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Edward Taylor
Edward Taylor (circa 1642 – June 29, 1729) was an English-born American preacher, poet, and physician whose ministry and writings made him a significant figure in colonial Puritanism. Born in Sketchley, Leicestershire, England, to William, a yeoman farmer, and Margaret Taylor, he grew up in a Nonconformist family during the Commonwealth period. After losing both parents—his mother in 1657 and father in 1658—he worked as a schoolmaster until the 1662 Act of Uniformity barred him from teaching due to his refusal to conform to the Church of England. In 1668, he emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony, enrolling at Harvard College in 1671, where he graduated with a divinity degree. Taylor’s preaching career began when he accepted a call in 1671 to serve as minister in Westfield, Massachusetts, a frontier town he led for over 50 years. His sermons, over 60 of which survive, emphasized God’s grace and the believer’s relationship with Christ, reflecting his role in administering communion and defending orthodox Congregationalism against liberalizing trends like those of Solomon Stoddard. Alongside preaching, he wrote over 200 Preparatory Meditations, poetic reflections on Scripture, though he forbade their publication, and they remained unknown until 1937. Married twice—first to Elizabeth Fitch in 1674, who bore eight children before her death in 1689, then to Ruth Willys in 1692, with whom he had six—he died at age 87 in Westfield, leaving a legacy as a devoted pastor and one of America’s earliest literary voices.
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Edward Taylor delves into the profound love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ as described in 2 Corinthians 5:14, reflecting on the concept of dying with Christ and being freed from the power of death through His redemptive work. Taylor contemplates the depth of Christ's death and how it becomes the cause of our own spiritual death, leading to a profound unity with Him. He emphasizes the transformative power of grace, portraying death as a conquered enemy that holds no terror for believers, but rather a mere shadow on their journey to eternal joy.
If One Died for All Then Are All Dead
Meditation on 2 Cor. 5:14 by Edward Taylor Oh! Good, Good, Good, my Lord. What more Love yet. Thou dy for meet What, am I dead in thee? What did Deaths arrow shot at me thee hit? Didst slip between that flying shaft and mee? Didst make thyselfe Deaths marke shot at for nice? So that her Shaft shall fly no far than thee? Di'dst dy for mee indeed, and in thy Death Take in thy Dying thus my death the Cause? And lay I dying in thy Dying breath, According to Graces Redemption Laws? If one did dy for all, it needs must bee That all did dy in one, and from death free. Infinities fierce firy arrow red Shot from the splendid Bow of justice bright Did smite thee down, for thine. Thou art their head. They di'de in thee. Their death did on thee light. They di'de their Death in thee, thy Death is theirs. Hence thine is mine, thy death my trespass clears. How sweet is this: my Death lies buried Within thy Grave, my Lord, deep under ground, It is unskin'd, as Carrion rotten Dead: For Grace's hand gave Death its deadly wound. Deaths no such terrour on th'Saints blesst Coast. Its but a harmless Shade: No walking Ghost. The Painter lies: the Bellfrey Pillars weare A false Effigies now of Death, alasl With empty Eyeholes, Butter teeth, bones bare And spraggling arms, having an Hour Glass In one grim paw. Th'other a Spade doth hold To shew deaths frightfull region under mould. Whereas its Sting is gone: its life is lost. Though unto Christless ones it is most Grim Its but a Shade to Saints whose path it Crosst, Or Shell or Washen face, in which she sings Their Bodies in her lap a Lollaboy And sends their Souls to sing their Masters joy. Lord let me finde Sin, Curse and Death that doe Belong to me ly slain too in thy Grave. And let thy law my clearing hence bestow And from these things let me acquittance have. The Law suffic'de: and I discharg'd, Hence sing Thy praise I will over Deaths Death, and Sin.
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Edward Taylor (circa 1642 – June 29, 1729) was an English-born American preacher, poet, and physician whose ministry and writings made him a significant figure in colonial Puritanism. Born in Sketchley, Leicestershire, England, to William, a yeoman farmer, and Margaret Taylor, he grew up in a Nonconformist family during the Commonwealth period. After losing both parents—his mother in 1657 and father in 1658—he worked as a schoolmaster until the 1662 Act of Uniformity barred him from teaching due to his refusal to conform to the Church of England. In 1668, he emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony, enrolling at Harvard College in 1671, where he graduated with a divinity degree. Taylor’s preaching career began when he accepted a call in 1671 to serve as minister in Westfield, Massachusetts, a frontier town he led for over 50 years. His sermons, over 60 of which survive, emphasized God’s grace and the believer’s relationship with Christ, reflecting his role in administering communion and defending orthodox Congregationalism against liberalizing trends like those of Solomon Stoddard. Alongside preaching, he wrote over 200 Preparatory Meditations, poetic reflections on Scripture, though he forbade their publication, and they remained unknown until 1937. Married twice—first to Elizabeth Fitch in 1674, who bore eight children before her death in 1689, then to Ruth Willys in 1692, with whom he had six—he died at age 87 in Westfield, leaving a legacy as a devoted pastor and one of America’s earliest literary voices.