Natural Knowledge of God in the Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquina

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not only tor it. beooming but equally as muCh tor it. oonservation in
being.
God wills the beginning, or the actuality ot the oreature's exi.tenoe;
a. long a. it oontinue. its existenoe, it does so because God wills
to preserve it.30
So utterly dependent on God i. the oreature that it God's ooncurrenoe
were to be withdrawn, the creature would be incapable ot action. The principle
ot God as First Mover applies as much tt the activities of individual
creatures as it does to the question ot motion in general. God is the
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Firat Principle of every kind ot motion, hence of every operation of created
being.
Created action without the concurrence ot Divine action is
as inoonceivable as love unsustained by the lover, or as the fragrance of
ot the lily continued independently ot the lily's existence.31
By predicating of God the pure perfections ot His creatures we have
been able to say, in!. very inadequate way. what ~.!!.
The knowledge
30St• Thomas, Contra Gent., III, Pt. 1, chap. lxv, p. 155:
The cause of a thing:must needs be the same as the cause ot its
preservation; because preservation is nothing elae than continued existence
•••• Now God is the cause ot everything's existence by His intellect
and will. Therefore by His intellect and will He preserves things in
existence.
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31St. Thomas, Contra Gent., III, Pt. 1, ohap. lxvii, p. 161:
Now •• ince God not only gave existence to things when they tirst
began to exist. but also causes existence in them as long a. they exi,t,
by pre •• rving th.m in .xistenoe,•••• o. not only did Be give them aotive
torc.s when Be first made them but is always oausing thoae toroes in them.
Consequ.ntly, it the divine influence wer. to o.a.e, all operation would
oome to an end. Th.retore every operation ot a thing is reducible to Bim
as its cause.