[ Demiourgos ]

 THE [gennesis] of the Eternal Son is intimately connected with the idea of creation; so much so that Origen thought that the creation was eternal because the Son was so; and Tertullian thought that the Son was not eternal because the creation was not.

 These were erroneous conclusions, but Catholic theologians allow thus much of truth in them, not that the Creator and the creation were co-eval, but that the mission of the Son to create is included in the eternal gennesis ; so that, as by the Father s teaching the Son is meant doctum et scientem genuisse, and, as His committing judgment to Him is judicem ipsum gignere, so the mission to create signifies the gennesis of a Son in eternity who is in time to be Creator. vid. Petav. de Trin. viii. 1, § 10. Hence S. Augustine says, In Verbo Unico Dei omnia pæcepta sunt Dei, quæ ille gignens dedit nascenti. contr. Max. ii. 14, 9, and still more definitely I understand S. Thomas to say, Importatur in Verbo ratio factiva eorum quæ Deus facit. Summ. 1, qu. 34, art. 3.

 Immediately upon the creation follows the second act, viz. of conservation; for the Divine Hand is of such incomprehensible force and intensity in operation, that the thing created needs, by the intervention of its Creator, to be enabled to bear creation. Things created, says Athanasius, could not have endured His absolute nature and His splendour from the Father, unless, condescending by the Father s love for man, He had supported them and taken hold of them, and brought them into substance, etc. Orat. ii. § 64. vid. [ akratos ].