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A81748
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A right intention the rule of all mens actions. Converted out of Drexelius to our proper use. / By John Dawson ...; Recta intentio omnium humanarum actionum amussio. English. 1655
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Drexel, Jeremias, 1581-1638.
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1655
(1655)
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Wing D2185A; ESTC R231958
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220,422
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649
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an evill worke good when as an ill intention may make a good worke evill From whence I pray hath an evill intention so much force that it can corrupt even the best worke whereas a good intention is not of so great strength that it can heale an evill worke A good worke is contaminated with an ill intention and how comes it to passe that an evill worke cannot be amended by a good intention if fasting out of covetousnesse bee of no worth why is not the stealing of Bond-men out of mercy a thing of some desert most clearely Christ If thine eye saith hee be single thy whole body shall bee full of light but if thine eye bee evill thy whole body shall be full of darkenes It seemeth therefore in equall right that a good intention should bee able to performe in an evill worke what an ill intention can in a good worke Wee answer according to Saint Bernards meaning Two evills are stronger then one good where a good intention is not although the worke bee good there are two evills namely an ill intention and dâ—ceiveable erâ—our For examples sake I abstaine in a manner three dayes from drinke and take it very sparingly for there is to câ—me to me a notâ—â—â—ed inker that I may answer him at his owne weapons for the present I drinke lesse that afterward I may drinke more largely Here is a double evill the first an Ill Intention I suffer thirst for drunkennesse sake the other an errour of Faith which perswades mee to beleeve that this temperance of liquor will not displease God And here is a good worke joyned to a double evill Intention and Errour which elegantly Bernard That the eye saith hee be truely single there is required charity in the intention and truth in election Bern. De Praecept et dispens But now where there is an evill worke with a good intention the intention is the onely good all the rest are naught Hereupon though this leaven bee good it is not of such strength as to penetrate and change an evill lumpe into better It is well knowne In asymbolaes such as are Fire and Water Things voyd of any likenes the Transmutation is not easie to thinke well and doe ill are Asymbâ—laes in the highest degree It is not sufficient to a good action to thinke that it is good it is also necessary that there be no errour or deceite in it To an evill action it sufficeth that one onely part thereof bee evill Most divulged is that of Saint Denis Bonum constat ex integrâ causâ malum verò è quovis defectu Good consisteth of an intire cause but evill out of every defect Which Seneca confirming Adde now hereunto saith hee that nothing is done honestly but with what the whole minde hath beene present and intent upon what it hath gainesaid with no part of it selfe Senec. Epist 82. prop. finem To walke well saith Hierome men must goe in the middle and beaten path to doe good with an ill intention is to bend too much to the right hand to doe ill with a good intention is to decline too much to the left hand whether of these bee done the Divelâ— greatly cares not so either of them bee done so the Traveller bee led out of the mid way whereas that is ever the course of vertue that which exceeds doth as bad as that which faileth Gregory Nazianzen confirming what hath bin spoken who may doubt saith hee that it is a thing of greater skill to restore health to the sicke then to take it from the sound that it is harder for bitter liquor to become sweet then sweet Wine to become bitter for to this there need but a few drops to that a huge Tub is scarce sufficient It is a Rule in Logicke The conclusion followeth the weaker part where a good intention and an evill worke is the whole conclusion is naught So it is a tricke and meeâ—â— cousenage to goe about to set forth an action of it selfe naught under a good end to desire so to cover vice with a good intention as that God may take it for vertue Excellently Gilbertus What when a good deed is pretended saith hee and not good indeed but the contrary is wholly intended shall this eye bee called darke all over or dimme in part To me indeed it rather seemeth quite blind For although light bee deputed in the worke yet none is acknowledged in the intention But how is the intention good which wisheth not good or how single Maâ—keth which hideth it selfe under a bare shew of goodnesse Gilbert Serm. 22. in Cant. D. Bernardo in hoc labore succenturiatus He which recalls to memory the state of former yeares and weigheth the horrible troubles of the Christian World and the most grievous rebellion of so many Provinces will perhaps favourably descend to that opinion as to suffer himselfe to be perswaded that many of the rebellious were deluded with a most honest end Purpose How great a clamour was there of the parties calling to Armes and animating one another with mutuall encouragements but for what end with what intention what store mightest thou have heard say That the Word of God may grow that the Gospell may be pâ—opagated Many I doubt not deceived themselves with most holy words which had this one thing in their mouth Wee fight for God and the Gospell But O good â—irs if indeed yee fight for God and the Gospell why doe yee rise up against the lawfull Magistrate why without apparant cause doe yee so cruelly bend your forces against these and these This is against God against Gods Word this the Gospell forbids The Word of God is not pleased with Seditions not with tumults not with rebellions neither is any evill to be committed that any good may come of it Therefore let goe the most specious Titles you shall never cloake as you thinke a most wicked worke with a good intention A good end and a naughty meanes are ill joyned together the Lapwing and the Dove are no pleasing Sacrifice to God To take by maine force from one what thou maist give to another is a thing forbidden A good intention shall never put true honesty upon an evill deed In like manner did not they which murthered the Apostles purge the deed with an excellent intention Christ premonishing in a most cleare Prophesie The houre commeth saith hee that whosoever killeth you will thinke that hee doth God service Ioh. 16.2 For indeed therefore were the Apostles killed that religion should not be innovated neither strange worships brought into the Provinces Thus they overlaid a most grievous crime with a most vertuous Title for there is scarce any kind of unrighteousnesse which may not bee covered with a mantle of honesty This is to bee most apparantly seene in Saul King of Israel one would have sworne that the King was reprehended by Samuel the Prophet more out of passion then reason that Saul dealt providently and with
