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The Vain Self-Flatteries of the Sinner
by Jonathan Edwards
Not dated.
Psalms 36:2, "For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his
iniquity be found to be hateful."
In the foregoing verse, David says, “The transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes;”
that is, when he saw that the wicked went on in sin, in an allowed way
of wickedness, it convinced him, that he was not afraid of those
terrible judgments, and of that wrath with which God hath threatened
sinners. If the sinner were afraid of these, he could never go on so
securely in sin, as he doth.
It was a strange thing that men, who enjoyed such light as they did in
the land of Israel, who read and heard those many awful threatenings
which were written in the book of the law, should not be afraid to go on
in sin. But saith the Psalmist, They flatter themselves in their own
eyes: they have something or other which they make a foundation of
encouragement, whereby they persuade themselves that they shall escape
those judgments, and that makes them put far away the evil day.
In this manner he proceeds, until his iniquity be found to be hateful;
that is, until he finds by experience that it is a more dreadful thing
to sin against God, and break his holy commands, than he imagined. He
thinks sin to be sweet, and hides it as a sweet morsel under his tongue.
He loves it and flatters himself in it, till at length he finds, by
experience, that it is bitter as gall and wormwood. Though he thinks the
commission of sin to be lovely, yet he will find the fruit of it to be
hateful, and what he cannot endure. Pro 23:32, “At last it will bite
like a serpent, and sting like an adder.”
Here observe, the subject spoken of is the wicked man, of whom the
Psalmist had been speaking in the foregoing verse. — His action in
flattering himself in his own eyes; i.e. he makes himself and his case
to appear to himself, or in his own eyes, better than it is.
How long he continues so to do, until his iniquity be found to be
hateful. Which may be taken for either his sin itself, the wicked will
see how odious sin is to God, when he shall feel the effects of his
hatred, and how hateful to angels and saints. Or rather the cause is
here put for the effect, the tree for its fruit, and he will find his
iniquity to be hateful, as he will find the hatefulness and feel the
terribleness of the fruit of his iniquity. — Hence it appears that
Wicked men generally flatter themselves with hopes of escaping
punishment, till it actually comes upon them.
There are but few sinners who despair, who give up the cause and
conclude with themselves, that they shall go to hell. Yet there are but
few who do not go to hell. It is to be feared that many go to hell every
day out of this country. Yet very few of them suffer themselves to
believe that they are in any great danger of that punishment. They go on
sinning and traveling in the direct road to the pit; yet by one they
persuade themselves that they shall never fall into it,
SECTION I
Sinners flatter themselves with the hope of impunity.
WE are so taught in the Word of God, Deu. 29:18, 19, “Lest there should
be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth
away this day from the Lord our God. Lest there should he among you a
root that beareth gall and wormwood, and it come to pass when he heareth
the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I
shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add
drunkenness to thirst.” Where it is supposed that they whose hearts turn
away from God, and are roots that bear gall and wormwood, generally
bless themselves in their hearts, saying, We shall have peace.
See also Psa. 49:17, 18, “When he dieth, he shall carry nothing away:
his glory shall not descend after him, though while he lived, he blessed
his soul.” And Psa. 50:21, “These things thou hast done, and I kept
silence: thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself:
but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thee.”
It is very evident that sinners flatter themselves that they shall
escape punishment, otherwise they would be in dreadful and continual
distress. They could never live and go about so cheerfully as they now
do. Their lives would be filled with sorrow and mourning, and they would
be in continual uneasiness and distress, as much as those that are
exercised with some violent pain of body. But it is apparent that men
are careless and secure, that they are not much concerned about future
punishment, and that they cheerfully pursue their business and
recreations. Therefore they undoubtedly flatter themselves, that they
shall not be eternally miserable in hell, as they are threatened in the
Word of God.
