About the Soul, what she actually is [from Part II]
![About the Soul, what she actually is [from Part II]](/woodcuts/1704Luik1/00033354.jpg)
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: About the Soul, what she actually is [from Part II]
Scripture Reference:
- Genesis 1 (further images / scripture text)
Description: Jesus, wearing an aureole, and the Soul, personified as a young woman, sit at the edge of a lake. They contemplate the sun and its reflected image in the crystal clear lake. The Dutch artist and poet, Jan Luiken (1649-1712) was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and composing the poem that accompanies it.
Poem: The Soul speaks about her essence, how God has created her, and how she may arrive at her first being.
A lake like crystal, on which no light breeze plays,
Receives so gracefully and purely the image of the sun;
Like the pure Soul, the noblest of all things,
That through the wisdom of God received an essence;
A spark of the eternal fire, shone through with God’s light,
A clear mirror for the eternal countenance;
As the eternal endless One, not in height, nor in breadth,
Nor eternal depth, never to fathom nor to measure,
Showed itself, and found in a created image,
That for the creation in his wisdom had played.
That clear Mirror has been violated by its false lusts:
That crystallinity filled with the coarseness of sins:
That still and pure earth moves on its own,
And has disturbed the noble Image so miserably.
What shall Man do now? How does he best proceed:
So as to receive again this lost Image in his heart?
A Will, emanating from the eternal fire of Souls,
That drives out, as with a whip, the entire creation,
With all its images, and keeps the Deity,
From all inclination, that he fulfills his will.
There is no other advice, although it costs grief and pain,
It must be suffered, or it must be lost.
God's Answer:
"You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24).
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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