Notes:
Sermon 128: The Deceitfulness of the Human Heart
1Wesley spent the month following his visit to Madeley in the Midlands; his schedule had already been reported in a circular letter, ‘To the Preachers and Friends’, dated from London, March 1, 1790. The diary reports his presence in Halifax on Monday, April 19, and mentions his work on a sermon, presumably this one. The sermon itself, however, is dated ‘Halifax, April 21, 1790’—when, according to the announced schedule, he was supposed to be in Dewsbury.
2Here, obviously, is yet another ‘last word’, this one on the increasingly urgent question of the confident claims being issued by the new romantics and rationalists as to the natural perfection and consequent perfectibility of human nature. Wesley’s career had coincided with the dawn and morning of ‘The Enlightenment’, and he had tried to affirm its positive assertions so far as he could, especially in such causes as religious liberty and the idea of ‘progress’ (as in No. 102). But he had also recognized the Enlightenment’s mortal threat to historic Christianity because of its radical turn away from the Christian tradition of absolute dependence upon God to new and bold affirmations of human autonomy. He could see that the ‘philosophers’ were, in fact, recasting the historic ordo salutis and proclaiming a gospel of salvation attainable by human effort. He would at least have understood Carl Becker’s classic formulation of the Enlightenment soteriology: ‘For the love of God [the philosophers] substituted love of humanity; for the vicarious atonement the perfectibility of man through his own efforts; and for the hope of immortality in another world the hope of living in the memory of future generations.’
The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers, p. 130.
3This sort of brazen anthropocentrism was, in Wesley’s eyes, a profound and tragic illusion. It was, as he had always taught, the antithesis of every Christian premise about the human situation and hence of any Christian gospel of salvation. This late sermon may be seen, therefore, as the distillate of his lifetime’s reflection on the mysteries of human self-delusion, and a final affirmation of his unfaltering confidence that radical dependence upon God is our only hope for authentic self-understanding.
404:150The sermon did not appear in the Arminian Magazine until January and February 1792, out of its chronological sequence and headed by the editors as ‘Sermon LXV. (By the late Rev. J. Wesley)’.
XV.5-10, 61-66.
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart (of man) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
11. The most eminent of the ancient heathens have left us many testimonies of this. It was indeed their common opinion that there was a time when men in general were virtuous and happy: this they termed the ‘golden age’. And the account of this was spread through almost all nations. But it was likewise generally believed that this happy age had expired long ago, and that men are now in the midst of the ‘iron age’.
See No. 61, ‘The Mystery of Iniquity’, §27.
Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, i.128-31. The translation is neither Samuel Garth’s (1717) nor Arthur Golding’s (1567), and may well have been Wesley’s own. See also No. 61, ‘The Mystery of Iniquity’, §27 and n.
204:1512. But how much more knowing than these old pagans are the present generation of Christians! How many laboured panegyrics do we now read and hear on the Dignity of Human Nature.
Cf. James Burgh (1714-75), Scottish educator and political reformer, The Dignity of Human Nature (1754), p. 18: ‘Man is a being…capable of making himself and others happy in this world…. His nature is fitted for social virtue; he was brought into creation to be prepared for glory and happiness.’
Cf. John Taylor (of Norwich), The Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin (1767), pp. 244-48 (a description of man’s ‘natural state’ as ‘happy’ and ‘virtuous’); cf. Wesley’s rebuttal in The Doctrine of Original Sin, Pt. I, II.2-9.
33. Nearly related to them were the sentiments of an ingenious gentleman who, being asked, ‘My Lord, what do you think of the Bible?’ answered: ‘I think it is the finest book I ever read in my life. Only that part of it which indicates the mediatorial scheme I do not understand. For I do not conceive there is any need of a mediator between God and man. If indeed’, continued he, ‘I was a sinner, then I should need a mediator. But I do not conceive I am. It is true, I often act wrong for want of more understanding. And I frequently feel wrong tempers, particularly proneness to anger. But I cannot allow this to be a sin; for it depends on the motion of my blood and spirits, which I cannot help. Therefore it cannot be a sin. Or if it be, the blame must fall, not on me, but on him that made me.’
