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Tag Archives: Fall

Edward Taylor, Meditation 31, Begraced with Glory.2

02 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in Edward Taylor, Uncategorized

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Edward Taylor, Fall, Literature, poem, Poetry, Sin

Stanza 2

But as a crystal glass, I broke, and lost
That grace, and glory I was fashion’d in
And cast this rosy world with all its cost
Into the dunghill pit and puddle sin. (10)
All right I lost in all good things, and each
I had did hand a vein of venom in.

Summary: This stanza recounts the fall. Here again, Taylor puts himself into Adam’s story and casts himself as the culprit. “I” am the one who broke the crystal glass. I cast “this rosy world” into the “dunghill.” The “rosy world” is taken over from the first stanza.

He has lost all “right” (that is as in a right in) all that is good. And now all that he has is shot through with “venom.” Venom is a reference to Genesis 3:

Genesis 3:1 (AV) Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Notes: The reference to this sinful earth in terms of a “dunghill” was a commonplace in English Puritan writing, such as:

First, here is their portion, they are never like to have any other consolation, but that they have here, here is their All. This is as it were their Kingdom; They are upon their own dunghil.

Jeremiah Burroughs, Moses His Choice, with His Eye Fixed upon Heaven: Discovering the Happy Condition of a Self-Denying Heart (London: John Field, 1650), 100. The reference to sin and puddles is also not unknown, though less common. For instance:

One sin may keep possession for Satan, and hinder Jesus Christ from his right—I mean, from sitting on the throne and swaying the sceptre of thy soul. Wallowing in one puddle defiles the body, and tumbling in one piece of filthiness defiles the soul.

George Swinnock, The Works of George Swinnock, M.A., vol. 5 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1868), 454. A striking similarity to Taylor’s use in this stanza is found in Thomas Adams, The Fatal Banquet (the first sermon), found in volume 1 of his collected works at page 169: “Sin is, like water, of a ponderous, crass, gross, stinking, and stinking nature.”

Musical: The g’s of the first stanza, glory, grace, gold, here appears only as what has been lost: the broken glass, the fled glory and grace, the good which is gone.

The meter is regular until the last two lines:

All right I lost in all good things, and each
I had did hand a vein of venom in.

Two things are interesting here. The 11th line can be read as a regular line: all RIGHT i LOST. But it also works with an accent on ALL: ALL right I LOST in ALL GOOD things.

Also pause coming between the 8th and 9th syllables creates a run-on, where the last two syllables are essentially unaccented and the entire line runs into the line. As explained on the Poetry Foundation website, this is known as “Enjambment: The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped.”

Effect: The effect of this stanza is to create a sense of both loss, disgust and anger. There is the loss of the “rosy world”; but this loss was not at the hands someone else: I did this.

The use of the I puts the reader in an interesting place, because the I becomes the reader while reading the poem: I – not Taylor – am the one who lost this world.

But this also is to incur disgust. The beautiful world has been lost and now what was glorious is now a pestilent puddle.

The Scope of the Fall’s Effect

06 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Harmatiology, Uncategorized

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Bible, Fall, Sin

It is the human heart that is corrupt (Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Ps. 14:1; Jer. 17:9; Ezek. 36:26; Matt. 15:19); from it flow the springs of life (Prov. 4:23). It is from within the human heart that all iniquities and all sorts of incomprehension flow (Mark 7:21). The mind of humans is darkened (Job 21:14; Isa. 1:3; Jer. 4:22; John 1:5; Rom. 1:21–22; 1 Cor. 1:18–23; 2:14; Eph. 4:18; 5:8). The human soul is guilty and impure and needs atonement and repentance (Lev. 17:11; Pss. 19:7; 41:4; Prov. 19:3, 16; Matt. 16:26; 1 Pet. 1:22). The human spirit is proud, errant, and polluted and therefore has to be broken, illumined, and cleansed (Ps. 51:19; Prov. 16:18, 32; Eccles. 7:9; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; 1 Cor. 7:34; 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 5:23). The human conscience is stained and needs cleansing (Titus 1:15; Heb. 9:9, 14; 10:22). The human desire, inclination, and will reach out to what is forbidden and is powerless to do good (Jer. 13:23; John 8:34, 36; Rom. 6:17; 8:7; 2 Cor. 3:5). And the body, with all its members—the eyes (Deut. 29:4; Ps. 18:27; Isa. 35:5; 42:7; 2 Pet. 2:14; 1 John 2:16), the ears (Deut. 29:4; Pss. 115:6; 135:17; Isa. 6:10; Jer. 5:21; Zech. 7:11), the feet (Ps. 38:16; Prov. 1:16; 4:27; 6:18; Isa. 59:7; Rom. 3:15), the mouth and the tongue (Job 27:4; Pss. 17:10; 12:3f.; 15:3; Jer. 9:3, 5; Rom. 3:14; James 3:5–8)—is in the service of unrighteousness. In a word: sin is not located on and around humans but within them and extends to the whole person and the whole of humankind.

Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics: Sin and Salvation in Christ, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 80–81.

Counsel Before the Fall

21 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Genesis, Jay Adams

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Adam, Biblical Counseling, Counseling, Fall, Genesis, Jay Adams

Indeed, it is the very reason why remedial counseling exists (remember, man was made as a creature whose welfare was dependent—even before Adam’s sin—on God’s directive, guiding and preventive counsel. He received such counsel in the garden and benefited from it by the fellowship and communication that it established with God. Human life depends upon God’s Word). Counsel per se was always needed.

Jay Edward Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling : More Than Redemption (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resource Library, 1986), 139.

Solomon’s Labors, Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 & Eden

19 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Ecclesiastes, Genesis

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Creation, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 2, Fall, Genesis, Genesis 2, Solomon

 

Comparison of Solomon’s Work with Eden (the formatting came out strange):

Ecclesiastes 2:1 (ESV)

1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.”

But behold, this also was vanity.

Genesis 4:2 (ESV)

2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

Ecclesiastes 2:2 (ESV)

2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”

Ecclesiastes 2:3 (ESV)

3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

First wine: Genesis 9:21

Ecclesiastes 2:4 (ESV)

4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.

Genesis 2:8 (ESV)

8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

First “house”: in the ark: Gen. 6:14

First vineyard: Gen. 9:20

Ecclesiastes 2:5 (ESV)

5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

Genesis 2:8 (ESV)

8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 2:9 (ESV)

9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Ecclesiastes 2:6 (ESV)

6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

Genesis 2:10 (ESV)

10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

Ecclesiastes 2:7 (ESV)

7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks [sheep], more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

Genesis 2:18 (ESV)

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Genesis 4:2 (ESV)

2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep [flocks], and Cain a worker of the ground.

Ecclesiastes 2:8 (ESV)

8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure[1] of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women,

Genesis 2:11–12 (ESV)

11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.

and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

Genesis 2:22 (ESV)

22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Ecclesiastes 2:9 (ESV)

9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.

Ecclesiastes 2:10 (ESV)

10 And whatever my eyes desired [they asked] I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward [portion/inheritance] for all my toil.

Genesis 3:6 (ESV)

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Ecclesiastes 2:11 (ESV)

11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving[2] after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Fredricks:

His ordered gardens may have been relaxing, but even then they were a visual metaphor in the ancient world for the control a king had over his entire kingdom. Furthermore, with terminology reminiscent of the Garden of Eden, Qoheleth describes his achievements as those of one who took seriously God’s primary commission of earth’s management (Gen. 1:26-28). As Verheij notes, common words to both the End account and Eccelsiastes 2:4-6 include ‘plant’, ‘garden’, ‘trees of all fruits’, ‘to water’, ‘to sprout’, ‘to make or do.’ Just as the Edenic passage is the first manifestation of human sovereignty over and earthly domain, Solomon’s activities are a description of an aggressive management of an economic and political enterprise. Another Solomonic tradition, 1 Kings 4:33 at those the Genesis account of humanity’s primary commission where, in addition to being extolled specifically for his botanical knowledge, it is said, “he spoke of trees, a cattle, a fowl, of creepers and fish”, all in Hebrew terminology that in Genesis 1:26, 29. Furthermore, id., as a garden, was not a place for idle pleasure; it was a place of work and responsibility, even before the Fall (Fredricks, Ecclesiastes, 93).


[1] סְגֻלָּה (seḡǔl∙lā(h)): n.fem.; ≡ Str 5459; TWOT 1460a—1. LN 57.1–57.21 treasured possession, i.e., valued personal property, what is owned by someone, which the owner has special affection or holds special value (Ex 19:5; Dt 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; Mal 3:17+); 2. LN 57.25–57.35 personal wealth, i.e., a personal accumulation of values, as contrasted with a governmental treasury (1Ch 29:3; Ecc 2:8+) James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

[2] רעה: see II רֵעַ for the connection of this verb with that sbst., see also MHeb. vb. ריע hif., and Akk. râʾu; according to KBL basic meaning to have to do with one another; similarly J. Fichtner Gottes Weisheit 89: to associate with each other, keep company with one another. Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M.E.J Richardson and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1999), 1262.

The Earth Stands, Ecclesiastes 1:4

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Ecclesiastes, Meditation, Ministry, Quotations

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Death, Earth, Ecclesiastes, Fall, Meditation, Ministry, Quotations

There is of course as the fathers since Jerome have observed something tragic about having man, the noble creature derived from earth, continually pass away while “earth,” the crude material from which he is made remains.
– Leupold
Ecclesiastes com. 1:4

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