Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

Thomas Brooks — read again from the page images of Alexander Grosart’s edition in Nichol’s Series of Standard Divines, volume I (Edinburgh, 1866) (archive.org), in modern spelling. Grosart set it from the eighth edition of 1676.

Brooks takes 2 Corinthians 2:11 — lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices — and answers it by naming the devices one at a time, with the remedies against each: twelve to draw the soul to sin, eight to keep it from holy duties, seven to hold it in a sad and doubting condition, two aimed at the great and the learned, and five more in an appendix to keep sinners from closing with Christ. It is the most practical anatomy of temptation the Puritans wrote.

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Contents (37)

1. The Epistle Dedicatory
2. A Word to the Reader
3. The Text Opened: Lest Satan Should Get an Advantage of Us

Satan’s Devices to Draw the Soul to Sin

4. The First Device: To Present the Bait and Hide the Hook
5. The Second Device: By Painting Sin with Virtue’s Colours
6. The Third Device: By Extenuating and Lessening of Sin
7. The Fourth Device: By Presenting the Best Men’s Sins and Hiding Their Virtues
8. The Fifth Device: By Presenting God as One Made Up All of Mercy
9. The Sixth Device: By Persuading That Repentance Is an Easy Work
10. The Seventh Device: By Making the Soul Bold to Venture upon the Occasions of Sin
11. The Eighth Device: By Representing the Outward Mercies That Vain Men Enjoy
12. The Ninth Device: By Presenting the Sufferings That Attend the Godly
13. The Tenth Device: By Working Them to Compare Themselves with the Worst
14. The Eleventh Device: By Polluting the Judgments of Men with Dangerous Errors
15. The Twelfth Device: To Affect Wicked Company and Keep Wicked Society

Satan’s Devices to Keep Souls from Holy Duties

16. The First Device: By Presenting the World in Such a Dress as to Ensnare the Soul
17. The Second Device: By Presenting the Troubles That Attend Holy Duties
18. The Third Device: By Presenting the Difficulty of Performing Them
19. The Fourth Device: By False Inferences from What Christ Has Done
20. The Fifth Device: By Presenting the Paucity and Poverty of the Godly
21. The Sixth Device: By Presenting the Example of the Greatest Part of the World
22. The Seventh Device: By Casting In a Multitude of Vain Thoughts
23. The Eighth Device: By Working Them to Rest in Their Performances

Satan’s Devices to Keep Souls in a Sad and Doubting Condition

24. The First Device: By Keeping the Soul Poring on the Presence of Sin
25. The Second Device: By False Definitions of Their Graces
26. The Third Device: By False Inferences from the Cross Actings of Providence
27. The Fourth Device: By Suggesting That Their Graces Are Counterfeit
28. The Fifth Device: By Suggesting That Their Conflict Is Not the Saints’ Conflict
29. The Seventh Device: By Suggesting the Soul’s Often Relapses into the Same Sin
30. The Eighth Device: By Persuading Them Their Estate Is Not Good

Satan’s Devices to Ensnare the Great and the Learned

31. The First Device: To Destroy the Great and Honourable of the Earth
32. The Second Device: By Engaging Them against the People of the Most High

An Appendix: Five More Devices to Keep Souls from Believing

33. The First Device: By Suggesting the Greatness and Vileness of Their Sins
34. The Second Device: By Suggesting to Them Their Unworthiness
35. The Third Device: By Suggesting the Want of Preparations and Qualifications
36. The Fourth Device: By Suggesting Christ’s Unwillingness to Save
37. The Fifth Device: By Minding More God’s Secret Decrees Than One’s Own Duty