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The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation 7

16 Saturday May 2015

Posted by memoirandremains in William Spurstowe

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Innocence, Lily, Meditation, Penitence, Repentance, The Spiritual Chymist, Violet, William Spurstowe

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Upon a Sight of a Lily and a Violet

These two flowers brought to my mind a saying of Jerome to this effect, that it is better and more honorable to be a lily than a violet. Which, when stripped of its metaphorical clothing comes to this much, that, to be always pure is more commendable than to bear the blush of sin. Spotless innocence does far exceed the greatest penitence.

It is a truth beyond all controversy that innocence is worth more than any penitence.

Innocence being the only the robe of glory, that covered man when first created. If he had never divested himself of innocence, he would never have experienced shame or sorrow. For shame and sorrow are both passions that had their entrance into the world with sin — and shall in the same moment with sin die and expire.

But next to pure virgin purity from sin, the most desirable thing is true and unfeigned penitence for sin. For even though penitence cannot restore a man to his state without sin — time lost and innocence being two irrevocable things — yet it will (through God’s ordination) abundantly give him the capacity for mercy and pardon.

When Ephraim was struck upon his thigh and was ashamed because he bore the reproach of youth [Jeremiah 31:18-19], how earnestly did God remember him? Is Ephraim my dear son? When the Prodigal returns as a penitent, how affectionately did his father embrace him, falling on his neck and kiss him? How the father cuts off the son’s confession by speedily calling for the ring, the robe, the shoes to adorn him — and the fatted calf to feast him! [When we repent, how willingly God comes to receive us.]

O, blessed Lord! How willingly would I (who has nothing of the unspotted purity of the lily) partake plentifully of the tincture of the violet. How fain would I, who have a forehead [stubbornness] to commit sin before you, have a face to blush for sin done against you. My sins are as the sands of the sea for number — O, that my tears were as the water of the sea for abundance.

But who — but you — Lord can change me — a proud and unhallowed sinner — into a real and broken convert? That grace, by which mine whole person must be molded into a penitential frame, is altogether yours: heart, hand, eyes, tongue, cannot move in the least without you. They are lifeless members till you quicken them; yea, rebellious until you subdue them.

Do you therefore, by a powerful energy, fit every part for its proper duty.

Let my hand smite my breast, as the fountain and root from which all my iniquities do spring.

Let my tongue confess them,

my eye mourn for them,

my face, blush for them,

and my heart bleed for them.

Then shall I unfeigningly say and acknowledge,

My ruin is from my self, but in you is my help, O Lord!

Photo courtesy of Bill Gracey

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

29 Monday Oct 2012

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

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1 Peter, 1 Peter 1:23–25, art thou a lily flower?, Christian Meditation, Colossians, Colossians 3:3-4, Edward Taylor, Eschatology, glory, James 1:21, Lily, Meditation, My blessed Lord, Poetry, Puritan, Puritan Poetry, Romans 8:29, Song of Solomon, Spiritual Disciplines, Word

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.

Meditation Canticles 2.1: The Lilly of the Vallies (Edward Taylor).3

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Edward Taylor, Puritan, Thomas Adams

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A Divine Herbal, Communion, Edward Taylor, James Durham, Lily, Lord's Supper, poem, Poetry, Puritan, Richard Steele, The Right of Every Believer to the Blessed Cup in the Lord’s Supper, Thomas Adams

Sermon references to Jesus as the Lily of the Valley

Taylor’s poem can be found here:

https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/meditation-canticles-2-1-the-lilly-of-the-vallies-edward-taylor/

Taylor’s poem takes its primary imagery from Song 2:1, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”

I was surprised to find that the image of Christ as the Lily of the Valleys was not a common motif among the Puritans.  Most commonly, the image of “lily” (as seen in the previous post) was more often used in its references to actual lilies (lilies of the field, as in the Sermon on the Mount) or believers (lilies among the thorns, or a lily growing).  Thus, Taylor’s use of the image to extol Christ, while not beyond the field of understanding or interpretation, was not particularly common.

