ght. Therefore, since
it has not root in the air, the light ceases with the action of the
sun.

Now every creature may be compared to God, as the air is to the sun
which enlightens it. For as the sun possesses light by its nature, and
as the air is enlightened by sharing the sun's nature; so God alone is
Being in virtue of His own Essence, since His Essence is His
existence; whereas every creature has being by participation, so that
its essence is not its existence. Therefore, as Augustine says (Gen.
ad lit. iv, 12): "If the ruling power of God were withdrawn from His
creatures, their nature would at once cease, and all nature would
collapse." In the same work (Gen. ad lit. viii, 12) he says: "As the
air becomes light by the presence of the sun, so is man enlightened by
the presence of God, and in His absence returns at once to darkness."

Reply Obj. 1: _Being_ naturally results from the form of a creature,
given the influence of the Divine action; just as light results from
the diaphanous nature of the air, given the action of the sun.
Wherefore the potentiality to not-being in spiritual creatures and
heavenly bodies is rather something in God, Who can withdraw His
influence, than in the form or matter of those creatures.

Reply Obj. 2: God cannot grant to a creature to be preserved in being
after the cessation of the Divine influence: as neither can He make
it not to have received its being from Himself. For the creature
needs to be preserved by God in so far as the being of an effect
depends on the cause of its being. So that there is no comparison
with an agent that is not the cause of _being_ but only of _becoming._

Reply Obj. 3: This argument holds in regard to that preservation
which consists in the removal of corruption: but all creatures do not
need to be preserved thus, as stated above.

Reply Obj. 4: The preservation of things by God is a continuation of
that action whereby He gives existence, which action is without
either motion or time; so also the preservation of light in the air
is by the continual influence of the sun.
_______________________

SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 104, Art. 2]

Whether God Preserves Every Creature Immediately?

Objection 1: It would seem that God preserves every creature
immediately. For God creates and preserves things by the same action,
as above stated (A. 1, ad 4). But God created all things immediately.
Therefore He preserves all things immediately.

Obj. 2: Further,