Tag Archives: Meditation 35

Edward Taylor, Meditation 35.5

14 Wednesday Jul 2021

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Stanza Seven

But oh! Thy wisdom, Lord! Thy grace! Thy Praise!

Open mine eyes to see the same aright.

Take off their film, my sins, and let the rays 

Of thy bright glory on my peepholes light

I fain would love and better love thee should,

If ‘fore me thou thy loveliness unfold.

Stanza Eight

Lord, clear my sight: thy glory then out dart:

And let thy rays beam glory in mine eye

And stick thy loveliness upon my heart,

Make me the couch on which thy love doth lie.

Lord make my heart thy bed, thy heart make mine.

Thy love bed in my heart, bed mine in thine.

Summary: These last two stanzas should be taken together. They amount to first a praise to God for his wisdom (in providence). Second a prayer for sight. Third, a prayer for communion with Christ. Rather than examine these elements by stanza, it would be clearer to look consider them by them.

Notes:

Praise of God

But oh! Thy wisdom, Lord! Thy grace! Thy Praise!

The praise of God’s wisdom and grace and frequent in the Bible. But perhaps the most pertinent allusion in these lines comes at the end of Romans 11. In chapters 9-11, Paul has been unpacking the doctrine of election and speaking of the manner in which God so orders the history of humanity as to give display of both his mercy and his judgment.

The poet’s meditation has been sparked on the mystery of being chosen by God:

Lord am I thine? Art thou, Lord, mine? So rich!

How doth thy wealthy bliss branch out thy sweets

Through all things present?

Accordingly, Paul’s spontaneous outburst of praise for God’s mercy in salvation seems particularly relevant here: 

Romans 11:32–36 (AV) 

32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. 

33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. 

Petition, Open my eyes:

Open mine eyes to see the same aright.

Take off their film, my sins, and let the rays 

Of thy bright glory on my peepholes light

I fain would love and better love thee should,

If ‘fore me thou thy loveliness unfold.

Lord, clear my sight: thy glory then out dart:

And let thy rays beam glory in mine eye

We can segregate the petitions as follows:

First, “Open my eyes to see the same aright”. The “same” is the wisdom of God. This is a prayer to be able to see the wisdom of God in its working out of providence. 

This prayer to open my eyes likewise comes in connection with Paul’s understanding of the providence as shown in election, In Ephesians 1, Paul, having spoken of the manner in which believers having been “chosen in [Christ] before the foundations of the world” (Eph. 1:4) Paul launches into a prayer which contains the language of eyes being opened to see the providence of God:

Ephesians 1:15–19 (AV)

15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

Second, there is a prayer to remove the hinderances to his sight: “Take off their [my eyes] film, their sin.” This is paralleled by “Lord, clear my sight.”

This prayer concerns what in technical parlance is called “noetic effects of sin.” This has to do with the manner in which sin distorts our understanding of the world. A full explication of the doctrine would overwhelm a post. To put it in a summary fashion (based upon Romans 1), sin affects my ability to know/understand; it affects my desires, emotions, and affections; in short it makes me incapable of knowing of what is good and evil, right and wrong. To have a debased mind is to have a mind which cannot probably evaluate anything. 

Taylor’s prayer is based upon a close reading of Romans 12:1-2. He is praying for a mind which is conformed to the right understanding provided by God.

Romans 12:1–2 (AV) 

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The reprobate mind of Romans 1:28 is to be the mind which is “able to prove” in Romans 12:2. It is not as clear in English, but the Greek of Romans 1:28 is a mind which is not capable of making judgment. The Spirit transforms the mind to make it capable of making correct judgment.

Taylor’s prayer is that his mind is becomes capable of rightly evaluating the work of God.

If sin did not occlude his sight, he would see 

                        the rays 

Of thy bright glory on my peepholes light

I fain would love and better love thee should,

If ‘fore me thou thy loveliness unfold.

The beauty of God is always apparent; it is always showing in the world. The trouble is that we do not rightly see God’s glory. Taylor prays that God would strip the sin from his life so that he could rightly see God.

