Why did God create us?

c. 176–180 · Athenagoras, On the Resurrection of the Dead 12

Neither, again, did He make man for the sake of any of the other works which He has made. For nothing that is endowed with reason and judgment has been created, or is created, for the use of another, whether greater or less than itself, but for the sake of the life and continuance of the being itself so created. For reason cannot discover any use which might be deemed a cause for the creation of men, since immortals are free from want, and in need of no help from men in order to their existence; and irrational beings are by nature in a state of subjection, and perform those services for men for which each of them was intended, but are not intended in their turn to make use of men: for it neither was nor is right to lower that which rules and takes the lead to the use of the inferior, or to subject the rational to the irrational, which is not suited to rule. Therefore, if man has been created neither without cause and in vain (for none of God’s works is in vain, so far at least as the purpose of their Maker is concerned), nor for the use of the Maker Himself, or of any of the works which have proceeded from Him, it is quite clear that although, according to the first and more general view of the subject, God made man for Himself, and in pursuance of the goodness and wisdom which are conspicuous throughout the creation, yet, according to the view which more nearly touches the beings created, He made him for the sake of the life of those created, which is not kindled for a little while and then extinguished.

c. 318–337 · Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word (De Incarnatione) 3.3

For God is good, or rather is essentially the source of goodness: nor could one that is good be niggardly of anything: whence, grudging existence to none, He has made all things out of nothing by His own Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. And among these, having taken especial pity, above all things on earth, upon the race of men, and having perceived its inability, by virtue of the condition of its origin, to continue in one stay, He gave them a further gift, and He did not barely create man, as He did all the irrational creatures on the earth, but made them after His own image, giving them a portion even of the power of His own Word; so that having as it were a kind of reflexion of the Word, and being made rational, they might be able to abide ever in blessedness, living the true life which belongs to the saints in paradise.

523 · Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 3

No causes were without Thee which could thence impel Thee to create this mass of changing matter, but within Thyself exists the very idea of perfect good, which grudges naught, for of what can it have envy? Thou makest all things follow that high pattern. In perfect beauty Thou movest in Thy mind a world of beauty, making all in a like image, and bidding the perfect whole to complete its perfect functions.

c. 743–750 · John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (Expositio fidei; De fide orthodoxa) 16

Since, then, God, Who is good and more than good, did not find satisfaction in self-contemplation, but in His exceeding goodness wished certain things to come into existence which would enjoy His benefits and share in His goodness, He brought all things out of nothing into being and created them, both what is invisible and what is visible.

1261–1264 · Thomas Aquinas, Of God and His Creatures: An Annotated Translation (With some Abridgement) of the Summa contra Gentiles 2.28

Creation then cannot proceed from any debt of justice. 3. No man owes anything to another, except inasmuch as he in some way depends on him, receiving something from him. Thus every man is in his neighbour’s debt on God’s account; from whom we have received all things. But God depends on none, and needs nothing of any. 5. Though nothing created precedes the universal production of all things, something uncreated does precede it: for the divine goodness precedes as the end and prime motive of creation, according to Augustine, who says: “Because God is good, we exist” (De Verb. Apost. Serm. 13).

1261–1264 · Thomas Aquinas, Of God and His Creatures: An Annotated Translation (With some Abridgement) of the Summa contra Gentiles 3.97

GOD by His providence directs all things to the end of the divine goodness, not that anything accrues as an addition to His goodness by the things that He makes, but His aim is the impression of the likeness of His goodness so far as possible on creation. But inasmuch as every created substance must fall short of the perfection of the divine goodness, it was needful to have diversity in things for the more perfect communication of the divine goodness, that what cannot perfectly be represented by one created exemplar, might be represented by divers such exemplars in divers ways in a more perfect manner.