It is evident that they flatter themselves with hopes that they shall
escape punishment. Otherwise they would certainly be restrained, at
least from many of those sins in which they now live. They would not
proceed in willful courses of sin. The transgression of the wicked
convinced the Psalmist, and is enough to convince everyone, that there
is no fear of God before his eyes, and that he flatters himself in his
own eyes. It would be impossible for men allowably from day to day to do
those very things which they know are threatened with everlasting
destruction, if they did not some way encourage themselves [that] they
should nevertheless escape that destruction.
SECTION II
Some of the various ways wherein sinners flatter themselves in their own
eyes.
1. SOME flatter themselves with a secret hope that there is no such
thing as another world. They hear a great deal of preaching, and a great
deal of talk about hell, and the eternal judgment. But those things do
not seem to them to be real. They never saw hell, nor the devils and
damned spirits. And therefore are ready to say with themselves, “How do
I know that there is any such thing as another world?” When the beasts
die, there is an end of them, and how do I know but that it will be so
with me? Perhaps all these things are nothing but the inventions of men,
nothing but cunningly devised fables.
Such thoughts are apt to rise in the minds of sinners, and the devil
sets in to enforce them. Such thoughts are an ease to them. Therefore
they wish they were true, and that makes them the more ready to think
that they are so. So that they are hardened in the way of sin, by
infidelity and atheistic thoughts. Psa. 14:1, “ The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God.” Psa. 94:6, 7, “They slay the widow and the
stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, the Lord shall not
see; neither shall the God of Jacob regard it,”
2. Some flatter themselves that death is a great way off, and that they
shall hereafter have much opportunity to seek salvation. And they think
if they earnestly seek it, though it be a great while hence, they shall
obtain. Although they see no reason to conclude that they shall live
long, and perhaps they do not positively conclude that they shall, yet
it doth not come into their minds that their lives are really uncertain,
and that it is doubtful whether they will live another year. Such a
thought as this doth not take any hold of them. And although they do not
absolutely determine that they shall live to old age or to middle age,
yet they secretly flatter themselves with such an imagination. They are
disposed to believe so. They act upon it and run the venture of it.
Men will believe that things will be as they choose to have them,
without reason, and sometimes without the appearance of reason, as is
most apparent in this case, Psa. 49:11, “Their inward thought is, that
their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all
generations; they call their lands after their own names.” — The
prepossession and desire of men to have it so, is the principal thing
that makes them believe so. However, there are several other things
which they use as arguments to flatter themselves. Perhaps they think
that since they are at present in health, or in youth, or that since
they are useful men, do a great deal of good, and both themselves and
others pray for the continuance of their lives; they are not likely to
be removed by death very soon. — If they shall live many years in the
world, they think that it is very probable they shall be converted
before they die. As they expect hereafter to have much more convenient
opportunities to become converted, than they have now. And by some means
or other, they think they shall get through their work before they
arrive at old age.
3. Some flatter themselves that they lead moral and orderly lives, and
therefore think that they shall not be damned. They think with
themselves that they live not in any vice, that they take care to wrong
no man, are just and honest dealers, that they are not addicted to hard
drinking, or to uncleanness, or to bad language; that they keep the
Sabbath strictly, are constant attendants on the public worship, and
maintain the worship of God in their families. Therefore they hope that
God will not cast them into hell. They see not why God should be so
angry with them as that would imply, seeing they are so orderly and
regular in their walk! They see not that they have done enough to anger
him to that degree. And if they have angered him, they imagine they have
also done a great deal to pacify him.
If they be not as yet converted, and it be necessary that they should
experience any other conversion in order to their salvation, they hope
that their orderly and strict lives will move God to give them
converting grace. They hope that surely God will not see those that live
as they do go to hell. Thus they flatter themselves, as those (Luke
18:9) “that trusted in themselves that they were righteous.”
