Two dissertations, I. Concerning the end for which God created the world. II. The…

Pos. 3. THE ultimate end of God's creating the world, being also (as was before observed) the last end of all God's works of providence, and that in the highest sense, and being above all other things important, we may well presume that this end will be chiefly insisted on in the word of God, in the account it gives of God's designs and ends in his works of providence—and therefore, if there be any particular thing, that we find more frequently mentioned in ⟨p. 53⟩scripture as God's ultimate aim in his works of providence, than any thing else, this is a presumption that this is the supreme and ultimate end of God's works in general, and so the end of the work of creation.

Pos. 4. THAT which appears from the word of God to be his last end with respect to the moral world, or God's last end in the creation and disposal of the intelligent part of the system, and in the moral government of the world, that is God's last end in the work of creation in general. Because it is evident, from the constitution of the world itself, as well as from the word of God, that the moral part is the end of all the rest of the creation. The inanimate unintelligent part is made for the rational as much as a house is prepared for the inhabitant. And it is evident also from reason and the word of God, that it is with regard to what is moral in them, or for the sake of some moral good in them, that moral agents are made & the world made for them.—But it is further evident that whatsoever is the last end of that part of creation that is the end of all the rest, and for which all the rest of the world was made, must be the last end of the whole. If all the other parts of a watch are made for the hand of the watch, to move that aright, and for a due and proper regulation of that, then it will follow, that the last end of the hand, is the last end of the whole machine.