Edward Taylor, Meditation 43.6

12 Thursday Jan 2023

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Sixth & Seventh Stanzas

How spiritual? Holy shall I shine when I

Thy Crown of Righteousness wear on my head?

How glorious when does thou dost me glorify

To wear thy Crown of Glory polished?

How shall I when thy Crown of Life I wear 35

In lively colors flowerish, fresh, and fair.

When thou shalt crown me with these crowns, I’ll bend

My shallow crown to crown with songs thy name.

Angels shall set the tune; I’ll it attend:

Thy glory’st be the burden of the same. 40

Till then I cannot sing, my tongue is tied.

Accept this lisp till I am glorified.

Notes

The poem ends with meditation and expectation as to coming to glory:

²⁸And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans 8:28–30 (ESV)

The Crowns are emblems of the various graces of heaven: life, glory, righteousness. The previous stanza ends with the prayer that he may receive the crown of life, that it eternal life, and in so receiving it, sin will. As an aside, it is interesting that fear of sin is linked to the slavery to sin; and so also the hope of life is linked to the cessation of sin:

¹⁴Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Hebrews 2:14–15 (ESV)

Notice also that holiness is linked to radiance, or being glory:

Holy shall I shine when I

Thy Crown of Righteousness wear on my head?

How glorious when does thou dost me glorify

In contemporary idiom, holiness is linked with a narrowness, an aversion to life and happiness, the stringent “church lady” of the skit. But Taylor conceptualizes holiness as a fundamentally different thing: It is not narrow and cold, but “glorious” to be righteous.

But notice that this state of being “spiritual” is not senseless. He describes this with physical terms of a Spring:

How shall I when thy Crown of Life I wear 35

In lively colors flowerish, fresh, and fair.

This last line has a fine alliteration on “f”.

The reference to “flowerish” may be an allusion to 1 Peter 1:4, quoted above. The word for “unfading” ἀμάραντος (amarantos) means a never-fading flower:

ἀμάραντος [α^μα^], ον, （μαραίνω)

A.unfading, “λειμών” Luc.Dom.9: metaph., “σοφία” LXX Wi.6.12; “κληρονομία” 1 Ep.Pet.1.4, cf. CIG2942c(Tralles); πνεῦμα prob. in IPE2.286 (Panticapaeum): neut. pl. as Adv., Philostr.Im.1.9.

II. Subst. ἀμάραντον, τό (but in Lat. amarantus), never-fading flower, IG14.607e (Carales), Poll.1.229; = ἑλίχρυσον, Dsc.4.57; = κενταύρειον μικρόν, Ps.-Dsc.3.7; = χρυσοκόμη. Id.4.55.

LSJ.

(Amaranthus, courtesy of Candiru)

Edward Taylor, Meditation 43.5

06 Friday Jan 2023

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Fifth Stanza

A crown of life, of glory, of righteousness, 25

Thou wilt adorn with that will not fade.

Shall faith in me shrink up for feebleness?

Nor take my sins by the crown, till crownless made?

Breathe, Lord, thy Spirit on my Faith, that I

May have thy crown of life, and sin may die. 30

Notes:

A crown of life, of glory, of righteousness,

Thou wilt adorn with that will not fade.

These lines make rapid allusions to various NT texts:

A crown of life comes from James 1:12, quoted above.

1 Peter 5:4 (ESV)

⁴And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

1 Peter 1:3–7 (ESV)

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 4:8 (ESV)

⁸Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Taylor is right to take this as a collective crown; the image should not be of one wearing multiple crowns stacked one upon another. By “crown” the idea is that one is adorned in this way. Each element is responsive to an effect of sin and the fall.

A crown of life answers to death, which is the wage for sin (Rom. 6:23)

A crown of glory answers to the shame of sin.

A crown of righteousness answer to the guilt of sin.

All things in creation are subjected to futility (Rom. 8:20). The rewards of God will be unfading.

Notice that the crowns are not given for merit, but are given because the one who receives these crowns lacks this honor. However, these crowns are granted upon a condition: not of merit but of faith. Refer back to 1 Peter 1:3-7.

Hence the next line of Taylor’s poem:

Shall faith in me shrink up for feebleness?

These crowns are conditional upon the existence of faith to receive them. These crowns are available to all on the condition of faith, but will my faith fail? Is my faith so feeble (as evidenced by my persistent sin) that it will be unable to lay hold upon these crowns which I so desperately need?