4. Some make the advantages under which they live an occasion of self
flattery. They flatter themselves that they live in a place where the
gospel is powerfully preached and among a religious people, where many
have been converted. And they think it will be much easier for them to
be saved on that account. Thus they abuse the grace of God to their
destruction. They do that which the Scriptures call despising the riches
of God’s goodness: Rom. 2:4, “Or despisest thou the riches of his
goodness, and forbearance, and long suffering; not knowing that the
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
Some flatter themselves that they are born of godly parents, who are
dear to God, who have often and earnestly prayed for them. They hope
that their prayers will be heard, and that encourages them to go on in
the way of neglecting their souls. The Jews had great dependence upon
this, that they were the children of Abraham. In John 8:33, they make
their boast. “We be Abraham’s seed;” and in verse 39, “Abraham is our
father.”
5. Some flatter themselves with their own intentions. They intend to
neglect themselves, and give themselves liberty for a while longer, and
then to reform. Though now they neglect their souls, and are going on in
sin; yet they intend ere long to bestir themselves, to leave off their
sins, and to set themselves to seek God. They hear that there is great
encouragement for those who earnestly seek God, that they shall find
him. So they intend to do; they propose to seek with a great deal of
earnestness. They are told that there are many who seek to enter the
kingdom of heaven who shall not be able. But they intend, not only to
seek, but to strive, however, for the present they allow themselves in
their ease, sloth, and pleasure, minding only earthly things.
Or if they should be seized with some mortal distemper, and should draw
near to the grave, before the time which they lay out in their minds for
reformation, they think how earnestly they would pray and cry to God for
mercy. And as they hear God is a merciful God who taketh no delight in
the death of sinners, they hence flatter themselves that they shall move
God to have pity on them.
There are but few who are sinners, knowing themselves to be such, who do
not encourage themselves with intentions of future repentance and
reformation. But few who do not flatter themselves, that they shall in
good earnest set themselves to seek God some time or other. Hell is full
of good intenders who never proved to be true performers: Acts 24:25,
“Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call
for thee.”
6. There are some who flatter themselves, that they do and have done, a
great deal for their salvation, and therefore hope they shall obtain,
when indeed they neither do what they ought to do, nor what they might
do in their present state of unregeneracy. Nor are they in any likely
way to be converted They think they are striving, when they neglect many
moral and some instituted duties; nor do they exert themselves as if it
were for their lives. They are not violent for the kingdom of heaven.
There are doubtless many such. Many are concerned, and are seeking, and
do many things, and think that they are in a very fair way to obtain the
kingdom of God. Yet there is great danger that they will prove at last
to be some of the foolish virgins, and be found without oil in their
vessels.
7. Some hope by their strivings to obtain salvation of themselves. They
have a secret imagination that they shall, by degrees, work in
themselves sorrow and repentance of sin, and love towards God and Jesus
Christ. Their striving is not so much an earnest seeking to God, as a
striving to do themselves that which is the work of God. Many who are
now seeking have this imagination; they labor, read, pray, hear sermons
and go to private meetings, with the view of making themselves holy, and
of working in themselves holy affections.
Many, who only project and design to turn to God hereafter, are apt to
think that it is an easy thing to be converted, that it is a thing which
will be in their own power at any time, when they shall earnestly set
themselves to it.
8. Some sinners flatter themselves that they are already converted. They
sit down and rest in a false hope, persuading themselves that all their
sins are pardoned, that God loves them, that they shall go to heaven
when they die, and that they need trouble themselves no more, Rev. 3:17,
“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need
of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked.”
Sinners very generally go on flattering themselves in some or other of
these ways till their punishment actually overtakes them. These are the
baits by which Satan catches souls and draws them into his snare. They
are such self-flatteries as these that keep men from seeing their
danger, and that make them go on securely, “as the bird hasteth to the
snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.”
Those that flatter themselves with hopes of living a great while longer
in the world, very commonly continue so to do till death comes. Death
comes upon them when they expect it not. They look upon it as a great
way off, when there is but a step between them and death. They thought
not of dying at that time, nor at anytime near it. When they were young,
they proposed to live a good while longer. And if they happen to live
till middle age, they still maintain the same thought, that they are not
yet near death. And so that thought goes along with them as long as they
live, or till they are just about to die.
