Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? The ancients supposed the soul to reside in the heart; and when they spake of the heart, they meant the soul which resided there. In the passage before us the prophet means the thoughts, the will, the desires, the affections of the soul of man. I. THE INCONSTANCY OF THE HEART. To a certain extent, the inconstancy of the heart is perhaps natural and unavoidable. Everything around us is shifting, changing. Our judgment, our views, our feelings, our passions seem subject to perpetual vicissitude. A good resolution has been formed; but the fervour has soon abated; and the poor heart, which loves to change, has but too quickly followed its natural inclination. This propensity may be referred, in a measure, to the union of the soul with the body. But the chief reason is to be found in the darkness and uncertainty of the mind as to its real good. II. THE UNFAITHFULNESS OF THE HEART. Eagerly do we make promises in the hour of affliction — but we forget them in prosperity! In sickness we have made a thousand resolutions — in health, we have forgotten them all! III. THE SELF-LOVE WHICH OUR HEARTS EXHIBIT. Here a man is full of what he calls zeal for religion, and sees not that his supposed zeal for religion is only zeal for his own party, and that it is only exercised from a wish to gain attention and respect from men. Another is full of zeal for correctness of opinion and sees not that it is the manifestation of unholy passions. But oh, who can say by how many various methods men cover themselves from themselves! IV. THE ILLUSIONS THE HEART IS CAPABLE OF PRACTISING ON ITSELF. It imposes on the understanding: it embellishes the scene around: it arrays every object in deceptive charms. The interest of man sways his understanding, and every object assumes a different shape and colour. And is it not so in religion? (T. F. Denham.) 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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