Here we have a pun upon the word “crown”: The top of the head, and the adornment of a king:

Nor take my sins by the crown, till crownless made?

Will I not take my sins by their head, to dispose of them, until I have lost the crown of life/glory/righteousness? Or by crownless, does he mean he will be deposed? Dead, lost his head? Will never finally deal with sin until it comes to past that I have lost all?

Breathe, Lord, thy Spirit on my Faith, that I

May have thy crown of life, and sin may die.

I made an emendation here. I have two published versions of Taylor’s poems, and both record the first word of the 29^th line as “breath”. But Taylor is unquestionably alluding to the act of Jesus after his resurrection as recorded in John:

John 20:21–22 (ESV)

²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²²And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

In himself, Taylor sees only the fear that his own faith will fail. And thus he prays that Jesus will breathe upon him and grant him the faith so that he may obtain the crown. Thus, the condition for the gift and the gift itself are both from the Lord.

Again, the crown is not a reward for a sinless life. Rather, the crown is given as victory over the sin: By gaining the crown he will live.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 43.4

05 Thursday Jan 2023

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Fourth Stanza

Why mayn’t faith drink thy health, Lord, o’re

The head of all my sins? And cast her eye 20

In glorifying glances on the door

Of thy free grace, where crowns of life do lie:

Thou’lt give a crown of life to such as be

Faithful to death. And shall faith fail in me?

Notes:

This stanza begins an argument which will be continued, may I, may I not approach and receive?

I am in this present state of paradox. To use Luther’s famous phrase, the justified sinner; or, if you will, the innocent criminal. What may I do from this position:

May I acknowledge you in a positive manner. In interesting example of this from 1798, in Edmund Burke’s The Annual Register, or a review of History, Politics, and Literature for the year 1978 (published 1800) Chronicle, p. 6, a duke says, “Gentlemen, give me leave to drink your health.”

Since we are not in the habit of “drinking one’s health” as a toast, it is interesting that the duke requests permission to do so.

Taylor is asking, May I, or why may I not acknowledge you Lord? The difficulty comes with the prepositional phrase, “over the head of all my sins”. There is a contradiction between the toast and the one giving the toast. It is as if one were to “drink the health” of someone they despised or had sought to destroy.

My faith wishes to drink your health, but there is a trouble here: there is also all my sin.

He then asks a second question: May my faith look toward that door to the room which contains “thy free grace.”

Free grace in Taylor’s theology would be the “impulsive cause” of salvation:

3. The third thing is, how we come to be the children of God?

Ans. There is a double cause of our filiation or childship:

1. The impulsive cause is God’s free grace: we were rebels and traitors, and what could move God to make sinners sons, but free grace? Eph. 1:5. ‘Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, according to the good pleasure of his will.’ Free grace gave the casting voice; adoption is a mercy spun out of the bowels of free grace; it were much for God to take a clod of earth, and make it a star; but it is more for God to take a piece of clay and sin, and instate it into the glorious privilege of sonship. How will the saints read over the lectures of free grace in heaven?

Watson, Thomas. “Discourses upon Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.” Discourses on Important and Interesting Subjects, Being the Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, vol. 2, Blackie, Fullarton, & Co.; A. Fullarton & Co., 1829, pp. 297–98.

Thomas Brooks deals with the quandary faced here by Taylor:

First the “device of Satan”, the means by which the Christian can be disquieted and fearful:

Device (3). By suggesting to them the want of such and such preparations and qualifications. Saith Satan, Thou art not prepared to entertain Christ; thou art not thus and thus humbled and justified; thou art not heart-sick of sin; thou hast not been under horrors and terrors as such and such; thou must stay till thou art prepared and qualified to receive the Lord Jesus, &c.

Then the “remedy”:

Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly To dwell upon these following scriptures, which do clearly evidence that poor sinners which are not so and so prepared and qualified to meet with Christ, to receive and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, may, notwithstanding that, believe in Christ; and rest and lean upon him for happiness and blessedness, according to the gospel. Read Prov. 1:20–33, and chap. 8:1–11, and chap. 9:1–6; Ezek. 16:1–14; John 3:14–18, 36; Rev. 3:15–20. Here the Lord Jesus Christ stands knocking at the Laodiceans’ door; he would fain have them to sup with him, and that he might sup with them; that is, that they might have intimate communion and fellowship one with another.

