Nowhere is a Christian offered such exhaustive prescriptions for fighting sin and temptation than in Thomas Brooks’ Precious Remedies. Through more than forty nuanced devices for temptation, Brooks loads the Christian with artillery, not just to battle the wiles of Satan, but to grow in examining the heart, mind and will. Christians are not simply to mortify sin, but to grow in spiritual maturity while doing so. Precious Remedies is designed to equip the saints to be on guard, to defend the glory of Christ by living in constant Christian meditation. Brooks led his seventeenth century church to trample temptation with biblical vigor. We are called to do the same through this updated and reformatted Christian classic.

Thomas Brooks (1608-1680), born of Congregationalist stock, served in ministry during the uproarious time of Puritan England. Following a stint in naval chaplaincy, Brooks shepherded his small, dignified congregation until the powers within the Church of England shifted, leaving him with a revoked ordination and, therefore, no pulpit. Even so, Brooks served his congregation through publishing classics like Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. Observed in this, and numerous other treatises, is his knack for application and quotable sayings. Though his pulpit was reestablished before his death, his most prized credentials were never stripped away, he is remembered as a man who loved the gospel and preached it to his flock with unrelenting conviction.