Strong's G3053 λογισμός (logismos)

The Lord frustrates the counsels of the nations; He brings to nought also the reasonings of the peoples, And brings to nought the counsels of princes.

But the counsel of the Lord endures forever, The thoughts of his heart from generation to generation.

And feet hastening to do evil—are hateful to God.

The thoughts of the righteous are true judgments; But ungodly men devise deceits.

But counsel abides in the hearts of counselors.

But the sayings of the pure are held in honor.

There are many thoughts in a man’s heart; But the counsel of the Lord abides forever.

Behold, this have I found, said the Preacher, Seeking by one at a time to find out the account,

But, behold, this have I found, That God made man upright; But they have sought out many devices. Who knows the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a saying?

Whatsoever thy hand shall find to do, Do with all thy might; For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, Nor wisdom, in Hades whither thou goest.

And I know their works and their imagination. I am going to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

But I as an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, knew not: against me they devised an evil device, saying, Come and let us put wood into his bread, and let us utterly destroy him from off the land of the living, and let his name not be remembered anymore.

And now say to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Behold, I prepare evils against you, and devise a device against you: let every one turn now from his evil way, and amend your practices.

Then they said, Come, and let us devise a device against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and we will hear all his words.

Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he has taken against Babylon; and his devices, which he has devised upon the Chaldeans inhabiting it: surely lambs of their flock shall be destroyed: surely pasture shall be cut off from them.

The earth has quaked and been troubled, because the purpose of the Lord has risen up against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, and uninhabitable.

Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he has framed against Edom; and his device, which he has devised against the inhabitants of Teman: surely the least of the sheep shall be swept off; surely their dwelling shall be made desolate for them.

Flee ye, dig very deep for a dwelling place, ye that dwell in the palace; for the king of Babylon has framed a counsel, and devised a device against you.

And I will devise for you a device of peace, and not evil, to bestow upon you these good things.

Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass in that day, that thoughts shall come up into thy heart, and thou shalt devise evil devices.

And he shall enter with prosperity, and that into fertile districts; and he shall do what his fathers and his fathers’ fathers have not done; he shall scatter among them plunder, and spoils, and wealth; and he shall devise plans against Egypt, even for a time.

And his strength and his heart shall be stirred up against the king of the south with a great force; and the king of the south shall engage in war with a great and very strong force; but his forces shall not stand, for they shall devise plans against him:

But they know not the thought of the Lord, and have not understood his counsel: for he has gathered them as sheaves of the floor.

Out of thee shall proceed a device against the Lord, counseling evil things hostile to him.

Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

For ye cannot find the depth of the heart of man, neither can ye perceive the things that he thinketh: then how can ye search out God, that hath made all these things, and know his mind, or comprehend his purpose? Nay, my brethren, provoke not the Lord our God to anger.

King Ptolemy therefore, having gotten the dominion of the cities by the sea unto Seleucia upon the sea coast, imagined wicked counsels against Alexander.

But he began to consider discreetly, and as became his age, and the excellency of his ancient years, and the honor of his gray head, whereunto he was come, and his most honest education from a child, or rather the holy law made and given by God: therefore he answered accordingly, and willed them straightaway to send him to the grave.

Yea, she exhorted every one of them in her own language, filled with courageous spirits; and stirring up her womanish thoughts with a manly stomach, she said unto them,

By this sweet and profound influence of the Lord he was held fast, and thus his unjust purpose was quite frustrated, and his unflinching resolve greatly falsified.

As I am going to demonstrate a most philosophical proposition, namely, that religious reasoning is absolute master of the passions, I would willingly advise you to give the utmost heed to philosophy.

If, then, reasoning appears to hold the mastery over the passions which stand in the way of temperance, such as gluttony and lust,

How, then, is it, perhaps some may say, that reasoning, if it rule the affections, is not also master of forgetfulness and ignorance? They attempt a ridiculous argument.

For reasoning does not rule over its own affections, but over such as are contrary to justice, and manliness, and temperance, and prudence; and yet over these, so as to withstand, without destroying them.

