THOUGHT, Thinking. This Word is taken, not always for the pure Operation of the Mind while it thinks, without passing a Judgment, or taking any Resolution. The Thought often includes a formed Design of doing something.: For example, I knew not Jerem. xi. 19.that they had devised devices [or thought Thoughts] against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof. And in Genesis, speaking of those that built the Gen. xi. 6.Tower of Babel, Nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined, [or Psal.thought] to do. And the Psalmist says, The Lord bringeth the counsel of the Heathen to nought; he maketh the devices [or Thoughts] of the people of none effect. The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart Passages, Counsel, Designs, Devices, and Thoughts, are equivalent to Undertakings and Resolutions.
Psal. lvi.6. Nahum i. 9. Ibid. ver. 11. Exod. xxxv.31, 32.The Hebrews give the Title of Works of Thought to such Works as require Industry and a particular Genius. Implevit eum spiritu Dei, sapientiâ & intelligentiâ, ----- ad cogitandum & faciendum, &c. The Hebrew says, ad cogitandum cogitationes, ad faciendum, &c. Ver. 33. In omni opere cogitationis. In the Proverbs, a Man of Thoughts is a Prov. xiv. 17. xxiv. 8.crafty Man; Qui cogitat malè facere, stultus vocabitur. The Hebrew says, He shall be called a Master of Thoughts, that thinks of doing ill. And Acts xvii. 29. Sculptura artis & cogitationis.
Cogitare and cogitatio are often taken in an ill Sense, for contriving and devising Mischief. Omnes cogitationes eorum in malum. And, Quid cogitatis contra dominum. Et ex te exibit cogitans contra dominum malitiam. And Jerem. xviii. 18. Cogitaverunt contra Jeremiam cogitationes. Isa. lv. 7. Derelinquat impius viam suam, & vir iniquus cogitationes suas, &c.
Rom. ii. 15.St. Paul says, Their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing, one another, when their Conscience bears Testimony to them, either for Good or Evil. Elsewhere Ephes. ii. 3.he says, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind [or Thoughts.]; that is, of their own Flesh, of their own Mind, of their carnal Inclinations. And, speaking of 1 Cor. vii. 34.Virgins, he says, The unmarried woman careth for [or thinketh of] the things of the Lord: She is employed about matters of Religion, and thinketh of pleasing God.