The Vanity of Thoughts Discovered

A searching Puritan examination of the sinfulness of vain thoughts, grounded in Jeremiah 4:14. Goodwin probes the heart as a lodging-house where idle, corrupt, and wandering thoughts dwell unchallenged. He defines thought broadly, demonstrates why thoughts constitute genuine sin before God, and traces seven marks of mental vanity — from unprofitableness and levity to independence and lust-fulfilling fantasy. The treatise closes with practical remedies: furnishing the mind with heavenly knowledge, watchfulness in prayer, and diligence in calling.