Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
By Thomas Brooks, (1608 - 1680)
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY
To
his most dear and precious ones, the sons and daughters of the Most
High God, over whom the Holy Spirit has made him a Watchman.
Beloved in our dearest Lord,
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;
which I have endeavored to do in the following discourse, according to
that measure of grace which I have received from the Lord. God once
accepted a handful of meal for a sacrifice (Lev. 2:2; 5:12), and a small
quantity of goat's hair for an oblation; and I know that you have not
so "learned the Father," as to despise "the day of small things" (Zech.
4:10).
Beloved,
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" (Jude 6), makes
use of all his power and skill to bring all the sons of men 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 and finery 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.
If
David is proud of his people, Satan will provoke him to number them,
that he may be yet prouder (2 Sam. 24). If Peter is slavishly fearful,
Satan will put him upon rebuking and denying of Christ, to save his own
skin (Matt. 16:22; 26:69-75). If Ahab's prophets are given to flatter,
the devil will immediately become a lying spirit in the mouths of four
hundred of them, and they shall flatter Ahab to his ruin (2 Kings 22).
If Judas will be a traitor, Satan will quickly enter into his heart, and
make him sell his master for money, which some heathen would never have
done (John 13:2). If Ananias will lie for advantage, Satan will fill
his heart that he may lie, with a witness, to the Holy Spirit (Acts
5:3).
Satan loves to sail with the wind, and to suit men's temptations to their conditions and inclinations. If
they be in prosperity, he will tempt them to deny God (Proverbs 30:9);
if they be in adversity, he will tempt them to distrust God; if their
knowledge be weak, he will tempt them to have low thoughts of God; if
their conscience be tender, he will tempt to scrupulosity; if large, to
carnal security; if bold-spirited, he will tempt to presumption; if
timorous, to desperation; if flexible, to inconstancy; if stiff, to
impenitency.
From the
power, malice and skill of Satan--proceeds all the soul-killing plots,
devices, stratagems and machinations, which are in the world. Several
devices he has to draw souls to sin, and several plots he has to keep
souls from all holy and heavenly services, and several stratagems he has
to keep souls in a mourning, staggering, doubting and questioning
condition.
He has several devices to destroy the great and
honorable, the wise and learned, the blind and ignorant, the rich and
the poor, the real and the nominal Christians.
At one
time, he will restrain from tempting, that we may think ourselves
secure, and neglect our watch. At another time he will seem to flee,
that he may make us proud of the victory. At one time he will fix men's
eyes on others' sins than their own, that he may puff them up. At
another time he may fix their eyes more on others' graces than their
own, that he may discourage them. A man may as well count the stars, and
number the sands of the sea, as reckon up all the Devices of Satan; yet
those which are most considerable, and by which he does most mischief
to the precious souls of men, are in the following treatise discovered,
and the Remedies against them prescribed.
Beloved, I
think it necessary to give you and the world a faithful account of the
reasons moving me to appear in print, in these days, wherein we may
say,
there was never more writing and yet never less practicing, and they are these that follow:
Reason
1. Because Satan has a greater influence upon men, and higher
advantages over them than they think he has--and the knowledge of his
high advantage is the highway to disappoint him, and to render the soul
strong in resisting, and happy in conquering.
Reason 2. Your
importunity, and the importunity of many other "precious sons of Zion"
(Lam. 4:2), has after much striving with God, my own heart, and others,
made a conquest of me, and forced me to do that at last, which at first
was not a little contrary to my inclination and resolution.
Reason
3. The strange opposition that I met with from Satan, in the study of
this following discourse, has put an edge upon my spirit, knowing that
Satan strives mightily to keep those things from seeing the light, that
tend eminently to shake and break his kingdom of darkness, and to lift
up the kingdom and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the souls and
lives of the men.
Reason 4. Its exceeding usefulness to all sorts, ranks and conditions of men in the world. Here you have
salvefor every sore, and a
plaster for every wound, and a
remedy against every disease, especially against those that tend most to the undoing of souls, and the ruin of the State.
Reason
5. I know not of any one or other that have written of this subject;
all that ever I have seen have only touched upon this theme, which has
been no small provocation to me, to attempt to do something this way,
that others, that have better heads and hearts, may be the more stirred
to improve their talents in a further discovery of Satan's Devices, and
in making known of such choice Remedies, as may enable the souls of men
to triumph over all his plots and stratagems.
