Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?… I. THE HEART IS DECEITFUL. 1. The heart denotes the inner man, his thoughts, his will, his inclinations, and his affections; or the human soul with its faculties and operations. (1) It is deceitful with relation to God; for we often promise Him what we do not perform, and endeavour to put Him off with external homage, and with a partial obedience. (2) It is deceitful with respect to other men; we industriously conceal from them what passeth within us, and is not fit to show itself openly, and we study to cheat them with false appearances. (3) It is deceitful with regard to ourselves; and our passions often delude us, pervert our judgment, and impose upon our reason. 2. Many causes may be assigned for it. (1) We are changeable by that connection which the soul hath with the body, and with the state of the body which is subject to perpetual alterations. (2) We are inconstant on account of the connection that we have with external objects by our senses. Everything that presents itself before us makes an impression upon the mind. The manners, the opinions, and the passions of those with whom we often converse have no small influence upon us. They work upon our imagination, and produce the like dispositions in us which we behold in them. (3) Another cause of inconstancy is from the soul itself in its present situation; it loves novelty and variety. II. THE HEART OF MAN IS DESPERATELY WICKED. To be sensible how men in general are depraved, we need only consult history, and consider the common state of the world. These will give us a hideous representation of human disorders and iniquities, both public and private, national and personal. The desperate wickedness of many is such, that nothing but rigour, nothing but jails and gibbets can keep civil society in tolerable order. Who can number up the sins which men are perpetually committing? and all these proceed from an evil heart, as our Saviour says. To give some check to this inundation of evil, the providence of God hath provided various remedies; as the voice of conscience, the advantages of education, the instructions of the wise, the assistance of human laws, the example of the good, the desire of reputation, the fear of infamy, the light of reason, the profitableness of virtue, the pernicious nature of vice, and, lastly, the revealed Word of God. Yet, notwithstanding these correctives, we see and feel how moral evil abounds, even where the Gospel is professed. III. THE HEART OF MAN IS INSCRUTABLE. Who can know it? says the prophet. That is; No man can know it; or rather, It is no easy matter to know it. There is a general knowledge which we have of the human heart, and a way of judging concerning it, which in the main is tolerably sure. The tree, says our Lord, is known by the fruits; and, in like manner, the heart is known by the actions. When a man's behaviour is vile, and his conversation profane, we may pronounce his heart to be bad; and we are not obliged to put out our own eyes, and renounce our own senses, and to call evil good, and good evil, rather than to censure such a person, or entertain a bad opinion of him. Yet in judging of others much caution and candour are requisite. But the discernment which each person should have of his own heart is the most important. And here one would think that such skill is easily acquired, and doth in a manner obtrude itself upon us. And yet it is certain that in a religious sense it is often hard to know one's self. There are two sorts of self-knowledge, the one a knowledge of feeling and perceiving, the other a knowledge of reflection and discernment. As to the first, we all of us have it without question. It informs us only of what we are thinking or doing, but not of the nature, causes, and effects of our thoughts and deeds. As to the second and true kind of self-knowledge, which is the result of consideration and examination, we have it seldom, and we cannot acquire it without attention and care. It is strange how little we know practically either of our body, or of our understanding, or our heart. As to the body, its defects are usually overlooked by us, unless they be very remarkable, or painful. As to our understanding, we flatter ourselves that we have a due share of it, and observe how deficient our neighbours are in that respect; how one is stupid and silly, another ignorant, a third prejudiced, injudicious, and conceited. Thus he who hath a wrong judgment and a heated imagination decides upon every point with more confidence than persons of a far greater capacity. He who is rough, peevish, and intractable, knows nothing of it, whilst others can hardly tell how to bear with him. So true it is that we know not ourselves. A man owns himself guilty of this or that fault, but, however, he says that his heart is good and honest at the bottom. Weak illusion I since it is from the evil which lurks in the heart that these irregular actions proceed. The difficulty of knowing our hearts appears from those repeated commands in Scripture to consider and search our ways. And, indeed, it is no small task to review our knowledge, our opinions, our judgments, and our beliefs; to recollect our past actions, and the use which we have made of God's blessings, and to compare our practice with our duty. This difficulty also appears from the character which God gives to Himself, that He alone is the searcher of hearts. But observe that God, when He calls Himself the searcher of hearts, means two things; that He alone knows the hearts of all creatures, and that He alone knows them without any mixture of error. We know but little of the heart of other men, and, therefore, should be cautious in judging of them; and as to our own, though we shahs never know it exactly, with all our endeavours, yet as far as we can, we are obliged to acquaint ourselves with it. Inferences — 1. We should entertain a sober diffidence of ourselves. 2. We should not be much surprised or concerned when men use us ill, or disappoint us. We cannot rely upon ourselves, much less upon others. 3. We should take care to give good principles and a good example to those young persons whom Divine or human laws have placed under our guidance and protection. 4. We should be ready to confess our offences to God, and be as strict in censuring our own defects as we often are in condemning those of others. 5. Since the heart of man is deep and close, we should betimes endeavour to get acquainted with our own. But if it be hard to know ourselves, how can we acquire such skill in a tolerable degree? By humility and consideration, by consulting the Holy Scripture, that lamp of God which will give us light in searching into the recesses of the heart; and by imploring the Divine assistance. (J. Jortin, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?WEB: The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? |
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