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Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices

Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices, by the 17th-century English Puritan Thomas Brooks, shows how to recognize the devil’s influences and prepare for them. With his deft biblical insight and keen spiritual allegories, Brooks helps us see temptations for the spiritual dangers they truly are. As you read through Brooks' incredibly deep work, you'll see not only his mastery of the subject, but his pastoral heart for the believers who read it. New paragraph. Our blog post series walks you through this book using modern allegories and analogies, helping you unlock the rich treasures of its teachings in a fresh way. Thanks for joining us on this journey!

Why unhappiness may be a blessing in disguise

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According to Thomas Brooks as he writes of Satan’s eighth device to lure Christians into sin, our enemy wants to convince us happiness is the goal and blessedness is negotiable. Sin is capable of making us happy. But it can never leave us blessed. The happiness of sin is temporal. But the blessedness of holiness and obedience is eternal.

Brooks’ remedies intend to help us put our focus back on the long game, toward the steady “obedience in the same direction” that marks Christian life. We must choose persecution, suffering, and yes even unhappiness if that will lead to blessedness in the eyes of Christ.

Resistance is not futile

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Device 7: Making the soul bold to venture upon the occasions of sin Says Satan, You may walk by the harlot’s door though you won’t go into the harlot’s bed; you may sit and sup with the drunkard, though you won’t be drunk with the drunkard; you may look upon Jezebel’s beauty, and you may play […]

The seven marks of true repentance

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In his sixth “device” of Satan against believers in our striving toward holiness, Thomas Brooks offers this one remedy among many: … to consider of the nature of true repentance. Repentance is some other thing, than what vain men conceive .. True repentance is a thorough change both of the mind and life. Repentance for […]

No, repentance is not a walk in the park

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Making messes has always been easy for humans. Cleaning them up is the perpetual challenge. And the easier cleaning becomes the messier we may allow ourselves to get. Especially if it’s someone else doing the cleaning. As Thomas Brooks states, Satan wants us to be comfortable in our sins knowing we have a God who freely forgives through repentance. And because repentance is so easy, why not sin away knowing our return home is such a quick trip?

Love wins, justice loses

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The attack on penal substitutionary atonement is an attack against God’s justice, itself. It tries to assert God’s mercy has been applied to all people everywhere, whether they repent of sin or not, whether they believe or not, whether they want it or not. That salvation, or something like it, is merely a matter of “waking up” to this reality.

But there are enough warnings in the New Testament for the saints to “continue” in the faith that it is apparent there is more to redemption than mere knowledge.

And we must hear what Brooks has to say on the matter.

Why ‘everyone does it’ doesn’t work with God

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Thomas Brooks says Satan’s fourth device to lure us into transgression is to make us focus on the sins of the faithful while passing over repentance, forgiveness, and restoration. He longs to have us think that we can engage in the same wrong behaviors that others fall into. But he hides from our eyes the terrible price we will pay in the long road of recovery.

This is just fine

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If you don’t mind my quoting a children’s book in the midst of such an otherwise serious subject: “I wasn’t going to eat it. I was just going to taste it.” These are the words of Winnie-the-Pooh, the perennially vexed creation of A.A. Milne about his favorite temptation, honey. Of course we know Pooh Bear was going to eat the honey. But caught on the line between temptation and indulgence, the stuffed children’s toy offers a plausible interpretation of events. He minimized his sin. And we do the same.

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