I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?
— Jeremiah 13:27
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
— Psalm 66:18
SAMECH. I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
— Psalm 119:113
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
— Proverbs 1:22
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
— Isaiah 55:7-9
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
— Psalm 139:6-12
Remedies Against Vain Thoughts, by Thomas Goodwin. The following contains Chapter Six of his work, “The Vanity of Thoughts, Being an Instance of the Abounding Sinfulness in One Faculty of the Soul.”
How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
— Jeremiah 4:14 d
The first is to get the heart furnished and enriched with good stock of sanctified and heavenly knowledge in spiritual and heavenly truths; for ‘a good man,’ saith Christ, hath a ‘good treasure in his heart,’ Matt. 12:35,— that is, he hath all graces, so many precious truths, which are as gold in the ore, which his thoughts, as the mint, doth coin and beat out, and which words bring forth. ‘A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things.’ If, therefore, there be not mines of precious truths hid in the heart, no wonder if our thoughts coin nothing but dross, frothy, vain thoughts; for better materials, which should feed the mind, are wanting. Therefore, Solomon saith,’Wicked men forge,’ mint, or hammer,’wickedness,’ Prov. 6:14; so Junius reads it. Or if men have store of natural knowledge, and want spiritual useful knowledge to themselves; although in company with others they may bring forth good things in speeches, yet when alone, their thoughts run not on them. For this take a place of Scripture, Deut. 6:6, 7, which shews that laying up the word in the heart, and being much conversant in it, and getting knowledge out of it, is an effectual means to keep our thoughts well exercised when we are alone; for the end why those words of the law are commanded to be ‘laid up in the heart,’ ver. 5, 6, is, as to teach them to others, so to take up our thoughts when we are most retired and alone, and when a man can do nothing but barely exercise his mind in thinking. For when a man is a-riding, or walking, or lying down, and rising up, (which are often and usually our most retired times for thoughts, and are wholly spent in them, and many ride alone, and lie alone, &c.,) yet then, saith he, thou shalt talk of the word: which command he that is alone cannot do, therefore the talking there meant is not only λόγος προφορικὸς, outward conference with others, (though intended as occasion of talking with others is given,) as to talk to thy bedfellow of it, and to thy companion; but suppose thou hast none, then to talk of it to thyself, for thoughts are λόγοι ἐνδιάθετοι, talking of the mind. And so, comparing Prov. 6:22 with this place, which will fitly interpret it, it appears; for Solomon, exhorting to the same duty of ‘binding the word to the heart,’ useth this motive, which is the fruit thereof,’that when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee,’—that is, by thy thinking of it, it will talk with thee when thou and it art alone,—so as thou shalt not need a better companion, it will be putting in and suggesting something.
Secondly, endeavour to preserve and keep up lively, holy, and spiritual affections in thy heart, and suffer them not to cool: fall not from thy first love, nor fear, nor joy in God; or if thou hast grown remiss, endeavour to recover those affections again. For such as your affections are, such necessarily must your thoughts be; and they incline the mind to think of such or such objects as will please them, rather than others. Therefore, says David, Ps. 119:97,’How do I love thy law! it is my meditation day and night.’ It was his love to it made him think of it so frequently. So, Mal. 3:16,’Those that feared the Lord, and thought upon his name,’ are joined: for what we fear we often think of, and also speak of often; therefore it is added,’They spake oft one to another.’ Fear made them think much of his name, and thinking of it made them speak of it: such affection, such thoughts, and. such speeches as they both are. And, indeed, thoughts and affections are sibi mutuo causæ,—the mutual causes of each other: ‘Whilst I mused, the fire burned,’ Ps. 39; so that thoughts are the bellows that kindle and inflame affections; and then if they are inflamed, they cause thoughts to boil; therefore men newly converted to God, having new and strong affections, can with more pleasure think of God than any.
Thirdly, of all apprehensions else, get thy heart possessed with deep, strong, and powerful apprehensions and impressions of God’s holiness, majesty, omnipresence, and omniscience. If any thoughts be of power to settle, fix, and draw in the mind of man, they are the thoughts of him. What is the reason that the saints and angels in heaven have not a vain thought to eternity, not a wry stroke? His presence fixeth them, their eye is never off him. Take a wanton, garish, loose spirit, let him be but in the presence of a superior whom he fears and reverenceth, and it consolidates him. Job made therefore conscience of his thoughts, that he durst not look awry, chap. 31:1, 2, because God sees it, saith he. This drew in and fastened David’s thoughts; Ps. 139:1–12, he manifests what continual apprehensions he had of God’s greatness, majesty, and omnipresence. And what effect had this? ‘When I awake I am even before thee,’ ver. 17. Look what objects they are have most strong and deep impressions in the mind, of those when a man awaketh he thinks of first. Now such strong impressions had David’s thoughts of God, that still when he awaked he was with him. And therefore we find it by experience to be a means to avoid distractions in prayers, to enlarge a man’s thoughts in his preparations before, or at the beginning, with a consideration of God’s attributes and relations to us: and it will and doth make us serious.