Second petition

The first petition is object: remove the impediments from my sight. The second petition is subjective: make me receptive to that vision:

And stick thy loveliness upon my heart,

Make me the couch on which thy love doth lie.

Lord make my heart thy bed, thy heart make mine.

Thy love bed in my heart, bed mine in thine.

Think of it like this: Imagine a blind man in an art museum. At first, he would be unable to see anything. He would first need vision to see anything at all. But if he were to see, he would need to see with judgment. 

An artist does not paint with the hope that none will see or understand. His hope is to affect someone. 

Yet with God the hope is that His artist will transform us: Taylor prays not merely that he will rightly see God’s providence, but that it will “stick upon my heart.” May I see and be transformed: not merely for a moment, but may the transformation be permanent.  (I can’t find my copy of Rilke at this moment, but I remember a line – I believe it is from a poem on seeing a bust of Apollo, ‘you shall be changed’)

The prayer is that his heart be transformed. 

The third petition

There is a third petition which fits as subsection of the second: he prays not merely that he be capable of being affected by the sight of God but that there be a complete union. The language in this concluding petition is language which sounds, frankly, odd in our Modern way of speaking about salvation: Jesus is thought as a ticket to “Heaven” [the Eddie Money song, Two Tickets to Paradise, comes to mind], but that is not at all the way Taylor is conceiving of the matter: the idea is not that I, as I am at present will go to Heaven, but that I will be radically transformed to be fit for heaven.

The language of marriage sounds “stark mad” to our ears, but I truly hits the point. Marriage requires a radical transformation of the individuals: we must become something different an “us” for marriage to be its intended end.  It exposes our selfishness and demands are transformation. How can one raise children and be a loving spouse without dying to self?

But faith requires and demands day-by-day a greater death to self: the good of our Lord supersedes our present hopes and plans. How then can we enact such a death to self? It is only by means of an abiding sight of the beauty for Christ and our desire for Christ’s glory? The language of eros which is the human parlance for loss of selfish ambition for the glory of another which will suffice:

And stick thy loveliness upon my heart,

Make me the couch on which thy love doth lie.

Lord make my heart thy bed, thy heart make mine.

Thy love bed in my heart, bed mine in thine.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 35.4

03 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Jonathan Edwards, Joy, Sanctification, Sanctifictation

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Stanza Six

Oh, that the sweets of all these windings, spout

Might, and these influences strait and cross

Upon my soul, to make thy shine break out

That Grace might in get and get out my dross!

My soul up locked then in this clod of dust

Would lock up in’t all heavenly joys most just.

Summary: While the expression become a bit tangled in places, this stanza is a prayer that God would work out all the contrary and difficult means of providence for God’s glory, the poet’s sanctification, and ultimate joy.

This is major theme of Christian theology and was a particular note among the Puritans: Trial, Sanctification, Joy.

aluminum dross processing machine - YouTube

Note

The principal allusion which stands behind this stanza seems to be 1 Peter:

1 Peter 1:3–9 (AV) 

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 

The elements of this passage which appear in the stanza are as follows:

That Grace might in get and get out my dross

There are difficult and contrary aspects to life:

all these windings, spout

Might, and these influences strait and cross

Upon my soul, to make thy shine break out

Peter: ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations

The purpose of trials is sanctification:

That Grace might in get and get out my dross!

Peter: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

The particular image of God removing “dross” is found in 

Proverbs 25:4 (AV)

4 Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.

Isaiah 1:25 (AV) 

And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross.

The image of “dross” refers to the process of purifying melt. The “dross” is the impurity mixed with the ore.

This concept is a commonplace in Puritan theology: As Thomas Watson writes, “But how shall we attain to heart-purity?..[By] fire, Acts 2:3. Fire is of a purifying nature; it doth refine and cleanse metals; it separates the dross from the gold; the Spirit of God in the heart doth refine and sanctify it; it burns up the dross of sin.”

Thomas Watson: “The goldsmith loves his gold when it is in the furnace, and so does God love his children when he places them in the crucible of affliction; it is only to separate the dross, not to consume the gold. “Whom he loveth, he loveth to the end.”

