Jeremy Taylor is very real. We say to ourselves, we have hope, but despair is the enemy we fight. For every spiritual gift, a fight.
Love when Paul says with conviction, fight the good fight of faith. He was in the fight too. 🙏
✦ For Every Spiritual Gift, a Fight
Le's insight is revelation knowledge: for every spiritual gift, a fight. Hope — and despair fights it. Faith — and doubt fights it. Love — and selfishness fights it. Peace — and anxiety fights it. Joy — and sorrow fights it. Every gift from heaven meets an enemy on earth. The gift is free. The keeping of it costs.
And Paul — who wrote fight the good fight of faith — was not coaching from the sidelines. He wrote from prison. He wrote after shipwrecks, stonings, beatings, betrayals. The man who told us to fight had already been fighting. Taylor too — who lost his parish, his liberty, his income. He wrote the remedies against despair while he needed the remedies himself. Jeremy is very real because Jeremy was in the fight. 🙏
"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."
"Combats le bon combat de la foi, saisis la vie éternelle, à laquelle tu as été appelé, et pour laquelle tu as fait une belle confession en présence d'un grand nombre de témoins."
1 Timothée 6:12 · Louis SegondThe French says combats le bon combat de la foi — fight the good fight of faith. Combats. Not consider. Not contemplate. Fight. And it is a bon combat — a good fight. Not because it is easy, but because it is fought for the right thing, by the right power, with the right weapons. The fight is good because the prize is eternal life. 🙏
"Remember that despair belongs only to passionate fools or villains, such as were Ahithophel and Judas, or else to devils and damned persons; and as the hope of salvation is a good disposition towards it, so is despair a certain consignation to eternal ruin.
'God has placed truth and felicity in heaven, curiosity and repentance upon earth, but misery and despair are the portions of hell.'"
✦ Despair Has an Address — and It Is Not Earth
Most modern books treat despair as a mood. Taylor treats it as an enemy with an address. It lives in hell. It belongs to Ahithophel and Judas — passionate fools and villains. It has no right to the heart of the pilgrim.
Taylor's geography of the soul: truth and felicity — heaven. Curiosity and repentance — earth. Misery and despair — hell. The Christian who despairs is importing from the wrong country. Despair is contraband on the pilgrim's road. It does not belong in the motorhome. It does not belong in the heart that is the temple. It does not belong to the soul whose hope is anchored beyond the veil. 🙏
"There are in God all those glorious attributes and excellences which in the nature of things can possibly create or confirm hope. God is strong, wise, true, loving. There cannot be added another capacity to create a confidence; for upon these premises we cannot fail of receiving what is fit for us."
✦ Strong, Wise, True, Loving
Four words. Four walls of confidence. No gap. No opening for despair to enter.
Strong — He can do it. Nothing is too difficult. The omnipotent helper.
Wise — He knows how. He chooses better for us than we choose for ourselves.
True — He keeps His word. The bills of exchange are honored. The promises are certain.
Loving — He wants to. The cords that bind Him to us are cords of love.
There cannot be added another capacity to create a confidence. Strong AND wise AND true AND loving — there is no room for despair. The armor of confidence has no gap. 🙏
"God has, in many instances, given extraordinary virtue to the active causes and instruments — to a jawbone, to kill a multitude; to three hundred men, to destroy a great army; to Jonathan and his armour-bearer, to rout a whole garrison...
He that led Israel through a sea, and made a rock pour forth waters, and the heavens to give them bread and flesh... can do what he please, and still retain the same affections to his people, and the same providence over mankind as ever.
It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his helper is omnipotent."
"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."
"Mais dans toutes ces choses nous sommes plus que vainqueurs par celui qui nous a aimés."
Romains 8:37 · Louis SegondThe French says nous sommes plus que vainqueurs — we are more than conquerors. Not barely surviving. More than conquerors. A jawbone. Three hundred men. Jonathan and his armour-bearer. God used the smallest instruments to win the largest battles. A pilgrim in a motorhome. A soul with a chapter a day. The instrument does not need to be large. The Helper is omnipotent. 🙏
"If your case be brought to the last extremity, and that you are at the pit's brink, even the very margin of the grave, yet then despair not; at least put it off a little longer: and remember that whatsoever final accident takes away all hope from you, if you stay a little longer, and, in the mean while, bear it sweetly, it will also take away all despair too."
✦ Bear It Sweetly
The most pastoral line in all of Taylor: at least put it off a little longer. Not: solve it now. Not: understand it now. Just — wait one more day. And bear it sweetly while you wait.
