Take Up the Cross

And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:
— Jeremiah 16:12

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
— Genesis 6:5

What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
— Job 15:14-16

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
— Psalm 51:5

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
— Hebrews 3:12

The Heart of Man Is Exceedingly Deceitful, A Sermon by Jonathan Edwards.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
— Jeremiah 17:9

God is here threatening the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem. In the verses immediately preceding, He had denounced a curse against him that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, and declared such blessed who trust in the Lord. Lest any should flatter themselves with hopes of escaping the curse and obtaining the blessing through a wrong opinion of themselves—or an imagination that they, by their dissimulation and hypocrisy, had deceived God—God puts them in mind of the deceitfulness of the heart. He informs them that, however deceitful the heart is, and however difficult it is for men themselves or for other men that are conversant with them to know it, yet He cannot be deceived by it. As it follows in the next verse: “I, the Lord, search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

There are two things about the heart in the words: its deceitfulness and its wickedness. The latter may be mentioned as that from which its deceitfulness arises. It is because the heart is so desperately wicked that it is so deceitful. Sin is a very deceitful thing; thus we read of “the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). Or, the deceitfulness of the heart may be mentioned as part of its wickedness. Hypocrisy and wickedness both represent that which is very odious to God.

The deceitfulness of the heart is set forth by two expressions, both of them representing it as exceeding deceitful:

It is deceitful above all things.

It is set forth by the exceeding difficulty of knowing it.

Doctrine

What I now propose from these words is to show that the heart of man is exceeding deceitful.

The deceitfulness of the heart is twofold:

Its treacherousness and hypocrisy towards others.

Its being so full of deceit towards itself.

It is very deceitful in that it is exceeding prone to treacherousness and hypocrisy towards others, both towards God and towards men.

I. The Deceitfulness of the Heart Towards God

The deceitfulness of the heart towards God consists in:

Its being full of dissimulation with respect to what is now in the heart.

Its being most treacherous towards God as to pretenses and promises of what is future.

Indeed, there is no such thing as the heart’s being deceitful towards God as to any tendency to actually deceiving God, or any difficulty there is on God’s part to know the heart. God never was deceived with any heart or about anything that there is in the heart, nor is He put to any difficulty to discern what is in the heart. It is all open to the view of God. He perfectly sees and knows everything that is in it. Yet, there is a proneness in the heart to be doing what in it lies to deceive God. If God is not deceived, the cause of it is not on the part of the heart, because that has a disposition to deceive Him.

1 The Heart Is Full of Dissimulation and Hypocrisy Towards God

Although men are told that God knows everything and that nothing can be hid from Him, yet men are exceeding prone to be dissembling before God and to make pretenses to Him of that which is not. They make a show of this and that in their hearts which is not in them, and which is directly contrary to what is in them.

Men are very apt to dissemble in their prayers, and not only in their prayers, but even in the sight of God. They are very ready to make an appearance and pretense before God as though they were very sensible that they were great sinners, and that sin was a vile thing and a thing that deserved God’s wrath. They will confess before God, and would be taken as though they spoke from their hearts, that they are sinners, that they came sinful into the world, and that their hearts are full of sin, and that they have nothing that is good in them, and that the best that they can do is sinful—when they are not sensible of any such thing. They are not sensible that they have such hearts as they tell of. They never were convinced that they were so vile and wicked, nor are they convinced of it even at the very time they confess it. When they say they have no good in them, they really do not believe it. At the same time, they secretly entertain an opinion as though they had a great deal that is good in them. They have a very good opinion of themselves. They have a high opinion of their own righteousness.

They will say to God that they do not deserve any mercy at God’s hands, but yet they do not believe what they say. They all the while entertain an opinion that they do deserve something, and they expect that God should have respect to their efforts. If He does not, they will quarrel with God and have blasphemous thoughts of Him. At the same time that they confess that their prayers are good for nothing and that He may cast them as dung in their faces, they yet think in their hearts that God should have respect to their prayers. They think that God’s heart should be drawn to them by such good, affectionate, and earnest prayers as theirs, and will find fault with God if it is not so. They will reckon that God deals hardly by them if He has no respect to their religion.

They will confess before God that they deserve hell, that God would deal justly by them if He should cast them without mercy into hell. But at the same time, they do not think any such thing. They never were convinced that God would deal justly by them, and that they should have no reason to find fault if He should cast them into hell.

They seem to be mightily humbled in their prayers and will confess what poor, unworthy, miserable nothings they are, and all the while have no spark of humility in them. The spirit of haughty pride is reigning in them. They make gods of themselves. They set up themselves in God’s room and are full of self-exalting thoughts. They are self-dependent and self-sufficient, and trust in their own righteousness, their own wisdom, and strength.

