The Mystery of Self-Deceiving, Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX.
Of the deceit of the heart in that which it promiseth-to vsus.
WE are now to proceede on to the third head 3. In promising.of deceitfulnesse, which is in promising: And that is either to our selues, or to God.
To our selues we deceitfully promise many things
1. Pleasure, profit, and the sweetnesse of both in sinne; but in the ende in stead heereof (so faithful are 1. to our selues. 1. pleasure in sinne.our hearts of their words) we finde nothing but gall, and wormewood, shame in the worlde, confusion & horror in our owne consciences. Whence that question; What fruit hauehave ye in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? as if he should hauehave sayd. Your hearts promised you much fruit of pleasure and contentment Rom. 6. 21.in sinne. Alas where is it? ye find now nothing but shame. So true is that of Salomon. The righteous Pro. 12. 26. 27is more excellent then his neighbour: but the way of the wicked deceiues them. They think themselues farre better then the righteous. And so they were indeed, if they could find that felicity in their wicked waies which their deceitfull hearts promise: but this they doe not. Their way deceiues them, as hee shewes in the next verse. The deceitfull man (though when hee went about to steale his venison promised much mirth and cheere to himselfe, yet he comes short of his reckoning) he shal not so much as rost that he tooke in the hunting. In couetousnesse, what happinesse doth the heart promise it selfe in gaine though neuer so vnlawfull, and vnrighteous. But how deceitfully, many examples can witnesse. What got Ananias and Zaphira, by reseruing to themselues sacrilegiously the Churches goods, but a shamefull and ignominious death? No more did Balaam, when hope of gaine, and the large promises of the King, made him blindly, and boldly rush vponupon the Angels sword. Whence the Scripture, vseth that phrase of the Deceit of Balaams wages. What got Gehezi Iude 11.by taking vp that good morsell, as he thought, which his Master so vnwisely, in his conceit, let goe beside his lippes? nothing but a leprosie? Did not Achans Babilonish garment bring the stones about his eares? and Iudas thirty peeces of siluer the halter about his necke? Excellent Salomon, The bread of deceit, seemeth pleasant to a man: but afterward his mouth is filled with grauell. There are some meats, which are very pleasant in the mouth, and it is delightful to holde, and rolle them there, but after once they are swallowed downe, with the fish we feele the hooke sticking in our iawes; beeing in the stomacke they make vsus wondrous sicke, so that wee cannot be well till the stomacke hauehave disgorged it selfe. This is the similitude wherby Zophar in Iob, doth most elegantly represent vntounto vsus the deceitfulnes of that pleasure the couetous promise themselues in the gaine of vnrighteousnesse. Wickednesse was sweet in his mouth, and hee hid it vnderunder his toung and kept it close in his Iob. 20. 12. 13. 14. 15. explaned.mouth, rolling it about as a peece of sugar. But what? was it so sweet in his bellie too? No; His meat in his bowels was turned, it became the gall of Aspes in the middes of him. He hath deuoured substance, and hee shall vomit it. God shall draw it out of his bellie. And thus in the Gospell, are pleasures well called thornes, not onelyonly for choaking the worde, but also for pricking, and wounding the conscience with true sorrow, in stead of that false and flattering delight which wee expected. As it is thus in couetousnesse, so in ambition and all other sinnes. Did not Adam and Eue promise vntounto themselues in the eating of the forbidden tree, the glory of the godhead? For what else meaneth that bitter scoffe, and salt sarcasme of the Lord, Behold man is become as one of vsus. But what Gen. 3 22.was the issue? Moses tels vsus. Then were their eies opened, and they saw their nakednesse, they saw how they were mocked, how for the mines of golde, they had met with cole-pits, nay for heauen, with hell, for a throne of glory, with the dunghill of ignominy. In Pro thesauro Carbones. Rom, 7. 11.this regard the Apostle saith that sinne deceiued him, because of this deceitful promise or his heart concerning sinne. And for the same reason hee calleth the lusts of the flesh, the deceiueable lusts of olde Adam; Ephes, 4. 22. Prou. 23. 3.in the same sense, that Salomon calls the rulers meat a deceiueable meat: Because wee promise such great matters of ioy, and delight to our selues in our sinnes, the contrary whereof afterward our owne wofull experience teacheth vsus. For sinne imbraces vsus indeede, but it is like the serpent. Together with the imbrace it mortally stings vsus. Beleeue wee not then these inchanting songs, and faire promises. We Quos Aegyp… Philicta… vocāt. In hoc amplectūtur vt strangulent. Sen. ep. 52.shall smart for our credulity afterward. Sinne that lay quiet before, like a sleeping dog, will afterward awake, and flye in our throats, & of a friendly perswader it will turne a most vehement accuser. The promised pleasure shall vanish with the very act of the sinne, and then comes the sting of the guilt. After Perfecto demū scelere, eius magnitudo intelligitur. Tacit. 2. Enioyment of outward things.the sinne is throughly done shall wee perceiue the heynousnesse thereof.