I might prove to you, from many other considerations, that religious reasoning is sole master of the passions;

For all these, contemning pains even unto death, by this contempt, demonstrated that reasoning has command over the passions.

The question, therefore, is, whether reasoning be absolute master of the passions.

Let us determine, then, What is reasoning? and what passion? and how many forms of the passions? and whether reasoning bears sway over all of these?

Reasoning is, then, intellect accompanied by a life of rectitude, putting foremost the consideration of wisdom.

The leading one of these is prudence; by whose means, indeed, it is that reasoning bears rule over the passions.

And reasoning, the universal husbandman, purging, and pruning these severally, and binding round, and watering, and transplanting, in every way improves the materials of the morals and affections.

For reasoning is the leader of the virtues, but it is the sole ruler of the passions. Observe then first, through the very things which stand in the way of temperance, that reasoning is absolute ruler of the passions.

But of the lusts, some belong to the soul, others to the body: and over each of these classes the reasoning appears to bear sway.

For whence is it, otherwise, that when urged on to forbidden meats, we reject the gratification which would ensue from them? Is it not because reasoning is able to command the appetites? I believe so.

Hence it is, then, that when lusting after water animals and birds, and four-footed beasts, and all kinds of food which are forbidden us by the law, we withhold ourselves through the mastery of reasoning.

For the affections of our appetites are resisted by the temperate understanding, and bent back again, and all the impulses of the body are reined in by reasoning.

For, although young, and ripe for sexual intercourse, he abrogated by reasoning the stimulus of his passions.

And it is not merely the stimulus of sensual indulgence, but that of every desire, that reasoning is able to master.

Now, then, since it is the law which has forbidden us to desire, I shall much the more easily persuade you, that reasoning is able to govern our lusts, just as it does the affections which are impediments to justice.

Since in what way is a solitary eater, and a glutton, and a drunkard reclaimed, unless it be clear that reasoning is lord of the passions?

And should a man be parsimonious, he is ruled by the law acting through reasoning; so that he does not glean his harvest crops, nor vintage: and in reference to other points we may perceive that it is reasoning that conquers his passions.

It alloweth not to cut down the cultivated herbage of an enemy, but preserveth it from the destroyers, and collecteth their fallen ruins.

And reasoning appears to be master of the more violent passions, as love of empire and empty boasting, and arrogance, and loud boasting, and slander.

Thus Moses, when angered against Dathan and Abiram, did nothing to them in wrath, but regulated his anger by reasoning.

For why, else, does our most wise father Jacob blame Simeon and Levi for having irrationally slain the whole race of the Shechemites, saying, Cursed be their anger.

For if reasoning did not possess the power of subduing angry affections, he would not have spoken thus.

How, then, a man may say, if reasoning be master of the passions, has it no control over forgetfulness and ignorance?

The argument is exceedingly ridiculous: for reasoning does not appear to bear sway over its own affections, but over those of the body,

in such a way as that any one of you may not be able to root out desire, but reasoning will enable you to avoid being enslaved to it.

One may not be able to root out anger from the soul, but it is possible to withstand anger.

Any one of you may not be able to eradicate malice, but reasoning has force to work with you to prevent your yielding to malice.

For reasoning is not an eradicator, but an antagonist of the passions.

Wherefore, setting up reasoning in opposition to his desire, he poured out the draft to God.

and to wrestle down the pains of the body, however excessive; and, through the excellency of reasoning, to abominate all the assaults of the passions.

But the occasion now invites us to give an illustration of temperate reasoning from history.

Will you not awake from your trifling philosophy? and give up the folly of your notions; and, regaining understanding worthy of your age, search into the truth of an expedient course?

I am not so old, and void of manliness, but that my rational powers are youthful in defense of my religion.

For over the ungodly thou shalt tyrannize; but thou shalt not lord it over my thoughts about religion, either by thy arguments, or through deeds.

And falling upon the ground, from his body having no power to support the pains, he yet kept his reasoning upright and unbending.

Thus speaking, the holy man departed, noble in his torments, and even to the agonies of death resisted in his reasoning for the sake of the law.

