The ultimate end of God in creating the world is the communication and glorification of the divine goodness; the ultimate end of the work or world is the participation and glorification of the divine goodness.

The end or purpose is the good because of which something is done. Three elements necessarily pertain to the complete nature of the end; of them each one is also said to be an end, since they are all intended for themselves, although one is ordered to the another: a) The desired end (finis qui) or object intended: either to be obtained, or what is not now possessed; or to give away, that is, what the agent already has and intends to give it to others. The former of these flows from desire, while the latter is the result of love. b) The formal end (finis quo) is the actual obtaining of the desired end (finis qui). c) The end for whom (finis cui) is the subject for whom the desired end is intended. This is either because the whole utility of the end is ordered to it (thus in obtaining the end) or because it is ordered to him in praise that this may be attributed to the source of goodness (thus an end to be communicated).

The desired end (finis qui): a) In the strict sense it is the true final cause, that is, it has a causal influence both on the act of the will and on the commanded acts and so in using the means; it also influences the effect which therefore is really distinguished from it and depends on it. b) In a broad sense (ratio finalis), without having influence on the act of the will, it is the reason for the goodness of the volition and thus it has a causal influence on the effect.

In one and the same action the end is said to be: a) Proximate, or immediately intended and ordered to another; b) relatively ultimate, or to which others more proximate are ordered but itself is ordered to another, c) Absolutely ultimate, or the principal one in any series and beyond it there is no other. It has the nature of a primary end or it is desired for itself and other ends are ordered to it inasmuch as they are intended for its sake. Therefore in any series it is unique. That is what will not be considered.

The end: a) of the worker (finis operands) is the good which for the worker is the reason for his action; b) of the work (finis operis), is the good for which the work of the agent is ordered, if it is extrinsic to him, or it is his own nature if it is intrinsic.

If it has to do with the first cause doing something ad extra, then one must say that the ultimate end of both the agent and the work are identified.

The purpose or end of God creating. The desired end in the strict sense cannot be present in Him, but there is a desired end in a broad sense or a noble reason for willing creation and which with regard to the world is the final cause. But this is necessarily some good, but not one external to God on which he depends, but internal, first of all and essentially intended by God and for which reason external goods are willed by him.

Here the ultimate end is being considered: a) The desired end, not as something to be obtained, which is repugnant to God, but as something to be communicated; b) The formal end, or the obtaining of the desired end to the extent that it is possible; c) The end for whom, or God, not as a subject for whom of any utility, but inasmuch as he alone is the reason for intending something and to whom therefore the desired end is as it were added means of the formal end.

The world is understood here as it actually exists, but naturally, since the order of grace is treated elsewhere.

The divine goodness is not merely an attribute of goodness inclining God to the good, but it is the very ontological goodness of God as the object of divine love. The communication, that is, goodness, not as something to be obtained, but inasmuch as it can be given to other beings through a likeness in perfections, both static and dynamic, and also cognitive and appetitive. The glorification, or what, when it is communicated, is manifested either objectively in every perfection of creatures (objective glory), or formally in the praise of rational creatures (formal glory). Since glory is clear knowledge with praise of some person, whose excellence is known and approved as valuable, the glory just described, whether objective or formal, is called the extrinsic glory of God. The intrinsic glory is: either objective (fundamental and thus material) or the perfection of God in himself, or it is formal or the conscious knowledge of God’s proper excellence. Here we are dealing directly with his extrinsic glory. The purpose/end of the work or the world: The ultimate or final end is considered and either the desired (qui) end or the formal (quo) end or the end for whom (cui). The divine goodness or, as recently, the uncreated perfection of God. Participation or inasmuch as it can be accepted by a likeness in perfections, either static or dynamic. The glory of God, or according as, while it is being participated, it is manifested either objectively or formally.

Therefore the uncreated goodness as something to be communicated and glorified is the desired object (finis qui) of God as Creator. But this can be obtained only by the communicated and glorified divine goodness. But the actual communication and extrinsic glorification is something created, therefore it is extrinsic to God and so it cannot be the desired end (finis qui) or something that God so desires that he is moved to create; rather, it is the formal cause (finis quo), or the quasi attainment of the finis qui, which therefore God truly intends. By the communication and glorification of the divine goodness it quasi satisfies the will of God; he therefore is the end for whom (finis cui), but he is not the subject of any utility which only a creature can be. Likewise the uncreated goodness as something to be participated in and glorified through some likeness is the ultimate final end of every creature. This end is obtained by participating in and glorifying the goodness of God; this actual participation and glorification is the formal end (finis quo) or the quasi attainment of the final end (finis qui). God alone is the end for which (finis cui), but the creature alone is the subject of utility. Therefore every creature necessarily or freely tends directly and always to the supreme good by its likeness; it does this not only by an extrinsic decree of God, but by an innate love or from the nature of a being from another that has its complete good only in another (God). The result is that with that innate love it loves God more than itself.

God in one way or another is the end of the world, that is, His goodness is the reason (propter quant) for creation; He did not create the world in order to obtain or increase His own goodness, but rather in order to communicate and glorify it by producing a likeness; that the world was made in order to glorify His goodness; that the end of both the worker and the work is the ultimate end.