1605–1610 · Johann Arndt, True Christianity 4.2.4

Moreover, as God takes pleasure in a creature made to resemble himself, therefore, it was necessary, that after the other creatures were formed, he should create man in his own image, in whom he might rest and delight himself. And as similitude is the foundation of friendship and society, and everything naturally associates with its like, it follows that God, in making man after his own image, intended to delight and rejoice Himself in him; so that man ought likewise to cleave unto his God, and to delight and take pleasure in conversing with Him. 4. Further, as God is the most perfect love, he could not but desire to communicate himself, and all his blessings, to some other being. That could not be done, however, without making some being like himself; and as there was no such being then in nature, capable or worthy of such divine communications, therefore he created man in his own image, which consists chiefly in perfect love.

1675–1680 · Stephen Charnock, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God 12

God eternally possessed his own felicity in himself, and had no need of the existence of anything without himself for his satisfaction. Man, before his being, could have no good qualities to invite God to make him so excellent a fabric: for, being nothing, he was as unable to allure and merit, as to bring himself into being; nay, he created a multitude of men, who, he foresaw would behave themselves in as ungrateful a manner, as if they had not been his creatures, but had bestowed that rich variety upon themselves without the hand of a superior Benefactor. How great is this goodness, that hath made us models of the whole creation, tied together heaven and earth in our nature, when he might have ranked us among the lower creatures of the earth, made us mere bodies as the stones, or mere animals as the brutes, and denied us those capacious souls, whereby we might both know him and enjoy him!

1675–1680 · Stephen Charnock, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God 12

God being infinitely wise, would not act without the highest reason, and for the highest end. The reason that induced him to create, must be of as great an eminency as himself: the motive could not be taken without him, because there was nothing but himself in being; it must be taken, therefore, from within himself, and from some one of those most excellent perfections whereby we conceive him. But, upon the exact consideration of all of them, none can seem to challenge that honor of being the motive of them, to resolve the setting forth any work, but his own goodness; this being the first thing manifest in his creation, seems to be the first thing moving him to a resolution to create. Wisdom may be considered as directing, power considered as acting, but it is natural to reflect upon goodness as moving the one to direct, and the other to act. Power was the principle of his action, wisdom the rule of his action, goodness the motive of his action; principle and rule are awakened by the motive, and subservient to the end. That which is the most amiable perfection in the Divine nature, and that which he first took notice of, as the footsteps of them, in the distinct view of every day’s work, and the general view of the whole frame, seems to claim the best right to be entitled the motive and end of his creation of things. God could have no end but himself, because there was nothing besides himself. Again, the end of every agent is that which he esteems good, and the best good for that kind of action: since nothing is to be esteemed good but God, nothing can be the ultimate end of God but himself, and his own goodness.

1675–1680 · Stephen Charnock, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God 12

God is more prone to communicate himself, than the sun to spread its wings, or the earth to mount up its fruits, or the water to multiply living creatures. Goodness is his nature. Hence were there internal communications of himself from eternity; diffusions of himself, without himself, in time, in the creation of the world, like a full vessel running over. He created the world that he might impart his goodness to something without him, and diffuse larger measures of his goodness, after he had laid the first foundation of it in his being; and therefore he created several sorts of creatures, that they might be capable of various and distinct measures of his liberality, according to the distinct capacities of their nature, but imparted most to the rational creature, because that is only capable of an understanding to know him, and will to embrace him. He is the highest goodness, and therefore a communicative goodness, and acts excellently according to his nature.

1680–1681 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. VII Several Sermons upon the CXIX. Psalm, Sermon LXI. I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law

The creation is nothing else but an effusion of the bounty and goodness of God. He made the world, not that he might be happy, but that he might be liberal; he made the world not by necessity, but at his pleasure: Rev. iv. 11, ‘Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.’ God was happy enough without us; he had a fulness and absolute sufficiency within himself; his great aim was to raise up objects out of nothing, to whom he would communicate his goodness. The heavens and earth were made that man might have a place for his exercise, and a dwelling for his rest, and in both might love, honour, serve, and glorify his Creator. God sits in his palace among his best creatures, and thither also will he translate man at length, if he be obedient, and observe the ends of his creation: thus his goodness appeareth.