Now, pray tell me, what preparations or qualifications had these Laodiceans to entertain Christ? Surely none; for they were lukewarm, they were ‘neither hot nor cold,’ they were ‘wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;’ and yet Christ, to shew his free grace and his condescending love, invites the very worst of sinners to open to him, though they were no ways so and so prepared or qualified to entertain him.

Brooks, Thomas. The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. Edited by Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1, James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866, pp. 146–47.

Taylor is seeking to avail himself of this remedy: Can my faith lay hold of that door behind which lies your free grace?

Behind that door lies the “crowns of life”:

where crowns of life do lie:

Thou’lt give a crown of life to such as be

Faithful to death. And shall faith fail in me?

The crown of life is offered to the one’s faith perseveres
James 1:12 (ESV)

¹²Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

If I am faithful till the end, I will get this crown. But, will I be faithful until the end? Will that be me?

Another look at the couplet:

Thou’lt give a crown of life to such as be

Faithful to death. And shall faith fail in me?

This stanza has been moving along in iambs, until we come to the last line:

The accent lands on the first syllable, giving us this phrase:

FAITHful to DEATH `- -`

The galloping first line of the couplet stumbles over faithful as it comes to the next line. The emphasis is all upon “faith”. Faith as the subject-actor of this entire stanza: It is faith that seeks to toast and to look upon the door to free grace. These things are proper to those who have “faith”. Thus, the abrupt “FAITHful” places the emphasis where it belongs: Is that me?

Edward Taylor, Meditation 43.3

30 Friday Dec 2022

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Third Stanza

Pardon and poison them, Lord, with thy blood

Cast their cursed carcasses out of my heart.

My heart fill with thy love, let grace it dub. 15

Make this my silver studs with thy rich art.

My soul shall then be thy sweet paradise

Thou’st be its rose, and it thy bed of spice.

Notes:

If the Lord should cleanse his heart, his would be a fit place for the Lord.

He again uses the initial accent to drive home the point. This use of the accent makes the plea more intensive. He furthers that intensity with alliteration on the accented syllables:

PARdon and POIison them, Lord, with thy blood

CAST their CURSED CARcasses out of my heart.

The paired “pardon and poison” is an interesting phrase because both words are appropriate to the prayer: He is asking the Lord to (1) forgive him for harboring sin, and (2) destroy the sin in his heart. Thus, pardon and poison are both appropriate. But, this is the only time I have ever seen these two words paired. A check of google n-gram reports no usage of this phrase.

The blood of Christ was shed for the forgiveness of sins. The ninth chapter of Hebrews discusses this doctrine at length. But how does the blood poison sin? There is a line, I believe it is in Barth’s commentary on Romans, 6^th chapter, that grace pulls up sin by the roots. Pardon for sin is not merely a forgiveness, but a transformation. (Incidentally, this leads us to one of the great controversial issues in Christian theology: What is the precise relationship between forgiveness and transformation, positional and progressive sanctification?)

The act of being reconciled is inconsistent with sin, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Rom. 6:2

The sin having been poisoned would thus be dead and the soldiers now carcasses:

CAST their CURSED CARcasses out of my heart.

I take cursed carcasses to be an allusion to Hebrews 3, which recounts in part the death of the rebellious Israelites following the exodus from Egypt. Those who rebelled were cursed, they were not permitted to enter the promised land and their bodies, carcasses in the Authorize Version used by Taylor, were left outside of the promised land:

¹⁴For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; ¹⁵While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. ¹⁶For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. ¹⁷But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? ¹⁹So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:14–19 (KJV)

He prays that his heart being cleansed of sin may then be properly adorned. It is a space being cleaned and then filled with something better:

My heart fill with thy love, let grace it dub. 15

Make this my silver studs with thy rich art.

His prayer is that his heart be filled with love and grace (grace being the sanctifying influence of the Spirit). There is a second movement in the prayer: not merely filled but made into a work of art. This is one of those self-referential moments in Taylor’s poems where the prayer of the poem is in part manifested by the poem. The poem itself is art: although he reference here is more directly visual art.

This two-step: clean then fill probably is an allusion to this statement from Jesus:

Luke 11:24–26 (KJV)

²⁴When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. ²⁵And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. ²⁶Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

A heart which is cleansed but not filled with something better is in danger. He is praying not merely for forgiveness but for transformation.

His heart being cleansed and made into art will then be a paradise, a garden (paradise means garden):

My soul shall then be thy sweet paradise

Thou’st be its rose, and it thy bed of spice.

