The Funeral: The Final Justice
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Funeral: The Final Justice
Scripture Reference:
- Psalms 49 (further images / scripture text)
Description: In a funeral procession, men in mourning cloaks accompany the body to the church in the distance. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem, as well as for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant Scripture text is Psalm 49:14-15 [Psalm 49:15-16].
Motto:
The same course, that everyone takes,
Will not bypass only thee.
Poem:
They are going to walk behind the Body,
And have various reasons,
Besides those of Death, and the Grave:
So worldly love draws,
The scattered minds continually,
Away from the intended Purpose.
Although one sees it clearly before one’s eyes,
Still the Image has no power
Over the deaf, blind, and dumb heart,
Through which it should consider,
What would happen to the Soul,
When the body was so buried.
He truly thinks not to remain,
With the dead Bodies in that Pit,
Whereto he leads the carried Body,
But to hastily turn around again,
To continue living, according to desire,
In idle carelessness:
But he does not think, (through wise reflection)
However, how he with each step,
Steadily draws near his own Grave,
On the trail that nobody knows how to avoid,
On other side-paths,
Even if someone gave the whole world.
Oh Man! How can it possibly be,
That thine Understanding was not healed,
By everything that thou dost hear and see!
To give up the stupidity,
And to look out of thy Soul’s eye,
Because of the Eternal sorrow!
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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