The son of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon; see No. 125, ‘On a Single Eye’, §3 and n.
See No. 106, ‘On Faith, Heb. 11:6’, I.1 and n.
David Hume (1711-76); cf. Wesley’s comment on Hume’s Essay on Miracles (1748) as ‘insolent’ (JWJ, Mar. 5, 1769); however, Hume’s History of England was prescribed reading in the Kingswood School. See No. 120, ‘The Unity of the Divine Being’, §19.
44. Some years ago a charitable woman discovered that there was no sinner in the world but the devil. ‘For’, said she, ‘he forces men to act as they do, therefore they are unaccountable. The blame lights on Satan.’
π; The idea recurs in Lady Mary Wortley Montague’s Letters, but not this exact quotation. It sounds like a fashionable sentiment that Wesley could have heard in the salons of Bath and London.
Cf. Thoughts Upon Necessity, §6.
55. But whatever unbaptized or baptized infidels
Cf. the diatribe in verse against ‘mitred infidels’ by Edward Perronet (one of Wesley’s overzealous allies), The Mitre: A Sacred Poem (1757), which Wesley tried to suppress and nearly succeeded; fewer than twenty copies are known to be extant.
1I. 1. To begin with this: ‘The heart of man is desperately wicked.’ In considering this we have no need to refer to any particular sins (these are no more than the leaves, or at most the fruits, which spring from that evil tree), but rather to the general root of all. See how this was first planted in heaven itself by Lucifer, ‘Son of the morning’
Isa. 14:12.
Milton, Paradise Lost, v.659-60; see also No. 62, ‘The End of Christ’s Coming’, I.8 and n.
Cf. Isa. 14:13.
Cf. ‘The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians’, VII.1, in The Apostolic Fathers; see also No. 32, ‘Sermon on the Mount, ΧΙI’, I.7 and n.
Isa. 14:14.
See No. 14, The Repentance of Believers, I.3 and n.
See Rom. 1:25.
Gen. 7:11.
22. But is there not a God in the world? Doubtless there is: and it is he that that made us, not we ourselves.
Ps. 100:3.
See No. 1, Salvation by Faith, §1 and n.
AM and SOSO, IX, read ‘Hutchinson’ here, an obvious error; Benson and Jackson corrected it; see No. 90, ‘An Israelite Indeed’, §1 and n. Here, as elsewhere, Wesley misses Hutcheson’s actual contention, i.e., the human sense of obligation (as contrasted with arbitrary obedience) is intrinsic. Cf. Hutcheson’s extensive discussions of our obligations to God (essentially, of gratitude, worship, and love; even ‘entire submission’) in his Essay, pp. 301-3; A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy, pp. 77-83; and System of Moral Philosophy, pp. 209-20. For other references to Hutcheson, see No. 12, ‘The Witness of Our Own Spirit’, §5 and n.
33. From the devil the spirit of independence, self-will, and pride, productive of all ungodliness and unrighteousness, quickly infused themselves into the hearts of our first parents in paradise. After they had eaten of the tree of knowledge, wickedness and misery of every kind rushed in with a full tide upon the earth, alienated us from God, and made way for all the rest—atheism (now fashionably termed ‘dissipation’
See Nos. 79, ‘On Dissipation’, §1 and n.; and 23, ‘Sermon on the Mount, III’, I.11 and n.
See No. 78, ‘Spiritual Idolatry’; see also intro, to Nos. 77-78.
Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (1762), I.290, on Eccles. 7:29 (Poet. Wks., IX.357); see also No. 120, ‘The Unity of the Divine Being’, §11 and n.
