ABLATIO CORDIS.

Scorta placent.et Vina placent.sic stultus inerfque. Exanimifque Animus: sic sine Cor de Corest.

The TAKING AWAY of the HEART.

While Lust and Wine their beastly Joys impart, The Mind grows dead. The Hearts without a Heart.

The TAKING AWAY of the Heart.
Hos. iv. 14.

Whoredom and wine, and new wine, take away the heart.

B

EPIG. 2.

ASE lust and luxury, the scum and dross

Of hell-born pleasures, please thee, to the loss Of thy soul's precious eye-sight, reason; so

Mindless thy mind, heartless thine heart doth grow.

ODE II.

1.

Laid down already? and so fast asleep?
Thy precious heart left loosely on thine hand,
Which with all diligence thou shouldest keep,
And guard against those enemies, that stand
Ready prepar'd to plunge it in the deep
Of all distress? Rouse thee, and understand
In time, what in the end thou must confess,
That misery at last and wretchedness

Is all the fruit that springs from slothful idleness.

2.

Whilst thou lie'st soaking in security,

Thou drown'st thyself in sensual delight, And wallow'st in debauched luxury,

Which, when thou art awake and seest, will fright
Thine heart with horror. When thou shalt descry,
By the day-light, the danger of the night,

Then, then, if not too late, thou wilt confess,
That endless misery and wretchedness

Is all the fruit that springs from riotous excess.

Whilst

3.

Whilst thou dost pamper thy proud flesh, and thrust
Into thy paunch the prime of all thy store,
Thou dost but gather fuel for that lust,

Which, boiling in thy liver, runneth o'er,
And frieth in thy throbbing veins, which must
Needs vent, or burst, when they can hold no more.
But oh, consider what thou shalt confess

At last, that misery and wretchedness

Is all the fruit that springs from lustful wantonness.

4.

Whilst thou dost feed effeminate desires
With spumy pleasures, whilst fruition
The coals of lust fans into flaming fires,
And spurious delights thou doatest on,
Thy mind through cold remissness ev'n expires,
And all the active vigour of't is gone,

Take heed in time, or else thou shalt confess
At last, that misery and wretchedness

Is all the fruit that springs from careless-mindedness

5.

Whilst thy regardless sense-dissolved mind

Lies by unbent, that should have been thy spring Of motion, all thy headstrong passions find

Themselves let loose, and follow their own swing;
Forgetful of the great account behind,

As though there never would be such a thing,
But, when it comes indeed, thou wilt confess
That misery alone and wretchedness

Is all the fruit that springs from soul-forgetfulness.

Whilst

6.

Whilst thou remember'st not thy latter end,
Nor what a reck'ning thou one day must make,
Putting no difference 'twixt foe and friend,
Thou suffer'st hellish fiends thine heart to take,
Who, all the while thou triflest, do attend,
Ready to bring it to the lake.

Of fire and brimstone: where thou shalt confess.
That endless misery and wretchedness

Is all the fruit that springs from stupid heartlessness.

The