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In answer to perhaps the most profound question that can be asked, "What is the chief end of man?" the Westminster Assembly in its Shorter Catechism affirms that "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." This simple summation of the purpose of life consists of two clauses, and the relationship between the two, as stated by Westminster, has been the subject of some interest and study, particularly in light of John Piper's "Christian Hedonism" philosophy.
At the beginning of a series of sermons based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism preached by Gilbert Tennent in 1743, published a year later, Tennent addresses the distinction between aiming at God’s glory and aiming at our enjoyment of Him.
4th. Propos’d, which was to shew, why should we aim at the Glory of God as our chief Mark in all our Actions?
It is true eternal Salvation, or our enjoying God (which supposes our Propriety in, or rightful claim to God as ours; and implies our Communion with him here imperfectly, and in the Life to come perfectly) is a great Motive of religious Obedience, the Expectation thereof should doubtless influence and excite us in the Service of God.
And most certainly there is a Connection between glorifying and enjoying God, so that he who rightly performs the former, is not like to miss the latter. Psa. 50.23. Whoso offereth Praise glorifieth me. And to him that ordereth his Conversation aright, will I shew the Salvation of God.
That enjoying of God may be likewise call’d an End, and that properly, (but a Subordinate one) which we may and ought to aim at in our religious Obedience. And it is doubtless and End, the Highest in its Kind, and next, in Order, Dignity, and Importance, to that of the Glory of God. On this account the venerable Assembly at Westminster in their larger catechism, call it the highest End of Man; it is certainly that, which intelligent Beings should seek after, next to the divine Glory. The Assembly did not design to put the aforesaid Ends upon a Par or equal Balance, by their Answer to the first Question in their Catechisms, in which they are both mention’d together; No, by no means, they intend only to represent the Connection subsisting between them, as well as their infinite Moment and Importance, and the Order in which we should seek after them; which is evident from their different Manner of wording them, the Order in which they place them, and the Scriptures they bring for the Confirmation of what they offer upon this Head. In the Larger Catechism the Question is worded thus, What is the chief and highest End of Man. God’s Glory, they signify by their answer, is the chief End of Man; and enjoying God fully, the highest End, i.e. (as has been before observ’d) of its kind, next to the other: Their giving the Glory of God the first Place in their Answer, shews that they prefer it in point of Dignity to the other, altho’ those Ends are inseperably connected together, (in the Manner before mention’d) yet they are really distinguished: It is one Thing to aim at God’s Honour, and another to aim at our own Comfort, and have no true regard to God’s Glory at all, therefore they cannot be both Supreme; but one must be Chief and the other Subordinate or refer’d to it.
There is a reason for the order of words in the answer to the question, and there is an intimate connection between the two aims of life. Thus, in the view of Gilbert Tennent (and others), God’s glory must precede our enjoyment of Him in the aims of life, and only in this order do the two goals rightly make up our chief end. Read more of what Tennent has to say on this point and others from the catechism here.
