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

SOME ends are subordinate ends, not only as they are subordinated to an ultimate end; but also to another end that is itself but a subordinate end: Yea, there may be a succession or chain of many subordinate ends, one dependent on another,—one sought for another: The first for the next; and that for the sake of the next to that,—and so on in a long series before you come to any thing, that the agent aims at and seeks for it's own sake:—As when a man sells a garment to get money—to buy tools—to till his land—to obtain a crop—to supply him with food—to gratify the appetite. And he seeks to gratify his appetite, on it's own account, as what is grateful in itself. Here the end of his selling his garment, is to get money; but getting money is only a subordinate end: Tis not only subordinate to the last end, his gratifying his appetite; but to a nearer end, viz. his buying husbandry tools: And his obtaining these, is only a subordinate end, being only for the sake of tilling land: And the tillage of land, is an end not sought on it's own account, but for the sake of the crop to be produced: And the crop produced, is not an ultimate end, or an end sought for itself, but only for the sake of making bread: And the having bread, is not sought on it's own account, but for the sake of gratifying the appetite.

HERE the gratifying the appetite, is called the ultimate end; because 'tis the last in the chain, where a man's aim and pursuit stops and rests, obtaining in that, the thing finally aimed at. So whenever a man comes to that in which his desire terminates and rests, it being something valued on it's own account, then he comes to an ultimate end, let the chain be longer or shorter; yea, if there be but one link or one step that he takes before he comes to this end. As when a man that loves honey puts it into his mouth, for the sake of the pleasure of the taste, without aiming at any thing further. So that an end which an agent has in view, may be both his immediate and his ultimate end; his next and his last end. That end which is sought for the sake of itself, and not for the sake of a further end, is an ultimate end; it is ultimate or last, as it has no other beyond it, for whose sake it is, it being for the sake of itself: So that here, the aim of the agent stops and rests (without going further) being come to the good which he esteems a recompense of it's pursuit for it's own value.