The Threatened State
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Threatened State
Scripture Reference:
- Luke 3 (further images / scripture text)
Description: Time keeps Death back from cutting a tree at the foot of which lies an ax. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant scripture text is Luke 3:9.
Poem:
O Human-tree, by the Creator’s hand,
Planted in the transitory life,
To bear fruit and comfort;
How long is your beauty a pretense,
To be wild and fruitless,
And to bear nothing but leaves?
It has been long enough neglected in your youth,
Before your roots are cut,
Do finally bear good fruit,
So that the gardener is pleased,
With the lovely blooming of your virtue,
From fear and desire for God.
The gardener gives fair time,
And manure of mercy,
The blow of the axe is still delayed:
Change your nature quickly,
Otherwise eternal fire will threaten you,
And you might repent too late.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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