They pretend as though they had a great mind to be kept from sin. They will pray to God to keep them from sin, to assist and strengthen them against temptations, and yet all the while never intend seriously to endeavor. They go away from their prayers and live as bad as they did before. They plainly show that they have no great mind to be kept from sin. They pray that God would help them against Satan’s temptations, but do not strive against them. When Satan tempts them, they easily yield to his suggestions.

They pray that God would keep them and that He would watch over them, as though they had a great mind to be kept from sin, but do not watch over themselves. They are senseless about themselves.

So they make a show in their prayers as though they had a dependence on God for all their good things. They pray to Him for this and the other blessing, as though they expect it all from Him and Him alone—when indeed it is not so. They are not convinced that God is the author of all blessings, nor do they trust in Him, as appears by their excessive anxiety about getting this and the other enjoyment for themselves, and their irregular methods of pursuing them. They neglect their duty to God for the sake of worldly enjoyments, which shows that they do not have their dependence on God for them.

So they will make pretenses as though they were sensible of God’s infinite power, holiness, and sufficiency. They will say to God in their prayers that He is able to do all things for them, that He has enough to supply all their wants, and that He is a God of infinite mercy—when all the while, they really do not believe those things. There is a world of hypocrisy and dissimulation in men’s prayers, and even in their secret prayers. Not only in the prayers of wicked men, but there is much of it in the prayers even of the godly.

The hearts of all men in this world, as they have abundance of wickedness, so they have abundance of hypocrisy and deceitfulness. As men are full of dissimulation and self-pretenses towards God in their prayers, so in other things, and in their attendance on ordinances, and in all transactions in which they have to do with God, they do what in them lies to deceive God and make Him think them much better than they are in truth. They are hypocritical and deceitful in their behavior as well as in their prayers. They make an outward show of devotion in respect to God and religion, and would have God take it as being truly a manifestation of a devout and good spirit—when indeed they have no true respect to God. They do not have one spark of love to Him, but their hearts are full of hatred towards Him.

2 The Heart Is Exceedingly Deceitful: It Is Very Treacherous Towards God and False in His Covenant

This is called deceitfulness in Scripture:

Psalm 78:56-57: “Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.”

Hosea 7:16: “They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow.”

Although God is not really deceived when men’s hearts are treacherous and they are false to their promises, yet God, speaking of Himself after the manner of men, speaks as though He expected that they should behave as they promise and engage—but they fail Him. God looks for grapes, but behold, they bring forth wild grapes.

The visible people of God all make profession of serving God, of giving up themselves to Him, and giving their consent to His covenant, that they will be for Him and for no other. But few are there that walk according to such a fashion, and those that do more explicitly engage to be the Lord’s and come under vows oftentimes prove very deceitful. They do not do as they promise.

How many are there that own the covenant and promise in a solemn manner that they will live in a way of obedience to all God’s commands as long as they live, that are not careful to fulfill their engagements? They come to the sacrament and, from time to time, renew and seal these vows—but it is done deceitfully. They are very unfaithful in God’s covenant. This is what is called “swearing deceitfully” (Psalm 24:4): “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”

The heart of man is very deceitful, and that it is very unstable. Men will begin sometimes in a way of religion and make promises as though they would walk in a way of religion and would no more live in such or such a way of sin—but they soon change their minds. They return as a dog to his own vomit.

Men oftentimes, in distress—and especially on a sickbed—will make many promises, saying how they will live if God will raise them up again. But there is no trusting to them. They are so false and deceitful. If they are raised up and restored to health, they neglect their souls and are as careless about their duty as they used to be. This shows the desperate wickedness and deceitfulness of the heart.

Thus, the heart is full of hypocrisy and unfaithfulness towards God.

II. The Deceitfulness of the Heart Towards Men

The heart is also deceitful towards men, and in the same respects as towards God.

1 There Is a Disposition in the Heart of Man to Deceive Others with False Shows and Pretenses

First, there is a disposition to pretend that they are much better than they really are. Though men love their own wickedness and will indulge it secretly, yet men have that natural conscience which tells them that it is shameful and a thing of ill repute. Men therefore generally disguise themselves. There are but few that are indeed as they appear in the world amongst men. They will cover over their wickedness and will, it may be, seem to show a hatred of this and that other wickedness which they all the while secretly practice themselves.

They seem to have a zeal against sins in others that they secretly allow themselves in. Romans 2:1: “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.”

Men will seem to be very zealous sometimes against lasciviousness and against drunkenness, and others that all the while are sinful, carnal wretches themselves. So it is a common thing for persons to seem to have a very hot zeal against pride in others, whereas they are very proud themselves—and that is the very thing that makes them have such a zeal against it in others. Proud men cannot bear that others should be proud.