Paradise has an interesting reference to heaven:

Luke 23:43 (KJV)

⁴³And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

But even more to the point of this poem, is the use of the word “paradise” in the passage which is the motto for this poem:

Revelation 2:7–10 (KJV)

⁷He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

⁸And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; ⁹I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

The imagery here comes from the Song of Solomon, which is an intimate love poem often read allegorically:

Song of Solomon 2:1–2 (KJV)

1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. 2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

Song of Solomon 6:2 (KJV)

²My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

He prays that the Lord be the chief glory of the heart and the heart a fitting place for such a rose.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 43.2

29 Thursday Dec 2022

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Second Stanza

Nature’s corrupt, a nest of passion, pride,

Lust, worldliness, and such like bubs; I pray,

But struggling find these bow my heart aside.

A knot of imps at barley breaks in’t play. 10

They do enchant me from my Lord, I find

The thoughts whereof prove daggers to my mind.

Notes

He begins with the second stanza with a new sound and an accented syllable:

NAtures corRUPT `- -`

The second line likewise begins with an accented syllable

LUST, WORLDliness,

The effect is to emphasis “nature” and the sins which compose it.

Nature refers to what a human being is by birth, after the time of Adam, one who is infected by original sin. “By spiritual Edwards means “sanctified” in opposition to “carnal,” which signifies the natural or unsanctified man.” Smith, John E. “Editor’s Introduction.” Religious Affections, edited by John E. Smith and Harry S. Stout, Revised edition, vol. 2, Yale University Press, 2009, p. 24.

“That naturally we are not the children of God: we are not born God’s children, but made so. By nature we are strangers to God; swine, not sons, 2 Pet. 2 ult. Will a man settle his estate upon his swine? he will give them his acorns, not his jewels: by nature we have the devil for our father, John 8:44. ‘Ye are of your father the devil.’ A wicked man may search the records of hell for his pedigree.” Watson, Thomas. “Discourses upon Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.” Discourses on Important and Interesting Subjects, Being the Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, vol. 2, Blackie, Fullarton, & Co.; A. Fullarton & Co., 1829, p. 294.

Taylor gives this definition of human nature aside from the work of the Spirit,

a nest of passion, pride,

Lust, worldliness, and such like bubs

A “nest of passion” is a striking image. It sounds like a nest of snakes.

Bub is likely here a mixture of yeast and meal to promote fermentation: Here, the concoction would be vile indeed.

When he turns to pray (I pray), he discovers this his mind and attention are drawn elsewhere, after these sins. Thomas Manton preached a sermon, “How May we Cure Distractions in Holy Duties.” He described the problem in this manner:

First, That there is such a sin, sad experience witnesseth; vain thoughts intrude importunately upon the soul in every duty; in hearing the word we are not free (Ezek. 33:31), nor in singing; but chiefly they haunt us in prayer, and of all kinds of prayer, in mental prayer, when our addresses to God are managed by thoughts alone; there we are more easily disturbed. Words bound the thoughts, and the inconvenience of an interruption is more sensible, as occasioning a pause in our speech; and as in mental prayer, so when we join with others, to keep time and pace with the words, unless the Lord quicken them to an extraordinary liveliness, we find it very hard; but how great a sin this is, is my first task to show.

Manton, Thomas. The Complete Works of Thomas Manton. James Nisbet & Co., 1871, pp. 443–44. Nathanel Vincent preaching on prayer wrote something similar:

Take heed of distraction in prayer, and not minding what you ask, or what you are doing, when at the mercy-seat.—It is great hypocrisy, to be present only in body at the sanctuary; the heart, in the mean while, running away after pleasures, coyetousness, vanity: and this exceedingly provokes the Lord to jealousy; and “are you stronger than he?” (1 Cor. 10:22.)

Nichols, James. Puritan Sermons. Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981, p. 312. It such a thing which troubles Taylor: he composes himself to pray,

But struggling find these bow my heart aside.

(This painting in the Getty Museum, LA. Artist, Hans Holbein, the Younger (1497-1541) The motto reads, “And so desire carries me along.” The framing for the painting is of a style used for a coat of arms, making the depiction ironic.)

These bubs of sin draw his attention elsewhere. He then goes on to describe this as cluster of devils (“knot of imps”) busy at a game:

A knot of imps at barley breaks in’t play.

