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August 09, 2005
Ch. XII. Q. 74. Causes of Creation
4- CAUSES OF CREATION
THE moving cause of creation was the love of God and the Father's will of good pleasure; the mediate cause or Agent was the Son; the efficient and perfecting cause was the Holy Spirit: the final cause was the glory of God and, as pertaining thereto, the good of creatures.1
2. No creature can create substance , for this requires infinite power, which cannot be received by finite beings - not even by angels.2 By calling the Son the first of creatures Arius nullified his acknowledgment of the Son's agency in creating all other things.3
3. Creation was an act of the undivided Trinity, but the distinct relations of the divine Persons towards that action justify the several descriptions with which we are concerned.4
4. Creation was an act of the Father's good pleasure, in that the love by which He was moved did not destroy its voluntariness.5 And creation is ascribed primarily to the Father, because He is the ultimate source even of divine processions, to whose will all external operations of the Trinity are referred.6
5. The Son was the mediate cause or Agent, because He is the divine Word and Image of the Father's essence, by whom the divine nature and mind is outwardly expressed. He is the one Mediator between God and all else, the meeting point and bond of created things, and the only mediating principle of creation, of divine immanence, and of divine revelation.7
6. The Holy Spirit is the efficient principle by which, according to the Father's will and through the agency of the Son, creatures are given being, quickened and sanctified, and all things are developed to their perfect end.8
7. The final cause or purpose of creation was a communication of good to the creature; and the creature's chief end is to declare and enjoy the glory of God. But creation was not necessitated either by deficiency in God or by uncontrollable superabundance in Him. It was truly voluntary.9
1 Creation, ch. ii. 8-9; D. Stone, Outlines of Christ. Dogma,pp.32-3; A.J. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, ch. iii. 2; St. Thomas, I. xliv. 4; xlv. 2. 5. 6; lxv. 3.
2 St. Thomas, I. xlv. 5; lxv. 3; Thos. Jackson, Works, Vol. V., pp. 258 et seq.
3 St. Athanasius, c. Arianos., II. 21.
4 Cf. Qq. 67.2 and 70.1; Trinity, chh. vii. 11; viii. 1, 3; St. Thomas, I. xlv. 6.
5 Cf. Q. 51.1.
6 Trinity, p. 265; A.J. Mason, ch. iii. 1; T.B. Strong, Manual of Theol., pp. 194-196; Bp. Pearson, Creed, fol. pp. 56-58.
7 Psa. xxxiii. 6; St. John i. 3, v. 17; I Cor. viii. 6; Col. i. 16-17: Heb. i. 2-3; I Tim. ii. 5. St. Athanasius, c. Gent., 40-44; J.B. Lightfoot on Col. i. 15-17; P.G. Medd, One Mediator, pp. 16-32; A.J. Mason, ch. iii. 4-5; Bp. Pearson, fol. pp. 113-115. T.A. Lacey, Elem. of Christ. Doctrine, pp.95-96.
8 Gen. i. 2; Job xxvi. 13; Psa. xxxiii. 6. W.H. Hutchings, Person and Work of the Holy Ghost, pp. 49-52.
9 Cf. Qq. 45.3-4 and 59. Psa. xix:1; Acts xvii. 25. Creation, ch. ii. 8; St. Thomas, I. xliv. 4; H.P. Liddon, Advent Serms., pp. 545-547.
Posted by AKMA at August 9, 2005 11:35 AM