The end is joy:

Oh, that the sweets of all

My soul up locked then in this clod of dust

Would lock up in’t all heavenly joys most just.

Jonathan Edwards, the son of Taylor’s fellow pastor, was to write in Religious Affections in a manner quite consistent with Taylor’s sixth stanza: God brings trial to bring about sanctification which ends in joy:

It has been abundantly found to be true in fact, by the experience of the Christian church; that Christ commonly gives, by his Spirit, the greatest, and most joyful evidences to his saints, of their sonship, in those effectual exercises of grace, under trials, which have been spoken of; as is manifest in the full assurance, and unspeakable joys of many of the martyrs. Agreeable to that, 1 Pet. 4:14: “If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory, and of God resteth upon you.” And that in Rom. 5:2–3: “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and glory in tribulations.” And agreeable to what the apostle Paul often declares of what he experienced in his trials. And when the apostle Peter, in my text, speaks of the “joy unspeakable, and full of glory,” which the Christians to whom he wrote, experienced; he has respect to what they found under persecution, as appears by the context. Christ’s thus manifesting himself, as the friend and Saviour of his saints, cleaving to him under trials, seems to have been represented of old, by his coming and manifesting himself, to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the furnace

Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, ed. John E. Smith and Harry S. Stout, Revised edition., vol. 2, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 454.

Particular clauses:

Oh, that the sweets of all these windings: The sweet end of all the various trials, the “windings” of life.

Spout/Might, I will admit this phrase is obscure. I take it mean something like a waterspout, or a pouring out of something strong and, here, dangerous. But it is not clear to me.

these influences strait and cross

Upon my soul, Strait: narrow, difficult. Cross, painful, contrary.

to make thy shine break out: Here “shine” is a synonym for “glory” or light. Taylor uses the image of light frequently to refer to God.

That Grace might in get and get out my dross!: The prayer here is that the transformative grace of God would enter his soul expel the sinful dross, the impurity in his heart.

My soul up locked then in this clod of dust

Would lock up in’t all heavenly joys most just. 

He here transforms the Platonic/Neo-platonic idea of the body being a bare trap for the soul. The soul is in a clod of dust, for the body will die, and return to dust. But here something happens: into this body is locked-up heavenly joy.  The concept of heavenly joy being locked up also comes from the passage in 1 Peter quoted above: 4 “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God” The words “reserved” and “kept” are fairly strong terms in the Greek. In particular, the word “kept” has the idea of an actual military guard. These joys are indeed “lock up” safely.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 35.3

01 Thursday Jul 2021

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Stanza Three

How many things are there now, who display’th?

How many acts each thing doth here dispense?

How many influences each thing hath?

How many contraries each influence?

How many contraries from things do flow?

From acts? From influences? Who can show?

Summary:  If all things are mine, then what is the full number of things. What are the endless relationships between all things? How does each part influence the rest?

Notes:

The individual lines present no real problem beyond the first line, “How many things are there now, who display’th?” The difficulty is with the word “who”: it could be God who “displays” all things. But more likely the “who” is being used as we would use “what” or “which”. Thus, the sense would be, “How many things are there displayed in the world?” 

For the sense of “display” we have the image from Calvin (likely known to Taylor) that the creation is the theater of God’s glory. Thus, the objects in the creation are displays of God.

How many acts each thing doth here dispense?

How many influences each thing hath?

How many contraries each influence?

These are scientific questions which were very much “live” at the time of Taylor. There was enormous curiosity into how the various objects in the world interrelated. When we think of the various conflicts with supposed witches, we also need to realize that the conceptions of witchcraft as influence at a distance is in effect bad science. Things which we confidently “know” would have been bare possibilities. 

Who can show? Who knows the answer. 

In tone, the stanza has a feel for the book of Job, particularly the concluding section wherein God asks Job a number of questions about the natural world, which Job is unable to answer in any form. The effect of this questioning in the poem is put the reader into a place where he (or she) must admit, “I do not know the answer. I do know the whole of the world, or the relationships between all things therein. How can show? Only God would know that answer.”

