Whether Use Precedes Command?
Objection 1: It would seem that use precedes command. For command is
an act of the reason presupposing an act of the will, as stated above
(A. 1). But, as we have already shown (Q. 16, A. 1), use is an act of
the will. Therefore use precedes command.
Obj. 2: Further, command is one of those things that are ordained to
the end. But use is of those things that are ordained to the end.
Therefore it seems that use precedes command.
Obj. 3: Further, every act of a power moved by the will is called
use; because the will uses the other powers, as stated above (Q. 16,
A. 1). But command is an act of the reason as moved by the will, as
stated above (A. 1). Therefore command is a kind of use. Now the
common precedes the proper. Therefore use precedes command.
_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. ii, 22) that impulse
to action precedes use. But impulse to operation is given by command.
Therefore command precedes use.
_I answer that,_ use of that which is directed to the end, in so far
as it is in the reason referring this to the end, precedes choice, as
stated above (Q. 16, A. 4). Wherefore still more does it precede
command. On the other hand, use of that which is directed to the end,
in so far as it is subject to the executive power, follows command;
because use in the user is united to the act of the thing used; for
one does not use a stick before doing something with the stick. But
command is not simultaneous with the act of the thing to which the
command is given: for it naturally precedes its fulfilment,
sometimes, indeed, by priority of time. Consequently it is evident
that command precedes use.
Reply Obj. 1: Not every act of the will precedes this act of the
reason which is command; but an act of the will precedes, viz.
choice; and an act of the will follows, viz. use. Because after
counsel's decision, which is reason's judgment, the will chooses; and
after choice, the reason commands that power which has to do what was
chosen; and then, last of all, someone's will begins to use, by
executing the command of reason; sometimes it is another's will, when
one commands another; sometimes the will of the one that commands,
when he commands himself to do something.
Reply Obj. 2: Just as act ranks before power, so does the object rank
before the act. Now the object of use is that which is directed to
the end. Consequently, from the fact that command [itself is directed
to the end, it may be concluded that command] precedes, rather than
that it follows use.
Reply Obj. 3: Just as the act of the will in using the reason for the
purpose of command, precedes the command; so also we may say that
this act whereby the will uses the reason, is preceded by a command
of reason; since the acts of these powers react on one another.
________________________