1749–1750 · William Law, The Spirit of Prayer 1.1

The goodness of God breaking forth into a desire to communicate good, was the cause and the beginning of the creation. Hence it follows, that to all eternity, God can have no thought, or intent towards the creature, but to communicate good; because he made the creature for this sole end, to receive good. The first motive towards the creature is unchangeable; it takes its rise from God's desire to communicate good; and it is an eternal impossibility, that anything can ever come from God, as his will and purpose towards the creature, but that same love and goodness which first created it: he must always will that to it, which he willed at the creation of it. This is the amiable nature of God, he is the good, the unchangeable, overflowing fountain of good, that sends forth nothing but good to all eternity.

1788 · Jonathan Edwards, A Dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the World 1.4

Creatures, even the most excellent, are not independent and self-moved in their goodness; but in all its exercises they are excited by some object they find; something appearing good, or in some respect worthy of regard, presents itself, and moves their kindness. But God, being all, and alone is absolutely self-moved. The exercises of his communicative disposition are absolutely from within himself; all that is good and worthy in the object, and its very being, proceeding from the overflowing of this fullness.

1788 · Jonathan Edwards, A Dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the World 1.3

Thus, that nature in a tree, by which it puts forth buds, shoots out branches, and brings forth leaves and fruit, is a disposition that terminates in its own complete self. And so the disposition in the sun to shine, or abundantly to diffuse its fulness, warmth, and brightness, is only a tendency to its own most glorious and complete state. So God looks on the communication of himself, and the emanation of his infinite glory, to belong to the fulness and completeness of himself; as though he were not in his most glorious state without it. Thus the church of Christ, (toward whom and in whom are the emanations of his glory, and the communication of his fulness,) is called the fulness of Christ; as though he were not in his complete state without her; like Adam without Eve. And the church is called the glory of Christ, as the woman is the glory of the man, 1 Cor. xi. 7. Isa. xlvi. 13. I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory. —Indeed, after the creatures are intended to be created, God may be conceived of as being moved by benevolence to them, in the strictest sense, in his dealings with them. His exercising his goodness, and gratifying his benevolence to them in particular, may be the spring of all God’s proceedings through the universe; as being now the determined way of gratifying his general inclination to diffuse himself. Here God acting for himself; or making himself his last end, and his acting for their sake, are not to be set in opposition; they are rather to be considered as coinciding one with the other, and implied one in the other.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 6 143

Had not God been good, but of an envious, and narrow, and contracted nature, he would have confined all being to himself, and been unwilling that any thing besides himself should have been; but his goodness prompted him to spread and diffuse himself, and set his power and wisdom on work, to give being to all that variety of creatures which we see and know to be in the world, and, probably, to infinitely more than we have the knowledge of. Now, it is not imaginable that God could have any other motive to do this, but purely the goodness of his nature. All the motives imaginable, besides this, must either be indigency and want, or constraint and necessity; but neither of these can have any place in God; and therefore it was mere goodness that moved him to give being to other things; and therefore all creatures have reason, with the four and twenty elders in the Revelations, to “cast their crowns before the throne of God, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure (that is, of mere goodness) they are and were created.” (1.) Indigency and want can have no place in God; because he that hath all possible perfection, hath all plenty in himself; from whence results all-sufficiency, and complete happiness. So that the Divine nature need not look out of itself for happiness, being incapable of any addition to the happiness and perfection it is already possessed of: Ipse suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 6 143

Nor can necessity and constraint have any place in God. When there was no creature yet made, nothing in being but God himself, there could be nothing to compel him to make any thing, and to extort from him the effects of his bounty: neither are the creatures necessary effects and emanations from the being of God, flowing from the Divine essence, as water doth from a spring, and as light streams from the sun: if so, this, indeed, would have been an argument of the fulness of the Divine nature, but not of the bounty and goodness of it; and it would have been matter of joy to us that we are, but not a true ground of thankfulness from us to God; as we rejoice and are glad that the sun shines, but we do not give it any thanks for shining, because it shines without any intention or design to do us good; it doth not know that we are the better for its light, nor did intend we should be, and therefore we have no reason to acknowledge its goodness to us. But God, who is a Spirit, endowed with knowledge and understanding, does not act as natural and material causes do, which act necessarily and ignorantly; whereas he acts knowingly and voluntarily, with particular intention and design, knowing that he does good, and intending to do so freely, and out of choice, and when he hath no other constraint upon him but this, that his goodness inclines his will to communicate himself and to do good: so that the Divine nature is under no necessity, but such as is consistent with the most perfect liberty, and freest choice.

