Monday, June 22, 2009

Q104 A2: Whether God preserves every creature immediately?

No. God gives be-ing by means of certain intermediate causes because a thing is kept the same by that which gives it be-ing.

Deus dat esse rebus mediantibus aliquibus causis mediis quia per idem conservatur res, per quod habet esse.

An effect depends on a creature as to its be-ing. For when we have a series of causes depending on one another, it necessarily follows that, while the effect depends first and principally on the first cause, it also depends in a secondary way on all the middle causes. Therefore the first cause is the principal cause of the preservation of the effect which is to be referred to the middle causes in a secondary way.

Invenitur etiam quod ab aliqua creatura dependet aliquis effectus secundum suum esse. Cum enim sunt multae causae ordinatae, necesse est quod effectus dependeat primo quidem et principaliter a causa prima, secundario vero ab omnibus causis mediis. Et ideo principaliter quidem prima causa est effectus conservativa, secundario vero omnes mediae causae.

No created nature can be the cause of another, as regards the latter acquiring a new form, or disposition, except by virtue of some change: for the created nature acts always on something presupposed. But after causing the form or disposition in the effect, without any fresh change in the effect, the cause preserves that form or disposition.

Nulla creatura potest esse causa alterius, quantum ad hoc quod acquirat novam formam vel dispositionem, nisi per modum alicuius mutationis: quia semper agit praesupposito aliquo subiecto. Sed postquam formam vel dispositionem induxit in effectu, absque alia immutatione effectus, huiusmodi formam vel dispositionem conservat.

God created all things immediately, but in the creation itself of things He established an order among things, so that some depend on others, by which they are preserved in be-ing; however, He remains the principal cause of their preservation.

Deus immediate omnia creavit, sed in ipsa rerum creatione ordinem in rebus instituit, ut quaedam ab aliis dependerent, per quas secundario conservarentur in esse; praesupposita tamen principali conservatione, quae est ab ipso.