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Objection 1: It seems that perseverance does not need the help of
grace. For perseverance is a virtue, as stated above (Article
1). Now according to Tully (De Invent. Rhet. ii) virtue acts
after the manner of nature. Therefore the sole inclination of virtue
suffices for perseverance. Therefore this does not need the help of
grace.
Objection 2: Further, the gift of Christ's grace is greater than
the harm brought upon us by Adam, as appears from Rm. 5:15,
seqq. Now "before sin man was so framed that he could persevere by
means of what he had received," as Augustine says (De Correp. et
Grat. xi). Much more therefore can man, after being repaired by
the grace of Christ, persevere without the help of a further grace.
Objection 3: Further, sinful deeds are sometimes more difficult
than deeds of virtue: hence it is said in the person of the wicked
(Wis. 5:7): "We . . . have walked through hard ways."
Now some persevere in sinful deeds without the help of another.
Therefore man can also persevere in deeds of virtue without the help of
grace.
On the contrary, Augustine says (De Persev. i): "We hold that
perseverance is a gift of God, whereby we persevere unto the end, in
Christ."
I answer that, As stated above (Article 1, ad 2; Article 2,
ad 3), perseverance has a twofold signification. First, it denotes
the habit of perseverance, considered as a virtue. In this way it
needs the gift of habitual grace, even as the other infused virtues.
Secondly, it may be taken to denote the act of perseverance enduring
until death: and in this sense it needs not only habitual grace, but
also the gratuitous help of God sustaining man in good until the end of
life, as stated above (FS, Question 109, Article 10),
when we were treating of grace. Because, since the free-will is
changeable by its very nature, which changeableness is not taken away
from it by the habitual grace bestowed in the present life, it is not
in the power of the free-will, albeit repaired by grace, to abide
unchangeably in good, though it is in its power to choose this: for it
is often in our power to choose yet not to accomplish.
Reply to Objection 1: The virtue of perseverance, so far as it is
concerned, inclines one to persevere: yet since it is a habit, and a
habit is a thing one uses at will, it does not follow that a person who
has the habit of virtue uses it unchangeably until death.
Reply to Objection 2: As Augustine says (De Correp. et Grat.
xi), "it was given to the first man, not to persevere, but to be
able to persevere of his free-will: because then no corruption was in
human nature to make perseverance difficult. Now, however, by the
grace of Christ, the predestined receive not only the possibility of
persevering, but perseverance itself. Wherefore the first man whom no
man threatened, of his own free-will rebelling against a threatening
God, forfeited so great a happiness and so great a facility of
avoiding sin: whereas these, although the world rage against their
constancy, have persevered in faith."
Reply to Objection 3: Man is able by himself to fall into sin, but
he cannot by himself arise from sin without the help of grace. Hence
by falling into sin, so far as he is concerned man makes himself to be
persevering in sin, unless he be delivered by God's grace. On the
other hand, by doing good he does not make himself to be persevering in
good, because he is able, by himself, to sin: wherefore he needs the
help of grace for that end.
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