1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 6 46

God might have chose whether he would have made the world or no; for he had no need of it, to complete or add to his happiness, which was infinitely perfect within the compass of his own glorious being. Yet he was pleased by a most free and unconstrained motion of his own will, to communicate and diffuse some little shadows of those perfections upon the creatures, and more especially upon those nearer resemblances of himself, men and angels.

1871 · Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Introduction; Part I, Theology Proper) 1.10.5

By far the most common opinion from the beginning has been that the creation is to be referred to the bonitas, goodness, benevolence, or, as the modern Germans at least generally express it, the love of God. As God is love, and the nature of love is to communicate itself, as it must have an object to be enjoyed and rendered blessed, so God created the world that He might rejoice in it and render it blessed.

1871 · Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Introduction; Part I, Theology Proper) 1.10.5

From the absolute self-sufficiency of God it follows that the creation was not designed to meet or satisfy any necessity on his part. He is neither more perfect nor more happy because of the creation. Again it follows from the nature of an infinite Being that the ground (i.e., both the motive and the end) of the creation must be in Himself.

1872 · Anselm of Canterbury, St. Anselm's Book of Meditations and Prayers (translated by M. R., 1872) 19

O the infinite goodness and the inestimable condescension of our Creator! Having no need of man in any respect or at any time, yet of His sole goodness He created man, and creating him, endowed him with capacity of reason, that so he might be able to share His happiness and His eternity, and thus possess with Him joy and gladness everlastingly.

1879 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 25 (1879) 1493

We may conceive a period when the Eternal dwelt alone and had not begun to create. He must have been inconceivably blessed, but He was not content to be enwrapped within Himself and to enjoy perfect bliss alone. He began to create and probably formed innumerable beings long before this world came into existence—and He did this that He might multiply beings capable of happiness. He delighted to indulge His heart by deeds of beneficence, manifesting the inherent goodness of His Nature. In whatever God is doing, He is consulting the happiness of His creatures, being in Himself independent of all, He loves to bless others.

c. 303–311 · Lactantius, The Divine Institutes (Divinae institutiones) 7.5

Let us now assign the reason why He made man himself. For if the philosophers had known this, they would either have maintained those things which they had found to be true, or would not have fallen into the greatest errors. For this is the chief thing; this is the point on which everything turns. And if any one does not possess this, the truth altogether glides away from him. It is this, in short, which causes them to be inconsistent with reason; for if this had shone upon them, if they had known all the mystery of man, the Academy would never have been in entire opposition to their disputations, and to all philosophy. As, therefore, God did not make the world for His own sake, because He does not stand in need of its advantages, but for the sake of man, who has the use of it, so also He made man himself for His own sake. What advantage is there to God in man, says Epicurus, that He should make him for His own sake? Truly, that there might be one who might understand His works; who might be able both to admire with his understanding, and to express with his voice, the foresight displayed in their arrangement, the order of their creation, the power exerted in their completion. And the sum of all these things is, that he should worship God. For he who understands these things worships Him; he follows Him with due veneration as the Maker of all things, He as his true Father, who measures the excellence of His majesty according to the invention, the commencement, and completion of His works.

1265–1273 · Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I, q. 65, a. 2, co.

Furthermore, the entire universe, with all its parts, is ordained towards God as its end, inasmuch as it imitates, as it were, and shows forth the Divine goodness, to the glory of God. Reasonable creatures, however, have in some special and higher manner God as their end, since they can attain to Him by their own operations, by knowing and loving Him. Thus it is plain that the Divine goodness is the end of all corporeal things. Reply to Objection 1: In the very fact of any creature possessing being, it represents the Divine being and Its goodness. And, therefore, that God created all things, that they might have being, does not exclude that He created them for His own goodness.

1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 2.12.6

Man, therefore, was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), and in him the Creator was pleased to behold, as in a mirror, his own glory.

