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Objection 1: It would seem that grace is not fittingly divided into
sanctifying grace and gratuitous grace. For grace is a gift of God,
as is clear from what has been already stated (Question 110,
Article 1). But man is not therefore pleasing to God because
something is given him by God, but rather on the contrary; since
something is freely given by God, because man is pleasing to Him.
Hence there is no sanctifying grace.
Objection 2: Further, whatever is not given on account of preceding
merits is given gratis. Now even natural good is given to man without
preceding merit, since nature is presupposed to merit. Therefore
nature itself is given gratuitously by God. But nature is condivided
with grace. Therefore to be gratuitously given is not fittingly set
down as a difference of grace, since it is found outside the genus of
grace.
Objection 3: Further, members of a division are mutually opposed.
But even sanctifying grace, whereby we are justified, is given to us
gratuitously, according to Rm. 3:24: "Being justified freely
[gratis] by His grace." Hence sanctifying grace ought not to be
divided against gratuitous grace.
On the contrary, The Apostle attributes both to grace, viz. to
sanctify and to be gratuitously given. For with regard to the first he
says (Eph. 1:6): "He hath graced us in His beloved son."
And with regard to the second (Rm. 2:6): "And if by grace,
it is not now by works, otherwise grace is no more grace." Therefore
grace can be distinguished by its having one only or both.
I answer that, As the Apostle says (Rm. 13:1), "those
things that are of God are well ordered." Now the order of things
consists in this, that things are led to God by other things, as
Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. iv). And hence since grace is
ordained to lead men to God, this takes place in a certain order, so
that some are led to God by others.
And thus there is a twofold grace: one whereby man himself is united
to God, and this is called "sanctifying grace"; the other is that
whereby one man cooperates with another in leading him to God, and
this gift is called "gratuitous grace," since it is bestowed on a man
beyond the capability of nature, and beyond the merit of the person.
But whereas it is bestowed on a man, not to justify him, but rather
that he may cooperate in the justification of another, it is not called
sanctifying grace. And it is of this that the Apostle says (1
Cor. 12:7): "And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to
every man unto utility," i.e. of others.
Reply to Objection 1: Grace is said to make pleasing, not
efficiently but formally, i.e. because thereby a man is justified,
and is made worthy to be called pleasing to God, according to Col.
1:21: "He hath made us worthy to be made partakers of the lot of
the saints in light."
Reply to Objection 2: Grace, inasmuch as it is gratuitously
given, excludes the notion of debt. Now debt may be taken in two
ways: first, as arising from merit; and this regards the person whose
it is to do meritorious works, according to Rm. 4:4: "Now to
him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but
according to debt." The second debt regards the condition of nature.
Thus we say it is due to a man to have reason, and whatever else
belongs to human nature. Yet in neither way is debt taken to mean that
God is under an obligation to His creature, but rather that the
creature ought to be subject to God, that the Divine ordination may
be fulfilled in it, which is that a certain nature should have certain
conditions or properties, and that by doing certain works it should
attain to something further. And hence natural endowments are not a
debt in the first sense but in the second. Hence they especially merit
the name of grace.
Reply to Objection 3: Sanctifying grace adds to the notion of
gratuitous grace something pertaining to the nature of grace, since it
makes man pleasing to God. And hence gratuitous grace which does not
do this keeps the common name, as happens in many other cases; and
thus the two parts of the division are opposed as sanctifying and
non-sanctifying grace.
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