James Durham’s commentary on the Song of the Solomon[1] is a key source of information of Puritan preaching on this book. On chapter 2, verses 1-2, he writes, in part:

In the first verse then, Christ comes in commending himself, ‘I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.’ The rose is a sweet savouring flower, and so is the lily: Sharon and the valleys are added, because the roses and lilies that grew there, were the best that were to be found. He is said to be that ‘rose,’ or ‘the rose’ and ‘the lily,’ as if there were no other, to distinguish him, as excellent and singular from all others. He thus sets forth himself to show, 1. That Christ Jesus hath a most lovely savour, and a most delightful and refreshful smell, to them that have spiritual senses to discern what is in him. 2. That there is nothing refreshful in creatures, but is more eminently and infinitely in him; therefore he is called the rose and the lily. 3. That whatever excellency is in Christ, is singularly and incomparably in him; there is no other rose, or lily but he; and what excellency is to be found in others, doth not deserve the name, being compared with him. 4. That he is never suitably commended, till he be lifted up above all. 5. That none can commend Christ to purpose but himself; he takes it therefore on him, ‘I am,’ &c. He can indeed commend himself effectually and none but he can do it. 6. That he manifests more of his loveliness to those who have gotten a begun sight and esteem of it: for, she had been commending it formerly, and now he discovers more of it to her. 7. That it is one of Christ’s greatest favours to his Bride, and one of the special effects of his love, to set out himself as lovely to her, and to bear in his loveliness upon her heart; and this is the scope here.

In the second verse, he describes his Bride. Here we have these things to consider, 1. What she is; a ‘lily.’ 2. What others of the world beside are called here; the ‘daughters’ (so men without the church are to the church, and corrupt men in the church are to believers) that is, daughters of their mother the world; no kindly daughters to her, they are thorns. 3. The posture of Christ’s Spouse, she is ‘as a lily among thorns,’ a strange posture and soil, for our Lord’s love and lily to grow in.

The lily is pleasant, savoury, and harmless; thorns are worthless, unpleasant and hurtful. The lily’s being compared with them, and placed amongst them, sets out both her excellency above them, and her sufferings from them. In general, Observe. 1. Christ draws his own beauty and the Bride’s together, thereby to show their kindred and sibness (so to speak) she is not rightly taken up, but when she is looked upon as standing by him; and he not fully set forth, nor known without her. 2. He took two titles to himself, and he gives one of them to the Bride, the ‘lily;’ but with this difference, that he is ‘the lily,’ she ‘as’ or ‘like the lily:’ setting forth, 1. Wherein her beauty consists, it is in likeness to him. 2. From whom it comes, it is from him, her being his love, makes her like the lily. 3. The nearness of the mystical union, that is between Christ and his Bride; it is such, that thereby they some way share names, Jer. 23:6, and chap. 33:16. 4. He intermixes her beauty and crosses together, drawing them on one table, to give her a view of both; and that for her humbling, and also for her comfort; it is not good for believers, to look only to the one without the other.

Jesus as lily could be found from Song of Solomon 5:13, “his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh”:

 (2.) Here is an account of what our Saviour said, when, if ever, “his lips were like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh:” (Canticles 5:13:) where there is,

First. A command: “Drink ye all of it:” wherein you have,

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 6, : “The Right of Every Believer to the Blessed Cup in the Lord’s Supper”,  Richard Steele  (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 482.

I must make mention of an interesting use of the image of “lily of the valley” by Thomas Adams:

I could willingly step out a little to chide those, that, neglecting God’s earth, the soul, fall to trimming with a curious superstition the earth’s earth, clay and loam: a body of corruption painted, till it shine like a lily (like it in whiteness, not in humility, the candor of beauty, for the lily grows low: lilium convallium, Cant. ii.1, a flower of the valleys and bottoms).

The Works of Thomas Adams, vol. 2, “A Divine Herbal”, 436.