1605–1610 · Johann Arndt, True Christianity 4.1.6

For though the sun, moon, and stars, and all the lower world, were made with wonderful wisdom and power; yet that deliberation does not seem to have been used there as in the creation of man; forasmuch as in him, the glory and majesty of God were more particularly and gloriously to be manifested. All the other creatures bear upon them certain marks and signatures of divine goodness and power, but man is the very image and likeness of God. For it is not said, Let us make man in the image of the sun, or of the moon, or of the angels; but “in our likeness,” that our own image may be clearly represented in him.

1677 · Particular Baptist elders and congregations of London, The Baptist Confession of 1689 (the Second London Confession) 4.1

In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good.

1684 · John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ 11

Herein he communicated a finite, limited dependent being and goodness unto other things without himself. For all being and goodness being, as was said, in him alone, it was necessary that the first outward work and effect of the divine nature must be the communication of being and goodness unto other things. Wherefore, as when he had given unto every thing its being out of nothing, by the word of his power, saying, Let them be, and they were; so it is said, that he looked on all that he had made, “and, behold, they were exceeding good,” Gen. i. 31. Being and goodness must be the first outward effects of the divine nature, which, being wrought by infinite power and wisdom, do represent unto us the glory of God in the creation of all things. Infinite being in self-subsistence, which is necessary in the first cause and spring of all things, — infinite goodness to communicate the effect of this being unto that which was not, — and infinite wisdom and power in that communication, — are gloriously manifested therein.

1784–1785 · John Newton, Messiah: Expository Discourses on the Scripture Passages Contained in Handel's Oratorio, Volume I (Sermons I-XXV) 10

The glory of God, the exhibition of His adorable perfections, to the view of intelligent creatures, is the last and highest end of all His works. Nor would it be worthy of the infinite eternal God, in comparison with whose immensity, the aggregate of all created good is no more than a point compared with the universe, or a single ray of light compared with the sun, to propose anything short of His own glory, as the ultimate, final cause of His designs. And in proportion as any finite intelligences, are conformed to the will of their Creator, and impressed with a sense of His pre-eminence, their highest end and aim will be the same with His.

1788 · Jonathan Edwards, A Dissertation Concerning the Nature of True Virtue 2

But the true goodness of a thing, must be its agreeableness to its end, or its fitness to answer the design for which it was made. Therefore, they are good moral agents, whose temper of mind, or propensity of heart, is agreeable to the end for which God made moral agents. But, as has been shown, the last end for which God has made moral agents, must be the last end for which God has made all things: it being evident, that the moral world is the end of the rest of the world; the inanimate and unintelligent world being made for the rational and moral world, as much as a house is prepared for the inhabitants. By these things, it appears, that truly virtuous mind, being as it were under the sovereign dominion of love to God, above all things, seeks the glory of God, and makes this his supreme, governing, and ultimate end. This consists in the expression of God’s perfections in their proper effects,—the manifestation of God’s glory to created understandings,—the communications of the infinite fulness of God to the creature,—the creature’s highest esteem of God, love to, and joy in him,—and in the proper exercises and expressions of these.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Romans 11.36

To him - εἰς αὐτὸν eis autos. This expression denotes the final cause, the reason or end for which all things were formed. It is to promote his honor and glory. It is to manifest his praise, or to give a proper putting forth of the glorious attributes of God; that the exceeding greatness, and goodness, and grandeur of his character might be evinced. It is not to promote his happiness, for he was eternally happy; not to add anything to him, for he is infinite; but that he might act as God, and have the honor and praise that is due to God.

1834 · Jonathan Edwards, The Wisdom of God Displayed in the Way of Salvation 4

God might have glorified his justice in the destruction of all mankind. But it was God’s design in creating the world, to glorify his goodness and love; and not only to be glorified eventually, but to be served and glorified actually by men. Satan intended to frustrate God of this end; but, by the redemption of Jesus Christ, his design is confounded.

