glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus....Where is then thy boasting? It is excluded" (Rom. iii. 23, 24, 27). "If by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace" (Rom. xi. 6). "Who hath distinguished thee? what hast thou that thou hast not received? and if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as though thou hast not received?" (1 Cor. iv. 7.) "By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God" (Eph. ii. 8).

CHAP. LXXXVI.

On the Division of Grace.

As the gifts which God bestows to raise us to a supernatural union with Himself, and bring us to heaven, are partly without us and partly within us, grace first of all admits of being divided into outward and inward grace. Outward grace includes all those things which are for our salvation, and which do not directly affect the substance of the soul; as, for instance, the establishment of the Church, the preaching of the Gospel, the law, miracles, &c.

Inward grace includes those gifts which are within the soul, and affect it. Some of these are given mainly for our own sakes; some chiefly for the sake of our neighbour. The latter, as having no distinctive title, and as being the `less noble class, appropriate the common name of

grace,

and are called "graces gratuitously bestowed;" just as brutes are called animals as distinguished from men. The Apostle St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, enumerates them as follows:

"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit. To one is given the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge; to another, faith; to another, the grace of healing; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, discerning of spirits; to another, diverse kinds of tongues; to another, the interpretation of speeches" (1 Cor. xii. 7-10).

The wicked as well as the good may have these graces. Our Lord tells us that many will say at the day of judgment, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and cast out devils in Thy name, and in Thy name done many miracles? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity" (St. Matt. vii. 22, 23).

In order to render the soul pleasing in His sight, God both acts upon it and abides within it. The result in the former case is called actual grace, in the latter, habitual. The two are distinguished as an act from a habit, as that which is passing from that which is permanent. Actual grace, then, may be defined as the action of the Holy Ghost upon the soul; habitual, as the state of the soul possessed by God.

God begins the work of the supernatural in the soul by touching the heart through the illumination of the Holy Ghost.* He suggests a holy thought; He moves the heart; He proffers assistance by which the will may choose aright. All this is on God's side, anticipating and independent of any coöperation on our part. God then waits to see whether we will correspond with what He has done or not: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man will hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with Me" (Apoc. iii. 20). We are free to reject the inspiration and refuse to let Christ in, or we can adopt it, and make it our own by the assent of our will. And then God will supply further grace to sustain our choice, and enable us to carry out the good resolution we have formed. The grace which precedes the deliberate action of the will is called, according to the different aspects under which we view it, "preventing," "exciting," "operating;" while that which comes after is called "subsequent,' ""assisting," "coöperating" grace. We need, however, a still further grace to heal the instability and capriciousness of the will. When we have done the same thing over and over again we feel a disgust and weariness, especially if the thing is good, and still more if it is good in the super

* Council of Trent, sess. vi. c. 5.

natural order; so that the best of us would soon leave off corresponding with grace, and fall back, if God did not stand by and succour us with a special help. This help is what we mean by the grace of perseverance. It is that grace which enables us to go on from grace to grace, until we lay hold on eternal life. On it our salvation depends. "He that perseveres to the end shall be saved." It is a gift which God keeps in His own hands.. It cannot be merited, but it may infallibly be obtained by prayer and obedience. As it is of faith that the sinner cannot of himself rise out of a state of sin, so it is of faith that a just man cannot continue in a state of justice without the special grace of God.

CHAP. LXXXVII. On the Distribution of Grace.

HOLY SCRIPTURE tells us that God wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. ii. 4); that "God so loved the world as to give His onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but might have life everlasting; for God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (St. John iii. 16, 17). "As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live" (Ezechiel xxxiii. 11). "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 St. John ii. 2). "Thou sparest all, because they are Thine, O Lord, who lovest souls" (Wisdom xi. 27).

"Say not, It is through God that she (Wisdom) is not with me; for do not thou the things that He hateth. Say not, He hath caused me to err; for He hath no need of wicked men. The Lord hateth all abomination of error; and they that fear Him shall not love it. God made man in the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel. He added His commandments and precepts. If thou wilt keep the commandments and perform acceptable fidelity for ever, they shall preserve thee. He hath

set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand to which thou wilt. Before man is life and death, good and evil; that which he shall choose shall be given him. For the wisdom of God is great, and He is strong in power, seeing all men without ceasing. The eyes of the Lord are towards them that fear Him, and He knoweth all the work of man. He desireth not a multitude of faithless and unprofitable children" (Ecclus. xv. 11-22).

From these and innumerable other passages,-from the whole tenor of revelation,-from our knowledge of God's character, we infer that God sincerely wills the salvation of every responsible being; and consequently, that He supplies grace, whereby each could be saved if he pleased, and that it is through his own fault if he is lost.

than

All, indeed, have not the same amount of grace. God distributes to each one as He wills. The Jews had more grace than the heathen; Christians have more grace the Jews; some individuals have more than others. But he who has least has enough, and more than enough, for salvation; and he who has most will have to give the strictest account. "For to whom much is given, of the same will much be required" (St. Luke xii. 48).

It is doubtful whether certain hardened and blinded sinners are not, as a punishment for their sins, abandoned by God, and condemned, as it were, before their death. Certainly there are some very awful passages of Holy Scripture which seem to favour such a view. Nevertheless the more common opinion is, that no one, however bad, is entirely deprived of grace, so as not to have the power of repenting if he wills.

THE end of all God's gracious dealings with us in the spiritual order being to restore us to that likeness of Himself which we lost in Adam, to bring us back to a state of friendship, adoption, and holiness, preparatory to a state of glory in heaven, it is not sufficient that He should act

upon the soul; He must needs abide within it, change it; imprint upon it a fixed quality, in value of which it may be called a friend, a child, an heir of heaven, and holy. This renovation of the soul is called habitual or sanctifying grace, and the process of being brought to this state is what we mean by justification.

Habitual or sanctifying grace is a participation of the Divine nature,—the highest communication of Himself which God can make to the soul of a mere creature, causing it to share in those acts, whereby God knows, loves, and enjoys Himself. This exceeding dignity is granted only for the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, and in virtue of our union with Him. We cannot even with actual grace do any thing beforehand to merit it, although with such grace we can and must dispose ourselves for its reception. Protestants make faith the sole condition on our part of justification, meaning by faith a feeling of confidence that we are saved through Christ. But the Catholic Church, following Holy Scripture, teaches that a sinner must be truly penitent before he can be put into a state of grace. He must turn away in his heart from his wickedness, and have a real purpose of doing justice and judgment (Ezechiel xviii. 27); and penitence implies more than faith or trust in Christ. The Council of Trent describes as follows the manner in which the soul is prepared for justifi

cation:

1. It conceives faith by hearing, and, being freely moved towards God, believes those things to be true which have been revealed and promised; and this especially, that the impious is justified of God by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

2. It is sensible of sin, and consequently fears the divine justice.

3. It is raised into hope by considering the mercy of God through Christ.

4. It begins to love God as the fountain of justice. 5. It is moved against sin with a certain hatred and detestation.

6. It proposes to receive the Sacraments of justification, and lead a new life.