The RETURNING of the Heart.

ISAIAH xlvi. 8.

Remember this, and shew yourselves like men: Bring it again to heart, Oye transgressors.

OF

EPIG. 11.

FT have I call'd thee: O return at last, Return unto thine heart let the time past Suffice thy wanderings: know that to cherish Revolting still, is a mere will to perish.

Return, O wanderer, return, return.

Let me not always waste my words in vain,

As I have done too long. Why dost thou spurn
And kick the counsels that should bring thee back

[again?

What's this that checks my course? Methinks I feel
A cold remissness seizing on my mind:

My stagger'd resolutions seem to reel,

As tho' they had in haste forgot mine heart behind.

Return, O wanderer, return, return.
Thou art already gone too far away,

It is enough unless thou mean to burn

In hell for ever, stop thy course at last, and stay.

The

The RETURNING of the HEART

Not to return so often calld will be
Thy certain Ruin. come be ruld be le

There's something holds me back, I cannot move
Forward one foot: methinks, the more I strive,
The less I stir. Is there a pow'r above

My will in me, that can my purposes reprive?

No power of thine own: 'tis I, that lay

Mine hand upon thine haste; whose will can make
The restless motions of the heavens stay:

Stand still, turn back again, or new-found courses take.

What am I rivited, or rooted here?

That neither forward, nor on either side

I can get loose? Then there's no hope, I fear;
But I must back again, whatever me betide.

And back again thou shalt. I'll have it so.
Tho' thou hast hitherto my voice neglected,
Now I have handed thee, I'll let thee know,
That what I will have done shall not be uneffected.

Thou wilt prevail then, and I must return.

But how or whither? when a world of shame
And sorrow lies before me, and I burn
With horror in myself to think upon

9.

the same.

Shall I return to thee? Alas, I have
No hope to be receiv'd: a run-away,
A rebel to return! Madmen may rave
Of mercy-miracles, but what will Justice say?

D 2

Shall

10.

Shall I return to mine own heart? Alas, "Tis lost, and dead, and rotten long ago, I cannot find it what at first it was,

And it hath been too long the cause of all my woe.

11.

Shall I forsake my pleasures and delights,
My profits, honors, comforts, and contents,
For that, the thought whereof my mind affrights,
Repentant sorrow, that the soul asunder rents !

12.

Shall I return, that cannot though I would ?
I, that had strength enough to go astray,
Find myself faint and feeble, how I should
Return. I cannot run, I cannot creep this way.

13.

What shall I do? Forward I must not go,
Backward I cannot: If I tarry here,
I shall be drowned in a world of woe,
And antedate my own damnation by despair.

14.

But is't not better hold that which I have,
Than unto future expectation trust?

Oh no to reason thus is but to rave.
Therefore return I will, because return I must.

Return, and welcome: if thou wilt, thou shalt :
Although thou canst not of thyself, yet I,
That call, can make thee able. Let the fault
Be mine, if, when thou wilt return, I let thee lie.

The