The Divine Operation of Conservation

Conservation means preservation. As an activity or operation, conservation is the preserving of an effect in existence. There are causes in fieri and causes in esse. A cause in fieri (or “in becoming”) is required to bring an effect into existence; a cause in esse (or “in being”) is required to maintain an effect in existence. A cause in fieri is a producing cause; a cause in esse is a conserving cause. Conservation is the exercise of a cause in esse. When an effect depends essentially for both production and permanence (for fieri and esse) upon a cause, that one identical cause must continue in activity or exercise as long as the effect exists. Thus fire is required both to make iron hot and to keep it hot; the sun is required to produce daylight and to maintain daylight. For there is an essential dependency, for both production and permanence, of heat upon fire and of daylight upon the sun. But when the dependency of effect upon cause is essential only in point of production and not of permanence, the effect may be supported in being by another cause than that which gave it being. In other words, the cause in fieri need not, in this case, continue on as the cause in esse. Thus, the sculptor is the cause in fieri of the statue which he carves, but he is not its cause in esse; the accidental form or being which the sculptor confers upon marble by shaping it in a certain way finds a sufficient supporting or conserving cause in the enduring stuff of which the statue is made; its cause in esse is the marble itself, and the statue may continue in existence for centuries after the sculptor is in his grave. But, ultimately, as all things work back to first creation as their cause in fieri, so they work back to that same single creating cause as their radical cause in esse; the creating cause must continue on as a conserving cause, else creatures must fall to nothingness. Here we see what is meant by the statement that conservation is a continuation of creation. For creation does not bestow being upon something that is already there to receive and hold it; it produces being in entirety out of nothingness; the creature is, in consequence, dependent for both production and permanence upon its creating cause, and this one identical cause must continue in activity or exercise as long as the creature exists. Conservation is the activity of a cause in esse. It means the preserving of an effect in being and existence. Conservation is direct or indirect. Direct conservation is the positive preserving of an effect by an activity which supplies actual being to the effect or contributes what actively supports the effect in its being. Thus, fire directly conserves the heat in hot water; thus the sun directly conserves the daylight; thus the eating of food directly conserves life and strength. Indirect conservation is the negative preserving of an effect by the exercise of a cause which protects the effect, shields it, wards off or prevents what would harm and destroy it. The placing of a manuscript in an air-tight case is an act of indirect conservation. The enclosing of a delicate vase in a cabinet where it is safe from the sweep of careless hands is also an act of indirect conservation. The nurse-maid who watches an infant so that it does not fall into the fire, or climb to perilous places, or eat what would harm it, is indirectly conserving the welfare of the child. Direct conservation may be called promotive conservation; indirect conservation is rather preventive. It is our contention that Divine Conservation is a fact in the world, and that this is not merely indirect, but direct conservation. b) THE FACT OF DIVINE CONSERVATION

I, Creatures are contingent realities. They have not in themselves any requirement for existence. They are not self-accounting, self-explanatory, self-sufficient. That they exist is a patent fact; that they do not have to exist is equally evident, for they come into being, they change, they are limited, and things subject to beginning, change, and limitation, are subject to the action of causes; such things are effects; they are dependent or contingent or non-necessary things. Now, manifestly, contingent things do not lose their contingency when they are created. They require positive production of their entire being in the first moment of their existence, and they require a continuance of the producing power at every successive moment of their existence. No other or lesser power than their first-producing power (that is, their creating power) will account for their continued existence, since their entire being rests wholly and undividedly in that power. Therefore, contingent beings require for their existence the continuation of the creating power which is the power of God alone. And the continuation of this power is Divine Conservation. Hence, the contingent beings in the world around us, and the world itself, require and have the support of the activity called Divine Conservation. Divine Conservation is, therefore, a fact. 2. An effect which depends for production and permanence upon a certain cause requires the direct conserving activity of that cause. For such an effect has an essential and entire dependency upon its cause; it requires the cause to hold it in being. No mere protection from destructive forces will insure its existence, for it cannot, in itself, maintain existence. Hence, indirect conservation is not sufficient to account for such an effect in continued existence; direct conservation is required. Now, all creatures are, as we have seen, contingent upon their First Cause by an essential and entire dependency; creatures depend for production and permanence upon causes which are ultimately focussed and founded upon the First Cause, and which have their own existence and activity by virtue of the operation of the First Cause. Only the First Cause has in Itself the sufficiency of self-existence without dependency upon any other agency or force or factor. Therefore the First Cause, by Its positive exercise of causal activity, is required to account for the sustained existence of creatural reality. In other words, the exercise of direct Divine Conservation is required to explain the existence of the world and all things in it. Direct Divine Conservation is, therefore, a fact.

5. A creature depends for existence upon its Creator. It exists by reason of the positive will of the Creator to bring it into existence. It does not exist by reason of the Creator’s mere willingness to leave it alone and not to destroy it. And a creature continues in existence by the sustained positive will of the Creator, not by His merely negative or indirect will. Now, the positive will of the Creator, which is thus manifested in the production and continuation of creatural existences, is neither more nor less than direct Divine Conservation. Therefore, direct Divine Conservation is a fact.

Summary Of The Article

In this very brief but important Article we have learned the meaning of conservation in general, and of Divine Conservation in special. We have seen that conservation is the exercise of a cause in esse, and

that it may be direct or indirect, that is, promotive or preventive, according as it is a positive or a negative contribution to the continued existence of an effect. We have proved that Divine Conservation is a fact in the world, and that it is direct conservation. We have drawn our proof from the contingency of creatures, from their entire and essential dependency upon the First Cause and upon the positive choice of the Divine Will.