ocessions and relations.

Obj. 3: Further, if it be said that the causation of the creature
flows from some essential attribute appropriated to some one Person,
this does not appear to be sufficient; because every divine effect
is caused by every essential attribute--viz. by power, goodness and
wisdom--and thus does not belong to one more than to another.
Therefore any determinate mode of causation ought not to be attributed
to one Person more than to another, unless they are distinguished in
creating according to relations and processions.

_On the contrary,_ Dionysius says (Div. Nom. ii) that all things
caused are the common work of the whole Godhead.

_I answer that,_ To create is, properly speaking, to cause or produce
the being of things. And as every agent produces its like, the
principle of action can be considered from the effect of the action;
for it must be fire that generates fire. And therefore to create
belongs to God according to His being, that is, His essence, which is
common to the three Persons. Hence to create is not proper to any one
Person, but is common to the whole Trinity.

Nevertheless the divine Persons, according to the nature of their
procession, have a causality respecting the creation of things. For
as was said above (Q. 14, A. 8; Q. 19, A. 4), when treating of the
knowledge and will of God, God is the cause of things by His
intellect and will, just as the craftsman is cause of the things made
by his craft. Now the craftsman works through the word conceived in
his mind, and through the love of his will regarding some object.
Hence also God the Father made the creature through His Word, which
is His Son; and through His Love, which is the Holy Ghost. And so
the processions of the Persons are the type of the productions of
creatures inasmuch as they include the essential attributes,
knowledge and will.

Reply Obj. 1: The processions of the divine Persons are the cause of
creation, as above explained.

Reply Obj. 2: As the divine nature, although common to the three
Persons, still belongs to them in a kind of order, inasmuch as the
Son receives the divine nature from the Father, and the Holy Ghost
from both: so also likewise the power of creation, whilst common to
the three Persons, belongs to them in a kind of order. For the Son
receives it from the Father, and the Holy Ghost from both. Hence to
be the Creator is attributed to the Father as to Him Who does not
receive the power of cre