II. Wee deceitfully promise to our selues the enioyment of many outward blessings, which yet wee neuer get. Thus Saul promised himselfe victory ouer Dauid, beeing shut vp in Keilah, The Lord saith he, hath deliuered him into my hand. So also did the 1. Sam, 23. 7.Iebusites triumph against Dauid, as though they had bene sure enough for euer being ouercome by him. 2. Sam. 5. 6.This deceit we may see in the craking of Goliah, and Senacherib, who had in their presuming hope, got the victorie of their aduersaries before the conflict, and so putting on the harnesse gloried as those, that put it off. And we may easily discerne it in our selues, who too too easily beleeuing such things as wee desire should come to passe, do often make our selues sure of them, when yet in the ende wee come short of them. Heerein deceiuing our selues, as the Diuell would hauehave deceiued our Sauiour. All these things will I giuegive thee, saith he, which yet were not in his power to giuegive. No more are any of the least of these things in our hands which wee so confidently assure to our selues. And therefore to this deceit oppose we Salomons counsell, Boast not of to morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring foorth. Many things fal out betwixt the cup and the lip, insomuch that oftentimes we enioy not those things which euen Deut. 28, 30.almost we hauehave in our hands.
III. Our hearts deceiue vsus in promising, I know 3. Happinesse in inioyment.not what contentment and happinesse in the fruition of these outward blessings, when yet the euent answereth not our expectation. O saith the deceitfull heart of man, if I might hauehave this or that which I desire, so much liuing, such or such an office, or preferment, how comfortable and solatious a life should I lead? well, when he hath his wish, it fareth with him almost, as with the Israelits in their quales. He findeth more vanity and vexation of spirit, in the presence, then he did before in the want of this his so much desired good. Hence also that phrase of the deceitfulnesse of riches, because they do not perform that which our hearts promise vsus concerning them. In the same regard all worldly honours are called lies by Dauid, O ye sonnes of men, how long will ye follow after lies? The lye indeed is in our own false harts. Psalm. 4, 2. expounded.We make them lyers, in that we promise such great matters to our selues of them. Whereas in end the leaning staffe becomes a knocking cudgell, & the prop to sustaine vsus, like the Aegyptian reede proues a pricke to pierce and paine vsus, and as Iob complaines of his friends, all these matters which we thought would hauehave beene vnemptiable fountaines of comfort, deceiue vsus like a brooke, whose waters faile in the sommer, Iob. 9.when we hauehave greatest vse of them. Thus Eue promised her selfe great matters in Cain, and he was the man obtained as a speciall blessing of the Lord, and his brother was called Habell, vanity, as beeing no body in regard of him. But afterward this her son, on whom she so much doted, proued a very thorne in her side, and pricke in her eye. So concerning Elkanah, it is noted that hee loued Hannah more then his other wife, promising no doubt greater matter of comfort to himselfe in her, then in the other. But what followed? He loued her, saith the Prophet, and the Lord made her barren. Marke the coniunction of 1. Sam. 1. 5. If any would rather hauehave, (And) in this place to bee a rationall particle, shewing that he therefore loued his wife because of her crosse in barrennesse crauing his pitie; I striue not. Luc. 12. 19. 20.his louing her, and Gods making of her barren. So shall it bee in all such earthly creatures, whereunto we cleaue inordinately, falsly promising ioy to our selues in their vse. God, in his iust iudgement, shall make them barren, so that they shall not yeelde vsus a quarter of that comfort, or benefit, which we expected. The rich foole hee promised himselfe a little heauen in his riches. Soule take thine ease, &c. But alas how soone did God disease him? O foole, this night shall they take away thy soule, and where then is thine ease? The reason of this deceit is, for that we, in our expectation of these outward things, before they come, apprehend onelyonly the good, and the sweet abstracted from the soure, the pleasure, diuided from the paine: but, in the fruition, wee feele both, yea more of the soure, then of the sweete. And hence it comes to passe, that nothing pleaseth vsus so well in Nihil aequè ad ep tis et concupiscentibus gratū. Plin.the fruition, as in the expectation. Nay nothing almost which pleased vsus when hoped for, but does more displease vsus when had. Nothing I meane of these temporalls, whereof now we speake. For as for eternalls, they are more loued of vsus, when possessed, Quae mereri optauimus, vbi meruerimus abdicamus. Amb.then when desired. For it is impossible for any man to imagine, or conceiue of a greater happines, then that which they hauehave in themselues, that so hauing them he should begin to despise them, finding lesse, then he looked for before he had them. Nay our opinion doth not so much runne ouer in conceiuing of temporalls, as it comes short in the apprehension of eternalls.
