Remedies against the enemy
Choice excerpts from Thomas Brooks'
Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
Soul-killing plots, devices, stratagems & machinations!
"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we
are not ignorant of his devices." 2 Corinthians 2:11
Christ,
the Scripture,
your own hearts,
and Satan's devices,
are the four prime things that should be first and most
studied and searched. If any cast off the study of these,
they cannot be safe here, nor happy hereafter. It is my
work as a Christian, but much more as I am a Watchman,
to do my best to discover . . .
the fullness of Christ,
the emptiness of the creature,
and the snares of the great deceiver.
Satan being fallen . . .
from light to darkness,
from felicity to misery,
from heaven to hell,
from an angel to a devil,
is so full of malice and envy that he will leave no means
unattempted, whereby he may make all others eternally
miserable with himself. He being shut out of heaven, and
shut up "under the chains of darkness until the judgment
of the great day," makes use of all his power and skill to
bring all people into the same condition and condemnation
with himself. Satan has cast such sinful seed into our souls,
that now he can no sooner tempt, but we are ready to
assent; he can no sooner have a plot upon us, but he makes
a conquest of us. If he does but show men a little of the
beauty of the world, how ready are they to fall down and
worship him! Whatever sin the heart of man is most
prone to, that the devil will help forward! Satan loves
to sail with the wind, and to suit men's temptations to
their conditions and inclinations.
From the power, malice and skill of Satan—proceeds all the
soul-killing plots, devices, stratagems and machinations,
which are in the world. A man may as well count the stars, and
number the sands of the sea, as reckon up all the devices of Satan!
"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we
are not ignorant of his devices." 2 Corinthians 2:11
He hides the hook!
"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we
are not ignorant of his devices." 2 Corinthians 2:11
Satan has his several devices to deceive, entangle,
and undo the souls of men. Satan has . . .
snares for the wise, and snares for the simple;
snares for hypocrites, and snares for the upright;
snares for brave, and snares for the timorous;
snares for the rich, and snares for the poor;
snares for the aged, and snares for youth.
Happy are those souls which are not captured
and held in the snares that he has laid!
Satan's first device to draw the soul into sin is,
to present the bait—and hide the hook;
to present the golden cup—and hide the poison;
to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit
that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin—
and to hide from the soul the wrath and misery
that will certainly follow the committing of sin!
By this device he deceived our first parents, "And the
serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die
—for God knows, that in the day you eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened; and you shall be as gods."
Your eyes shall he opened, and you shall be as gods!
Here is the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit.
Oh—but he hides the hook—the shame, the wrath,
and the loss that would certainly follow! So Satan
cheats them—giving them an apple in exchange for
a paradise!
Satan with ease pawns falsehoods upon us, by his
golden baits, and then he leads us and leaves us
in a fool's paradise. He promises the soul honor,
pleasure, profit—but pays the soul with the greatest
contempt, shame, and loss that can be!
Alas! Many have fallen forever by this vile strumpet,
the world, who, by showing forth her two fair breasts
of PROFIT and PLEASURE, has wounded their souls,
and cast them down into utter perdition! She has,
by the glistening of her pomp and preferment,
slain millions!
