What delusions! By Thomas Reed
Jeremiah 17, verse 9 The human heart is the most deceitful of
all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
Oh, what a wretched being is man, when left to himself! every
evil nestles in his heart, producing a thousand stings to torment
him in time and through eternity. It is awful to think what delusions
men practice upon themselves. Through the artifices of Satan
and the false reasonings of their own hearts, they are deceived
to their own ruin. They compare themselves with
those who are more notoriously wicked and thus think themselves
to be good before God. They magnify their supposed virtues
and soften down their vices. They presume upon the mercy of
God as if He were too benevolent to put His threatenings into
execution. They depend upon a deathbed repentance,
not considering that repentance is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
They disbelieve the eternity of hell torments as being a punishment
too cruel and severe for the all-bounteous Creator to inflict
upon His rebellious creatures. They deny the particular providence
of God, esteeming it beneath His glorious majesty, to inspect
their trivial concerns, or to notice each trifling deviation
from His Holy Word. In short, they suppose the Almighty
to be such a One as themselves. These things you have done, and
I kept silent. You thought I was altogether
like you, but I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face.
Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces
with none to rescue. Psalm 50 verses 21 and 22.