O reader ! if thy heart were right with God, and thou didst not cheat thyself with a vain profession, thou wouldst have frequent busi- .ness with God, which thou wouldst be loth thy dearest friend, or the wife of thy bosom should be pi'ivy to : JVon est religio uhi omnia patent ; religion doth not lay all open to the eyes of men. Observed duties maintain our credit, but secret duties maintain our life. It was the saying of an heathen about his secret correspondence with his friends, what need the world be acquainted with it ? " Thou and I are theatre enough to each other/' There are inclosed pleasures in religion which none but renewed souls do feelingly understand.
6 Lastly, How manv more profess religion in these days, than ever made religion their business ! Philosophy tells us, there is a ^0 jp^ovand a ro Taosoyov, a main business; and a by-business: the same is found in religion also.
There are " that give themselves to the Lord,'' 2 Cor. viii. 5. whose conversation, or trade, is in heaven, Phil. iii. 18. the end or scope of whose life is Christ, Heb. xiii. 7, 8. who give rehgion the precedency both in time and affection. Psalm v. 3. Rom. xii. 11. who are constant and indefatigable in the work of the Lord, 1 Cor. 7.V. 58.
And there are also that take up religion rather for ostentation than for au occupation, who never mind the duties of religion, but when
CAtrSES OF SELF-DECEIT. 521
thev have nothing else to do ; and when their outward man is engaged in the duties of it, yet their heart is not in it; they hear, they pray, »?3s '^i^X'' ^5^' ^^ Chrysostom speaks, but their souls, their thoughts and minds are abroad. It is not their business to have fel- lowship with God in duties, to get their lusts mortified, their hearts tried, their souls conformed to the image of God in holiness.
They pray as if they prayed not, and hear as if they heard not ; and if they feel no power in ordinances, no quickening in duties, it is no disappointment at all to them ; for these were not their designs in drawing nigh to God in these appointments.
And thus you see what numbers of professors deceive themselves.
j^ND if we seriously enquire into the grounds and causes of this self-deceit among professors, we shall find these four things con- spiring to delude and cheat them in the great concern of their sal- vation.
1. Firsts The natural deceitfulness of the heart, than which no- thing is more treacherous, and false, Jer. xvii. 9. " The heart is de- ceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;"'* ibn ^3)3 ipir Supplantativum cor, prcc omnibus ; the heart is the greatest sup- planter, the most crafty and subtle cheat of all, that deceives us, as Jacob did his brother (to whose name this text alludes.) It de- feats us of our heavenly heritage, as Jacob supplanted him in his earthly one, while we are gone a hunting after earthly trifles. And wherein its deceitfulness principally appears, you may see by the solemn caveat of the apostle, James i. 22. wherein he warns us to beware, that in hearing the word we deceive not ourselves by false reasonings ; for so 'ra|a?.07/^()/y,gvo/ ia-jrag imports, and may be strictly rendered, false reasoning themselves, namely, by making false syllo- gisms ; whereby they misconclude about their spiritual and eternal estate and condition, and befool themselves.
The time will come when a man's own heart will be found to have the chief hand in his ruin ; and what Apollodorus did but fancy his heart said to him, some men's hearts will tell them in earnest, when they come to the place of misery and torment ; syw cot rovruv a/r/a, I have been the cause of all these, I have betrayed thee into all these tor- ments : it was my laziness, my cred ulity, my averseness to the wavs of strict godliness, mortification and self-denial which have forever undone thee ; when thou sattest under the convincing truths of the gospel, it was I that whispered those atheistical surmises into thine ear, persuading thee that all thou heardest was but the intemperate heat of an hot-brained zealot ; when the judgments of God were de- nounced, and the misery thou now feelest forewarned and threaten-
5252 CAUSES OF S-ELF-DECEIT.
ed, it was I that whispered what the tongue of another once spake out, Tunc credam, cum illuc venero: I willbeUeveit when I come thither.
Surely this is a great truth which was observed by the wisest of men, " He that trusteth in his own heart, is a fool,'' Prov. xxviii. 26. And thousands of such fools are to be found among professors. 2. Secondly, Satan is a chief conspirator in this treacherous design ; we are not 'ignorant (saith the apostle) of Ms devices ; voj^/xa-ra, his so- phistry and slights, 2 Cor. ii. 11. his /j.i%diag, trains and methods of temptation, which are thoroughly studied and artificially mould- ed and ordered ; even such systems as tutors and professors of arts and sciences have, and read over to their auditors ; as * one judi- ciously observes, to be the import of that text, Eph. vi. 11. Nor is it to be wondered at, considering his vast knowledge, deep malice, and long experience in this art of cheating, together with the great corruption and proneness of the hearts of men to close with his de- vices, and believe his impostures, that so vast a number of souls are taken " captive by him at his will," 2 Tim. ii. 26.
It is the god of this w^orld that blinds the minds of them that be- lieve not, 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. " The god of this world," (so called by a Mimesis) who leads a world of poor deluded wretches to destruction, having first blinded their miiids, that is, deluded, and with his hellish art practised upon their understanding, that to rr/i/Mvr/,ov, leading and directive faculty, which is to the soul what eyes are to the body.
I remember Basil brings in Satan thus insulting Christ : I have them ! I have them ! for all thy blood and miracles, thy wooings and beseechings, thy knockings and strivings, I have cozened thee of them at the very gates of heaven : for all their illuminations, and tasting of the powers of the world to come, I have shipwrecked them in the very mouth of the haven.