I. What Is Meant by Thoughts?
What is Meant by Thoughts?
1. Firstly, let us clarify what is meant by thoughts, particularly since they are the main focus of this discussion, which necessitates setting some boundaries in such a vast subject.
(1.) In the Scriptures, thoughts encompass all internal mental activities of a person, regardless of the specific mental faculty involved. They include reasonings, deliberations, intentions, resolutions, purposes, desires, and concerns of the human mind, as distinguished from external words and actions. For instance, in Isaiah 66:18, all acts are divided into these two categories: "I know their works and their thoughts." Thoughts refer to what takes place within the mind, while works pertain to the manifestations and outward expressions of those thoughts. Similarly, in Genesis 6:5, it is stated that "every imagination of the thoughts"—that is, every idea, purpose, desire, etc. conceived within the mind (as noted in the margin)—is evil. Here, thoughts encompass everything that "comes within the mind," as the phrase is used in Ezekiel 11:5, and this is how we commonly understand and use the term. For example, to "remember" someone is to "think" of them, as seen in Genesis 40:14.
When we have planned something, we say, "I thought to do it."
Taking care of a matter is described as "taking thought," as in 1 Samuel 9:5. The reason why all these mental activities can be called thoughts is that all emotions, desires, and intentions are aroused, generated, and nurtured by thoughts. Every thought elicits some form of emotion, such as fear, joy, concern, grief, and so on.
However, while the term is used broadly here, I do not intend to address the vanity of thoughts in such a comprehensive sense at this
moment. I must confine myself, as strictly as possible, to the vanity of what is more specifically referred to as the act of thinking, contemplating, and considering, which resides in the understanding or spirit of man. This is the specific topic I am addressing; thoughts, in this sense, are not merely contrasted with actions but also with purposes and intentions. In Hebrews 4:12, the soul and spirit are contrasted with thoughts and intents. Likewise, in Job 20:2-3,
"thoughts" are attributed to the "spirit of understanding."
Furthermore, I am focusing more narrowly, specifically on the musings within the speculative realm, within the understanding, and not on all thoughts in general or the reasonings and deliberations related to our actions.
And thus, I can explain them to you in no other way than this: Those initial, simpler notions, perceptions that arise, those imaginations, meditations which the understanding, aided by imagination, forms within itself about things—those on which your minds reflect, ponder, and contemplate—these are what I mean by thoughts. I refer to those conversations our minds have with the things we know, as the Scriptures describe it in Proverbs 6:22. I mean those interactions, encounters, and dialogues that the mind has with the things that enter it, with the things we fear, with the things we love.
Our minds make companions of all these things, and our thoughts engage in discourse with them, having countless notions and ideas about them. This is what I mean by thoughts. Besides the power of reasoning and deliberation, through which we constantly ask ourselves, "What shall we do?" and engage in logical discussions— which is the more internal chamber, the secret council of the heart— there is also a more outward chamber, the presence-chamber, which welcomes all who come, which represents the thinking, meditating, musing power within humans. This power suggests matters for deliberation, consultation, and reasoning. It holds objects until we
examine them, and it entertains all those who come to communicate with any of our emotions.
(2.) I also add, "which the mind frames within itself." This is how the Scriptures present their origin and how they arise. In Proverbs 6:14, it says, "Frowardness is in his heart"—fabricatur—"he devises mischief," like a blacksmith shaping iron. And thoughts are the materials for this frowardness within us. When presented with various things, the mind generates thoughts, imaginations about them. Just as lusts are conceived, thoughts are also conceived (James
1). Isaiah 59:4 says, "They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, and hatch cockatrice eggs and weave spiders' webs." The passage goes on to mention "thoughts of iniquity" because our thoughts are spun from our own hearts. They are the eggs we lay ourselves, even though the external stimuli may come from outside.
I include this distinction to separate them from thoughts that are solely injected and imposed from outside, which are offspring of another's creation and are often rejected: such as blasphemous thoughts cast in by Satan. If the soul is merely passive in receiving them (as the term "buffeting" implies in 2 Corinthians 12:7), they are not your thoughts but his. It is as if a person is in a room with another individual who is swearing and cursing, unable to escape from their presence. Such thoughts, if they are solely "from without," do not defile a person. As Jesus said in Matthew 15:18-19, "What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person." However, thoughts that the heart has conceived upon them by the influence of the devil—such as thoughts of impurity—although he may be the father, the heart is the mother and the womb.
Therefore, they affect the heart accordingly, just as natural children do. We can distinguish them from the former when we have a tender heart, an inward affection towards them, so that our hearts embrace