Puritan thoughts...

Reading Thomas Brooks' Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices last night, I thought I should make the habit of writing down some summary statements as I read through it, to help me internalize the truths therein.

The layout of the book is simple, he names a 'device' that Satan uses to trap and deceive Christians (and non-Christians) and then lists some 'remedies' for the believer to use against that device.

Device #1: To present the bait and hide the hook. To show the enjoyment and fulfillment that will flow from yielding to sin, and to hide from the soul the misery, bitterness, and wrath that will follow the committing of the sin.

Remedies: 1) First, keep at the greatest distance from sin, and from playing with the golden bait that Satan holds forth to catch you. Brooks writes: "Sin is a plague, yea, the greatest and most infectious plague in the world; and yet, ah! how few are there that tremble at it, that keep at a distance from it!" How true - the Biblical teaching on sin is uncompromising. Sin is venom, a seed which produces only the fruit of death and misery, and yet how few there are today who truly see it for what it is and hate it, flee from it, and tremble at the destructive power of it.

Brooks goes on: "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." Secular psychology has discovered this - have we forgotten it? Sin is not an incommunicable disease, it is contagious. Anger in the father breeds anger in the son. Callousness in the husband breeds bitterness in the wife. Bitterness is especially dangerous, for it is deep - a root that grows up to defile many (Heb. 12:15). What havoc and destruction can be wrought in close-knit communities when sin goes unchecked.

Remedy 2) Consider, that sin is but a bitter sweetness. The apparent sweetness that is in sin will quickly vanish and be replaced by lasting shame, sorrow, horror, and terror.

Remedy 3) "Solemnly to consider, that sin will usher in the greatest and saddest losses that can be upon our soul. It will usher in the loss of that divine favour which is better than life, and the loss of that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and the loss of that peace that passes understanding, and the loss of those divine influences by which the soul has been refreshed, quickened, raised, strengthened, and gladdened."

Remedy 4) "Seriously to consider, that sin is of a very deceitful and bewitching nature... It will kiss the soul, and pretend to be fair to the soul, and yet betray the soul forever." "A man bewitched with sin had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul than part with his sin. Oh, therefore, for ever take heed of playing with or nibbling at Satan's golden baits!"

There is a pervasive notion nowadays that talking about sin seriously like this is... passé, unhelpful, and potentially offensive. Certainly, it's old-fashioned. But reading these words from this wise old doctor of the soul, I think we all know intrinsically how true they are. Maybe we need to find a way to communicate these truths in a way that doesn't elicit rolling eyes and sighs, but we most certainly need to keep this kind of perspective in ourselves, and hopefully in churches. Or else, a light view of sin will continue to keep the door wide open for Satan to come in and wreak untold destruction and brokenness in people's lives and families and communities.