Special Effects of Divine Government

God creates things out of nothing. He must also preserve things created or they would fall back into nothingness. Preservation or conservation as it is often called, is a fundamental effect of divine government. Now, things may be preserved indirectly by putting them out of the way of danger; thus a mother preserves a precious vase by setting it out of reach of her romping children. And things may be preserved directly by positive conserving action; thus one who catches a fragile vase as it is falling preserves it directly. God preserves all things directly. He also preserves some bodily things indirectly. Spirits need no indirect preserving, for nothing can threaten or destroy them. The same divine power which gives existence to creatures (their cause in fieri, their cause in becoming)is exercised to preserve creatures in existence (their cause inesse, their cause in being). Therefore it is justly said that”conservation is a continuous creation.”

God preserves all creatures, as we have just seen, by positive sustaining power; that is, God conserves all creatures directly. But he does not conserve all things immediately, that is, without using any creatural means or medium. In some cases God uses creatures to preserve creatures; thus by air, light,warmth, and the fruits of the earth, God sustains and preservesliving bodies. Yet God is himself present in and to these media.

God creates and preserves. The direct opposite of creation is annihilation. Conservation keeps creation from being followed by annihilation, that is, complete reduction to nothing. God has the power to annihilate creatures. For he who has power to produce by his free choice has ability to withdraw that power by free choice. And if God were to withdraw his creative power from creatures, they would simply not exist; they would beannihilated.

But, as a fact, God does not annihilate anything. In creating, God establishes an order of things which manifests the divine goodness; this order is maintained by preserving things, not by utterly destroying them. Divine wisdom would not be expressed in creating a thing merely to annihilate it.