Stanza Four

How glorious then is he that doth all raise

Rule and dispose and make them all conspire

In their jars, junctures, good-bad ways

To meliorate the self-same objection higher?

Earth, water, fire, winds, herbs, trees, beasts and men,

Angels, and devils, bliss, blasts, advance one stem?

Stanza Five

Hell, earth, and heath with their whole troops, come

Contrary winds, grace, and disgrace, sour, sweet,

Wealth, want, health, sickness, to conclude in sum

All providences work in this good meet?

Who, who can do’t, but thou my Lord? And thou

Dost do this thing; yea, thou performst it now.

Summary: In a flurry of nouns and images, are poured out. The effect is an overwhelming jumble of events, all seeming to move in contrary purpose to one-another. Hell versus earth, contrary winds; water and fire; and so on. The important part comes in the middle of stanza five: “conclude in a sum”. God has knowledge of all things and in his providence brings all things for his glory: And thus will lead to the conclusion of how “all things are mine” can be a blessing.

Notes:

How glorious then is he that doth all raise

Rule and dispose and make them all conspire

Since it is impossible to know all things that are, it is a greater wonder that God can have sovereignty over all things: He rules, disposes of, and holds them in a conspiracy, they “conspire” toward a common end.

The doctrine of providence, which is asserted in these stanzas was of great importance to the Puritan world:

The doctrine of a special providence in disposing of all events, whether good or evil, is of great importance; it forms a fundamental truth in our holy religion; it is the strong pillar of the believer’s faith, it is the cardinal point in Christian experience, and contains one main ground of practical godliness.

Indeed, till we have given to this doctrine, not a cold assent of the head, but a cordial reception in the heart, it will be impossible for us to live as we ought in any condition, and specially in a scene so shifting as the present; we may content ourselves for a while, but we have no lasting or solid basis whereon to rest; we can never be thankful for present mercies, nor be patient under any troubles, nor cherish a scriptural hope of deliverance out of them.

Thomas Watson, Spiritual Life Delineated; With the Detection and Exposure of Some of the Popular Errors of the Day (London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1838), 233. Upon the basis of a knowledge of God’s providence, one can be contented and see that all events which take place are for good.  As Thomas Boston was to write, “That the dispensations of providence are altogether perfect and faultless, however they appear to our carnal hearts.” Thomas Boston, The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: Sixty-Six Sermons, ed. Samuel M‘Millan, vol. 9 (Aberdeen: George and Robert King, 1851), 62. Boston will go ahead and argue the point. 

To make sense of this, we must realize that what is good is not always what is immediately pleasant. Sometimes what it good is also what is evil: Jesus was murdered on false charges and for political expedience, and yet the result of the good of humanity, the conquering of death, his exaltation as King. 

Taylor is anxious to exalt this contrary working of God

to conclude in sum

All providences work in this good meet?

Who, who can do’t, but thou my Lord?

Only God could strike a straight line with a crooked stick. This is a continual theme among Taylor co-religionists. Thomas Boston’s series of sermons, The Crook in the Lot consider this at length.

The language of these stanzas seems suggested by Psalms such as 148:

Psalm 148:7–10 (AV)

7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: 8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: 9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: 10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

Edward Taylor, Meditation 35.2

28 Monday Jun 2021

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Stanza Two

Lord am I thine? Art thou, Lord, mine? So rich!

How doth thy wealthy bliss branch out thy sweets

Through all things present? These the vent-holes which 

Let out those ravishing joys our souls to greet?

Empower my powers, sweet Lord, till they raise

My ‘ffections that thy glory on them blaze.

Summary: Having set forth his general complaint, the poet turns to make a direct address to the Lord. This prayer carries a different tone than many of the other poems by Taylor. Here the vein is closer to the Song of Songs. This is the language of lovers “am I thine.” In stanza eight, he will pray, “make my heart thy bed.” In between these points will be a meditation which is the answer to the prayer in this stanza that God will “let out those ravishing joys” to enflame his soul. He prays that he may have such an experience that his affects will blaze.

Notes:

Lord am I thine? Art thou, Lord, mine? This line comes almost directly from Canticles 2:16, “My beloved is mine, and Iam his: he feedeth among the lilies.”

