Whether Predestination Places Anything in the Predestined?
Objection 1: It seems that predestination does place something in the
predestined. For every action of itself causes passion. If therefore
predestination is action in God, predestination must be passion in the
predestined.
Obj. 2: Further, Origen says on the text, "He who was predestined,"
etc. (Rom. 1:4): "Predestination is of one who is not; destination,
of one who is." And Augustine says (De Praed. Sanct.): "What is
predestination but the destination of one who is?" Therefore
predestination is only of one who actually exists; and it thus places
something in the predestined.
Obj. 3: Further, preparation is something in the thing prepared. But
predestination is the preparation of God's benefits, as Augustine
says (De Praed. Sanct. ii, 14). Therefore predestination is something
in the predestined.
Obj. 4: Further, nothing temporal enters into the definition of
eternity. But grace, which is something temporal, is found in the
definition of predestination. For predestination is the preparation
of grace in the present; and of glory in the future. Therefore
predestination is not anything eternal. So it must needs be that it is
in the predestined, and not in God; for whatever is in Him is eternal.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Praed. Sanct. ii, 14) that
"predestination is the foreknowledge of God's benefits." But
foreknowledge is not in the things foreknown, but in the person who
foreknows them. Therefore, predestination is in the one who
predestines, and not in the predestined.
_I answer that,_ Predestination is not anything in the predestined;
but only in the person who predestines. We have said above that
predestination is a part of providence. Now providence is not
anything in the things provided for; but is a type in the mind of the
provider, as was proved above (Q. 22, A. 1). But the execution of
providence which is called government, is in a passive way in the
thing governed, and in an active way in the governor. Whence it is
clear that predestination is a kind of type of the ordering of some
persons towards eternal salvation, existing in the divine mind. The
execution, however, of this order is in a passive way in the
predestined, but actively in God. The execution of predestination is
the calling and magnification; according to the Apostle (Rom. 8:30):
"Whom He predestined, them He also called and whom He called, them He
also magnified [Vulg. 'justified']."
Reply Obj. 1: Actions passing out to external matter imply of
themselves passion--for example, the actions of warming and cutting;
but not so actions remaining in the agent, as understanding and
willing, as said above (Q. 14, A. 2; Q. 18, A. 3, ad 1).
Predestination is an action of this latter class. Wherefore, it does
not put anything in the predestined. But its execution, which passes
out to external things, has an effect in them.
Reply Obj. 2: Destination sometimes denotes a real mission of someone
to a given end; thus, destination can only be said of someone
actually existing. It is taken, however, in another sense for a
mission which a person conceives in the mind; and in this manner we
are said to destine a thing which we firmly propose in our mind. In
this latter way it is said that Eleazar "determined not to do any
unlawful things for the love of life" (2 Macc. 6:20). Thus
destination can be of a thing which does not exist. Predestination,
however, by reason of the antecedent nature it implies, can be
attributed to a thing which does not actually exist; in whatsoever
way destination is accepted.
Reply Obj. 3: Preparation is twofold: of the patient in respect to
passion and this is in the thing prepared; and of the agent to
action, and this is in the agent. Such a preparation is
predestination, and as an agent by intellect is said to prepare
itself to act, accordingly as it preconceives the idea of what is to
be done. Thus, God from all eternity prepared by predestination,
conceiving the idea of the order of some towards salvation.
Reply Obj. 4: Grace does not come into the definition of
predestination, as something belonging to its essence, but inasmuch
as predestination implies a relation to grace, as of cause to effect,
and of act to its object. Whence it does not follow that
predestination is anything temporal.
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