Oftentimes, men will do things from an ill disposition and an ill end, and pretend to others that they do it from a very good spirit. Sometimes they will pretend that they do such and such a thing from respect to the public good, when really it is nothing but their private interest that they aim at. They are wholly influenced and governed by private views. They pretend that they are governed by some good spirit, when they are only influenced by their envy, malice, and revenge. They have a pique against some of their neighbors, and they christen it with the name of conscience, public spirit, and Christian zeal, and many sanctified names.

So men will pretend before others to a great deal more goodness than they have. Proverbs 20:6: “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?” There are many that appear saints before men that are far enough from it in the dark. There are many that love to put on a saint-like appearance amongst others, that will be forward to talk about religion and to tell of their experiences, and appear forward in religion, that are gross hypocrites. The eye of man is more regarded by many than the eye of God. So it was of old: Matthew 23:5: “But all their works they do to be seen of men.”

2 There Is a Proneness in the Heart of Man to Be Very Deceitful in Making Pretenses of Friendship and Goodwill to Their Neighbor

Men, when they are with others and before their faces, are apt to make an appearance as though they had no ill will to them, as though they had a good respect to them. They will not talk against them but seem to show a good esteem. But when they are behind their backs, it is quite otherwise. They give themselves a liberty then to run out against them, to deride them. They will sit down and talk against him, it may be for half an hour together, and seem to do it with great delight. They are mightily entertained by such kind of talk, all the while they seem so fair to their faces.

Mischief is in their hearts. They wish him ill. They would be glad to have some mischief befall him. They would be glad if he met with something less than his prosperity. Psalm 28:3: “Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.” Psalm 12:2: “They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.” Such double hearts are deceitful hearts. To the same purpose, Psalm 55:21: “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.”

Though they seem so friendly in the matter of their behavior before their faces, yet when they are behind their backs, they will be working to do them a mischief. Jeremiah 9:4: “Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.” And in the eighth verse: “Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.”

There is a proneness in the heart to unfaithfulness towards men. There are but few men that one may thoroughly depend upon. Proverbs 20:6: “A faithful man who can find?” Men are more ready to make promises and give fair words than they are strict to fulfill their engagements. The heart of man is a false heart and a treacherous heart, both towards God and men. But few men are so exact and punctual in fulfilling what they have given others reason to expect from them as they ought to be, and multitudes are exceedingly otherwise. They are so deceitful that none can tell what to expect from what they say.

Thus we have shown how the heart is deceitful in its hypocrisy, falseness, and treachery towards others.

III. The Deceitfulness of the Heart Towards Itself

I shall leave the consideration of its being full of deceit towards itself for the application, with another opportunity.

Application

1. From What Has Been Said, We May Learn How Unreasonable It Is That Many Men Depend Upon Their Religion and Practical Worship to Recommend Them to God

Those that are most full of hypocrisy, dissembling, and deceitfulness in their prayers and outward worship are generally those that have the greatest dependence on their religion. They think that God has and ought to have a great respect to them because of their religion, when they have only been provoking God with hypocrisy and lying. They flatter Him with their mouth and lie to Him with their tongues, as the children of Israel. Psalm 78:36: “Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.”

1 They foolishly flatter themselves that, because they have confessed that they were very sinful creatures, that they deserved hell and could challenge no mercy, therefore God will be disposed to pity them and forgive their sin—though they did it in hypocrisy and are not really convinced of their vileness and desert of hell, though they confessed it. They think that because they said in their prayers that God was an infinitely holy and merciful God, and that His grace was wonderful to poor sinners in sending the Son to die, and the like, they think God likes them much the better for their commendation of Him—when it was nothing but flattery. They do not believe in their hearts that God is an infinitely gracious God and an infinitely merciful God.

Such kind of prayers as these are those that men commonly trust to and make a righteousness of. And well may they be very worthless things in the sight of God. They set much by them, but God sets nothing by them. God knows the heart. He understands the difference between the pretenses and the reality, and He has no pleasure in such flattering and hypocrisy. He knows that, for all their prayers and their confessions and flattering, they hate Him in their hearts. Their souls loathe and abhor Him. God knows that, after all their pretenses, it would be a thing no way disagreeable to them if there were no God, and if His being were not continued. It would be no ill tidings if it were possible if they should hear that He was divested of His dominion and government and were dethroned. How far, then, may we conclude God is from delighting in their prayers or having His heart drawn by them?

2 For Examination

Let this doctrine put every man upon examining himself whether he is not thus hypocritical and unfaithful towards God and men. It is a thing that men’s own consciences are better capable of determining whether or not they are deceitful towards others than whether they deceive themselves. When men deceive others, they may know it; but when they deceive themselves, they do not know it.