To take an image from Faust, it as if devils at hexensabbat. The game he chose is appropriate to the imagery:

BARLEY-BREAK, an old English country game frequently mentioned by the poets of the 17th and 18th centuries. It was played by three pairs composed of one of each sex, who were stationed in three bases or plots, contiguous to each other. The couple occupying the middle base, called hell or prison, endeavoured to catch the other two, who, when chased, might break to avoid being caught. If one was overtaken, he and his companion were condemned to hell. From this game was taken the expression “the last couple in hell,” often used in old plays. Encyclopedia Britanica, 1911 “Barley-Break” https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/b/barley-break.html

The couplet scans as perfect iambs

They do enchant me from my Lord, I find

The thoughts whereof prove daggers to my mind.

Enchant here has a wholly negative meaning: to be enchanted would be to suffer from an evil spell, not a romantic glamor.

The final line returns to the paradox of his situation: These sins cause him to need a Savior. Yet, this sins draw him from his Savior. He finds a compulsion to go after these sins and simultaneously a detestation of the sins to which he is attracted. They are “daggers” in his thinking.

This underscores a fundamental difference between Taylor’s desire for sanctification and would be recommended in modern therapy. The therapist would consider the problem to be the distress he is feeling in the conflict. Rather than feeling conflicted, he should come to terms with and accept “nature.”

Taylor’s desire to to transcend these desires to seek something better. He wants to “overcome” and receive a crown.

In this sense, we can see that the common therapeutic model and desire to alleviate distress by refusing to reject nature is, at least on the terms laid by Taylor, a religious decision.

The imps of the therapeutic model would be contesting the impulse and thinking of such things as “sin”.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 43.1

29 Thursday Dec 2022

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Revelation 2:10 (KJV)

¹⁰Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

First Stanza

Fain I would sing thy praise, but fear I feign

My sin doth keep out of my heart thy fear

Damps love: defiles my soul. Old blots new stain.

Hopes hobbled lie, and rusty chains worn clear.

My sins that make me stand in need of thee 5

Do keep me back to hug all sin I see.

Notes:

Fain: I desire

Feign: I pretend

Fear: a fear of his own sin

Fear: a rightful respect and awe of God

FAIN i would SING thy PRAISE but FEAR i FEIGN

The poem begins with an accented syllable: Fain. That leads to a very quick “I would”, with the accent falling squarely on “Sing.” Interestingly, there is no accent on the word “I” which appears twice in this line. There is assonance on the long “A” of Fain, Praise, Feign. There is alliteration on Fain, Fear, Feign.

Fain I would sing thy praise, but fear I feign

I desire to praise you, but I am fearful that praise would be a mere pretense. This leads to the question: Why does he fear himself?

My sin doth keep out of my heart thy fear

The fear of himself from the first line appears here in absence: He is fearful of his heart, because his heart does not fear.

The concept of sin will be developed in two directions: First, it is his person sin. That is an attribute. “My sin” (2) Second, there are individual events, “sin” (5). Third, there is sin in the abstract, “hug all sin.” (6)

Psychologically: sin and fear of God are inconsistent with one-another. The lack of fear of God is a characteristic of human rebellion, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Rom. 3:18

This lack of fear is a dreadful symptom, because fear of God is a blessing of the New Covenant, Jeremiah 32:39 (KJV) “And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them.”

My sin …

Damps love: defiles my soul. Old blots new stain.

What does sin do? Three clauses. The first two begin with an accented D. The third clause is accented on a B. The line does not move along easily.

DAMPS love. DEfiles my SOUL. old BLOTS new STAIN

The sounds are spit out: Damp defile blot stain. It sounds with the revulsion Taylor feels at himself.

Hopes hobbled lie, and rusty chains worn clear.

He continues with the negative effects of sin, but now he shifts the sound H/L

HOPES HOBbled LIE and RUSty chain worn CLEAR

The line must be read slowly. Sin destroys and leaves him without hope.

I’m not sure exactly what to make of “rusty chain worn clear”. For a rusty chain to be freed from rust and thus clear, would entail lots of dragging and scraping.

The couplet is the paradox of the Christian life:

My sins that make me stand in need of thee 5

Do keep me back to hug all sin I see.

We need grace and forgiveness because of our sin. This should cause us to love God for his grace and forgiveness. But sin destroys our love and defiles our conscience. The sin that necessitates God’s grace simultaneously drags us away from God and to our sin.

The nature of addiction works well: The addiction to the drug necessitates the help of others to drag the addict away from the drug: but the desire for the drug draws him back.

The image of hugging sin is perverse. He does not come near sin, he draws it to his chest in a loving manner.