There is evident ground for this distinction in the Mosaic account of the creation. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Here it is clearly intimated that the universe, when first created, was in a state of chaos, and that by the life-giving, organizing power of the Spirit of God, it was gradually moulded into the wonderful cosmos which we now behold. The same theory of gradual, or mediate creation, has been applied to account for all the phenomena of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. God created all things, and by Him all things consist.
Creation is the production of something out of nothing.
Preservation is the upholding in existence what already is.