Reason 6. I have
many precious friends in several countries, who are desirous that my pen
may reach them, now that my voice cannot. I have formerly been, by the
help of the mighty God of Jacob, a weak instrument of good to them, and
cannot but hope and believe that the Lord will also bless these labors
to them; they being, in part, the fruit of their desires and prayers.
Reason
7. Lastly, Not knowing how soon my hour-glass may be out, and how soon I
may be cut off by a hand of death from all opportunities of doing
further service for Christ or your souls in this world, I was willing to
sow a little handful of spiritual seed among you; that so, when I put
off this earthly tabernacle, my love to you, and that dear remembrance
of you, which I have in my soul, may strongly engage your minds and
spirits to make this book your companion, and under all external or
internal changes, to make use of this heavenly salve, which I hope will,
by the blessing of the Lord, be as effectual for the healing of all
your wounds, as their looking up to the bronze serpent was effectual to
heal theirs--who were bit and stung with fiery serpents. I shall leave
this book with you as a legacy of my dearest love, desiring the Lord to
make it a far greater and sweeter legacy than all those carnal legacies
that are left by the high and mighty ones of the earth to their nearest
and dearest relations.
Beloved, I would not have
affection carry my pen too much beyond my intention. Therefore, only
give me leave to signify my desires for you, and my desires to you, and I
shall draw to a close,
My desires for you are, "that
out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his
Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in
love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide
and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love
that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all
the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:16-19) "And we pray this in order that you
may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being
strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you
may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to
the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the
saints in the kingdom of light." (Col. 1:10-12) "That you do no evil."
(2 Cor. 13:7); "That your love may abound yet more and more in
knowledge, and in all judgment." "That you may approve things that are
excellent, that you may be sincere, and without offence until the day of
Christ." (Phil. 1:27, 4:1) That "our God would count you worthy of this
calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the
work of faith with power." "That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may
be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God
and the Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thess. 1:11, 12) And that you may be
eminent in sanctity, sanctity being Zion's glory (Psalm 93:5); that your
hearts may be kept upright, your judgments sound, and your lives
unblamable. That as you are now "my joy", so in the day of Christ you
may be "my crown"; that I may see my labors in your lives; that your
lives may not be earthly, when the things you hear are heavenly; but
that it may be "as becomes the gospel" (Phil. 1:9, 10).
That as
the fish which live in the salt sea yet are fresh, so you, though you
live in an ungodly world, may yet be godly and loving; that you may,
like the bee, suck honey out of every flower; that you may shine in a
sea of troubles, as the pearl shines in the sky, though it grows in the
sea; that in all your trials you may shine like the stone in Thracia,
which neither burns in the fire nor sinks in the water; that you may be
like the heavens, excellent in substance and beautiful in appearance;
that so you may meet me with joy in that day wherein Christ shall say to
his Father, "Lo, here am I, and the children that you have given me"
(Is. 8:18).
My desires to you are--That you would make
it your business to study Christ, his Word, your own hearts, Satan's
plots, and eternity--more than ever. That you would endeavor more to be
inwardly sincere than outwardly glorious; to live, than to have a mere
name to live. That you would labor with all your might to be thankful
under mercies, and faithful in your places, and humble under divine
appearances, and fruitful under precious ordinances. That as your means
and mercies are greater than others--so your account before God may not
prove a worse than others. That you would pray for me, who am not worthy
to be named among the saints, that I may be a precious instrument in
the hand of Christ to bring in many souls unto him, and to build up
those who are brought in, in their most holy faith; and "that utterance
may be given to me, that I may make known all the will of God" (Eph.
6:19); that I may be sincere, faithful, frequent, fervent and constant
in the work of the Lord, and that my labor be not in vain in the Lord;
that my labors may be accepted in the Lord and his saints, and I may
daily see the travail of my soul.
But, above all, pray for me--that
I may more and more find the power and sweet of those things upon my own heart,
that I give out to you and others; that my soul may be so visited with
strength from on high, that I may live up fully and constantly to those
truths that I hold forth to the world; and that I may be both in life
and doctrine "a burning and a shining light," that so, when the Lord
Jesus shall appear, "I may receive a crown of glory which he shall give
to me in that day, and not only to me, but to all who love his
appearing." (John 5:35 and 2 Tim. 1:8).
For a close,
remember this, that your life is short, your duties many, your
assistance great, and your reward sure; therefore faint not, hold on and
hold up, in ways of well-doing, and
heaven shall make amends for all!
I
shall now take leave of you, when my heart has by my hand subscribed,
that I am, your loving pastor under Christ, according to all pastoral
affections and engagements in our dearest Lord,Thomas Brooks