Examine how it is in your prayers. Are you not guilty of great dissimulation in your confessions and in your praises and thanksgivings? If you are so, it is good you should be sensible of it and reflect upon it. Recollect how it has been in time past, and consider how it is now. When you come before God in prayer, you make a show of something. There is a show of humility, and often of a sense of God’s greatness and glory, and a show of a sense of God’s mercy, and of a sense of His undeserved kindness towards you. Is it anything else but a show? Or does reality, or what really is to be found in your heart, in any measure answerable to the pretense?

There are many amongst us that make a show of goodness before God and men. Be strict in examining what agreement there is between the appearance and the heart. Examine whether or not you do not sometimes call bad dispositions by good names. Do you not pretend sometimes, and would have it taken that you do things for a good end and out of conscience, and from respect to your duty and to the common good, when you only prize your own interest and are governed by some bad spirit towards your neighbors?

Are you not guilty of appearing fair to men’s faces? Are you a faithful man, or are you one that there is no trusting to? Are you not unfaithful to your engagements to God and man? You have promised, many of you, expressly that you are faithful. Are you not like a deceitful bow that deceives the archer and frustrates his aim by carrying wide from the mark?

3 If There Be So Great a Proneness in the Heart to Be Deceitful Towards Others, Watch and Strive Against It

It is odious to God. It is unbecoming Christians, who should be sincere and without hypocrisy. As it is said of the wisdom that is from above: James 3:17: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”

It is a character that Christ gives of Nathanael, that he is an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. John 1:47: “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” Simplicity is spoken of as a Christian grace. Romans 12:8 and 2 Corinthians 1:12: The apostle tells us that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world.

The heart is so deceitful, so apt to fall into these deceitful ways, there is need of great watchfulness when you are in God’s presence. Keep that in mind that God knows exactly what is in your heart, how much, and how agreeable to your words and all your transactions with God. Remember this.

It was proposed from the words to show that the heart of man is exceeding deceitful. The deceitfulness of the heart is twofold:

The proneness of the heart to falseness and deceitfulness towards others.

Its being full of deceit towards itself.

Part II: The Heart Is Full of Deceit Towards Itself

The heart of man is so deceitful that it is not only prone to deceive others, but it is exceeding apt to be deluded by itself. This proneness to delusion about itself may very well be called the deceitfulness of the heart. For the deceit or delusion belongs to the heart in three ways:

The heart is deceived from itself.

There is that notion and disposition in the heart that leads it astray and tends to its own blinding and delusion.

This delusion is also in itself. It is the heart that deceives, so it is the same heart that is deceived, and then the deceit is about itself.

This exceeding proneness of the heart to deceive itself or be deceived about itself appears in the following things:

1 The Heart Is Exceeding Prone to Delusions and Deceit About Its Own Knowledge

It is not apt to be sensible of its own ignorance. Men are exceedingly ready to entertain high thoughts of their own knowledge. Job 11:12: “For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.” Though man be a poor, inferior creature, who comes into the world after the same manner as the creatures, dwells in a house of clay, and has his understanding clogged and clouded with flesh, yet he will needs conceit himself wise and is very ready to have a vast conceit of his own understanding.

Man’s being so apt to be deceived in this point may be reckoned as a part of the deceitfulness of the heart. Knowledge and understanding is very commonly attributed to the heart in Scripture, though sometimes by the heart it seems more especially to be understood as the will and affections. The root and spring of this deceit lies partly in the heart, or in the depravity of the will and affections, though it partly is from the defect of the understanding. It is from man’s ignorance, or because of their exceeding ignorance, that they are not sensible of their own ignorance, that they so foolishly conceit that they know so much. It is because they are very blind that they are so conceited of their own sharp-sightedness. Men do not know enough to know their own ignorance. And the wiser men truly are, the more would they be sensible of their own ignorance. 1 Corinthians 8:2: “And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”

A. Men Are Very Apt to Be Deceived About the Extent of Their Faculties

They are very prone to think that they extend to things that they do not extend to. Men are ready to have such an opinion of their own power that they think nothing too high for their reach, nothing too big for them to grasp. They are scarcely willing to allow anything that is true to be above their comprehension, and therefore are very ready to question the truth of things that are so.

Man’s proud, self-conceited heart can hardly allow of mysteries that are unintelligible by them. Therefore, things that are puzzling and confounding to their minds, they do not know how to allow to be true—even in divine things, or things pertaining to the nature and ways of God. Man has such a proud thought of his own faculties that he hardly will allow God Himself to be above his reach, and is ready to look upon it as strange that there should be anything belonging to God that is true and yet be inconceivable by their own understandings.

