Edward Taylor, Meditation 40 conclusion (Was ever heart like mine)

07 Tuesday Jun 2022

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Edward Taylor, Edward Taylor Meditation 40, poem, Poem Analysis, Poetry, Poetry Analysis, Repentance, Was ever heart like mine

Tenth Stanza

Lord take thy sword: these Anakims destroy: 55

Then soak my soul in Zion’s bucking tub:

With holy soap and nitre, and rich lye

From all defilement me cleanse, wash, and rub.

Then rinse and wring me out till th’water fall

As pure as in the well: not foul at all. 60

Eleventh Stanza

And let thy sun shine on my head out clear

And bathe my heart within its radiant beams:

Thy Christ make my propitiation dear.

Thy praise shall from my heart break forth in streams.

This reaching virtue of Christ’s blood will quench 65

Thy wrath, slay sin, in thy love me bench.

Notes

These two stanzas should be taken together for they concern the resolution of the whole. Since there is hope, the poet presses his case. In this he makes three interrelated petitions.

First, there is the petition to kill his devilish enemy:

Lord take thy sword: these Anakims destroy:

Anakim is a reference to an enemy of Israel whom God destroyed to save the people. Deut. 2:21. The Devils are here referred to as “Anakims.” References to the destruction of Anakim, used as a figure or illustration was not uncommon among the Puritans, for instance: “Jesus doth not free us from Egypt, but from wrath to come: 1 Thes. 1:10, ‘To wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.’ He doth not vanquish Anakims, but the devil; to deliver us from the hurt and fear of him: Heb. 2:14, ‘That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.’ He doth not only lead us into Canaan, but into heaven, into a better land of promise.” Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 19 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1874), 455.

Second, is the petition to be cleansed from sin:

Then soak my soul in Zion’s bucking tub:

With holy soap and nitre, and rich lye

From all defilement me cleanse, wash, and rub.

Then rinse and wring me out till th’water fall

As pure as in the well: not foul at all.

Buck here refers to alkaline lye used to bleach linen or yarn. This was referred as “buck washing.” Nitre is potassium nitrate, used for washing. The plea here is for every sort of bleach and cleanser to be used on his heart and to make him clean from all sin.

The biblical allusion which seems closest comes David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51”

Psalm 51:1–12 (ESV)

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!

³ For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment.

⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

⁹ Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

The prayer for cleansing continues into the next stanza where he prays that having been scrubbed he may be set out to dry, like washed clothes.

And let thy sun shine on my head out clear

And bathe my heart within its radiant beams:

The third petition is for forgiveness of his sin, “propitiation”:

Thy Christ make my propitiation dear.

“Thy Christ” comes from Psalm 2:2

Psalm 2:2 (ESV)

² The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

Anointed is “Christ” (κατὰ τοῦ χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ)

The poem then ends with the praise for what God has done for him:

Thy praise shall from my heart break forth in streams.

This reaching virtue of Christ’s blood will quench 65

Thy wrath, slay sin, in thy love me bench.

The last line explains that the blood of Christ will turn away judgment (thy wrath), turn his heart from sin (slay sin), and will leave him resting in the love of God (in thy love me bench).

Edward Taylor, Meditation 40.6 (Was ever heart like mine)

07 Tuesday Jun 2022

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Edward Taylor, Edward Taylor Meditation 40, Was ever heart like mine

Ninth Stanza

Hope’s day-peep dawns hence through this chink. Christ’s name

Propitiation is for sin. Lord, take 50

It so for mine. Thus quench thy burning flame

In that clear stream that from his side forth brake.

I can no comfort take while thus I see

Hells’ cursed imps thus jetting strut in me.

Notes

What is the chink? It is the realization that he has not utterly succumbed and broke under the realization of his sin. If I can see my sin as this wicked, and if I have not despaired to the point of death, then perhaps something is holding me together? In this darkness

Hope’s day-peep dawns hence through this chink.

It is interesting here that the doctrine of assurance is holding him up. Assurance is the understanding that Christ is a sufficient remedy for me. There was a debate through out the Middle Ages as to whether assurance required some special grace, some supernatural assurance. It is not full blow assurance, but rather the day-peep of assurance. Thomas Goodwin, an English Puritan wrote of this: “There is stamped upon the heart of a Christian some secret hint or whisper of mercy to him; I do not say it riseth to assurance, for then it would quell all doubtings.… The soul oftentimes in itself cloth not so discern as to reflect upon it, but yet it is full enough to carry the heart after Christ, and never to leave him.” Quoted in R. M. Hawkes, “The Logic of Assurance in English Puritan Theology,” Westminster Theological Journal 52, no. 2 (1990): 250.

Here Taylor is leaning on the subjective psychological aspect of assurance, I have some ground for hope even here, and then is calling upon that assurance to plead forgiveness and thus further assurance:

Christ’s name

Propitiation is for sin. Lord, take 50

It so for mine.

It is not in himself, that he has thoroughly discounted. It is all in Christ. And in this he pleads his case. Notice he does not mitigate his sin in the least, but rather aggravates his own guilt and then wonders that even one as himself could not be destroyed with subjective guilt. That is because he has hope in another.

Thus quench thy burning flame

In that clear stream that from his side forth brake.

I can no comfort take while thus I see

Hells’ cursed imps thus jetting strut in me.

The “burning flame” is doing double duty. At one level it is the certain judgment coming for sin. But it is also the subjective experience of and fear of that coming judgment. He sees Hell coming and feels hell.

The “clear stream” is the wound of Christ on the cross. The blood and water which flowed forth is the stream which douses judgment’s fire.

His prayer begins with the faint light of hope and is a prayer for assurance and forgiveness.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 40.5 (Was ever heart like mine)

04 Saturday Jun 2022

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despair, Edward Taylor, Meditation 40, Was ever heart like mine

Eighth Stanza

Was ever heart like mine? My lord, declare.

I know not what to do: What shall I do?

I wonder, split I don’t upon despair. 45

It’s grace’s wonder that I wrack not so.

I faintly shun’t, although I see this case

Would say, my sin is greater than thy grace.

Notes

The psychological state of poet was expressed along the same lines by John Owen in his book The Mortification of Sin, published 1656. Taylor, having left England in 1668 would have had access to the work.

This is the saddest warfare that any poor creature can be engaged in. A soul under the power of conviction from the law is pressed to fight against sin, but hath no strength for the combat. They cannot but fight, and they can never conquer; they are like men thrust on the sword of enemies on purpose to be slain. The law drives them on, and sin beats them back. Sometimes they think, indeed, that they have foiled sin, when they have only raised a dust that they see it not; that is, they distemper their natural affections of fear, sorrow, and anguish, which makes them believe that sin is conquered when it is not touched. By that time they are cold, they must to the battle again; and the lust which they thought to be slain appears to have had no wound.

And if the case be so sad with them who do labour and strive, and yet enter not into the kingdom, what is their condition who despise all this; who are perpetually under the power and dominion of sin, and love to have it so; and are troubled at nothing, but that they cannot make sufficient provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof?

John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 20.

This stanza is a desperate plea for help. He sees his sin, and sees nothing in himself by which to respond to the sin. And so in anguish he calls out. Notice the repetition of the prayer, which emphasizes his desperation:

Was ever heart like mine? My lord, declare.

I know not what to do: What shall I do?

I must change. I must be saved from this heart. But it is my heart? I cannot change it. When I look at it, it is a palace and playground of Satan. When I think my sin is gone, it comes back worse than ever. My prayers seemingly do not work. I am not affected by the Spirit. I see my problem clearly. I know it is there, and I do not know how to respond. What can I do?

I wonder, split I don’t upon despair. 45

It’s grace’s wonder that I wrack not so.

It is a wonder of grace that I have not completely split in two with despair over my sin. It is a wonder that I have not become bare wrack (left over after destruction).

In the end, his despair over his own sin tempts him to despair over God. To understand this we must know that “grace” here is a reference to any good which God will do him. The Puritans would speak of various aspects of grace, not merely the forgiveness of sin, but grace to withstand a temptation, et cetera:

I faintly shun’t, although I see this case

Would say, my sin is greater than thy grace.

What he would shun is the thought that God’s grace is insufficient.