Cap. 1 vocabulary: Praedestinatio — two acts; Augustine; Aquinas arrow
In predestination, then, we can mark two acts: one of the Divine will, one of the intellect. The will's act is to will salvation for this particular person, to choose him before others, to show him mercy and not show mercy to others — an act Aquinas (as we noted earlier) treats as prior to predestination and calls election. The intellect's act is to foreknow, and to direct these particular persons by infallible means to the end destined for them. That second act is where predestination proper chiefly lives. Augustine's description fits here: Predestination is nothing other than God's foreknowledge and preparation of the benefits by which whoever are set free are set free with certainty. So by predestination we always mean that part of Divine providence which directs its elect by infallible means and leads them through to eternal blessedness. How necessary this is becomes clear once you see that the life of glory surpasses what human nature can reach: free election to that end is not enough unless Divine wisdom and power also supply fit, infallible means that guide us there. Aquinas's likeness is not strained. An arrow is first aimed at a mark by the archer's purpose; then by his power, through the bow, it is sent toward that same mark. So every person destined from eternity by God's purpose for the mark of eternal life is, in time, by that same power, through efficacious grace, directed to glory's goal and at last brought there. That whole account of transmitting the elect into eternal life — as it is understood to stand from all eternity in the Divine mind — is what we call predestination.
Latin
In praedestinatione ergo considerare possumus duos actus, unum voluntatis Divinae, alterum intellectus. Ad voluntatis actum pertinet, velle huic singulari personae salutem, eligere illum prae aliis, misereri ejus, & aliorum non misereri: quem tamen actum (ut antea observavimus) Aquinas putat esse praevium praedestinationi, & electionem appellat. Ad intellectus actum pertinet, praescire, & dirigere per media infallibilia hasce certas personas ad finem illis destinatum. Atque in hoc potissimum proprius & peculiaris praedestinationis actus versatur. Huc facit Augustiniana illa praedestinationis descriptio, Praedestinatio nihil aliud est quam praescientia & praeparatio beneficiorum Dei, quibus certissime liberantur quicunque liberantur. Nos igitur per praedestinationem semper intelligimus hanc providentiae Divinae partem quae electos suos per media infallibilia dirigit & perducit ad finem aeternae beatitudinis. Quanta sit necessitas hujus praedestinationis exinde patet, quod cum vita gloriae sit finis superans virtutem naturae humanae, non sufficit ad ejus consecutionem quod ex Dei gratuita bonitate eligamur solummodo ad hunc finem, nisi insuper per Divinam sapientiam & potentiam media apta & infallibilia nobis suppeditentur, quorum adminiculo dirigamur ad eundem. Similitudine non inepta hoc illustratur ab Aquinate. Sicut sagitta, quae primo ex proposito sagittarii destinatur ad certum scopum, mox virtute ejusdem, mediante arcu, ad eundem dirigitur & quasi transmittitur: sic quaelibet persona, quae ab aeterno ex proposito Dei destinatur ad scopum vitae aeternae, in tempore, ejusdem virtute, mediante gratia efficaci, ad hanc metam gloriae dirigitur, & tandem perducitur. Atque haec ratio transmittendi electos in vitam aeternam, quatenus ab omni aeternitate in mente Divina existere intelligitur, praedestinatio nominatur.