Jodocus van Lodenstein

Lodenstein, Jodocus van, son of Joost Corneliss van Lodenstein, burgomaster of Delft, was born at Delft Feb. 6, 1620. After studying at the Universities of Utrecht and Franeker he was appointed in 1644 pastor at Zoetermeer and Zegwaard, near Delft; in 1650 at Sluys (Sluis, near the boundary of Flanders); and in 1653 at Utrecht. He died at Utrecht Aug. 6, 1677 (Allg. Deutsche Biog., xix. 73-75).

A pastor of the Reformed Church, he was spiritually allied to the Mystics. After 1665, not being able to exclude the worldly, he ceased to dispense the Holy Communion and altered the Baptismal formula; but never separated from the Church.

His hymns appeared in his Uyt-Spanningen, Behelfende eenige stigtelyke Liederen en andere Gedigten, &c, Utrecht, 1676 [Berlin], which passed through many editions. Two are translated, viz.:—
1. Hemelsch Ooge! Wilt gy dogen. [Love to God.] 1676, p. 346, in 9 st. entitled "Solitude with God." It has passed into English through
Ich will einsam und gemeinsam. No. 723, in Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, 1705; Porst's Gesang-Buch, ed. 1855, No. 385. It is a free translation in 5 stanzas of 6 lines, and is probably by C. A. Bernstein (p. 135, ii.), certainly not by Gr. Arnold or G. Tersteegen. Translated as (1) “Quite alone and yet not lonely," in full, from the 1105, as No. 680 in pt. i. of the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754. In the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789 (1886, No. 702), the trs. of stanzas i., ii., were reduced to 8.7.8.7, and this form is also in the Bible Hymn Book, 1845.
2. Heylge Jesu! Hemelsch Voorbeeld! [Christ our Example.] 1676, p. 152, in 9 stanzas, entitled "Jesus Pattern." It has passed into English through
Heiligster Jesu, Heiligungsquelle, tr. in full. This has not yet been traced earlier than G. Arnold's Göttliche Sophia, 1700, pt. ii. p. 327, where it is No. 17 of “some hitherto unknown poems, mostly composed by others.” As it is found in this section it is perhaps more probably by B. Crasselius (q. v.). Koch, vi. 6, and viii. 437, characterises it as "a pearl in the Evangelical Treasury of Song and a genuine Christian moral hymn, of more importance than a hundred of the so-called moral hymns in the second half of the eighteenth cen¬tury." In the Berlin ed., 1863, No. 631.
The translations are: (1) "As Thy will, O my Saviour," of st. ii, by C. G. Clemens, as No. 1065 in the Supplement of 1808, to the Moravian Hymn Book, 1801 (1886, No. 622). (2) "Most holy Jesus! Fount unfailing," by Dr. H. Mills, 1845 (1856, p. 287). (3) "Thou holiest Saviour, sacred spring," by Miss Dunn, 1857, p. 26. (4) "Most holy Jesus, Fount of light," in Schaff’s Christ in Song, 1869, p. 133. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)