fastest annoynt thy head and wash thy face that thou appeare not unto men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Ibid. v. 17 18. So let our goodnesse looke inward The third Let such men as these shun not onely the open world and hide themselves from eyes to bee their praisers but let them shun themselves and forget what they did least happily they become selfe-pleasers Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth Very well Iob. Though I were perfect yet should not my soule know it Iob. 9.21 Let a spirit Christian friend let a good and upright spirit know what thou art about to doe this will direct thy deeds nor let it much deliberate with the flesh about them otherwise thou shalt be entangled with a thousand reluctances and stubborne humours and innumerable other intentions smelling of flesh and earth will intermixe themselves thus thou shalt rather seeke thy selfe then God Therefore so performe thy worke that the flesh may not bee conscious of it and looke after this one thing To will what God will Let not therefore thy left hand know what thy right hand doth Let thine almes and thy other good deeds bee most secret and voyd of all ostentation But thy hand is then as it were conscious of thy benevolence when it is made a chiefe actor in bestowing it Wherefore if it be sufficient that thy right hand should know it let not the left also be used Be thou so farre therefore from all love of ostentation and this desire of Hypocrites which lay their deeds in open view that thou for thine owne part wouldst have thy doings utterly concealed nor looke after any witnesses nor wouldst so much as take any notice of what thou dost well nor remember the things any longer then thou art about them and mayst presently put in oblivion what thou hast performed least thou shouldest bee taken up with selfe-admiration Selfe conceits forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward unto those things which are before Pbilip 3.13 But if wee be possest with a greater estimation of ouâ— owne deeds then is fit if our mind bee carried up and downe with the matter we shall bee rapt up with our selves for spectators admirers and praisers of that which wee have done which is nothing else then if the other hand bee employed without any need Negligentiorss facit et in arrogantiam tollit Chrysostome plainely to the matter Nothing saith he doeth so much frustrate and spoile good workes as the remembrance of those things which wee have done well for it begets two evills it maketh us more negligent and sets us on the wings of pride Chrysost Hom. 12. in Epist ad Philip. God in times past gave charge that his Altar should bee built not of hewen Stones And if saith he thou wilt make me an Altar of stone thou shalt not build it of hewen stone for if thou lift up thy toole upon it thou hast polluted it Exod. 20.25 Is there so great Religion in this much truely Stones are hewen that they may bee lookt upon those that are to be placed within side the wall need not any polishing of Tooles So God in the Soule of man as it were an Altar built to him approves those vertues which are practised out of a pure and simple intention but such as are therefore practised that they may be seene are like hewen stones not fit for this Altar It is enough and enough to all good minded men that their righteous dealings shall in the last day of Iudgement bee knowne of all both men and Angels This at length shall bee true honour to have done well and to bee commended for it by the whole World CHAP. X. How diverse and manifold an ill intention is THe Salamander is no great Beast but a little Creature of a speckled and bright spotted skin like a Lyzard but it carries so much poison about with it that if it touch the root of a Tree it killeth all the fruite in the root and takes away all life from the Tree The Divell that Orcinian Serpent the most true Salamander Hellish to be consumed with no fire if he set his teeth into the root of a fruitefull Tree corrupteth it all over The root of al our doings is our intention if the Devill do but touch this and infect it with the poyson of an ill intention the whole tree becomes unfruitfull every venemous deed whatsoever is made unprofitable perverse poysonous which is hurt by this tricke of the subtile fiend It is a knowne saying when the intention which goes before is untoward every deed which followes after is naught If thine eye bee evill thy whole body shall be full of darknesse Wee shewed in the Chapter next before how neare a Kinne it is to an evill intention for a man to proclaime his worke now wee must expresse how various an ill intention is and how from many severall fountaines this kind of poison issueth Scarce any thing springs out of the earth which doeth so fortifie and enwrap it selfe against winter as an Onion seaven Coates are not enough for it but moreover it fasteneth the head under ground Shootes Not unlike to these Coated Onions are the eyes of those whereof the Sonne of Syrach A fooles eyes are manifold Oculi insipientium septemplices Eccles 20.14 They have many Coates like an Onion Such eyes are not single at all as Christ would have them Most like to these eyes and these so well cloathed Onions is an ill intention if thou take away one coate from her there is another at hâ—nd dost thou take away this also another is presently to be seene And even as Onions doe hide themselves so likewise an ill intention no mortall man can sift her out sufficiently and search deepe enough that way An evill intention will not seeme evill she wants no kind of colours or pretences Christ reprehended the Pharisees for causing a Trumpet to be sounded before them when they went to give almes they casting the Coate of a very honest excuse upon the matter Wee doe not these things said they to set forth our liberality but to call the poore together not that others may call us bountifull but that the needy may come all about to the Dole Fooles eyes looke sundry waies at once an ill intention is manifold of a speckled and changable coloured skinne like the Salamander All of us by nature long to know but how diverse and multiplicious is the intention in this onely desire of knowing Curiously Bernard There be some saith he which desire to know for that end onely that they may have knowledge and this is idle curiosity There are which desire to know that they may be knowne themselves and this is filthy vanity be sure these people shall not escape the scoffing Satyrist reading this Lesson to such as these Scire