Men often have a dependence on their own righteousness, and as long as
they live are never brought off from it. Multitudes uphold themselves
with their own intentions till all their prospects are dashed in pieces
by death. They put off the work which they have to do till such a time.
And when that comes, they put it off to another time; until death, which
cannot be put off, overtakes them. There are many also that hold a false
hope, a persuasion that they belong to God. And as long as they live, by
all the marks and signs which are given of a true convert, they never
will be persuaded to let go their hope till it is rent from them by
death.
Thus men commonly uphold themselves, and make themselves easy, till
hell-fire makes them uneasy. Everlasting ruin comes upon them as a
snare, and all their hopes are at once cut off, and turned into
everlasting despair: 1 Thes. 5:3, “When they shall say, Peace and
safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a
woman with child; and they shall not escape.”
SECTION III
The subject applied
1. HENCE we learn one reason why there are but few saved, and why so
many perish from under the gospel. All men know that they must die, and
all that sit under the light of the gospel have been told many a time,
that after this there is an other world, that there are but two states
in that other world — a state of eternal happiness, and a state of
eternal misery — that there is but one way of escaping the misery and
obtaining the blessedness of eternity, which is by obtaining an interest
in Christ, through faith in him, and that this life is the only
opportunity of obtaining an interest in Christ. Yet men are so much
given to flatter themselves in those ways which we have mentioned, that
there are but few that seasonably take care of their salvation. Indeed
they cannot but be in some measure concerned about their souls. Yet they
flatter themselves with one thing or other, so that they are kept
steadily and uninterruptedly going on in the broad way to destruction.
2. Hence we learn the reason why awakening truths of Scripture, and
awakening sermons, make no more impression upon men. It is in itself a
wonderful and surprising thing that God’s denunciations of eternal
misery and threatenings of casting sinners into the lake that burneth
with fire and brimstone for ever and ever, do not affect them [or] do
not startle them. But the truth is, they flatter themselves by such
means as we have mentioned, that this dreadful misery is not for them;
that they shall escape it, though multitudes of others are involved in
it. They take not these threatenings to themselves. They seem to think
that they do not belong to them.
How many are there, who for all the awakening sermons they have heard,
are yet secure in sin! And who, although they are sensible that they are
in a Christless condition, and are still going on in sin, yet intend to
go to heaven, and expect that by some means or other they shall arrive
there. They are often told that God is very angry with them. Yet they
think God is a very merciful God and they shall be able to pacify him.
If they be told how uncertain life is, that doth not awaken them,
because they flatter themselves with long life. If they be told how
dangerous it is to delay the business of religion, they promise
themselves, that they will hereafter engage in it with more earnestness
than others, and so obtain the end, the salvation of their souls.
Others, when they are told that many shall seek who shall not he able to
obtain, think surely that they, having done so much for salvation, shall
not be denied.
3. Let every sinner examine, whether he do not flatter himself in some
of those ways which have been mentioned. What is it in your own minds
which makes you think it is safe for you to delay turning to God? What
is it that encourages you to run such a venture as you do, by delaying
this necessary work? Is it that you hope there is no such state as
heaven or hell and have a suspicion that there is no God ? Is it this
that makes you secure? Or is it that you are not much afraid but that
you shall have opportunity enough, a great while hence, to mind such
things? Is it an intention of a future seeking a more convenient season?
And are you persuaded that God will hearken to you then, after you shall
have so long turned a deaf ear to his commands and gracious invitations?
Are you encouraged to commit sin, because you hope to repent of it? Are
you encouraged by the mercy of God to be his enemies? And do you resolve
still to provoke him to anger because you think he is easily pacified?
