us to conclude that He will give them all graces requisite for their salvation, at least if they ask for them. St. Paul, addressing the first Christians, whom we may reasonably presume as just, says: "Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. . . . God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it " (1 Cor. x. 11-13). God, therefore, being faithful, gives to the just grace either immediately sufficient for the fulfilment of all their duties and for the victory over all their temptations, or at least mediately sufficient, i.e., the grace of prayer, by means of which they may obtain further graces. (b) The Council of Trent (Sess. VI. can. 18; cf. c. 14) condemns the reformers who asserted that "it is impossible even for the just and those living in the state of grace to keep all of God's commandments." Innocent X. condemned as heretical the following proposition of Jansenius: "Some of the commandments of God are impossible to observe for the just, considering their present powers, despite all their good will and efforts; the grace by which they may be fulfilled is also wanting." (c) Is it conceivable that God, who is full of goodness towards all, would refuse the just, who are His friends and children, the means necessary for observing His commandments and saving their souls?

2. God gives also to those who are in the state of sin sufficient grace to keep the commandments, consequently, to avoid further sin, and to be converted to God. (a) The sinner, as we must conclude from the many warnings addressed to him in Scripture, is bound to keep the commandments, and to avoid sin. But such an obligation cannot exist without the grace sufficient for its fulfilment, since man's natural strength is insufficient. The repeated exhortations to penance, moreover, suppose that conversion is possible; but without grace it would be impossible. Therefore the apostle says: "The Lord dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance" (2 Pet. iii. 9). (b) Again, if God had not promised His grace to all

without exception, the Council of Trent (Sess. VI. c. 14) could not teach without restriction "that those who have lost the grace of justification once acquired may again be justified." Therefore God never so abandons the sinner as to withdraw His grace entirely from him.

Though God has promised the supernatural means of conversion to all sinners, yet He has not assured them of the continuance of those natural conditions without which grace cannot be effectual. Thus He has not promised them the free use of their mental faculties to the end of their lives.

3. God gives even to infidels sufficient grace to enable them to believe and to save their souls. (a) The refusal to accept the teaching of the Gospel, contrary to the words of Christ (John xvi. 18, 19), would be no sin if those to whom it was preached did not receive grace sufficient to believe. (6) Faith is nc less necessary for salvation than the keeping of the commandments (148); therefore it must be equally possible. But it is not possible without sufficient grace to believe. We have, in fact, the testimony of Scripture (Wis. xii.) that the heathen tribes of Canaan particularly experienced the influence of grace. Hence the doctrine that pagans, Jews, heretics, and the like, receive no influence from Jesus Christ has been condemned by Alexander VIII.

The heathen, who is in total ignorance of revelation, but spurns the inspirations of God, sins, of course, by resisting God's grace. But his unbelief as such is not a sin, as he does not know that it is a consequence of his disregard of the divine inspirations. The first solicitations of grace are not a revelation, nor the light of faith; they are only a supernatural inspiration, whereby God would dispose the soul of the unbeliever, and bring it to the faith.

146. Grace can be rendered inefficacious by man's free will. Jansenius, a native of Laerdam, in Holland (born A.D. 1535), taught that in our present fallen state internal grace can never be resisted; that, consequently, every grace is efficacious, i.e., attains its end; and that a grace which is merely sufficient-with which one can co-operate, but does not-is never given. According to Jansenius grace is a pure spiritual delectation, opposed to the impure earthly concupiscence of the heart. Grace and concupiscence are to each other as the two scales of a balance. If the spiritual appetite is the stronger it outweighs the earthly, and man's will follows it: if the sensual appetite is the stronger it conquers the spiritual, and

man's will follows concupiscence. In short, if grace preponderates so that man can co-operate with it he will actually co-operate; if, on the other hand, he follows his sensual appetite it is because grace weighs so little in the balance that his will cannot co-operate. This doctrine, which revived the errors already condemned by the Council of Trent, was justly declared heretical by the Holy See (145).

1. That man may resist grace and withhold his co-operation; that there is, consequently, grace which is barely sufficient, but inefficacious through our own fault,-may be concluded from the words of Our Lord: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy chil dren as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not" (Matt. xxiii. 37). The judgments of God were, therefore, executed on Jerusalem because it spurned the graces offered it (cf. Matt. xi. 21; Acts vii. 51).

2. If, as we have seen (145), sufficient grace is given, at lea t to all the just, to keep the commandments and to overcome temptations; and if, on the other hand, even the just yield to temptation and relapse into sin,-it is manifest that there are graces which are sufficient, but ineffectual through man's own fault.

