Saved From Wrath of God

By representing to the soul the outward mercies that vain men enjoy, and the outward miseries that they are freed from, while they have walked in the ways of sin. Say Satan, Do you see, O Soul, the many blessing that such and such enjoy, who walk in those very ways that your soul startles to think of, and the many crosses that they are delivered from, even such as makes other men, who say they dare not walk in such ways, to spend their days in sighing, weeping, groaning, and mourning? and therefore, says Satan, if ever you would be freed from the dark night of adversity, and enjoy the sunshine of prosperity - you must walk in their ways. By this stratagem the devil took those in Jer. 44:16-18, “We will not listen to your messages from the Lord! We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and sacrifice to her just as much as we like - just as we and our ancestors did before us, and as our kings and princes has always done in the towns of Judah and in th...

Heaven keeps record of all the deeds of men, and of all the thoughts and feelings under which they act. Myriads of human beings have lived and died of whom the world knows nothing; but the lives they lived, the deeds they wrought, the thoughts and tempers they indulged, still stand written where the memory of them cannot perish. Not a human being has ever breathed earth’s atmosphere whose career is not traced at full length in the books of eternity. Yes, O man! O woman! whoever you may be, your biography is written. An unerring hand has recorded every item, with every secret thing. There is not an ill thought, a mean act, a scene of wrong in all your history, a dirty transaction, a filthiness of speech, or a base feeling that ever found entertainment in your heart, but is there described in bold hand, by its true name, and set down to your account, to be then brought forth for final settlement, if not clean blotted out through faith in Christ’s blood before this present life of yours...

But there is “another book, which is that of the life,” — the roll-book of the regenerate in Christ Jesus, — the register of the washed and sanctified through faith in his redeeming blood. This must needs be opened too; for many there be whose lives are fair and honest, who spend their days inconscientious purity, who live and die in the persuasion that they have fulfilled all the requirements of virtue, but who have never experienced the regenerating power of the new creation, who have never felt the need of atonement by the propitiation of a crucified Savior, and who have disdained to build on the merit and righteousness of the one only Mediator as the sole hope of diseased and guilty humanity. Exalted as they may have been in their own goodness and morality, they have not believed on the Son hath everlasting life.” (John 3:36.) Joseph August Seiss, The Apocalypse, Lectures on The Book of Revelation. Lecture Forty-Seven. Two last pages of Lecture.

Device 3 - By presenting to the soul the difficulty of performing them Says Satan, it is so hard and difficult a thing to pray as you should, and to wait on God as you should, and to walk with God as you should, and to be lively, warm, and active in the communion of saints as you should, that you were better ten thousands times to neglect them, than to meddle with them. Doubtless by this device Satan has and does keep off thousands from waiting on God and from giving to him that service that is due to his name. Source: Precious Remedies Against Satan Devices, by Thomas Brooks, P. 82.

By presenting the WORLD in such a dress, and in such a garb to the soul, as to ensnare the soul, and to win upon the affection of the soul. He represents the world of them in its beauty and finery, which proves a bewitching sight to a world of men. (It is true, this deceived not Christ, because Satan could find no matter in him for his temptation to work upon). So that he can no sooner cast out his golden bait - but we are ready to play with it, and to nibble at it; he can no sooner throw out his golden ball - but men are apt to run after it, though they lose God and their souls in the pursuit! Ah! how many professors in these days have for a time followed hard after God, Christ, and ordinances; until the devil has set before them the world in all its beauty and finery, which has so bewitched their souls that they have grown to have low thoughts of holy things, and then to be cold in their affections to holy things, and then to slight them, and at last, with the young man in t...

Device 2 - By working them to make false definitions of their graces Satan knows, that as false definitions of sin wrong the soul one way, so false definitions of grace wrong the soul another way. Oh! How does Satan labor with might and main to work men to make false definitions of FAITH! Some he works to define faith too high, as that it is a full assurance of love of God to a man´s soul in particular, or a full persuasion of the pardon and remission of a man´s own sins in particular. Says Satan, What do you talk of faith? Faith is an assurance of the love of God, and of the pardon of sin; and this you have not; you know you are far off from this; therefore you have no faith. And by drawing men to make such a false definition of faith, he keeps them in a sad, doubting, and questioning condition, and makes them spend their days in sorrow and sighing, so that tears are their drink, and sorrow is their food, and sighing is their work all the day long. The philosophers say there ...

By suggesting to them, That that conflict which is in them, it is not a conflict which is only in saints - but such a conflict that is to be found in hypocrites and profane souls; when the truth is, there is as much difference between the conflict which is in them, and that which is in wicked men, as there is between light and darkness, between heaven and hell. The devil is a liar, and the father of lies. The devil´s breasts (says Luther) are very fruitful with lies. And the truth of this I shall evidence to you in the following particulars: [1.] The whole frame of a believer soul's is against sin. The understanding, the will, and the affections - all the powers and faculties of the soul - are in arms against sin. A covetous man may condemn covetousness, and yet the frame and bent of his heart may be to it. A proud person may condemn pride, and yet frame and bent of his spirit may be to it. A man may condemn drunkenness, and yet frame of his heart may be to it. ‘You who pr...

By presenting the WORLD in such a dress, and in such a garb to the soul, as to ensnare the soul, and to win upon the affection of the soul. He represents the world of them in its beauty and finery, which proves a bewitching sight to a world of men. (It is true, this deceived not Christ, because Satan could find no matter in him for his temptation to work upon). So that he can no sooner cast out his golden bait - but we are ready to play with it, and to nibble at it; he can no sooner throw out his golden ball - but men are apt to run after it, though they lose God and their souls in the pursuit! Ah! how many professors in these days have for a time followed hard after God, Christ, and ordinances; until the devil has set before them the world in all its beauty and finery, which has so bewitched their souls that they have grown to have low thoughts of holy things, and then to be cold in their affections to holy things, and then to slight them, and at last, with the young man in the Go...

2 ... Why, surely here is the great cause of it - they have some other thing to ease their hearts in the want and loss of God. Jer. ii. 13, 14. Men must have water to drink; why do men live from the fountain, nor go to it, nay, not know it? Because they have broken pits and wells at their own doors; so here. And hence the damned that have lived at ease here all their lifetime, as soon as ever dead, then they cry out of the loss of God, when is too late, because while they lived they had somewhat to ease themselves withal. And hence, many that have lived long with convinced spirits and guilty consciences, when they come to die, then they are in perplexities of mind, agonies of heart, insomuch as their  sweat trickles like water from them, and their doleful outcries for loss of time strike to the hearts of all that come near them. O, God is gone; because now all comforts which were their gods, and instead of God, before, have taken their final leave of them. Search your ...