The Secret Key of Heaven
Thomas Brooks · 1665
On closet prayer, praying alone with God: why every Christian should, what crowds it out, and how to keep at it.
1652 · Sin & temptation · Doubt & assurance
Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices
Or, Salve for Believers' and Unbelievers' Sores
Brooks lists the “devices” that tempt people: making sin look small, showing the bait and hiding the hook, telling us we can repent later, pointing us to the bad examples of good people. For each one he gives several “remedies,” short and memorable answers.
Brooks works from Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “we are not ignorant of his devices.” He takes the devices in groups: those that draw us into sin, those that keep us from holy duties, and those that keep believers in sadness and doubt. Then come the snares laid for different kinds of people, from the great and the learned to the ignorant, and an appendix on the devices that keep sinners from coming to Christ at all. He ends with ten helps against all of them.
- About 7 hours to read (103,000 words)
- Rewards a slower read
- Anyone who wants practical help with temptation and discouragement.
Read it your way
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Then & Now
What did 1653 look like?
Here is a paragraph from “2. False Definitions of Grace,” as it was first printed and as you'll read it in this edition.
As printed in 1653
The Philoſophers ſay there are eight degrees of heat; we diſcern three; now if a man ſhould define heat only by the higheſt degree, then all other degrees will be caſt out from being heat: ſo if men ſhall define faith only by the higheſt degrees, by aſſurance of the love of God, and of the pardon of his ſins in particular, what will become of leſſer degrees of faith?
Today
The philosophers say there are eight degrees of heat; we discern three; now if a man should define heat only by the highest degree, then all other degrees will be cast out from being heat: so if men shall define faith only by the highest degrees, by assurance of the love of God, and of the pardon of his sins in particular, what will become of lesser degrees of faith?
About this edition
Faithful, and easier to read
Brooks's Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices from the second edition (1653, corrected and enlarged), lightly modernized, its lost Greek and Hebrew restored from the 1652 and 1658 printings and the text proofread twice against Grosart's edition (1866).
76.5% of the words are exactly as printed. Most of the rest are spelling and punctuation; only 0.6% changed in grammar or wording. Every change is recorded, and you can see each one in Then & Now.
Open Then & Now- First published
- 1652
- Made from
- The second edition (London, 1653; EEBO-TCP A77614)
How this edition was made
Sources
Checked against
- The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. A. B. Grosart (1866), vol. 1, archive.org scan and OCR
- Precious Remedies (1652), the first edition, archive.org scan of the EEBO microfilm: the Greek and Hebrew the TCP left out
- Precious Remedies (1658), archive.org scan of the EEBO microfilm: gaps
- Monergism's keyed text of Grosart's edition, compared only
- Source files
- This edition on GitHub
- Licence
- Public domain (CC0): copy and share freely
- Found a mistake?
- Tell us
About the authorThomas Brooks 1608–1680A London pastor who stayed with his people through plague and fire.