Therefore, men are ready to call in question the truth of the revelations which God has made of Himself, because there are some things in that revelation that are above them. There are many difficulties in the Scripture that to them are inseparable, and therefore they are ready to question the truth of the Scriptures.

God reveals in His Word that there are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that these are all the very same God. This doctrine has been a great trial of men. There have been many that have expressly and openly denied it only for this reason: because they could not understand it. There are some that say that this doctrine is an insult to human reason. The thing is, they have such a conceit of the extent of human wisdom that they are too proud to swallow anything merely upon a testimony of God, unless they can see other reasons besides His testimony.

So, how difficultly do men entertain those doctrines of God’s absolute decrees, especially of election and reprobation! Men cannot understand how these doctrines can be consistent with justice, and therefore many in the world professedly deny any such things. Others, that because they have been taught this doctrine from their infancy, do not deny it, yet are very apt secretly to doubt of the truth of it. Or, if they allow it to be true, they will not allow it to be just. They are ready to charge God with injustice and cruelty.

It arises from a deceived notion that men have about their own understandings. They are ready to set up their own reason upon a level with the wisdom of God. If they knew what poor, dark, feeble, narrow things their own understandings were, the great mysteriousness of those things would be no obstacle to their receiving them and acquiescing in them upon divine testimony. It would not seem strange to them that there should be many things in God far above their comprehensions. They would see that it might as well be expected that a nutshell should contain the ocean as that their understanding should comprehend God or His ways.

If men were sensible how short-sighted and dim-sighted their souls were, it would be no obstacle to their believing that God has eternally decreed all things, and absolutely decreed who shall be saved, and to believe that God is just and righteous because He can’t see how it can be. But through a vast deceit about his own faculties, men are ready to say to God, “What doest thou?”—as though they understood how He should do better than He Himself.

This is a cause of much of the unbelief that is in the world, that men are so deceived about their own understandings. This was the occasion of the unbelief of many in Christ’s time. The Jews could not swallow the mysteries of the kingdom when Christ told them that, except they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they had no life in them. They say, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” and “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Many of them that used to follow Him, upon this, left Him and went no more with Him.

When the psalmist was stumbled and almost overthrown by the mysteriousness of God’s ways, he acknowledged afterwards it was from his folly and ignorance. Psalm 73:22: “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.”

So foolish are men to be deceived about their own faculties and understandings.

B. Men Are Very Apt to Be Deceived About Their Liableness to Mistake

Men are commonly deceived about the strength of their own reason and of the goodness of their own judgments. They are not sensible how apt they are to be misled by prejudice, and to be deceived by false colors and by a partial understanding of things. Man is a creature exceedingly liable to err if left to himself, and that in matters of the greatest moment. But it is a difficult thing to make men sensible of it as to themselves. They are ready enough to be sensible that others are liable to mistake, but not of their own.

Indeed, it is impossible but that men should think that they are in the right in particular judgments they make. But this does not hinder but that men might carry along with them a general sense of that proneness to err, which yet but a few do. And therefore it is that men are so sudden and rash in the judgments which they pass upon things, and this is the reason that men are so confident in many judgments they make. They are very dogmatical and positive in their opinions, and it may be in things in which they are peculiar. They look to their own understanding, and this is a reason that many men, when they once drink in an opinion, nothing will beat them off from it. They will hearken to no reason that can be offered to convince them that they are in error. They make light of the judgment of other folks and think them ridiculous. They despise the reasons that they offer. When once they have set down their foot, there is no moving them.

If men were sensible what very fallible things they are, they would always be open to receive, to hearken to what be offered on the other side, to consider and weigh it impartially. And in many judgments they pass, they would not be so positive. Men would be more cautious how they made and passed their judgments. They would wait till they saw good reason before they fixed. If men were sensible of their own liableness to mistake, they would be more disposed to pray to God for His guidance and illumination, that they might be directed to the truth, like the psalmist in Psalm 25:4-5: “Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.”

C. Men Are Exceeding Apt to Be Deceived About Their Own Actual Knowledge When Compared with the Knowledge of Others

Men are very ready to set themselves very high in their esteem of the knowledge they have obtained. They are ready to imagine themselves to be much wiser than many of their neighbors that are as wise, and it may be wiser than they. Proverbs 26:16: “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.”

This is a reason that many men will not hearken to instructions and counsels of others. They are too wise to be taught.

So men are prone to deceit about their own knowledge compared with the knowledge of God. They are not sensible how much wiser God is than they, and therefore will not hearken to God’s counsels. They choose to be led by their own wisdom. They think they know what is best for themselves, and will choose that which seems best to them rather than what God says is best for them.

