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A good intention joyned to a good Action, gives it is proper force and efficacy; joined to an evil Action, extenuates its malignity, and in some cases may take it wholly away; and joined to an indifferent Action turns it to a Virtue, and makes it meritorious as far as human Actions can be so. In the next place, to consider in the same manner to the influence of an evil Intention upon our Actions. An evil intention perverts the best of Actions, and makes them in reality, what the fathers with a witty kind of zeal have termed the virtues of the heathen world, so many shining sins. It destroys the innocence of an indifferent Action, and gives an evil Action all possible blackness and horror, or in the emphatical language of snered Writ, makes Sin exceeding sinful. If in the past place, we consider the nature of an indifferent Intention, we shall find that it destroys the merit of a good Action; abates, but never takes away, the malignity of an evil Action; and leaves an indifferent Action in its natural state of indifference. It is therefore of unspeakable advantage to possess our minds with a habitual good intention, and to aim all our thoughts, words, and actions at some laudable end, whther it be the glory of our Maker, the good of Mankind, or the benefit of our own Souls.
