Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

Blessed Steve Belonger!  That holy man of God who counseled my soul many times as a young believer!  And one of his counsels was this: read Thomas Brooks' book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices.  He called it his favorite book. 

Well, I've taken it up to read it.  And oh how much help I've been getting for me and my house as we seek to serve the Lord and not Satan!

Section III is entitled, "Satan's Devices to Keep Souls From Holy Duties, To Hinder Souls In Holy Services, & To Keep Them Off From Religious Performances."  Here he discusses many of Satan's devices in this regard.  Device 7 is this:  "By casting in a multitude of vain thoughts, whilst the soul is in seeking of God, or in waiting on God."  Brooks goes on, "By this device [Satan] hath cooled some men's spirits in heavenly services, and taken off, at least for a time, many precious souls from religious performances."

Well, what are the remedies for this device of Satan?  Brooks gives seven:

Remedy 1:  "Have your hearts strongly affected with the greatness, holiness, majesty, and glory of that God before whom you stand, and with whom your souls do converse in religious services."

Remedy 2:  "Be peremptory in religious services, notwithstanding all those wandering thoughts the soul is troubled with."

Remedy 3:  "Consider this, that those vain and trifling thoughts that are cast into our souls, when we are
waiting upon God in this or that religious service, if they be not cherished and indulged, but abhorred, resisted, and disclaimed, they are not sins upon our souls, though they may be troubles to our minds; they shall not be put upon our accounts, nor keep mercies and blessings from being enjoyed by us."

Remedy 4:  "Solemnly consider that watching against sinful thoughts, resisting sinful thoughts, carries with it the sweetest and strongest evidence of the truth and power of grace, and of the sincerity of your hearts, and is the readiest and the surest way to be rid of them."

Remedy 5:  "Labour more and more to be filled with the fullness of God, and to be enriched with all spiritual and heavenly things."

Remedy 6:  "Keep up holy and spiritual affections; for such as your affections are, such will be your thoughts."

Remedy 7:  "Avoid a multiplicity of worldy business."

The enlargements upon each remedy are worthy of careful and prolonged meditation.  I bless God for wise counsel from ages past!  For such counsel and wisdom is regrettably rare today, at least in America, not least in much of so-called evangelicalism.  Again and again I find that I get more help from older writers than newer.  We should all heed C. S. Lewis' advice to avoid chronological snobbery in our reading.  Per Lewis, for every two modern books we read, we should read at least one outside of our century.  And the Puritans should be on that reading list fairly regularly.  They were strong where we are weak!