Fourthly, especially do this when thou awakest, as David did there: ‘When I awake, I am still with thee.’ To prevent wind, which ariseth from emptiness, men use to take a good draught in the morning, which the stomach feeds; so, to prevent those vain, windy, frothy thoughts the heart naturally engenders, and which arise from emptiness, first fill thy heart with the thoughts of God; go down into his wine-cellar. Observe it when you will, when you first open your eyes there stand many suitors attending on you, to speak with your thoughts, even as clients at lawyers’ doors, many vanities and businesses; but speak thou with God first, he will say something to thy heart will settle it for all day: and this do before the crowd of businesses come in upon thee. Of some heathens it is said, that they worship that as their god for all day which they first see in the morning; so it is with the idols of men’s hearts.
Fifthly, have a watchful eye, and observe thy heart all day; though they crowd in, yet observe them, let them know that they pass not unseen. If a man would pray aright, he must watch also who comes in and who goes out. Where strict watch and ward is kept, and magistrates observant, the marshal and constable diligent to examine vagrant persons, you shall have few there; that such swarms of vagrant thoughts make their rendezvous, and pass, is because there is not strict watch kept. This is in a manner all thou canst do, for they will pass however; but yet complain thou of them, whip them, and give them their pass.
Sixthly, please not thy fancy too much with vanities and curious sights; this engenders vain thoughts: therefore Job says, chap. 31:1, that he ‘made a covenant with his eyes, lest he should think of a maid;’ Prov. 4:25,’Let thine eyes look right on.’
Seventhly, be diligent in thy calling; and ‘what thine hand finds to do, do it with all thy might,’ as it is, Eccles. 9:10; that is, putting to all the intention and strength of the mind that may be in it. Let all the stream run to ruin about thy mill; the keeping thy thoughts to that channel keeps them from overflowing into vanity and folly. 2 Thess. 3:11, those that labour not are busybodies; and, 1 Tim. 5:13, idle, wandering, περίεργοι; they are not only called ἀργοὶ, idle only, because not busy about what they should, but περίεργοι, as intent on things they should not; they go from house to house: so their bodies do, because their minds do wander, having no centre. When David walked alone, what extravagancy did his spirit run into! Let the ground lie fallow, and what weeds will there soon grow in it! God hath appointed us our callings to entertain our thoughts, and to find them work, and to hold them doing in the interims between the duties if his worship, because the spirit and thoughts of men are restless, and will be busied some way. As therefore kings keep those men that have active spirits in continual employment, lest their heads should be working and plotting amiss, so did God appoint even in paradise the active spirit of man a calling to keep him doing. God hereby hedgeth in man’s thoughts, and sets them to go in a narrow lane, knowing that if they are unconfined and left at liberty, they would like ‘wild asses snuff up the wind,’ as Jeremiah speaks, chap. 2:24. Only take heed of encumbering thy mind with too much business, more than thou canst grasp. It made Martha forget that ‘one thing necessary,’ being ‘cumbered with many things,’ Luke 10:4. This breeds cares, μέριμναι, which distract the mind, (so the word signifies, ἀπο τοῦ μεριζειν,) as dividing it, and so cause wandering thoughts, nothing more, so that the mind is not itself. For this weakens it, enervates it, and this being vanity,—Exod. 18:18, said Jethro to Moses, when encumbered with business,’Thou wilt fade away as a leaf,’ out of which the moisture is dried up,—even that juice which should be left for good duties will be exhausted. As dreams come through multitude of business, Eccles. 5:3, so do a multitude of thoughts from a cumber of business.
Eighthly, in thy calling, and all thy ways, for the success and thy ways therein,’commit thy ways to God.’ Prov. 16:3,’Commit thy way unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established,’ or ordered; that is, keep from that confusion and disorder, and those swarms of cares, which others are annoyed with, and thereby thy aims may be as well accomplished. A few thoughts of faith would save us many thoughts of cares and fears, in the businesses we go about; which prove therefore vain, because they forward not at all the business we intend. When such waves toss the heart and turmoil it, and the winds of passions are up, if a few thoughts of faith come into the heart, they calm all presently.
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