1864 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 10 (1864) 572

When there was no creature but Himself and no being but Himself, God could not have taken as a motive a creature which did not exist. His motive must be Himself. His own Glory is His highest aim. The good of His creatures He considers carefully. But even the good of His creatures is but a means to the main end—the promotion of His Glory. All things, then, are for His pleasure and for His Glory they daily work.

1907 · Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology Chapter IV. The Works Of God; Or The Execution Of The Decrees

Every being is dependent upon whomsoever or whatsoever he makes his ultimate end. If anything in the creature is the last end of God, God is dependent upon the creature. But since God is dependent only on himself, he must find in himself his end. To create is not to increase his blessedness, but only to reveal it. There is no need or deficiency which creation supplies. The creatures who derive all from him can add nothing to him. All our worship is only the rendering back to him of that which is his own. He notices us only for his own sake and not because our little rivulets of praise add anything to the ocean-like fulness of his joy. For his own sake, and not because of our misery or our prayers, he redeems and exalts us. To make our pleasure and welfare his ultimate end would be to abdicate his throne. He creates, therefore, only for his own sake and for the sake of his glory.

1908–1909 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms 1.1

The glory of God is the end of all the divine actions. Now, that is a statement which no doubt is irrefragable, and a plain deduction from the very conception of an infinite Being. But it may be held in such connections, and spoken with such erroneous application, and so divorced from other truths, that instead of being what it is in the Bible, good news, it shall become a curse and a lie. It may be so understood as to describe not our Father in heaven, but an almighty devil! But, when the thought that God’s purpose in all His acts is His own glory, is firmly united with that other, that His purpose in all His acts is our blessing, then we begin to understand how full of joy it may be for us. His glory is sought by Him in the manifestation of His loving heart, mirrored in our illuminated and gladdened hearts. Such a glory is not unworthy of infinite love. It has nothing in common with the ambitious and hungry greed of men for reputation or self-display. That desire is altogether ignoble and selfish when it is found in human hearts; and it would be none the less ignoble and selfish if it were magnified into infinitude, and transferred to the divine. But to say that God’s glory is His great end, is surely but another way of saying that He is love.

1918 · Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God Chapter 6 - The Sovereignty of God in Operation

What then was the great purpose for which this world and the human race were created? The answer of Scripture is, "The LORD hath made all things for Himself" (Prov. 16:4). And again, "Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. 4:11). The great end of creation was the manifestation of God's glory. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handiwork" (Psa. 19:1); but it was by man, originally made in His own image and likeness, that God designed chiefly to manifest His glory. But how was the great Creator to be glorified by man? Before his creation, God foresaw the fall of Adam and the consequent ruin of his race, therefore He could not have designed that man should glorify Him by continuing in a state of innocency. Accordingly we are taught that Christ was "foreordained before the foundation of the world" to be the Saviour of fallen men. The redemption of sinners by Christ was no mere after-thought of God: it was no expediency to meet an un-looked-for calamity. No; it was a Divine provision, and therefore when man fell he found mercy walking hand in hand with justice.

1949 · Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology 1.2.3

The fact that God created the world for His own glory does not mean that He needed the world. It does not hold universally among men, that the work which they do not perform for others, is necessary to supply a want. This may hold in the case of the common laborer, who is working for his daily bread, but is scarcely true of the artist, who follows the spontaneous impulse of his genius. In the same way there is a good pleasure in God, exalted far above want and compulsion, which artistically embodies His thoughts in creation and finds delight in them. Moreover, it is not true that, when God makes His declarative glory the final end of creation, He aims primarily at receiving something. The supreme end which He had in view, was not to receive glory, but to manifest His inherent glory in the works of His hands. It is true that in doing this, He would also cause the heavens to declare His glory, and the firmament to show His handiwork, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field to magnify Him, and the children of men to sing His praises. But by glorifying the Creator the creatures add nothing to the perfection of His being, but only acknowledge His greatness and ascribe to Him the glory which is due unto Him.

1656–1662 · Blaise Pascal, Pensees (Thoughts) 8.556

Without Jesus Christ the world would not exist; for it should needs be either that it would be destroyed or be a hell. If the world existed to instruct man of God, His divinity would shine through every part in it in an indisputable manner; but as it exists only by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ, and to teach men both their corruption and their redemption, all displays the proofs of these two truths.

