The Epistle Dedicatory

To his most dear and precious ones, the sons and daughters of the Most High God, over whom the Holy Spirit has made him a watchman.

Beloved in our dearest Lord: Christ, the Scripture, your own hearts, and Satan's devices are the four things that should be studied and searched out first and most. Whoever casts off the study of these cannot be safe here, nor happy hereafter. It is my work as a Christian, but much more as a watchman, to do my best to uncover the fullness of Christ, the emptiness of the creature, and the snares of the great deceiver — which I have tried to do in the following discourse, according to the measure of grace I have received from the Lord. God once accepted a handful of meal as a sacrifice, and a handful of goat's hair as an offering (Leviticus 2:2; 5:12), and I know you have not so "learned the Father" as to despise "the day of small things" (Zechariah 4:10).

Beloved, Satan, having fallen from light to darkness, from happiness 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 untried by which he might make everyone else eternally miserable along with himself. Shut out of heaven and shut up "under chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6), he uses all his power and skill to bring all the sons of men into that same condition and condemnation with him. Satan has sown such sinful seed in our souls that now he need hardly tempt us before we are ready to agree; he need hardly lay a plot for us before he has already won. Let him but show men a little of the beauty and glamour of the world, and how quickly they fall down and worship him!

Whatever sin the human heart is most prone to, the devil will help along. If David is proud of his people, Satan will provoke him to number them, so that he may grow prouder still (2 Samuel 24).

If Peter is fearful to the point of cowardice, Satan will push him to rebuke and deny Christ to save his own skin (Matthew 16:22; 26:69–75). If Ahab's prophets are inclined to flatter, the devil will promptly become a lying spirit in the mouths of four hundred of them, and they will flatter Ahab to his ruin (1 Kings 22). If Judas is willing to be a traitor, Satan will quickly enter his heart and make him sell his Master for money — a thing some pagans would never have done (John 13:2). If Ananias is willing to lie for advantage, Satan will fill his heart to lie, in the plainest way, to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3). Satan loves to sail with the wind, fitting his temptations to a person's condition and inclination. If they prosper, he will tempt them to deny God (Proverbs 30:9); if they suffer adversity, he will tempt them to distrust God; if their knowledge is weak, he will tempt them to think too little of God; if their conscience is tender, he will tempt them to needless scruples; if it is broad, to carnal security; if they are bold-spirited, he will tempt them to presumption; if timid, to despair; if easily swayed, to inconstancy; if stubborn, to impenitence — and so on.

From the power, malice, and skill of Satan proceed all the soul-killing plots, devices, stratagems, and schemes in the world. He has several devices to draw souls into sin, several plots to keep souls from every holy and heavenly duty, and several stratagems to keep souls mourning, staggering, doubting, and questioning.

He has several devices to destroy the great and honorable, the wise and learned, the blind and ignorant, the rich and the poor, the true saint and the saint in name only.

At times he will hold back from tempting us, so that we think ourselves safe and let down our guard; at other times he will seem to flee, so that we grow proud of the victory. At times he will fix a person's eyes more on others' sins than their own, that he may puff them up; at other times he will fix their eyes more on others' graces than their own, that he may overwhelm them — and so on.

A man might as soon count the stars or number the sands of the sea as reckon up all the devices of Satan. Yet those most significant — the ones by which he does the greatest harm to the precious souls of men — are uncovered in the treatise that follows, along with the remedies prescribed against them.

Beloved, I think it necessary to give you and the world a faithful account of the reasons that have moved me to appear in print in these days — days in which we may truly say there was never more writing and yet never less practicing. They are these that follow.

Reason 1. First, because Satan has greater influence over men, and higher advantages against them — having the wind and the high ground, as it were — than they realize; and knowing his advantage is the surest way to disappoint him, and to make the soul strong in resisting him and joyful in conquering him.

Reason 2. Your insistence, and that of many other "precious sons of Zion" (Lamentations 4:2), has, after much wrestling with God, with my own heart, and with others, finally won me over — and forced me to do at last what was at first quite contrary to my own inclination and resolve.

Reason 3. The strange opposition I met from Satan while studying out this discourse has sharpened my resolve, knowing that Satan strives mightily to keep from the light anything that would powerfully shake and break his kingdom of darkness, and lift up the kingdom and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the souls and lives of the children of men.

Reason 4. Its great usefulness to every sort, rank, and condition of men in the world. Here you have salve for every sore, a bandage for every wound, and a remedy against every disease — especially those that do the most to undo souls and ruin nations.

