Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

284 Scholastic Doctrine CHAP. x.
perly speaking, the rational creature, which is capable of
life eternal, is conducted up to it, or transmitted to it by
G-od. Of which transmission the reason pre-exists in the
mind of God, even as there exists generally the reason of
the ordination of all things whatever to the end. But the
reason of anything being done is a certain pre-existence in
the mind of the doer of the thing itself to be done ; whence
the reason of the transmission of the rational creature to
life eternal is called predestination nam destinare est
mittere. 1 While the cause, then, of natural virtue is the
Divine Power acting in its ordinary function, as prede
termining universally the created wills of men, the cause of
supernatural virtue in man is the Divine Power acting in pre
destination, or in the execution of a certain special decree.
The virtue which qualifies man for good as defined by the
Divine Law, in distinction to reason, cannot be caused by
human acts of which the principle is reason, but is caused
in us by the Divine operation alone. 2 And this Divine
operation is carried on by means of that machinery of in
fused supernatural virtues above described. For as God
provides for His natural creatures in such wise, that He
not only moves them to natural acts, but even endows
them with certain forms and virtues to act as principles
of action and to be in themselves dispositions to such
action ; so into those whom He moves to attain eternal
and supernatural good He infuses certain supernatural
forms or qualities, by which they are sweetly and promptly
disposed to attain that good. 3
virtue is
Supernatural
1 Ad illud autem, ad quod non sionis creaturae rationalis in finem
potest aliquid virtute suae naturae vitse aeternae praedestinatio nominapervenire,
oportet quod abalio trans- tur nam destinare est mittere.
;
mittatur, sicut sagitta a sagittante I 2 dae mittitur ad signum. Unde proprie
loquendo, rationalis creatura, quse
est capax vita; aeternae perducitur
in ipsarn quasi a Deo transmissa.
Cujus quidem transmissionis ratio
in Deo praeexistit, sicut et in eo est
Q,. 23. A. 1.
2
Virtus vero ordinans hominem
ad bonum secundum quod modinca-
tur per legem divinam, et non per
rationem humanam, non potest
causari per actus humanos quorum
principium est ratio sed causatur
;
ratio ordinis omnium in finem. Ratio solum in nobis per operationem
autem alicujus fiendi existens est divinam. l ma 2dae Q. 63. A. 2.
3
quaedam praeexistentia rei fiendae in
Creaturis autem naturalibus sic
eo. Unde ratio praedictae transmis- providet ut non solum moveat eas