3. St. Augustine, from whom Jansenius pretended to have taken his doctrine, is in perfect harmony with the belief of the Church, for he teaches that it depends upon man's free will to consent to the solicitation of grace, or to withhold his consent and render it ineffectual (de spir. et lit. c. 34).

147. The efficacy of grace does not impair the freedom of the human will.

As grace consists in the enlightenment of the understanding and the inspiration of the will, every grace is efficacious in the sense that it is productive of some activity. The first motions of grace, however, are involuntary, and not in man's power. Not until he is conscious of them can he by the action of his free will co-operate with them or resist them. We call those graces strictly efficacious with which man freely co-operates, which have the effect intended by God. That there are efficacious graces, which obtain their end, is as certain as it is that there are supernaturally good actions; for every supernatural action is the effect of an efficacious grace. "It is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish" (Phil. ii. 13). The so-called reformers of the sixteenth century denied the

freedom of the human will under the influence of grace; and in this error Jansenius substantially concurred. The freedom of the human will, however, under the influence of grace is manifest both from Scripture and tradition.

1. Scripture thus characterizes the just man: "He that could have transgressed, and hath not transgressed, and could do evil things, and hath not done them" (Ecclus. xxxi. 10). He who from a supernatural love of virtue abstains from sin follows the inspiration of grace. But he follows the inspiration of grace voluntarily, since he could do the contrary. And if it were not fully in our power to do good and shun evil, why should Scripture repeatedly exhort us to do so?

2. St. Augustine, to whom the adversaries of the Catholic doctrine on the efficacy of grace generally appeal, always maintained the freedom of the human will, and defended it ex professo in one of his works (de gratia et lib. arbit.). The Council of Trent (Sess. VI. can. 4) defined the Catholic doctrine against the innovators of the sixteenth century.

That God could direct man's will as He pleases without impairing its freedom, though we may not understand how, is manifest. For, being the almighty and absolute ruler of the universe, He can direct every creature according to its nature; consequently the will of man in accordance with its freedom. God's wisdom and power would not be infinite if man's malice could frustrate all His graces under all circumstances, and thus thwart His intent. Hence St. Augustine (ad Simplic. I. q. 2, n. 13), explaining this difficulty, appeals to God's omniscience, which foresees with what graces and under what circumstances man's free will would co-operate, so that He can give that grace with which He foresees that man would freely co-operate.

II. HABITUAL OR SANCTIFYING GRACE.

148. By sanctifying grace internal justification and regeneration, together with the divine virtues of faith, hope, and charity, and the Holy Ghost Himself, the author of grace, are Communicated to the soul.

By sanctifying grace (140) we are justified, i.e., from being unjust, or sinners, we are made just, children of God, and heirs of heaven. Sanctifying grace, being a gift inwardly communicated to the soul, renews or regenerates us. Justification is not merely, as the reformers would have it, forgiveness of sins or the mere reputation of Christ's merits as ours. By the merits of Jesus Christ, it is true, we are justified (137), and the forgiveness of sins is an essential

part of justification; but justification itself is the gift of sanctifying grace, imparting spiritual life to the soul, adorning it with supernatural beauty, and thus destroying death and sin, which disfigured the soul. It is, as the Council of Trent (Sess. VI. cap. 7) teaches, "not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and regeneration of the inward man by the voluntary acceptance of God's grace and gifts."

1. Justification conferred by sanctifying grace is an internal, inherent gift. For (a) it is contrasted with the sin inherited from our first parents. "As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one many shall be made just" (Rom. v. 19). But the sin inherited from our first parents, which is the spiritual death of the soul, is something internal and inherent in each (113). Consequently, the justification obtained by Christ, by which we are born anew to a supernatural life, is an internal quality inherent in the soul of each individual. (b) By justification we are born again (John iii. 5, 6). Now, as natural generation bestows natural gifts, so supernatural regeneration confers supernatural gifts, and is, therefore, not a mere outward imputation of the merits of Christ. This regeneration and internal renewal by sanctifying grace is described by the Apostle in the words: "He saved us by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom He hath poured forth upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by His grace we may be heirs, according to hope, of life everlasting" (Tit. iii. 5-7; cf. Rom. v. 17). (c) The Council of Trent (Sess. VI. can. 11; cf. c. 7) defended the notion of justification, based on Scripture and tradition, declaring that justification did not consist, as the innovators pretended, simply in the imputation of the justice of Jesus Christ to us, or merely in the remission of sins, without that grace or charity which is diffused in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and that the grace by which we are justified is not merely the favor of God.

As justification is a spiritual renewal and regeneration, it follows that sin is really destroyed by it, and not, as the reformers naintained, merely covered, or no longer imputed, according to the words, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John i. 7ì;