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


In a vessel filled with muddy water the thickness visibly subsided to the bottom, and left the water purer and purer until it became perfectly limpid. The slightest motion, however, brought the sediment again to the top; and the water became thick and turbid as before. "Here," said Gotthold, when he saw it, "we have an emblem of the human heart. The heart is full of the mud of sinful lusts and carnal desires; and the consequence is, that no pure water — good holy thoughts — can flow from it. Many a one, however, is deceived by it, and never imagines his heart half so wicked as it really is, because sometimes its lusts are at rest, and sink to the bottom. But this lasts only so long as he is without opportunity or incitement to sin. Let that occur, and worldly lusts rise so thick that his whole thoughts, words, and works show no trace of anything but impurity."



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?




The Heart's Deceitfulness Towards Itself
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