“All the devices of Satan” by Thomas Brooks
“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 till 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 hath 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 doth but shew men a little of the beauty and bravery 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 be proud of his people, Satan will provoke him to number them, that he may be yet prouder, 2 Samuel 24.
If Peter be slavishly fearful, Satan will put him upon rebuking and p 4 denying of Christ, to save his own skin, Matt. 16:22; 26:69–75.
If Ahab’s prophets be given to flatter, the devil will straightway become a lying spirit in the mouths of four hundred of them, and they shall flatter Ahab to his ruin, 1 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 heathens 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 Ghost, 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, Prov. 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, he will tempt to carnal security.
If bold-spirited, he will tempt to presumption;
If timorous, he will tempt to desperation.
If flexible, he will tempt to inconstancy.
If stiff, he will tempt to impenitency.
From the power, malice, and skill of Satan, doth proceed all the soul-killing plots, devices, stratagems, and machinations, that be in the world.
Several devices he hath to draw souls to sin, and several plots he hath to keep souls from all holy and heavenly services, and several stratagems he hath to keep souls in a mourning, staggering, doubting, and questioning condition.
He hath several devices to destroy the great and honourable, the wise and learned, the blind and ignorant, the rich and the poor, the real and the nominal saints.
One while he will restrain from tempting, that we may think ourselves secure, and neglect our watch; another while he will seem to fly, that he may make us proud of the victory.
One while he will fix men’s eyes more on others’ sins than their own, that he may puff them up.
Another while he may fix their eyes more on others’ graces than their own, that he may overwhelm them.
A man may as well tell the stars (Ps. 147:4), 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 doth most mischief to the precious souls of men, are in the following Treatise discovered, and the remedies against them prescribed.”
–Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, in The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/1980), 1: 3-4.