1788 · Jonathan Edwards, A Dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the World 2.7

For it is the necessary consequence of true esteem and love, that we value others’ esteem of the same object, and dislike the contrary. For the same reason, God approves of others’ esteem and love of himself. Thus it is easy to conceive, how God should seek the good of the creature, consisting in the creature’s knowledge and holiness, and even his happiness, from a supreme regard to himself; as his happiness arises from that which is an image and participation of God’s own beauty; and consists in the creature’s exercising a supreme regard to God, and complacence in him; in beholding God’s glory, in esteeming and loving it, and rejoicing in it, and in his exercising and testifying love and supreme respect to God: which is the same thing with the creature’s exalting God as his chief good, and making him his supreme end.

1788 · Jonathan Edwards, A Dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the World 1.4

God and the creature, in the emanation of the divine fullness, are not properly set in opposition; or made the opposite parts of a disjunction. Nor ought God’s glory and the creature’s good, to be viewed as if they were properly and entirely distinct, in the objection. This supposeth, that God having respect to his glory, and the communication of good to his creatures, are things altogether different: that God communicating his fullness for himself, and his doing it for them, are things standing in a proper disjunction and opposition. Whereas, if we were capable of more perfect views of God and divine things, which are so much above us, it probably would appear very clear, that the matter is quite otherwise: and that these things, instead of appearing entirely distinct, are implied one in the other. God in seeking his glory, seeks the good of his creatures; because the emanation of his glory (which he seeks and delights in, as he delights in himself and his own eternal glory) implies the communicated excellency and happiness of his creatures. And in communicating his fullness for them, he does it for himself; because their good, which he seeks, is so much in union and communion with himself. God is their good.

1834 · General Conference of Free-will Baptists, Treatise of the Faith of the Free-will Baptists 4

God created the world, and all things that it contains, for his own pleasure and glory, and the enjoyment of his creatures.

1878 · Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Systematic Theology 7

Again, it is obvious that all creation, where law is obeyed, tends to one end, and that end is happiness or enjoyment. This demonstrates that enjoyment was the end at which God aimed in creation.

1896 · Andrew Murray, Waiting on God! 3

The one object for which God gave life to creatures was that in them He might prove and show forth His wisdom, power, and goodness, in His being each moment their life and happiness, and pouring forth unto them, according to their capacity, the riches of his goodness and power. And just as this is the very place and nature of God, to be unceasingly the supplier of every want in the creature, so the very place and nature of the creature is nothing but this—to wait upon God and receive from Him what He alone can give, what He delights to give.

1906 · Hannah Whitall Smith, The God of All Comfort 16

God’s ultimate purpose in our creation was that we should finally be “conformed to the image of Christ.” Christ was to be the firstborn among many brethren, and His brethren were to be like Him. All the discipline and training of our lives is with this end in view; and God has implanted in every human heart a longing, however unformed and unexpressed, after the best and highest it knows.

1918 · Abraham Kuyper, To Be Near Unto God 12. God Created Man After His Image

The whole earth is full of God's glory. But there is no self-conscious and responsive fellowship between all this and God. God stands above nature. Nature is subject to His majesty, but it has no knowledge or understanding of God and therefore no single note of thanksgiving, worship or communion goes forth from Nature to God. There is power in it everywhere, but there is no fellowship of love in it. And this is the Divine desire. God must needs address his creation and obtain a response from it in return. He must needs establish close, personal fellowship and mutual communion with his creation. The eternal, knowing, loving, seeking Father desires to be known, to be loved and to be sought. The flame of religion must inwardly gleam through the works of creation, even as in the outward sphere the sun gleams throughout the earth. But this is impossible and can not be thinkable, except as God creates a being after His own image and likeness--a being of his own generation, and who therefore is a child, who will cleave to him as Father; a being whose distance and distinction from his infinite majesty will be unfathomably deep, but who, nevertheless, feeling and knowing the Divine life in his own life, will associate with God as brother with brother, and who will thus be brought into secret and sacred communion with him.