Confessedly, therefore, religious reasoning is master of the passions.

For had the passions been superior to reasoning, I would have given them the witness of this mastery.

But now, since reasoning conquered the passions, we befittingly award it the authority of first place.

And it is but fair that we should allow, that the power belongs to reasoning, since it masters external miseries.

Ridiculous would it be were it not so; and I prove that reasoning has not only mastered pains, but that it is also superior to the pleasures, and withstands them.

The reasoning of our father Eleazar, like a first-rate pilot, steering the vessel of piety in the sea of passions,

Not so has ever a city, when besieged, held out against many and various machines, as did that holy man, when his pious soul was tried with the fiery trial of tortures and rackings, move his besiegers through the religious reasoning that shielded him.

so Eleazar, the descendant of Aaron, wasted away by the fire, did not give up his reasoning.

By the spirit of reasoning, and the reasoning of Isaac, he rendered powerless the many-headed instrument.

If, then, an old man, through religion, despised tortures even unto death, confessedly religious reasoning is ruler of the passions.

But perhaps some might say, It is not all who conquer passions, as all do not possess wise reasoning.

This circumstance, then, is by no means an objection, that some who have weak reasoning, are governed by their passions:

Then, indeed, vehemently swayed with passion, he commanded to bring others of the adult Hebrews, and if they would eat of the unclean thing, to let them go when they had eaten; but if they objected, to torment them more grievously.

he answered, Not so powerful, O accursed ministers, is your wheel, as to stifle my reasoning; cut my limbs, and burn my flesh, and twist my joints.

Thinkest thou not, most cruel of all tyrants, that thou art now tortured more than I, finding thy overweening conception of tyranny conquered by our patience in behalf of our religion?

Behold, my tongue is extended, cut it off; for not for that shalt thou extirpate our reasoning.

For is not your inability to overrule our reasoning, and to compel us to eat the unclean, thy destruction?

For the guards not of a tyrant but of a divine law are our defenders: through this we keep our reasoning unconquered.

If then, the seven brethren despised troubles even unto death, it is confessed on all sides that righteous reasoning is absolute master over the passions.

now it is not so: but by means of the reasoning which is praised by God, they mastered their passions.

Let us arm ourselves, therefore, in the abnegation of the divine reasoning.

O reasonings more royal than a king, and freer than freemen!

And think it not wonderful that reasoning bore rule over those men in their torments, when even a woman’s mind despised more manifold pains.

O reasoning of the sons, lord over the passions, and religion more desirable to a mother than progeny!

And yet, though there were so many circumstances connected with love of children to draw on a mother to sympathy, in the case of none of them were the various tortures able to pervert her principle.

But religious reasoning, having strengthened her courage in the midst of sufferings, enabled her to forego, for the time, parental love.

If, then, even a woman, and that an aged one, and the mother of seven children, endured to see her children’s torments even unto death, confessedly religious reasoning is master even of the passions.

But with the reasoning of religion the mother quenched passions so great and powerful.

Knowing that religious reasoning is lord of the passions, and those not only inward but outward.

For froward thoughts separate from God: And his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise.

For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, And remove from thoughts that are without understanding, And will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in.

For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable, And our devices are but uncertain.

But for the foolish devices of their wickedness, Wherewith being deceived they worshiped serpents void of reason, and vile beasts, Thou didst send a multitude of unreasonable beasts upon them for vengeance:

But executing thy judgments upon them by little and little, thou gavest them place of repentance, Not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation, And that their malice was bred in them, And that their cogitation would never be changed.

For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, And being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth grievous things.

For while they were yet mourning And making lamentation at the graves of the dead, They added another foolish device, And pursued them as fugitives, whom they had entreated to be gone.

As when one sifteth with a sieve, the refuse remaineth; So the filth of man in his talk.

Praise no man before thou hearest him speak; For this is the trial of men.

The life of him that dependeth on another man’s table is not to be counted for a life; For he polluteth himself with other men’s meat: But a wise man well nurtured will beware thereof.

By his counsel he appeaseth the deep, And planteth islands therein.