be adopted sons. And just as Christ in
a singular manner above all others is the natural Son of God, so in a
singular manner is He predestinated.

Reply Obj. 2: As a gloss [*From St. Augustine, De Praed. Sanct. xv]
says on Rom. 1:4, some understood that predestination to refer to the
nature and not to the Person--that is to say, that on human nature
was bestowed the grace of being united to the Son of God in unity of
Person.

But in that case the phrase of the Apostle would be improper, for two
reasons. First, for a general reason: for we do not speak of a
person's nature, but of his person, as being predestinated: because
to be predestinated is to be directed towards salvation, which
belongs to a suppositum acting for the end of beatitude. Secondly,
for a special reason. Because to be Son of God is not befitting to
human nature; for this proposition is false: "The human nature is the
Son of God": unless one were to force from it such an exposition as:
"Who was predestinated the Son of God in power"--that is, "It was
predestinated that the Human nature should be united to the Son of
God in the Person."

Hence we must attribute predestination to the Person of Christ: not,
indeed, in Himself or as subsisting in the Divine Nature, but as
subsisting in the human nature. Wherefore the Apostle, after saying,
"Who was made to Him of the seed of David according to the flesh,"
added, "Who was predestinated the Son of God in power": so as to give
us to understand that in respect of His being of the seed of David
according to the flesh, He was predestinated the Son of God in power.
For although it is natural to that Person, considered in Himself, to
be the Son of God in power, yet this is not natural to Him,
considered in the human nature, in respect of which this befits Him
according to the grace of union.

Reply Obj. 3: Origen commenting on Rom. 1:4 says that the true
reading of this passage of the Apostle is: "Who was destined to be
the Son of God in power"; so that no antecedence is implied. And so
there would be no difficulty. Others refer the antecedence implied in
the participle "predestinated," not to the fact of being the Son of
God, but to the manifestation thereof, according to the customary way
of speaking in Holy Scripture, by which things are said to take place
when they are made known; so that the sense would be--"Christ was
predestinated to be made known as the Son of God." But this is an
improper significati