Le from September 13: we are walking patiently. Le from August 30: I know someday I will look back and understand this transition. The bearing sweetly is the patient hope that does not prescribe timing to God. Bethulia waited five days. Deliverance came on the seventh. The pilgrim in Le Pertre waits — and bears it sweetly — and the deliverance will come at last. 🙏
"Gather together into your spirit and its treasure-house, the memory, not only all the promises of God, but also the remembrances of experience and the former senses of the Divine favors, that from thence you may argue from times past to the present, and enlarge to the future and to greater blessings.
For although the conjectures and expectations of hope are not like the conclusions of faith, yet they are a helmet against the scorching of despair in temporal things, and an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, against the fluctuations of the spirit in matters of the soul."
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing."
"J'ai combattu le bon combat, j'ai achevé la course, j'ai gardé la foi. Désormais la couronne de justice m'est réservée; le Seigneur, le juste juge, me la donnera dans ce jour-là, et non seulement à moi, mais encore à tous ceux qui auront aimé son avènement."
2 Timothée 4:7–8 · Louis Segond✦ The Journal Is the Treasure-House
Taylor says: gather the promises AND the experiences into the treasure-house of memory. Le's Beloved Devotional Journal IS this treasure-house. Every entry — a promise remembered. Every testimony — an experience stored. Every mentor quoted, every Spirit-given song, every moment of God. The journal is not decoration. It is the armory against despair.
Taylor calls hope both a helmet — against the scorching of despair — and an anchor of the soul — sure and steadfast. Helmet and anchor. Protection above and hold below. The pilgrim who gathers the promises and the experiences wears the helmet and drops the anchor at the same time.
Paul — who was in the fight — finished it: j'ai combattu le bon combat, j'ai achevé la course, j'ai gardé la foi — I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. The crown is reserved. Not for those who never fought — but for those who fought and finished. 🙏
"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all."
"Quand les justes crient, l'Éternel entend, et il les délivre de toutes leurs détresses; l'Éternel est près de ceux qui ont le cœur brisé, et il sauve ceux qui ont l'esprit dans l'abattement. Le malheur atteint souvent le juste, mais l'Éternel l'en délivre toujours."
Psaume 34:18–20 · Louis SegondThe French says l'Éternel l'en délivre toujours — the Eternal delivers always. Always. Not sometimes. Not when it is convenient. Toujours. Many are the afflictions — but the deliverances are more. The fight is real. The afflictions are many. And the Deliverer is always, always, always there. 🙏
"For every spiritual gift, a fight."
Le · Le Pertre · Jeremy Taylor · Despair belongs to hell, not to pilgrims · The journal is the treasure-houseThe Good Fight
For every spiritual gift, a fight. Paul was in the fight. Taylor was in the fight. The gift is free. The keeping of it costs. Combats le bon combat.
Strong, Wise, True, Loving
Four walls of confidence. No gap. No opening for despair. There cannot be added another capacity. The armor is complete. The Helper is omnipotent.
The Treasure-House
Gather promises and experiences into memory. A helmet against despair and an anchor of the soul. The journal is the armory. Every entry — a weapon stored.
Jeremy Taylor's climax — remedies against despair. And Le's revelation: for every spiritual gift, a fight.
The hope trilogy — complete: September 15 — what hope is (the wing, the anchor, the five acts). September 16 — how to govern hope (five rules, hope with bone). September 18 — hope's enemy and how to destroy it. Taylor built the teaching in layers: the gift, the governance, the warfare. And Le walked through all three — from Lion-sur-Mer to Tollevast to Le Pertre.
Le's revelation — for every spiritual gift, a fight: This is not in Taylor. This is Le. The Spirit gave the insight through the reading: the existence of the gift guarantees the existence of the fight. Hope proves despair will come. Faith proves doubt will come. Love proves resistance will come. The fight is not a sign of failure. The fight is a sign that the gift is real.
Paul was in the fight too: Le saw the man behind the instruction. Paul did not write fight the good fight from a lecture hall. He wrote from chains. Taylor did not write remedies against despair from comfort. He wrote from exile. The men who taught the fight were fighting when they taught it.
Despair's address: Taylor places despair in hell — alongside Ahithophel and Judas. It has no passport for the pilgrim's road. Truth and felicity in heaven. Curiosity and repentance on earth. Misery and despair — the portions of hell.
The journal as treasure-house: Taylor's final instruction — gather promises and experiences into the memory. Le's journal is this treasure-house in real time. From March to September. From Caleb to Cleopas. From Guyon to Taylor. Every entry a stored weapon. Every testimony a remembered deliverance. Against the day when despair knocks — the armory is full, the helmet is on, the anchor holds, and the wing lifts. 🙏