Or do you think that your conversion is in your own power, and that you
can turn to God when you please? Is it because you have been born of
godly parents that you are so secure? Or do you imagine that you are in
a fair way to be converted? Do you think that what you have done in
religion will engage God to pity you, and that he never can have the
heart to condemn one who has lived in so orderly a manner? Or do you
think that you are indeed converted already? And doth that encourage you
to take a liberty in sinning ? Or are you secure because you are so
stupid as to think nothing about these things? Do you let these concerns
wholly alone, and scarcely ever think at all how it will be with you
after you are dead? — Certainly it must be one or more of these things
which keeps you in your security and encourages you to go on in sin.
Examine, therefore, and see which of them it is.
4. Be persuaded to leave off thus flattering yourselves in your own
eyes. You are therein informed that those who do as you do, commonly
continue so doing till their punishment actually comes upon them.
Thereby you may be convinced of the vanity of all such flatteries. Be
afraid of that which you are sure is the devil’s bait. “Surely in vain
is the net spread in the sight of any bird,” Pro. 1:17.
You are not only told in the Scriptures that sinners are generally thus
allured to hell, but your own reason may convince you that it is so. For
doubtless other sinners have as much ground to hope to escape punishment
as you. And it is evident, that they generally do hope to escape. Men
under the gospel almost universally think they shall not go to hell. If
it were otherwise, they could have no peace or comfort in the world. Yet
what multitudes have we reason to conclude go down from under the
preaching of the gospel to the pit of destruction! Now, this is surely
enough to convince any sober, prudent person of the folly of such
flattery, and of the folly of everyone that doth not immediately set
about his great work with his might. If you could have access to the
damned, you would hear many of them curse themselves, for thus
flattering themselves while they lived in this world. And you would have
the same doctrine preached to you by their wailings and yellings which
is now preached to you from the pulpit.
If your temptation to security be unbelief of the fundamental doctrines
of religion, such as the being of God, of another world, and an eternal
judgment, you may consider, that though that makes you secure at
present, yet it will not do always. It will not stand by when you come
to die. The fool often in health saith, There is no God. But when he
comes to die, he cannot rest in any such supposition. Then he is
generally so much convinced in his own conscience that there is a God,
that he is in dreadful amazement for fear of his eternal wrath. It is
folly, therefore, to flatter yourselves with any supposition now which
you will not then be able to hold. — If you depend on long life,
consider how many who have depended on the same thing, and had as much
reason to depend on it as you, have died within your remembrance.
Is it because you are outwardly of an orderly life and conversation,
that you think you shall be saved? How unreasonable is it to suppose
that God should be so obliged by those actions, which he knows are not
done from the least respect or regard to him, but wholly with a private
view! Is it because you are under great advantages that you are not much
afraid but that you shall some time or other be converted, and therefore
neglect yourselves and your spiritual interests? And were not the people
of Bethsaida, Chorazin and Capernaum, under as great advantages as you,
when Christ himself preached the gospel to them, almost continually, and
wrought such a multitude of miracles among them? Yet he says, that it
shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah,
than for those cities.
Do you expect you shall be saved, however you neglect yourselves,
because you were born of godly parents? Hear what Christ saith, Mat.
3:9, “Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our
father.” Do you flatter yourselves that you shall obtain mercy, though
others do not, because you intend hereafter to seek it more earnestly
than others? Yet you deceive yourselves if you think that you intend
better than many of those others, or better than many who are now in
hell once intended.
If you think you are in a way of earnest seeking, consider, whether or
no you do not mind other things yet more? If you imagine that you have
it in your own power to work yourselves up to repentance, consider, that
you must assuredly give up that imagination before you can have
repentance wrought in you. If you think yourselves already converted,
and that encourages you to give yourselves the greater liberty in
sinning, this is a certain sign that you are not converted.
Wherefore abandon all these ways of flattering yourselves. No longer
follow the devil’s bait and let nothing encourage you to go on in sin;
but immediately and henceforth seek God with all your heart, and soul,
and strength.
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