Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

3. As God is the final Cause, or End of all, he is Lord of all. ^*The End hath a greater Sovereignty in actions, than the Actor it self: The Actor hath a Sovereignty over others in action, but the end for which any one works hath a Sovereignty over the Agent himself. A Limner hath a Sovereignty over the Picture he is framing, or hath framed, but the end for which he framed it, either his profit he designed from it, or the honour and credit of skill he aimed at in it, hath a Dominion over the Limner himself. The end moves, and excites the Artist to work, it spirits him in it, conducts him in his whole business, possesses his mind, and sits triumphant in him in all the progress of his work; 'Tis the first cause for which the whole work is wrought. Now God in his actual Creation of all, is the Sovereign end of all; for thy pleasure they are, and were created, Rev. 4.11. The Lord hath made all things for himself, Prov. 16.4. Man indeed is the subordinate and immediate end of the lower Creation: And therefore had the Dominion over other Creatures granted to him. But God being the ultimate and principal end, hath the Sovereign and principal Dominion; all things as much refer to him as the last end, as they flow from him as the first Cause. So that as I said before, if the World had been compacted together by a jumbling chance without a wise hand, as some have foolishly imagined, none could have been an Antagonist with God for the Government of the World, but God in regard of the excellency of his nature would have been the Rector of it, unless those ⟨p. 709⟩Atoms that had composed the World, had had an ability to Govern it. Since there could be no universal end of all things but God, God only can claim an entire right to the Government of it: For though man be the end of the lower Creation, yet man is not the end of himself, and his own being, he is not the end of the Creation of the supreme Heavens, he is not able to govern them, they are out of his ken, and out of his reach. None fit in regard of the excellency of Nature, to be the chief end of the whole World but God: And therefore none can have a right to the Dominion of it but God. In this regard Gods Dominion differs from the Dominion of all Earthly Potentates.