Required reading
Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices by Thomas Brooks (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Chapter 2, Devices 5 and 6.
My notes and thoughts
Device 5: 'To present God to the soul as one made up of all of mercy'. I have felt the force of this one in my own mind. I think remedy number two is the best one given: 'That God is as just as he is merciful. As the Scriptures speak him out to be a very merciful God, so they speak him out to be a very just God.' Therefore we should fear to entertain the foolish notion that we are able to sin because we may beg God for mercy in the future. He cannot be mocked.
Device 6: 'By persuading the soul that the work of repentance is an easy work'. Brooks' remedies collectively work to show that repentance is difficult, and in fact impossible for man: '...repentance is a might work, a difficult work, a work that is above our power.' I always think of this when someone says to me they'll repent when they're just about to die. Where do they get the assurance that they will be able to do repent later if they cannot now? (Brooks gives an example of just such a man in one of his footnotes, number 64, with a quote from Bede) How important it is to remember that repentance is a gift, just as faith is a gift: 'Repentance is a gift that comes down from above.' May God continue to give the gift of repentance to sinful humans.
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