[1] The entire text can be found here: http://www.puritansermons.com/durham/durindx.htm

Meditation Canticles 2.1: The Lilly of the Vallies (Edward Taylor).2

13 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Church History, David Clarkson, Edward Taylor, Puritan, Richard Sibbes, Thomas Watson

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A Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees, A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day, Brooks, Church History, David Clarkson, Edward Lawrence, Edward Polhill, Edward Taylor, Hosea 14:5, How We May Read the Scriptures With Most Profit, Lily, Lily of the Valley, London’s Lamentations, Matthew 6:27–29, poem, Poetry, Puritan, Richard Sibbes, Richard Sibbes, Sermon on the Mount, Song of Solomon 2:1, Song of Solomon 2:2, The Best Things Reserved Till Last, The Christian’s Work, The Crown and Glory of Christianity, There is No Transubstantiation in the Lord’s Supper, Thomas Watson, Transubstantiation

Taylor’s poem can be found here:

https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/meditation-canticles-2-1-the-lilly-of-the-vallies-edward-taylor/

Taylor’s poem takes its primary imagery from Song 2:1, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”  Lily imagery generally was of common use among the Puritans. However, it was most often (though not always) tied to Biblical usage; albeit at times in a creative manner.

A common use of “lily” derived from Song 2:2, “As a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters [ESV, young women].” Thus,  Thomas Brooks uses “lily” to refer to the life of a Christian being removed from this world and transplanted in the New Creation, “Death transplants a believer from earth to heaven, from misery to glory, Job 14:14. Death to a saint is nothing but the taking of a sweet flower out of this wilderness, and planting of it in the garden of paradise; it is nothing but a taking of a lily from among thorns, and planting of it among those sweet roses of heaven which God delights to wear always in his bosom” (Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, “The Best Things Reserved Till Last”, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 458).[1] Edward Polhill uses the image of a lily among thorns in an interesting manner:

God orders the sufferings of the church for his own glory, and his people’s good. He orders them for his own glory; providence is admirable in preserving a suffering church. The ark floats upon the waters, and drowns not: the bush burns, and is not consumed the lily is among thorns, and withers not; the saints are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill, “A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day” (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 332. Yet to see the creativity with which the images were employed, considered this usage of the same verse by Polhill:

He comes into the world weeping, and very fitly, because, by his sin he hath set the whole creation a groaning until now: and as a believer, he lives as a lily among thorns; so is his person in the world among wicked ones, which are as pricking briars on every side; and so is the grace in his heart among the relics of corruption, which are as thorns in the flesh: and whilst sin is within, it is congruous that trouble should be without; nay, more than congruous; it is necessary upon many accounts. Affliction is purgative of sin; it may be, the believer’s heart may wax proud, and the tumor must be lanced, or light, and the vanity must be fanned away; it may be hard, and the furnace must melt it; or drowsy, and the rod must awaken it.

 

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill, “Precious Faith Considered” (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 289. In the first instance, the thorn cannot hurt the lily; in the second, the lily is afflicted by the thorns.

The imagery of lily from Hosea 14:5 (“I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon” (AV)) may actually be the most common use of lily imagery. Thomas Watson relies upon Hosea 14:5:

Though the ship hath a compass to sail by, and store of tackling, yet without a gale of wind it cannot sail. Though we have the word written as our compass to sail by, and make use of our endeavours as the tackling, yet, unless the Spirit of God blow upon us, we cannot sail with profit. When the Almighty is as “dew” unto us, then we “grow as the lily,” and our “beauty is as the olive-tree.” (Hosea 14:5, 6.)[2] Beg the anointing of the Holy Ghost. (1 John 2:20.)

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Thomas Watson, “How We May Read the Scriptures With Most Profit”, Volume 2 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 69.  Edward Polhill in his work, “A Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees”, uses this image:

Where is the truth of these propositions, if God’s calling and drawing do not infer man’s running? Again, David prays, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end; give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law,” (Psalm 119:33, 34.) Where is the consequence of David’s obedience upon God’s teaching, if grace be superable? Moreover, God says, “I will be as dew to Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon; his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree,” (Hos. 14:5, 6). Here is Israel very florid, but that which secures all is insuperable grace; nothing could hinder their spiritual prosperity, who had God for their dew; I say, nothing, not lusts; for Ephraim shall say, “What have I to do with idols,” (v. 8)? not backslidings, for God says, “I will heal their backslidings,” (v. 4); not barrenness, for God tells them, “From me is thy fruit found,” (v. 8); not deadness, for “They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine,” (v. 7). But if the work of grace may be frustrated, then there is no certain root for all this holy fruit to stand upon.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 207.

