a more perfect work of Christianity.[2]
Sir, if you may be so happy as to attain unto it, you may, instead of being troubled say, I am happy that I ever had the occasion! Upon the first advice of any abuse offered to you, resolve, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while I have before me what the unbridled mouth of wickedness has uttered of me .[3]
But make your application to the God of all grace,[4] for the grace to keep this resolution. If you resist the first impression, the first resentments, which you may too readily feel upon vile reproaches, you have gained a great point; you have steered clear of abundance of sin; you will be more able afterwards to carry on a strain of lovely patience, and merit the judge’s motto, prudens qui patiens: a prudent man is a patient man.
Let me beseech you, after this, to maintain most exact watch, a most severe guard upon yourself, lest while the waters of strife are broaching, your provoked spirit may at any time speak unadvisedly with your lips. The meekest man in the world[5], you know, did so.[6]
My friend, your calumnious adversaries furnish you with valuable opportunities to adorn the doctrine of God your Savior[7] and do such things as are done by none but those that may lay hold on the comforts of eternal life. The blessed Eliot’s three words, bear, forbear, forgive: Now, now is the time for them to come into exercise.
All tendencies to revenge upon your enemies the wrongs which they have done you must now be abhored, be suppressed; must be looked upon as worse things than the worst of your enemies’ [bad acts]. ’Tis probable they may be such people as may deserve to have much evil spoken of them. However, ’tis now decenet for you to be more sparing in speaking of it than you would have been if you had suffered nothing from them. Leave that just work to others; there is hazard lest you overdo, or least some revengeful glance of your own do work in it, if you go meddle with it.
On the other side, if you know any good of those that have spoken ill of you, be you not adverse to speak that good and not ill-pleased if you hear it spoken by others.
How famous, how precious is the name of Calvin for the answer which he gave when he was told that angry Luther put some hard names upon him. An answer so recited, so esteemed by all the world that there is no need now of my telling any of my neighbors what it is.[8]
But be sure that your heart stand always in awe of that word: Proverbs 20.22, “Say not thou, I will recompense evil.” And Romans 12.17, “Recompense to no man evil for evil.”
Athenagoras, I remember, gives this description of the primitive Christians, “’Tis counted an indifferent thing for a man to revile another, by whom he has been first reviled. But we Christians do speak as well as ever we can of them that speak nothing but evil of us.”[9]
And Justin Martyr bears just witness for them, “We don’t ask that they who haveh most accused us, and abused us, and falsely spoken evil of us may be punished for it; no ’tis punishment enough to be left unto such folly and rashness.”[10]
Oh! Do not look upon this generous patience as impracticable or a lesion only for the Elohim whose dwelling is with flesh![11] Rather, look upon it as an unmanly weakness to be unable to bear the ill words of other men. It is a pretty remark when Abishai could not bear the railing tongue of Shimei.[12] Says David unto him, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? Now, Zeruiah was their mother. Why, the sons of Zeruiah? He seems to intimate you have more of your mother than of your father in you. You talk as if you were of the weaker sex. If you had the souls of men in you, a few ill words would not be such an intolerable grievance to you.
If you will harken to me, you shall take little notice of the affronts that are offered you: For the most part they are not worth your notice.
When the famous Doctor Sands was ignominiously carried on a lame jade through the city of London, a base woman in scorn threw a stone at him and hit him full on the breast. He took no other notice of it, but only made this mild answer, “Woman, I pray God forgive thee.” This was notice enough.
[1] Aegean: Greek. The reference is to the Iliad, Book 1, line 34 where the priest Chryses sits by the roaring sea.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. 13 This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.
[7] Titus 2:10 (AV) Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
[8] In a 1544 letter from John Calvin to Heinrich Bullinger, he wrote, “Often have I been wont to declare, that even though [Martin Luther] were to call me a devil, I should still not the less esteem and acknowledge him as an illustrious servant of God.”
Allow me here to lift up my voice boldly in loud and audible out-cry, pleading as I do before philosophic princes. For who of those that reduce syllogisms, and clear up ambiguities, and explain etymologies,or of those who teach homonyms and synonyms, and predicaments and axioms, and what is the subject and what the predicate, and who promise their disciples by these and such like instructions to make them happy: who of them have so purged their souls as, instead of hating their enemies, to love them; and, instead of speaking ill of those who have reviled them (to abstain from which is of itself an evidence of no mean forbearance), to bless them; and to pray for those who plot against their lives? On the contrary, they never cease with evil intent to search out skilfully the secrets of their art,and are ever bent on working some ill, making the art of words and not the exhibition of deeds their business and profession. But among us you will find uneducated persons, and artisans, and old women, who, if they are unable in words to prove the benefit of our doctrine, yet by their deeds exhibit the benefit arising from their persuasion of its truth: they do not rehearse speeches, but exhibit good works; when struck, they do not strike again; when robbed, they do not go to law; they give to those that ask of them, and love their neighbours as themselves.
Athenagoras, “A Plea for the Christians,” in Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. B. P. Pratten, vol. 2, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 134.
For all are called Christians. Wherefore we demand that the deeds of all those who are accused to you be judged, in order that each one who is convicted may be punished as an evil-doer, and not as a Christian; and if it is clear that any one is blameless, that he may be acquitted, since by the mere fact of his being a Christian he does no wrong. For we will not require that you punish our accusers; they being sufficiently punished by their present wickedness and ignorance of what is right
Justin Martyr, “The First Apology of Justin,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 165.
[12] The incident can be found in 2 Samuel 16. David is fleeing with his people from the rebellion of Absalom. While leaving the city, Shimei stops along the road and mocks David.
For that wicked reptile monster, by his enchantments, enslaves and plagues men even till now; inflicting, as seems to me, such barbarous vengeance on them as those who are said to bind the captives to corpses till they rot together. This wicked tyrant and serpent, accordingly, binding fast with the miserable chain of superstition whomsoever he can draw to his side from their birth, to stones, and stocks, and images, and such like idols, may with truth be said to have taken and buried living men with those dead idols, till both suffer corruption together.
Therefore (for the seducer is one and the same) he that at the beginning brought Eve down to death, now brings thither the rest of mankind.
Clement of Alexandria, “Exhortation to the Heathen,” in Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 2, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 173.
This quotation is interesting on a few grounds. First, it contains a source for the not-uncommon image used in sermons particular on Romans 7:24 (who will deliver me from this body of death). But I note that even Clement didn’t have a definite source of the story beyond the indefinite “they say” (legousin, in the original).
Second, it is a striking description of the danger and evil of idolatry: “to have taken and buried living men with those dead idols, till both suffer corruption together.” To have an idol is to be shackled to an idol.
A similar image is used of addictions in our day, which is appropriate seeing addiction is another way to understand magic and idolatry. It is to be chained to, buried with.
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