A77614:429
Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices
Precious remedies against Satan's devices or, salve for believers and unbelievers sores. Being a companion for those that are in Christ, or out of Christ; that are high, or low, learned, or illiterate, staggering, or wandering; that slight, or neglect ordinances, under a pretence of living above them; that are growing (in spirituals) or decaying; that are tempted, or deserted, afflicted, or opposed; that have assurance, or that want assurance; that are self-seekers, or the common-wealths caterpillars; that are in love sweetly united, or that yet have their spirits too much embittered, &c. By Thomas Brooks, a willing servant unto God, and the faith of his people, in the glorious gospel of Christ, at Margarets fish-street hill.Precious remedies against Satans devices or, salve for believers and unbelievers sores. Being a companion for those that are in Christ, or out of Christ; that are high, or low, learned, or illiterate, staggering, or wandering; that slight, or neglect ordinances, under a pretence of living above them; that are growing (in spiritualls) or decaying; that are tempted, or deserted, afflicted, or opposed; that have assurance, or that want assurance; that are self-seekers, or the common-wealths caterpillars; that are in love sweetly united, or that yet have their spirits too much imbittered, &c. By Thomas Brookes, a willing servant unto God, and the faith of his people, in the glorious gospel of Christ, at Margarets fish-street hill.
London: printed by M. Simmons for John Hancock, 1653
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
As an ignorant heart is a naughty heart, 'tis a heart in the dark, and no1 good can come into a dark heart, but it must pass through the understanding; and if the eye be dark, all the body is dark. A leprous head, and a leprous heart are inseparable companions; ignorant hearts are so evil, that they let fly on all hands, and spare not to spit their ⟨p. 313⟩venom in the very face of God, as Pharaoh did, when thick darkness was upon him.
As an ignorant heart is a naughty heart, 'tis a heart in the dark, and no1 good can come into a dark heart, but it must passe through the understanding; and if the eye be darke, all the body is dark. A leprous head, and a leprous heart are inseparable companions; ignorant hearts are so evill, that they let flye on all hands, and spare not to spit their ⟨p. 313⟩venone in the very face of God, as Pharaoh did, when thick darknesse was upon him.
- 1Ign••at sane improbus omnis, saith Ariris•otle. M••. 6. 22.
The second Remedy against this Device1 of Satan, is to consider, that ignorance is the deformity of the soul; As blindness is the deformity of the face, so is ignorance the deformity of the soul; as the want of fleshly eyes spoils the beauty of the face, so the want of spiritual eyes spoils the beauty of the soul. A man without knowledge, is as a work-man without his hands, as a painter without his eyes, as a traveller without his legs, or as a ship without sails, or a bird without Wings, or like a body without a soul.