After the commission of sin, or any eruption of our inbred malignity, we quickly heal ourselves again, and reinstate ourselves in our own good opinion. How much better would it be to let our nature appear in its frightful nakedness, and to consider that the cursed root of all still remains, and that, if not here destroyed, in another world it can produce nothing but essential, uninterrupted misery, when we have no longer the joys and comforts, cares and amusements of this life, to keep off the sight of ourselves! (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The last point(s) of the comment by Adam are simply profound and revealing. The joys and the comforts found in this life keep the unbelieving soul from a sight of itself and its coming uninterrupted misery. The cares and amusements of this life for the unbeliever are nothing more than an attempt to hide the sight of self and its coming uninterrupted misery. This life, then, for unbelievers, can be interpreted as nothing more than a seeking of the pleasures and comforts of the things of self in order to hide self from self. The unbeliever spends his or her life in suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18),
This short passage by Adam is very suggestive of the way people suppress the truth about God and of His coming judgment upon them and their sin. They commit a sin, but instead of seeing it as an eruption of inbred malignity, they flee to the comforts and pleasures of the world to keep them from seeing themselves. When a person is giving himself to the joys, comforts, cares and amusements of this life, it is easy to think that God is pleased with you because He is giving you such good things. It is also easier to think good things about self as we fight to obtain a good opinion of ourselves. The sin that we committed will grow less and less as we fight harder and harder to suppress it in the darkness of an unregenerate mind.
But there is another warning hidden (or not so hidden) in this passage. The evil one hides sin from people by working to get them immersed in some of what is considered to be the basic things in life. If the soul does not seek the Lord for a true sight of Himself and then of the soul itself, the true nature of sin will be hidden in the joys, comforts, cares and amusements of this life. People are indeed amusing themselves to death, even eternal death. It is easier to watch movies, play video games, and even read novels than it is to seek a sight of the pure holiness of God and then of the nature of our own hearts. It is, we say, just innocent amusements and diversions.
One very serious and even vital issue can be drawn from this. People are always seeking to hide their own hearts from themselves, but in doing so they are also fleeing from the truth of who God is as well. Perhaps one way to keep from seeing the nature of God is to hide our own hearts from ourselves. As Calvin pointed out a long time ago, the knowledge of God and of our own hearts are inextricably tied together. We cannot flee from the knowledge of our own hearts without fleeing from the knowledge of God. We cannot flee from the knowledge of God without fleeing from knowledge of our own hearts. Perhaps the amusements of the world which are seen as innocent diversions are really not so innocent after all. They just help people flee from knowledge of their own hearts as well as knowledge of the living God. When they do that, they hiding the root of sin from themselves and as such they are fleeing from and hiding that which must be killed in this world because if left hidden it “can produce nothing but essential, uninterrupted misery.”
God Loves... Himself 
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