The Vanity of Thoughts

There is a certain excitement in picking up a book from a Puritan author, usually tempered with trepidation. The excitement arises from that distinct combination of conviction and spirituality of the age, and the trepidation from a concern, ‘will I even understand it? Will the content be impenetrable?

In Thomas Goodwin’s The Vanity of Thoughts (part of a series edited for length and ease of language), thoughts are defined as notions or perceptions conceived in one’s own mind – as the understanding directs the imagination. Goodwin deems them vanity because, by nature, they only lead to sin. They are, in fact, the catalyst for it.