Device 1 - To Present the Bait and Hide the Hook - Satan´s Devices to Draw the Soul to Sin

Satan´s first device to draw the soul into sin is, to present the bait - and hide the hook; to present the golden cup - and hide the poison; to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin - and to hide from soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin. By this device he deceived our first parents, “And serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die - for God does know, that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and you shall be as gods, knowing the good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5). Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods! Here is the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit. Oh - but he hides the hook - the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow!

There is an opening of the eyes of the mind to contemplation and joy - and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promises them the former - but intends the latter, and so Satan cheats them - giving them an apple in exchange for a paradise, as he deals by thousands now-a-days.

Satan with easy pawns falsehoods upon us, by his golden baits, and then he leads us and leaves us in a fool´s paradise. He promises the soul honor, pleasure, profit - but pays the soul with the greatest contempt, shame, and loss can be. By a golden bait he labored to catch Christ (Matt 4:8-9). He shows him the beauty and the finery of a bewitching world, which doubtless would have taken many a carnal heart; but here the devil´s fire fell upon wet tinder, and therefore did not ignite. These tempting objects did not at all win the ‘wound of the eye’, and fallen forever by this vile strumpet world, who, by laying forth her two fair breasts of PROFIT and PLEASURE, has wounded their souls, and cast them down in the utter of perdition. She has, by the glistening of her pomp and preferment, slain millions; as the Serpent Scytale, which, whe she cannot overtake the fleeing passengers, does, with her beautiful colors, dazzle and amaze them, so that they have no power to pass away until she has stung them to death! Adversity has slain her thousand - but prosperity her ten thousand.

Source: Precious Remedies Against Satan´s Devices - Thomas Brooks - Pag. 15.