IIII. Our hearts deceiue vsus in promising vntounto vsus 4. Freedome from iudgement, & hope of heauen in sinne.both freedome from Gods iudgements in sinne, and the fruition of his mercies in the neglect of obedience. In the one, cunningly separating the ende from the meanes, hell, damnation, iudgment from sinne; and in the other the meanes from the ende, holinesse, righteousnesse, from saluation: telling vsus, wee may enioy the end without the meanes, glory without grace, a plentifull haruest without seede sowen. As the Diuell would hauehave deceiued our Sauiour, promising him safe descent from the temple without going downe by the staires: so heere would our hearts deceiue vsus promising a sure ascent vp into heauen without going vp by the staires of the workes of obedience. A fearefull thing it is to see men goe on boldly in their sins, and yet as boldly to promise heauen to themselues. O foolish sot, who hath thus bewitched thee to thinke, that after thou hast begunne and continued in sinne, thou shalt end in glory, that after thou hast liued many yeeres heere in this world, and done nothing but shamefully dishonoured that God which made thee, with thy filthy beastly life full of all impuritie, that yet in the end God wil honor thee with the glory of his Saints. Bee not deceiued saith Paul. Neither fornicatours, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor wantons nor buggerers, &c. shall inherit the kingdome of God.
And S. Peter tells vsus that God hath called vsus vntounto 2. Pet. 1. 3.glory and vertue. To glorie, as the ende, to vertue as the way leading vsus thereunto. Neuer then looke for glory, but in the way of vertue. God hath chained these two faster together then that they should bee seuered. So also hath hee sinne and shame. And yet how many are there, like that man that Moses Deut. 29. 19.speakes of, who when hee heares the curses of the Law read, yet blesseth himselfe in his heart, saying, I shall hauehave peace, although I walke according to the stubbornnesse of my heart? When the ministers of the word threaten in the name of God, his iudgements against sinne, are there not, who say in their hearts, Tush these are but skar-crowes? God means no such matter, this is but a pollicie to keepe men in awe. These are such as the Prophet saies hauehave made a couenant with hell, and death, and the rest of Gods iudgements. How could a couenant, will some say, be made with hell. Truly, true couenant can there Es. 28. 15.be none; but only the deceitfull heart of man perswades it selfe of a couenant, and so bears vsus in hand that wee shall bee past by vntouched, whatsoeuer scourges come. We may see an example of this in Eue; who rehearsing Gods commandement and threatning to the serpent, began to minse it with a peraduenture, Least peraduenture ye dye, when God See Iunius in Gen. 3. 3.absolutely and resolutely had saide, In dying ye shall dye. So they in Ieremy wicked & impenitent wretches yet flatter themselues in hope of mercy, It may Ier. 21. 2.be the Lord will do according to al his wondrous works. God threatened Ahab to roote out his house: yet he promised himselfe the establishment of his house. And thereupon so followed the worke of generation that he left seuenty sonnes behinde him. 2, Kings 10. 1.
V. Our harts deceiue vsus in promising a setled and immoueable continuance of our outward prosperitie. 5. Continuance of prosperity. Obad. 3.This was Edoms deceit, to whom the Prophet thus speaketh, The pride of thine heart hath deceiued thee, Thou that dwellest in the clifts of the rocke, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart, who shall bring me downe to the ground? This deceit was in her that said, I sit as a Queene, and shall feele no sorrowes. Yea the godly themselues are subiect to this delusion: as Dauid, when in his prosperity hee sayd hee should neuer be moued, and Iob when in his flourishing estate Psalm. 30. 6. Iob. 29. 18.hee saide, I shall dye in my nest, and multiplie my daies as the sands. No maruell then if the foole say to himselfe, Thou hast goods laid vp for many yeares.
VI. We falsly promise to our selues good successe 6. Successe vponupon insufficiēt grounds.vponupon weake, and insufficient grounds. As Micah, Now I know, saith he, the Lord will be good vntounto mee. Why Micah? because I hauehave a Leuite to my Priest, yea Iud, 17. 13.but God did not allow of such rouing lep-land Leuites. Neither were priuate houses the place where God would hauehave the Leuites imployed, but the tabernacle. Herein it seems, Balaam deceiued himself, hoping because of his many altars, and sacrifices his Nū. 23. 1. 2. 3.desire, and purpose of cursing the Israelites would fadge. And this is the deceit of the superstitious, who boldly promise no small matter to themselues vponupon the careful performance of their superstitious deuotions. Yea among our selues many thinke if they humble themselues in confession, and can fetch a sigh, or shead a teare in prayer, or if they bee something more diligent in outward seruice of God, then ordinarie, they shall easily obtaine at Gods hands that which they desire.