Good Like a Medicine

In this post I want to look at the very first Device from Brooks’ book and lay out some quotations concerning its Remedies. I cannot find them anywhere online, which is probably for the better, since I will have to hand-type them and in so doing be able to reflect on them more.

Device (1) - To present the bait and hide the hook; to present the golden cup, and hide the poison; to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin, and by hiding from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin… There is an opening of the eyes of the mind to contemplation and joy, and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promiseth them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them — giving them an apple in exchange for a paradise, as he deals by thousands now-a-days.

Remedy (1) - First, keep at the greatest distance from sin, and from playing with the golden bait that Satan holds forth to catch you; for this you have (Rom. 12:9), ‘Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.’ … Joseph keeps at a distance from sin, and from playing with Satan’s golden baits, and stands. David draws near, and plays with the bait, and falls, and swallows bait and hook with a witness. David comes near the snare, and is taken in it, to the breaking of his bones, the wounding of his conscience, and the loss of his God… Ah, how doth the father’s sin infect the child, the husband’s infect the wife, the master’s the servant! The sin that is in one man’s heart is able to infect a whole world, it is of such a spreading and infectious nature.

Remedy (2) - To consider, that sin is but a bitter sweet. That seeming sweet that is in sin will quickly vanish, and lasting shame, sorrow, horror, and terror will come in the room thereof… Men must not think to dance and dine with the devil, and then to sup with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven… if there were the least real delight in sin, there could be no perfect hell, where men shall most perfectly be tormented with their sin.

Remedy (3) - Solemnly to consider, That sin will usher in the greatest and the saddest losses that can be upon our souls. It will usher in the loss of that divine favour that is better than life, and the loss of that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and the loss of that peace that passeth understanding, and the loss of those divine influences by which the soul hath been refreshed, quickened, raised, strengthened, and gladded, and the loss of many outward desirable mercies, which otherwise the soul might have enjoyed.

Remedy (4) - Seriously to consider, that sin is of a very deceitful and bewitching nature. ‘But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin’ (Hebrews 3:13). It will kiss the soul, and pretend fair to the soul, and yet betray the soul for ever… Sin so bewitches the soul, that it makes the soul call evil good, and good evil; bitter sweet and sweet bitter, light darkness and darkness light; and a soul thus bewitched with sin will stand it out to the death, at the sword’s point with God…

When the physicians told Theotimus that except he did abstain from drunkenness and uncleanness he would lose his eyes, his heart was so bewitched to his sins, that he answered, ‘Then farewell, sweet light;’ he had rather lose his eyes than leave his sin. So a man bewitched with sin had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul than part with sin. Oh, therefore, for ever take heed of playing with or nibbling at Satan’s golden baits.

– Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (pp. 29-33)

I think it is much easier to read these words in hindsight, see the truths, and agree, than it is to be swimming in the cloudy waters of temptation and realize the baits that Satan has right before our eyes. I think I may have read this chapter in the past and ignored the warning or perhaps thought, “This doesn’t apply to me. This isn’t bait… that isn’t bait.” That is why now I pray every day that God would be near to me, in every hour, and show me the light of Christ as I walk and work. I want the bait as far away from me as possible and eyes full of light and clarity. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world…”