A collection of miscellanies consisting of poems, essays, discourses, and letters occasionally written / by John Norris ...

Contemplation the Sixth.

The second Corollarŷ: that therefore God is ultimately to be refer'd to in all our actions, and that he is not to be used by us, but enjoyed.

1. AS there is nothing of greater and more universal moment to the regular ordi∣nation of human life, than rightly to accom∣modate the Means and the End, and to make them uniform and Symbolical; so is there no∣thing wherein men are more universally pec∣cant and defective, and that not only in Pra∣ctice, but also in Notion and Theory.

2. For altho to do an ill action for a good End, and to do a good action for an ill End, are generally acknowledg'd alike criminal, yet concerning this latter 'tis observable, that men usually think the morality of their actions suf∣ficiently secured, if the End proposed be not in its own nature specifically evil. Whereas in∣deed there is yet another way whereby an End may become evil, namely, by being rested in when 'tis not the last, without any further re∣spect or reference. By this undue and ill-plac'd

Acquiescence, an End that is otherwise in its own intrinsic nature good, upon the whole com∣mences evil. For tho it be good to be chosen, it is yet ill to be rested in.

3. For indeed 'tis against the order and oe∣conomy of things as well as against the perfe∣ction of Religion, that any End should be ulti∣mately rested in but what is truly the last. Now the last end of action can be no other than that which is the last end of the will which is, the Spring of action. This therefore being God (as appears from what I have already contempla∣ted) it follows, that he ought to be the ultimate End of all our actions, that we ought not in any of our motions to stop short of this Center, but in all our actions to make a further reference either actual or habitual, and according to that of the Apostle, whether we eat or drink to do all to the glory of God.

4. For what can be more absurd and incon∣gruous than to turn the Means into the End, and the End into the Means, to enjoy what ought to be only used, and to use what ought to be enjoyed? God is our last End, and therefore must not be desired for any thing but himself, nor used as a means to accomplish any other Design. Which also concludes against all those who make Religion a Point of Secular interest, and a tool of State-policy, whereas that ought to prescribe, and not receive measures from any Human affairs.

The Prayer.

MY God, my Happiness, who art the last end of my Desires, the very utmost of all Perfection, and beyond whom there is no good, be thou the last end of my Actions too, and let them all meet and unite in thee as lines in their Center. Grant I may set thee before me in all my thoughts, words and actions, let my eye of Contemplation be always open, and what∣ever intermedial designs I may have, let my last aim be thy glory. And O let me never be so low sunk, base and wicked, as to make Religion an instrument of worldly policy, nor to dishonour thee and my own Soul by such a mercenary Pie∣ty. But do thou always possess my mind with such a due value for thy infinite excellency, that I may refer all things to thee, and thee and thine to nothing, but love and embrace thee for thy own self, who in thy self alone art alto∣gether lovely,

Amen, Amen.