Imperium praecedit usum quia impetus ad operationem praecedit usum, sed impetus ad operationem fit per imperium.
Command precedes use because impulse to action precedes use, but impulse to operation is given by command.
Non omnis actus voluntatis praecedit hunc actum rationis qui est imperium, sed aliquis praecedit, scilicet electio; et aliquis sequitur, scilicet usus.
Not every act of the will precedes this act of formal aspect which is command; but an act of the will precedes, viz. choice; and an act of the will follows, viz. use.
Quia post determinationem consilii, quae est iudicium rationis, voluntas eligit; et post electionem, ratio imperat ei per quod agendum est quod eligitur; et tunc demum voluntas alicuius incipit uti, exequendo imperium rationis (quandoque quidem voluntas alterius, cum aliquis imperat alteri; quandoque autem voluntas ipsius imperantis, cum aliquis imperat sibi ipsi).
Because after counsel's decision, which is a judgment of formal aspect, the will chooses; and after choice, aspectual apprehension 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 formal aspect (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).
Usus eius quod est ad finem, secundum quod est in ratione referente ipsum in finem, praecedit electionem, ut supra dictum est. Unde multo magis praecedit imperium.
Use of that which is directed to the end, insofar as it is in the formal aspect referring this to the end, precedes choice, as stated above (I-II q16 a4). Wherefore still more does it precede command.
Sed usus eius quod est ad finem, secundum quod subditur potentiae executivae, sequitur imperium, eo quod usus utentis coniunctus est cum actu eius quo quis utitur; non enim utitur aliquis baculo, antequam aliquo modo per baculum operetur.
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.
Imperium autem non est simul cum actu eius cui imperatur, sed naturaliter prius est imperium quam imperio obediatur, et aliquando etiam est prius tempore.
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.