44. It would be endless to enumerate all the species of wickedness, whether in thought, word, or action, that now overspread the earth, in every nation and city and family. They all centre in this atheism, or idolatry: pride, either thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think, or glorying in something which they have received as though they had not received it; independence and self-will, doing their own will, not the will of him that made them. Add to this, seeking happiness out of God, in gratifying the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life.
1 John 2:16; and see No. 7, ‘The Way to the Kingdom’, II.2 and n.
Cf. Gen. 6:12.
Cf. Gen. 6:5.
55. But if this be the case, how is it that everyone is not conscious of it? For who should ‘know the things of a man’ like ‘the spirit of a man that is in him’?
1 Cor. 2:11.
1II. 1. It ‘is deceitful above all things’, that is, in the highest degree, above all that we can conceive. So deceitful that the generality of men are continually deceiving both themselves and others. How strangely do they deceive themselves, not knowing either their own tempers or characters! Imagining themselves to be abundantly better and wiser than they are! The ancient poet supposes there is no exception to this rule; that no man is willing to know his own heart—
Persius, Satires, iv.23: ‘There is no one who strives to plumb the depths of his own soul—no one!’ Note Wesley’s translation: ‘No man is willing to know his own heart.’ Thus repentance (i.e., true self-knowledge) is a gift of God, not a human initiative; see No. 7, ‘The Way to the Kingdom’, II.1 and n.
None but those who are taught of God!
22. And if men thus deceive themselves, is it any wonder that they deceive others also, and that we so seldom find ‘an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile’?
John 1:47; cf. No. 90, ‘An Israelite Indeed’ on this text.
An echo of Wesley’s early sermon (and fragments), ‘On Dissimulation’ (Nos. 138 A-C). There is no record of this memorandum in Wesley’s diary of this date (June 17, 1733, O.S.).
304:1563. This is one of the sorts of desperate wickedness which cleaves to the nature of every man, proceeding from those fruitful roots, self-will, pride, and independence on God. Hence springs every species of vice and wickedness; hence every sin against God, our neighbour, and ourselves. Against God: forgetfulness and contempt of God, of his name, his day, his Word, his ordinances; atheism on the one hand and idolatry on the other; in particular, love of the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life;
1 John 2:16.
Cf. John 5:41, 44.
Rom. 1:25.
2 Tim. 3:4.
44. Hence there is in the heart of every child of man an inexhaustible fund of ungodliness and unrighteousness, [so] deeply and strongly rooted in the soul that nothing less than almighty grace can cure it. From hence naturally arises a plentiful harvest of all evil words and works; and to complete the whole, that complex of all evils,
Cf. Nicholas Rowe, Tamerlane, I.i.96-100. Note that Wesley reads ‘foul monster’ for Rowe’s ‘fell monster’, and then reverts to ‘fell’ in the following line. Rowe’s phrase, ‘War, that in a moment’, was misprinted as, ‘war, that we meet’.
In the train of this fell monster are murder, adultery, rape, violence, and cruelty of every kind. And all these abominations are not only found in Mahometan or pagan countries, where their horrid practice may seem to be the natural result of equally horrid principles, but in those that are called Christian countries, yea, in the most knowing and civilized states and kingdoms. And let it not be said, this is only the case in Roman Catholic countries. Nay, we that are called Reformed are not one whit behind them in all manner of wickedness. Indeed no crime ever prevailed among the Turks or Tartars which we here cannot parallel in every part of 04:157Christendom. Nay, no sin ever appeared in heathen or papal Rome which is not found at this day in Germany, France, Holland, England, and every other Protestant as well as popish country. So that it might now be said, with as much truth, and as few exceptions, of every court in Europe, as it was formerly in the court of Saul: ‘There is none righteous, no not one; they are all together become abominable; there is none that understandeth and seeketh after God.’
Cf. Ps. 14:2-3 (BCP).
55. But is there no exception as to the wickedness of man’s heart? Yes, in those that are born of God. ‘He that is born of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.’
Cf. 1 John 5:18 (Notes).
Cf. Acts 15:9.