D. Men Are Very Apt to Be Deceived About Their Spiritual Blindness

It is a hard thing to persuade men but that they do not have ability within themselves to see and understand the glory of God, and the excellency of Jesus Christ, and the certain truth of the Gospel. They have no eyes to see, but they are not sensible of it. They are ready to imagine that they can see. They hope to bring themselves to it.

Man is naturally perfectly blind to spiritual things. They have no more eyes to see the glory of divine things than a man born blind has eyes to see light and colors. But yet, how few are there that are truly convinced of it? And men are apt to be deceived and to think not only that they can understand spiritual things, but also that they actually do understand the glory of God in Christ when they do not.

2 The Heart of Man Is Exceeding Apt to Be Deceived About Its Own Natural Corruption and Wickedness

The heart of man naturally is exceeding full of wickedness. It is desperately wicked, as it is said in the verse of the text. Men are a generation of vipers. Matthew 3:7: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” The poison of the wicked is as the poison of a serpent. Psalm 58:4: “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.”

But men are very inept to be sensible of it. They do not think themselves so vile and wicked. They do not see any such fountain of corruption in their hearts, and they deceive themselves about it in these following respects:

A. They Have Many Principles of Corruption in Their Hearts That They Do Not Think to Be There

All men have all manner of wickedness in their hearts. There is no lust that the heart is without, no kind of wickedness but there is a seed of it. There are a great many strands of wickedness that men do not imagine that they have any principle in them that leads to it. Their wickedness has been restrained from breaking out as it is done in some others, and they think it is not there. They hear of those sins of others, and they think there is no such wickedness in them.

Men oftentimes themselves are left to commit such wickedness that they did not think had been in them to commit. They thought they hated such practices, which they themselves afterwards are guilty of. When Elisha told Hazael of the evil that he should do to the children of Israel—that he would set their strongholds on fire, and kill their young men with the sword, and dash their children, and rip up their women with child—Hazael did not believe that it was in him. He replied, “What is thy servant, a dog, that he should do this thing?” (2 Kings 8:13). But yet afterwards he did it.

Oftentimes, natural men are not sensible that they hate God. They do not see that they have such a principle of enmity against Him, when indeed they have the same kind of hearts towards God as the devil has. And if God should leave them to themselves and restraint should be taken off, they would break out in blasphemy and would appear as God’s avowed enemies.

The Jews in Christ’s time were not sensible that they had any hatred to God. They thought they loved Him, made a great show—but it was evident that they hated Him because they hated Christ, the Son of God. John 15:23: “He that hateth me hateth my Father also.”

Also, the Jews that built the sepulchres of the prophets whom their fathers killed did not imagine they had the same persecuting, cruel principle in their heart. They said, “If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.” (Matthew 23:30). But they had the same spirit in them and were guilty of the same practice, and to a far worse degree. For their fathers persecuted the prophets, but the Jews cruelly and maliciously killed the Son of God. They did much worse than their fathers. So many wicked men in these days may be ready to wonder at the Jews that they should do as they did in killing Christ, and that if they had lived in those days they should not have done so. But they have the very same hearts. The papists now are exceeding superstitious in their pretenses of respect to Christ, and garnishing Christ’s supper, and attending the memorials of His death—but they have the same hearts as the Jews who crucified Christ. Men know not what is in their hearts till God teaches them.

B. Men Are Very Difficultly Made Sensible How Great and Strong the Lusts of Their Hearts Are, and How Much Their Hearts Are Under the Power of Them

Natural men are wholly under the dominion of sin, but are very inapt to be sensible of it. They have nothing that is good in them. They are ready to think that they have many good things, but they are not able to perform one good action, and that they are not sensible of it. They can never, through their own strength, bring themselves to put forth one gracious act. But natural men are apt to be endeavoring of it in their own strength.

Wicked men may be sensible that they have wickedness, but they are hardly made sensible how great their wickedness is and how much they are under the dominion of it. They do not believe now, but they are ready to think that if they had seen Christ work those miracles that are reported of Him, they should believe. But they have the same principle of unbelief that the Jews had, and are as much under the power of it as they that did see those miracles.

They do not believe now, but they think if they should see and talk with one that rose from the dead and came from another world, they should believe. But what says Abraham in the parable? Luke 16:31: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

So men are not easily made sensible what disobedient and rebellious hearts they have. The children of Israel were deceived about their own hearts at Mount Sinai. When Moses rehearsed the words of the law in the ears of the people, they say upon it, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” (Exodus 24:7). But what did God say concerning them and concerning what they had said? We may see an account in Moses’ rehearsal of it to the people: Deuteronomy 5:27-29: “Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it. And the Lord heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!”

