Alexander Morus: a remote and imperfect power means only the natural capacity of willing
Close to this is a passage in Alexander Morus, De Victoria Gratiae, disputation 3, thesis 15. He allows that man before grace may be said to have a remote and imperfect power for works of piety and supernatural works, so long as that phrase means the natural power of willing and refusing. That power gives man a proportion to such works and so a capacity for them, which you would not find in stones or in beasts.
His point is that man, however corrupted by sin, has natural faculties that God's grace can move to works of piety; beasts and lifeless things have no such faculties. Others mean the same by a passive and remote power: man is by nature able to receive the helps of divine grace, and through them his faculties take on new strength and move toward spiritual and saving works.
Latin
XXVIII. Affine est quod legitur apud Alexandrum Morum de Victoria Gratiae, disputatione tertia thesi 15. Concedit enim posse dici hominem ante Gratiam habere potentiam quandam remotam & imperfectam ad opera pietatis & supernaturalia, modo per id designetur potentia naturalis volendi & nolendi quae proportionem atque adeo capacitatem homini conciliat, qualem nec in lapidibus reperias nec in brutis. Nempe id sibi vult, hominem, quantumlibet peccato corruptum, naturales quasdam facultates habere quae per Dei gratiam possunt ad pietatis opera moveri, quales facultates desunt in brutis atque inanimis. Et hoc est quod alii intelligunt per potentiam passivam & remotam. Nempe per istud significant hominem esse per naturam capacem recipiendorum gratiae divinae auxiliorum, per quae facultates ejus, novis viribus assumptis, ferantur in opera spiritualia atque salutaria.