2 Cor. 5:17.
Eph. 4:24.
Cf. No. 13, On Sin in Believers, I.6, III.1-9 and n.
66. But how artfully does this conceal itself, not only from others, but even from ourselves! Who can discover it in all the disguises it assumes, or trace it through all its latent mazes? And if it be so difficult to know the heart of a good man, ‘who can know’
Jer. 17:9.
Cf. 1 Cor. 8:2.
Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), pre-eminent Whig, ‘prime minister’ under both George I (1723-27) and George II (1733—42). This famous epitome of cynicism is recorded in William Coxe, Memoirs of Walpole (1798), I.757, and in Baron John Hervey’s Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second (1848), and seems to have had wide currency in Wesley’s lifetime. It had also been denied by Sir Robert’s son, Horace, in a letter of Aug. 26, 1785. What is not in doubt is that Sir Robert used bribery as a principal instrument of ‘parliamentary management’ with notable success; see I. S. Leadam’s sympathetic vita in DNB. The aphorism itself was not original with Walpole; cf. Sir William Wyndham’s The Bee (1734), VIII.97: ‘It is an old maxim that every man has his price.’ See also Hobbes, Leviathan (1651), I.10, p. 42. The idea is at least as old as Epictetus.
77. Did that right honourable wretch,
Philip Dormer Stanhope, Fourth Earl of Chesterfield; see No. 100, ‘On Pleasing All Men’, §4 and n.
Cf. Prior, ‘An Ode to…George Villiers’, l. 42.
Wesley shared the widely held view of the time that Hume’s scepticism was insincere and hence hypocritical; cf. J. H. Burton’s Life and Correspondence of David Hume (1846), II.187-88. Hume had lent weight to this with the whimsical conclusion of his Treatise of Human Nature (Selby-Bigge edn., 1896), p. 269: ‘I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse and am merry with my friends; and when, after three or four hours of amusement, I would return to these [sceptical] speculations, they appear so cold and strained and ridiculous that I cannot find it in my heart to enter into them any farther.’
Heb. 10:31.
88. One of the ablest champions of infidelity (perhaps the most elegant, and the most decent writer that ever produced a system of religion without being in the least obliged to the Bible for it) breaks out in the fullness of his heart: ‘Who would not wish that there was full proof of the Christian revelation, since it is 04:159undoubtedly the most benevolent system that ever appeared in the world!’
Another misquotation from Francis Hutcheson; see Nos. 90, ‘An Israelite Indeed’, §3 and n.; and 12, ‘The Witness of Our Own Spirit’, §5 and n.
Cf. Sir John Davies, Nosce Teipsum, st. 44; see also Wesley, A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744), I.21; and No. 95, ‘On the Education of Children’, §6, where Wesley quotes from Dryden to this same effect.
99. Who then knoweth the hearts of all men? Surely none but he that made them. Who knoweth his own heart? Who can tell the depth of its enmity against God? Who knoweth how deeply it is sunk into the nature of Satan?
31III. 1. From the preceding considerations may we not learn, first, ‘He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.’
Prov. 28:26.
22. We may hence, in the second place, infer the truth of that other reflection of Solomon: ‘Seest thou a man that is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope of a fool than of him.’
Cf. Prov. 26:12.
33. May we not learn hence, thirdly, the wisdom of that caution, ‘Let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;’ or (to render the text more properly,) ‘Let him that assuredly standeth take heed lest he fall.’
1 Cor. 10:12; a favourite exegetical point with Wesley; see Nos. 43, The Scripture Way of Salvation, §1 and n; and 82, ‘On Temptation’, §2 and n.
44. Is it not wisdom for him that is now standing, continually to cry to God, ‘Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins and my heart!’
Cf. Ps. 26:2 (BCP).
Ps. 139:24 (BCP).
1 Kgs. 8:39.
Cf. Rom. 12:3.
Halifax, April 21, 1790
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Entry Title: Sermon 128: The Deceitfulness of the Human Heart