Deceitfulness of the Heart
By Scott
Selected for Review by A. C. H. Deceitfulness of the Heart.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”—Jer. xvii, 9, 10. The heart here means the dispositions and desires, the result of the understanding, will and affection, reciprocally influencing each other, “The heart,” not of this or that man, but of fallen men in general, is declared to be deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Every man is naturally disposed to dissimulation, self-flattery, and hypocrisy, in an inconceivable degree; every man is liable to be imposed upon by his own heart; and this deceitfulness is more dangerous to him, than any external artifice and deceit. The pride of the heart leads men to form false estimates of their own real and comparative character and conduct, and to think far better and more highly of themselves than they ought. The love of the pleasure and profit, resulting from the favorite sin, betrays every man into deception respecting its criminality, and his own guilt and danger; his understanding is thus bribed to frame excuses and palliations of it; he is led to call it by some soft name, and his conscience is thus seduced into connivance. The enmity of the heart to the holiness of God, and his righteous sovereignty, betrays men, in a variety of ways, into fallacious reasonings about his perfections, and their obligations to him, against the divine original of the sacred scripture, or against its obvious meaning; against the strict and spiritual precepts and awful sanctions of the law; against the humbling doctrines of the gospel or their holy tendency; and against the measure, rule, and consequences of the future Judgment. To this deceitfulness of the heart, all partial and erroneous decisions of the conscience are, in a great measure, to be ascribed; with the self-preference, which is universal in all uncon<span></span>verted men; and alas, remains, and exerts its influence, though it does not reign, even in the converted. The irrational propensity of the most atrocious criminals to palliate their vices, and to value themselves on some imagined virtues, or exemptions from this or other vice; and the gross absurdity of men's boasting of the goodness of their hearts, when forced to allow the wickedness of their lives; though they must be conscious, that their wicked inclinations and imaginations have been, and are, immensely more numerous than their actual sins; spring from the same source. Hence also originates the universal propensity of men to be confident in hasty resolutions of amendment, under sudden terrors or pangs of conscience, or when the near prospect of death affrights them, though they have found them as changeable as the wind, in all former instances. In a word (for the detail would be endless) the deceitfulness of the heart is the only cause, that any man doubts of its being “desperately wicked,” and capable of every kind and degree of impiety, iniquity, enmity, cruelty, or sensuality, which ever was committed, or can be conceived. For the history of the world and of the church, yea, universal experience and observation, demonstrate, that the heart of every man is naturally so wicked, that were he left wholly to himself, in suitable circumstances of temptation, and gradual seduction from one thing to another, by the artifice of Satan, he is capable of committing any crime, which ever was perpetrated on earth, and with every possible aggravation. But like an artful villain, who conceals, that he may the more certainly perpetrate his base purposes, “the heart is so deceitful in its desperate wickedness,” that it is wholly unsuspected by most men respecting themselves; even though they are aware of the artfulness and sinfulness of other men, and suspicious of them to excess. But he, who believes the testimony of God, learns to watch his own heart, as he would a servant, who, he was credibly assured, was a concealed robber or thief; and he will in a course of years, and by a variety of painful experiences, comparing what passes in his mind with the divine law, and praying to be taught of God to know himself, infallibly learn the truth of this harsh and offensive decision, in his own case. He will perceive that this is the exact picture of his own heart; and hence he will deduce many most important instructions to direct his conduct: But no man can penetrate to the depth of this desperate evil. The more the subject is studied the worse the heart of man will appear; yet much must remain unknown, both in our hearts, and in the hearts of others, which could only be discovered by our actually being placed, in all the infinite variety of possible circumstances and temptations. As this cannot be done with any man, nor the result be made fully known to a finite understanding; so God alone, who knows entirely, and searches thoroughly, the heart of man, is perfectly acquainted with the extent of its desperate wickedness. And he proves and tries men's actions, to bring forth into practice what he sees in the heart, whether of sin which is naturally there, or of the grace which he has communicated; that his decisions may appear to his creatures, (what they uniformly are in themselves) the result of infinite justice, wisdom, truth and mercy.—Scott.