Again, the people were very much deceived about their own hearts after they came to Canaan. See Joshua 24:14 and so on. And even the godly are very prone to be deceived in this matter, not to be sensible how great the remainder of corruption in their hearts are. God sometimes leaves them that they may know what is in their heart. So it is said of Hezekiah that God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. 2 Chronicles 32:31.

Peter was not sensible what was in his heart when, upon Christ saying to His disciples that all of them should be offended because of Him that night, he answered, “Though all men should be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” And when told that he should deny Christ, he said, “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.” (Matthew 26:33-35).

Young converts, especially, oftentimes are insensible how great the remainders of sin are in them. While they are affected with their first discoveries, they have their minds very much taken up about spiritual things, and it seems to them that they are quite weaned from the world. But they do not imagine what a worldly spirit there is that yet remains. While they are in their first gracious affections, they wonder, it may be, that others should be so proud, that they should be so contentious, and that they should have so much a spirit of ill will towards their neighbors. They do not imagine what a dreadful pride and what a spirit of malice, envy, and revenge yet lurks in their own hearts.

C. Men Are Very Prone to Be Deceived to Think That the Things Which Are Ill Principles in Their Hearts Are Not So

It is a common thing that men have many habits and dispositions that are prevalent in their hearts that are very ill, and that appear ill to others, that yet do not appear ill to them. They think them to be lawful, in no way to be condemned. They will plead for them as lawful in their own thoughts, to their own consciences, and sometimes put evil for good and good for evil, darkness for light and light for darkness.

Men are apt to do thus even about the worst dispositions. They are under the prevalency of a disposition that others call pride, and that is indeed so, but they think it is not pride, but accounted only a suitable and regular regard to their own just and due honor. They are under the prevalency of envy, a spirit—but they do not think it is envy. So they are under the prevalency of revenge, but they account it no more than just resentment of the injuries they have suffered. They are of a very covetous spirit, which makes them excessively anxious about their worldly profits and an exceeding saving—but they think it is no more than a prudent care to provide for themselves and families, and a becoming frugality to save their estates. Or it may be they are under the prevalency of an sensual disposition, but they judge that it is no more than the regular exercise of the natural appetite that belongs to human nature.

The heart is desperately deceitful in those things. The world is full of such kind of deceit as this. Men do not esteem those things vicious in them that are mere wickedness, and such things that justly make them odious in the sight of God and man. As if men are convinced so far that their dispositions are something blameworthy, yet they are greatly deceived as to the degree of the badness of those dispositions.

3 The Heart Is Deceitful About Its Own Acts

It is deceitful about the agreement of their actions as to the match of them with the rule. Men will strain rules, rest them, use false interpretations. They will do anything with rules to make their actions and rules to suit. They will ignore rules of natural justice, rules of God’s Word. Even the plainest rules will not hold men. Such as do by others as they would have them do by them, the principles and ends of their actions should be from a gracious respect to God, love to their neighbors, and they should do such a thing for God’s glory. They mistake as to the degree of influence the different ends have.

Application

1 Do Not Trust Your Own Heart

Labor to get a sense of the deceitfulness of your own heart. When you find yourself ready to entertain a high thought of your own wisdom and knowledge, consider how prone the heart of man is to be deceived in this manner. And when you find yourself ready to doubt of the mysteries that are revealed in God’s Word (i.e., the Trinity, God’s decrees), consider how unreasonable it is to imagine that there should be nothing in God or in His ways above your knowledge. Consider that it may be your doubting all the while is only from a foolish, deceived conceitedness of your own wisdom and understanding.

And when you take up any opinion and are ready to wax positive, if you would do the part of a wise man, maintain a jealous eye over your own heart and endeavor to keep it in exercise in a sense of your own liableness to mistake. How apt man is to be positive, and not in a foolish self-confidence shut your eyes against light! Be open always to conviction of a mistake. Be ready to receive counsel and learn the truth from anyone, in a sense of your own darkness and exceeding fallibility, and distrusting your own wisdom. Seek to God to lead and instruct you. Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Do not trust your own heart with respect to the apprehension you are ready to have of your own dispositions or actions. When you appear amiable in your own sight and are ready to plead for and excuse these and those things in yourself, still let the thought be present with you that persons are exceeding apt to be deceived in such manners, and that there is no reason to think that your heart is not prone to err this way as well as others. Maintain a jealousy and suspicion of yourself.

When you are pursuing the world and laboring to enrich yourself, lest you should serve the lust of covetousness and an inordinate thirst after earthly things and not know it, do not trust your own heart. And in any contention or difference that may be between you and your neighbor, but be jealous of it and watch it narrowly, lest you should give way to malice and be deceived about it and think it is something else. Be always at such times upon the search, and be ready to listen to searching sermons. If you have a distrust of your own heart as it becomes you to have, you will be glad to be searched, lest you should mistake evil for good and good for evil, and put dark for light and light for darkness.

