We pass to the fourth class of consequences, those which regard the Theanthropos in relation to all the moments and persons of the cosmos.
I. The Theanthropos was intended by God before and above all other works.
Every one is aware that an intellectual agent, in effecting his works, follows a different order from that which he pursues in planning them; in other words, the order of execution which an intellectual agent follows is in the inverse ratio of the order which he follows in idealizing them. In an architect's mind the end and use of a building is first in order, and he idealizes and shapes his building according to the object intended. In the execution of the work the order is inverted, the building is effected first, the object and use are attained afterward.
The order followed in idealizing a work is called by schoolmen the order of intention; that which is pursued in executing the work, the order of execution. When we say, therefore, that the hypostatic moment and the Theanthropos are the first of God's external works, we mean, of course, in the order of intention; we mean that they were intended by God first and before every other work when he resolved to act outside himself;[133] so that the incarnation was determined upon, not only independently of the sin of man, but would have taken place even if man had never fallen.[134]
The metaphysical reason of this consequence is found in the relation which means bear to the end. It is absolutely necessary that an intellectual agent should intend primarily and chiefly that object which is best calculated to attain the end he has in view in his action; which best fulfils his intention and is the most appropriate and nearest mean.
Now, the hypostatic moment, and consequently Christ, attains better than any other moment or individual the object of the external action of God, as we have shown. Therefore Christ was intended by God first and above every other work.
This consequence is poetically described by the inspired author of the Proverbs, in those beautiful lines so well known:
"The Lord possessed me from the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning.
"I was set up from all eternity, and of old before the earth was made.
"The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived; neither had the foundations of water as yet sprung out.
"The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established; before the hills I was brought forth.
"He had not made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world.
"When he prepared the heavens, I was present; when with a certain law and compass he inclosed the depths," etc.[135]
2. Consequence. The Theanthropos is the secondary end of God's external works.
For, in a series of means necessary to the end, that which is first and chief is also end in respect to the other means. Christ, therefore, being the first and chief means to attain the end of the external act, is also end in reference to the other moments, and consequently the secondary end of the cosmos. "All things," said St. Paul to the Corinthians, "are yours; and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."