Goodwin uses the same image but for a rather different end. In “The Trial of a Christian’s Growth” (collected works, volume 3, page 458), Goodwin writes:

As, first, to shew the sudden springing up of the new creature, as it falls out upon some men’s conversions, or upon the saints’ recovery again after falls, he compares them to the lily, Hos. xiv. 5, whose stalk, though long hid in the earth, when once it begins to feel the dew, grows up oftentimes in a night. But yet a lily is but a flower, and soon decays.

Another common use of “lily” imagery was in the quotation from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says,

27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:27–29 (ESV)

Although most instances of the passage are for the purpose of enjoining faith in God’s care and providence, John Howe makes an interesting inversion of the image in his work, “The Blessedness of Righteousness”:

Having voided thy mind of what is earthly and carnal, apply and turn it to this blessed theme. The most excellent and the vilest objects are alike to thee, while thou mindest them not. Thy thoughts possibly bring thee in nothing but vexation and trouble, which would bring in as soon joy and pleasure, didst thou turn them to proper objects. A thought of the heavenly glory is as soon thought as of an earthly cross. We complain the world troubles us; then what do we there? Why get we not up, in our spirits, into the quieter region? What trouble would the thoughts of future glory be to us? How are thoughts and wits set on work for this flesh! But we would have our souls flourish as the lilies, without anything of their own care. Yea, we make them toil for torture, and not for joy, revolve an affliction a thousand times before and after it comes, and have never done with it; when eternal blessedness gains not a thought.

John Howe, The Works of the Reverend John Howe, Volume 2 (London: William Tegg and Co., 1848), 230. In short, we seek by a spiritual laziness to become perfect and content, without the effort to come to a spiritual frame of mind.

Richard Sibbes uses “lily” for something particularly beautiful or treasured without an apparent precise Biblical quotation to support the image:

Among the beasts, the Christian is as a lamb, innocent, …. Contrarily the wicked are termed lions and bears, and the like. Among the plants wicked men are as briars : a man must be fenced that deals with them, 2 Sam. 23:7 ; the godly as lilies, sweet, not fenced with pricks.

Richard Sibbes, “The Christian Work”, vol. 5, page 24. Thomas Brooks, likewise uses the image without a particular quotation, “The redness of the rose, the whiteness of the lily, and all the beauties of sun, moon, and stars, are but deformities to that beauty that holiness puts upon us” (Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, “The Crown and Glory of Christianity”, Volume 4, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1867), 171. And Brooks in “An Ark for All God’s Noahs”

A man that hath God for his portion is a non-such; he is the rarest and the happiest man in the world; he is like the morning star in the midst of the clouds; he is like the moon when it is at full; he is like the flower of the roses in the spring of the year; he is like the lilies by the springs of waters; he is like the branches of frankincense in the time of summer; he is like a vessel of massy gold that is set about with all manner of precious stones

 

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 2, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 7.

One interesting use of the image “lily of the valley” is in the sermon, “There is No Transubstantiation in the Lord’s Supper” wherein  Edward Lawrence argues against transubstantiation on (one of several) the ground that use of an image to reference Christ does not mean Christ is the literal object (thus, when Christ says this is my body, referring to the bread, it does not mean that the bread is his body):

Observe yet further, that whereas there is no example in all the scripture of a sign being turned into the thing signified, yet it is very ordinary in scripture-similitudes to give a thing the name of that whereunto it is likened: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” (Canticles 2:1.) “I am the living bread.” (John 6:51.) “I am the door.” (John 10:7.) “I am the true vine.” (John 15:1.) All these saith Christ of himself; but is he therefore turned into a rose, or lily, or bread, or door, or vine? No: the words taken literally and properly are blasphemy; but the meaning is, He is like these, as to the particular cases whereof he speaks.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 6 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 469.

The other category of usage was the passage from Song of Solomon (Canticles) to refer to Jesus, which will be seen in the next post.


[1] Brooks evidently liked this image, using it in other places, such as in the Epistle Dedicatory to “London’s Lamentations” (vol. 6, collected works, p. 4), “Sincere Christians are as lambs amongst lions, as sheep amongst wolves, as lilies amongst thorns.”

[2] Hosea 14:5 (AV): “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.”

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