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Edward Taylor was born in the year of 1642 and died in 1729. It is said that Taylor was probably born in Sketchly, Leicestershire County, England. His father was an "independent landholder with title to his farm. Taylor's religious experiences occurred through an older sister of his. Two mornings in a row his sister awoke him with stories of the creation and the life of Christ. After these occurrences, Taylor saw his "spiritual life as a constant conflict between love, faith, fear, anger, sorrow, joy and hope." Early in 1668, Taylor made arrangements to try to make it big in America. On July 4 Taylor approached Boston. He quickly worked his way to being accepted to Harvard. He had many experiences at Harvard until he graduated at the age of 30. Taylor then accepted his call for ministry. Taylor's move to ministry started when a man named Thomas Dewey was sent to find a minister for a little settlement called Westfield. After the job was thrown around a bit, Taylor finally took it. Somewhere along the way to ministry, Taylor met his future wife Elizabeth Taylor. He wrote poems to show his love toward Elizabeth and after the second poem they were shortly married. Elizabeth presented him with eight children. Five of the eight died before her own death in 1689. Just three years later Taylor married a women by the name of Ruth Wyllys. Taylor and Wyllys had six children together. Throughout his life Taylor filled his commonplace book and his church records with opinions on divorce and rape, advice about church discipline, and with a long list of baptisms, marriages and deaths. Taylor was one of the few poets at the turn of the century to preach "Christ the old fashioned way." Taylor constantly preached to live a life in imitation of Christ. Taylor set out imitate Christ while writing his poetry. Taylor's poetry is what it is because of what he believed and taught as a Christian.
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