Reason 5. I know of no one who has written specifically on this subject; all I have ever seen have only touched on this string, which has been no small spur to me to attempt something along these lines — that others with better minds and hearts might be further stirred to put their gifts to work uncovering more of Satan's devices, and making known such choice remedies as may enable the souls of men to triumph over all his plots and stratagems.

Reason 6. I have many dear friends in various countries who greatly wish that my pen might reach them, now that my voice cannot. By the help of the mighty God of Jacob, I have formerly been a weak instrument of good to them, and I cannot help but hope and believe that the Lord will bless these labors to them as well, since they are, in part, the fruit of their own desires and prayers.

Reason 7. Lastly, not knowing how soon my hourglass may run out, or how soon death's hand may cut me off from every chance of doing further service to Christ or to your souls in this world, I was willing to sow a small handful of spiritual seed among you — so that when I lay aside this earthly tent, my love for you, and the dear remembrance of you that I carry in my soul, might strongly move your minds and hearts to make this book your companion; and, through every change without or within, to make use of this heavenly remedy, which I hope, by the Lord's blessing, will prove as effective in healing all your wounds as looking to the bronze serpent once was in healing those bitten and stung by fiery serpents. I leave this book with you as a legacy of my deepest love, asking the Lord to make it a far greater and sweeter legacy than all the worldly inheritances that the high and mighty of the earth leave to their nearest and dearest kin.

Beloved, I would not let affection carry my pen too far beyond my purpose. So let me only make known my desires for you, and my desires toward you, and I will draw to a close.

My desires for you are: "that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:16–19); and "that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increased in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering, with joyfulness" (Colossians 1:10–11); "that ye do no evil" (2 Corinthians 13:7); that "your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment," that "ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere, and without offence till the day of Christ" (Philippians 1:9–10); and that "our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power," and that "the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12). And that you may be eminent in holiness, holiness being Zion's glory (Psalm 93:5); that your hearts may be kept upright, your judgments sound, and your lives blameless. That as you are now "my joy," so in the day of Christ you may be "my crown"; that I may see my labors borne out in your lives; that your conduct may not be earthly when the things you hear are heavenly, but that it may be "as becomes the gospel" (Philippians 1:27). That as the fish that live in the salt sea are yet fresh, so you, though you live in an uncharitable world, may yet be charitable and loving. That you may, like the bee, draw honey out of every flower; that you may shine in a sea of troubles as the pearl shines, though it grows in the sea; that in all your trials you may be like the stone of Thrace, which neither burns in the fire nor sinks in the water; that you may be like the heavens, excellent in substance and beautiful in appearance — so that you may meet me with joy on that day when Christ shall say to his Father, "Here am I, and the children you have given me" (Isaiah 8:18).

My desires toward you are these: that you would make it your business to study Christ, his word, your own hearts, Satan's plots, and eternity more than ever before; that you would strive more to be inwardly sincere than outwardly impressive — to live, rather than merely to have a reputation for living; that you would labor with all your might to be thankful under mercies, faithful in your callings, humble under God's dealings with you, and fruitful under the means of grace; that since your resources and mercies are greater than others', your account before God may not prove worse than theirs; that you would pray for me, who am not worthy to be named among the saints, that I might be a precious instrument in Christ's hand to bring many souls to him, and to build up those already brought in, in their most holy faith; and "that utterance may be given to me, that I may make known all the will of God" (Ephesians 6:19); that I might be sincere, faithful, frequent, fervent, and constant in the Lord's work, and that my labor might not be in vain in the Lord; that my labors might be accepted by the Lord and his saints, and that I might daily see the fruit of my soul's travail.

But above all, pray for me, that I may more and more find the power and sweetness of these things in my own heart which I hold out to you and others; that my soul may be so visited with strength from on high that I may live fully and constantly up to the truths I proclaim to the world; and that I may be, both in life and doctrine, "a burning and shining light" (John 5:35), so that when the Lord Jesus appears, "I may receive a crown of glory which he shall give to me in that day, and not only to me, but to all who love his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:8).

In closing, remember this: your life is short, your duties are many, your help is great, and your reward is sure. So do not grow faint — hold on and hold up in the way of doing good, and heaven will make up for it all.

I will now take my leave of you, once my heart, through my hand, has set down that I am,

Your loving pastor under Christ, with all pastoral affection and devotion, in our dearest Lord,

Thomas Brooks.