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The DARKNESS of the Heart.

ROM. i. 21.

Their foolish heart was darkened.

EPIG. 3.

SUCH cloudy shadows have eclips'd thine heart,
As nature cannot parallel, nor art:

Unless thou take my light of truth to guide thee,
Blackness of darkness will at length betide thee.

ODE III.

1.

Tarry, O tarry, lest thine heedless haste
Hurry thee headlong unto hell at last :

See, see, thine heart's already half-way there;
Those gloomy shadows that encompass it,
Are the vast confines of th' infernal pit.

Q stay; and if thou lov'st not light, yet fear
That fatal darkness, where

Such danger doth appear.

2.

A night of ignorance hath overspread
Thy mind and understanding: thou art led
Blindfolded by unbridled passion:

Thou wand'rest in the crooked ways of error,
Leading directly to the king of terror:

The course thou tak'st, if thou holdest on,
Will bury thee anon

In deep destruction.

Whilst

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Heu tenebras Cordis: Tenebrae quibus exteriores
Succedent, ni sit Lux libi luce mea.

The DARKNESS of the HEART.

O the Hearts Darkness which without my Light,
Would lead to deeper Glooms, and endless Night..

3.

Whilst thou art thus deprived of thy sight,

Thou know'st no diff'rence between noon and night,
Tho' the sun shine, yet thou regard'st it not.
My love-alluring beauty cannot draw thee,
Nor doth my mind-amazing terror awe thee:
Like one that had both good and ill forgot,
Thou carest not a jot

What falleth to thy lot.

4.

Thou art become unto thyself a stranger,
Observest not thine own desert, or danger,

Thou know'st not what thou dost, nor canst thou tell Whither thou goest: shooting in the dark, How canst thou ever hope to hit the mark? What expectation hast thou to do well, That art content to dwell Within the verge of hell?

5.

Alas, thou hast not so much knowledge left,
As to consider that thou art bereft

Of thine own eye-sight.

But thou run'st, as tho'

Thou sawest all before thee: whilst thy mind

To nearest necessary things is blind.

Thou knowest nothing as thou ought'st to know,
Whilst thou esteemest so

The things that are below.

6.

Would ever any,

that had

eyes, mistake

As thou art wont to do: no diff'rence make

Betwixt the way to heaven and to hell?

But,

But, desperately devoted to destruction,"
Rebel against the light, abhor instruction?
As tho' thou didst desire with death to dwell,
Thou hatest to hear tell

How yet thou may'st do well,

7.

Oh that thou didst but see how blind thou art,
And feel the dismal darkness of thine heart!
Then wouldst thou labour for, and I would lend
My light to guide the: that's not light alone,
But life, eyes, sight, grace, glory, all in one..
Then should'st thou know whither those bye-ways bend,,
And that death in the end.

On darkness doth attend.

The

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