Do not trust to the stability of your own heart. It is a very foolish thing so to do. Proverbs 28:26: “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.”

Do not put off anything that your hand finds to do. Trust not to your own purposes and resolutions of what you will do hereafter. The best way, if you would be upon any certainty about the matter, is immediately to set about it and do it with your might. And when you have drawn up resolutions, teach your heart to keep a guard, lest you lose them.

Do not trust your own heart in the judgment which you make of your own state, but remember how often persons are deceived here.

To enforce this advice—if not, trust in your own heart—I will desire you to consider how dangerous this deceit of the heart is.

Being deceived about your own knowledge is a foundation of unbelief, blasphemy, and refusing counsel, and is an obstacle to divine light. Christ came that those that see not might see, and that those that see might be made blind. John 9:39.

It is a necessity that men may be sensible of their own blindness. Men must become fools that they may be wise. 1 Corinthians 3:19.

So in the deceitfulness of the heart about natural corruption, it is of necessity that men see that they are deceived by their own hearts.

About actions, there is a woe denounced against them that call evil good. Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

It is a fatal thing to trust to the constancy of the heart. Many thousands have this way perished.

So it is a very fatal thing for men to imagine themselves to be something when they are nothing. Such men are never like to be converted. Galatians 6:3: “If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” That is, he elevates himself, he promotes himself to heaven, but is never like to obtain it, but takes an effectual course to prevent his going to heaven, so that he deludes his own soul. Men, by the deceitfulness of their own hearts, are caught like a bird in a snare of the fowler, and they catch and ensnare themselves. Their hearts cheat and ensnare them. Their souls are the bird that is caught, and they themselves are the fowler that spreads the snare. If you trust your own heart, your own heart will deceive you, and your own heart will undo you. Job 15:31: “Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.”

2 Particularly to Exhort You to Take the Greatest Care That You Be Not Deceived About Your Condition

Consider that, besides the deceitfulness of your own hearts, there is a devil that, with all his craft and subtlety, labors to deceive you. He is the most subtle deceiver that ever was.

I conclude with some directions to you that you may avoid being deceived about the condition of your souls.

A. Be Exceedingly Careful How You First Establish a Hope

You that have not as yet established one: persons are ready suddenly to drop a conclusion that they are converted when they have experienced anything remarkable, or if they tell their experiences and they perceive that others have hopes of them, they at once conclude they are in the right and settle it that it is certainly so, that they have passed from death to life.

This is a matter that ought to be determined with the utmost caution. For when once men have embraced such an opinion of themselves that they are converted, it is an exceedingly difficult thing for them to lay it down again. There are scarcely any two things more difficultly parted than the hypocrite and his hope. If men throw it by for a little while, they will take it up again. And some, it may be, when old, it will be a vast disadvantage. Ordinary, I would advise not to settle in hope merely from the experience of a few minutes or an hour, but to wait till it be found that there is an habitual change, a change of nature and heart, that appears in a course of experiences and acts. If this method were taken, it is probable there would be fewer persons deceived with common illuminations and transient affections.

It is advisable, therefore, for persons not fully to depend upon their experience, though there be a fair appearance and it looks very hopeful, nor fully to establish in hope from the judgment of others, till they have themselves thoroughly searched and examined their own hearts by the rules of God’s Word.

B. Ordinarily, It Is Best Never to Leave Off Searching Your Own Hearts

Regardless of what appearances soever you have, though you think you have had a very clear work and great discoveries, self-examination and caution in this manner are duties that belong to all Christians ordinarily as long as they live.

The great saints that we read of in Scripture have used it. The psalmist, he begged of God once and again that He would search him and prove him. The Apostle Paul used caution and care, lest after he had preached to others, he himself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:27: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

If persons make this the duty of their lives, and use prayer with it that God would search them and make known their state to them, it is the likeliest way. Those that are always praying and searching, they are much more likely sometime or other to have the true state of their souls discovered to them. And if they are upon a wrong foundation, to have it discovered to them. God will probably at sometime or other let in the light. If you are confident, yet it is best to search your souls. Many hypocrites are very confident. And if you have true assurance, this will be the way to have it more confidently and fixedly.

C. Never Leave Off Seeking Grace

If you have obtained grace, yet seek it as earnestly as though you had not obtained it. The Apostle Paul, though so great a saint, did so. And he did so for this end: that he might be sure of obtaining eternal life, that he might be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, that he might know Him in the power of His resurrection, and that by any means he might obtain the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:8-11. That is one principal reason why being deceived in this manner is so fatal: that when persons think themselves already converted and upon false grounds, it is commonly this influence upon them to make them leave off seeking grace.

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