A Drink from Brooks: The Devil’s Logic

“To argue from mercy to sinful liberty, is the devil’s logic, and such logicians do ever walk as upon a mine of gunpowder ready to be blown up. No such soul can ever avert or avoid the wrath of God. This is wickedness at the height, for a man to be very bad, because God is very good. A worse spirit than this is not in hell. Ah, Lord, doth not wrath, yea, the greatest wrath, lie at this man’s door? Are not the strongest chains of darkness prepared for such a soul ? To sin against mercy is to sin against humanity. It is bestial; nay, it is worse. To render good for evil is divine, to render good for good is human, to render evil for evil is brutish; but to render evil for good is devilish; and from this evil deliver my soul, O God.” —Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices