Persequeor
Puritan Board Freshman
So much has been said of late concerning one's thoughts and actions, i.e. celibate sinners, I thought these words of Thomas Goodwin might be a friendly reminder for us all.
Goodwin defines thoughts as:
...the internal acts of the mind of man, of what faculty soever; all those reasonings, consultations, purposes, resolutions, intents, ends, desires and cares of the mind of man, as opposed to our external words and actions.
Vanity, he defines as:
unprofitableness, Eccl. 1:2-3; lightness, Ps. 62:9; folly, Prov. 12:11; inconstancy and frailty, Ps. 144:4, 146:4; wickedness and sinfulness, Prov. 24:9, 30:32, 2 Chronicles 13:7.
Those who would assume that thoughts are not sin until they are put into action, or that the thoughts are free from God's judgment, Goodwin plainly refutes:
Thoughts are sins.
(1. "The law judgeth them, Heb. 4:12; rebukes a man for them, I Cor. 14:25, and therefore they are transgressions of the law.
(2. Because they are capable of pardon, and must be pardoned, or we cannot be saved, Acts 8:22; which argues the multitudes of God's compassions, seeing thoughts are so infinite.
(3. They are to be repented of; yea repentance is expressed as to begin at them: so, Isa. 55:7, 'Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts...
(4. They defile the man; which nothing defiles but sin: Matt. 15:18-19
(5. They are an abomination to the Lord who hates nothing but sin, and whose 'pure eyes can endure to behold no iniquity.' Habakkuk 1:13
(6. They hinder all good we would do, and spoil our best performances. Vain thoughts draw the heart away in them, that when a man should draw nigh to God, his heart, by reason of his thoughts, is 'far off from Him,' Isa. 29:13
(7. Our thoughts are the first motioners of all the evil in us. For they make the motion, and also bring the heart and object together, are panders to our lusts, hold up the object till the heart hath played the adulterer with it, and committed folly: so in speculative uncleanness, and in other lusts, they hold up the images of those gods they create, which the heart falls down and worships; they present credit, riches, beauty, till the heart hath worshipped them, and this when the things themselves are absent.
He advises us to humble ourselves for our sinful thoughts:
And indeed there is much cause; for your thoughts, they are the first-begotten and eldest sons of original sin, and therefore, 'the strength' of it, as Jacob called Reuben the first-born; yea, also, and the parents and begetters of all other sins, their brethren; the first plotters and contrivers, and Ahithophels, in all the treasons and rebellions of our hearts and lives; the bellows and incendiaries of all inordinate affections; the panders to all our lusts, that take thought to provide for the satisfying of them; the disturbers in all good duties, that interrupt, and spoil, and fly-blow all our prayers, that they stink in the nostrils of God.
Quotes From Goodwin’s Works V.3 p. 510-524
Goodwin defines thoughts as:
...the internal acts of the mind of man, of what faculty soever; all those reasonings, consultations, purposes, resolutions, intents, ends, desires and cares of the mind of man, as opposed to our external words and actions.
Vanity, he defines as:
unprofitableness, Eccl. 1:2-3; lightness, Ps. 62:9; folly, Prov. 12:11; inconstancy and frailty, Ps. 144:4, 146:4; wickedness and sinfulness, Prov. 24:9, 30:32, 2 Chronicles 13:7.
Those who would assume that thoughts are not sin until they are put into action, or that the thoughts are free from God's judgment, Goodwin plainly refutes:
Thoughts are sins.
(1. "The law judgeth them, Heb. 4:12; rebukes a man for them, I Cor. 14:25, and therefore they are transgressions of the law.
(2. Because they are capable of pardon, and must be pardoned, or we cannot be saved, Acts 8:22; which argues the multitudes of God's compassions, seeing thoughts are so infinite.
(3. They are to be repented of; yea repentance is expressed as to begin at them: so, Isa. 55:7, 'Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts...
(4. They defile the man; which nothing defiles but sin: Matt. 15:18-19
(5. They are an abomination to the Lord who hates nothing but sin, and whose 'pure eyes can endure to behold no iniquity.' Habakkuk 1:13
(6. They hinder all good we would do, and spoil our best performances. Vain thoughts draw the heart away in them, that when a man should draw nigh to God, his heart, by reason of his thoughts, is 'far off from Him,' Isa. 29:13
(7. Our thoughts are the first motioners of all the evil in us. For they make the motion, and also bring the heart and object together, are panders to our lusts, hold up the object till the heart hath played the adulterer with it, and committed folly: so in speculative uncleanness, and in other lusts, they hold up the images of those gods they create, which the heart falls down and worships; they present credit, riches, beauty, till the heart hath worshipped them, and this when the things themselves are absent.
He advises us to humble ourselves for our sinful thoughts:
And indeed there is much cause; for your thoughts, they are the first-begotten and eldest sons of original sin, and therefore, 'the strength' of it, as Jacob called Reuben the first-born; yea, also, and the parents and begetters of all other sins, their brethren; the first plotters and contrivers, and Ahithophels, in all the treasons and rebellions of our hearts and lives; the bellows and incendiaries of all inordinate affections; the panders to all our lusts, that take thought to provide for the satisfying of them; the disturbers in all good duties, that interrupt, and spoil, and fly-blow all our prayers, that they stink in the nostrils of God.
Quotes From Goodwin’s Works V.3 p. 510-524
