Edward Taylor (1642-1729) New England Puritan. Born 1645? Coventry Warwickshire, Eng. Died 1729 Westfield,

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Edward Taylor (1642-1729) New England Puritan.
Born 1645? Coventry Warwickshire, Eng.Died
1729Westfield,
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born in Leicestershire, England where father
farmed his own landbecame a school teacher with
Puritan sympathies
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After the Great Ejection, left England(wouldnt
sign the oath)studied divinity at
Harvardbecame minister of Westfield,
Massachusetts (physician too)
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Puritan He was learned, grave, severe, stubborn,
and stiff-necked. He was very, very pious but
sincere.
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His poetry shows that Taylor was a devoted
Calvinist. It was his custom to write a poem
("Meditation") before each Lord's Supper.
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Religious intellectualwritings intended to
defend the Puritan faith (reformed theology or
Calvinism) against newer more liberal religious
ideas
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Poetry similar to that of English metaphysical
poet, John DonneAms only metaphysical poet of
the time
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Metaphysical meta transcending, over,
abovetranscending the physical world dwelling
in the spiritual world of ideas
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Poetry explored the mystery of Gods grace
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Tradition of medieval debate that explores the
progress of mans soul from creation and the fall
of man to redemption through Christ
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best work Preparatory Meditationsmost famous
poem Gods Determinationswonderful examples of
Reformed spiritual experience and devotion
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Gods Determinations

• Idea that everything in life is according to
  Gods plan and Gods mercy triumphs

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Carried on the meditation literary tradition
begun in the middle ages and later practiced by
Puritans. Process of meditation
involvesImmagination, Reason, Will
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Subject imagining a scene drawn from the Old or
New Testaments, the details of the life of
Christ, the terrors of hell, or a current
situation.
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Truth thru reason deriving eternal truths
(invisible things of God) from that scene
through a process of reasoning about ones own
relation to God
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Will determining to have more faith, to give up
sin, to abide by God's laws, or to have greater
moral discernment
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The Puritan Conception of The Mind Man seen as
a  "receptor" to divine will. 
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• Puritans believed that because of Adam's misuse
  of his faculties, God had withdrawn his blessing 
  from the reasoning process, causing a paralysis
  of the faculties and a disruption of the flow of
  information

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thus man could no longer automatically understand
God's will.  Both meditation and the conversion
process were attempts to "rewire" or "reconnect"
this arc.