Song of Solomon 2:16 (AV)


So rich! An expression of how much the poet has (if he is the Lord’s and the Lord’s is his). The modern idiom would make this ironic in a way wholly inappropriate here.

How doth thy wealthy bliss branch out thy sweets

Through all things present? The good things of God are God’s  “Wealthy bliss” and “thy sweets”. 

This goodness is propagated throughout the creation: This will provide the basis for Taylor’s mediation on ‘all things’ things are thine. The issue which the middle stanzas of the poem will answer is the implicit question: How can the seeming evil in the world be a good which is mine?

These the vent-holes which 

Let out those ravishing joys our souls to greet?

The idea here is interesting: it seems to be a breach between heaven and earth whereby “ravishing joy” is passed into creation which is then apprised and “greeted” by the soul. The picture is clear enough. But if Taylor was making an allusion, I am not certain where he gained an original. 

Interestingly, I found some evidence of “ravishing joy” prior to Taylor: The precise phrase was used by Thomas Watson, “but there is a blessed sight a coming, ‘they shall see God;’ and in him are all sparkling beauties, and ravishing joys to be found.” Thomas Watson, “Discourses upon Christ’s Sermon on the Mount,” in Discourses on Important and Interesting Subjects, Being the Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton, & Co.; A. Fullarton & Co., 1829), 273.

He also uses similar phrases elsewhere in the same volume, “

“If the joy of FAITH be such, what will the joy of VISION be? the sight of Christ will amaze the eye with wonder, and ravish the heart with joy.” Thomas Watson, “Discourses upon Christ’s Sermon on the Mount,” in Discourses on Important and Interesting Subjects, Being the Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton, & Co.; A. Fullarton & Co., 1829), 267.

the soul shall not so desire God, but it shall still be full; nor shall it be so full, but it shall still desire; so sweet will God be, that the more the saints behold God, the more they will be ravished with desire and delight.

Thomas Watson, “Discourses upon Christ’s Sermon on the Mount,” in Discourses on Important and Interesting Subjects, Being the Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton, & Co.; A. Fullarton & Co., 1829), 269.

But this citation from the introduction to Richard Sibbes’ sermon, The Bride’s Coming, interestingly has the same tone of intimacy and was well as this particular phrase, “For what ravishing joy, what inexplicable sweetness shall then everlasting[ly] possess our souls, whenas we who have been a long time contracted to our Lord and husband, shall see that blessed time come, when we shall have that glorious marriage between him and us, really and royally solemnised, in the presence of God and his holy angels.” 

Empower my powers, It is unclear precisely what Taylor means. It could be the power of the soul to apprehend the “ravishing joys”, or the power of the soul be responsive (or perhaps both). The end-result is plain enough. An interesting expansion on this idea is found in Taylor’s near predecessor, “What is love to God?—Methinks a lax description best suits my design. This divine love,—it is the unspeakable enlargement of the heart towards God; it is the ecstasy and ravishment of the heart in God; it is the soul’s losing itself in God; it is the continual working of the heart towards God. Every faculty of the soul is actually engaged; the mind is musing and plodding how to please God, and enjoy him; the will is graciously obstinate, the policy of hell cannot charm it off its object; the affections are all passions in their eager motions towards God; the conscience is a busy-body, necessitating the whole man to a jealous watch.

James Nichols, Samuel Annesley, “How to Love God with all Our Hearts, Souls, and Minds,” Puritan Sermons, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 574.

that thy glory on them blaze. Rather than the affections blazing with glory, glory blazes on the affections. It is an interesting image.

Prosody:

Lord am I thine? Art thou, Lord, mine? The accent comes on the first syllable: LORD am  i THINE? I would scan the next clause with an accent on both LORD and MINE. There is an internal rhyme: thine/mine.

Lines 2-4 of the stanza have two enjambments: This matches the sense of this bliss pouring out everywhere: it is not even contained in the line. 

Empower my powers: not only repeats the sound, but the sense is repeated by means of a noun being made the direct object of the verb of the same stem.