Habitual grace in the soul's essence: Ferry admits it
Thesis XVIII. Many scholastics hold that, besides the habits of the virtues, there is a habitual grace that directly penetrates and affects the very essence of the soul. Most doctors of the Reformed school do not deal with this question explicitly. Yet it seems not far from what they do acknowledge, namely the new and supernatural being and the habitual renewal of all the faculties that are given to a person in regeneration.
Paul Ferry, however, pastor of the church at Metz, who recently died in the Lord, explicitly admits a grace of this kind. He holds that before the act of conversion itself God infuses into the very substance of the soul a habitual grace. It pervades the whole soul like a spiritual light and from the soul's substance works its way into all its faculties.
In this way it prepares them to follow the leading of efficacious grace and to obey it readily and willingly, as can be seen in the homily on Hebrews 12:28 that he published. But I know that many people dislike this view.
Latin
XVIII. An autem praeter habitus virtutum detur gratia quaedam habitualis immediate ipsam animae essentiam penetrans atque afficiens, ut ex Scholasticis multi opinantur, res est de qua expresse non agunt plerique Scholae Reformatae doctores, sed a qua non multum abesse videtur, esse illud novum & supernaturale, & habitualis omnium facultatum innovatio, quam in regeneratione homini tribui agnoscunt. Paulus tamen Ferrius Pastor Ecclesiae Metensis nuper in Domino defunctus diserte ejusmodi quandam gratiam admittit. Et censet ante ipsum conversionis actum, a Deo in ipsam substantiam animae infundi habitualem quandam gratiam, quae totam animam instar spiritualis cujusdam lucis penetrat, & ex animae substantia in omnes ejus facultates sese insinuat: Et sic eas praeparat ut ductum gratiae efficacis sequantur, eique facile & sponte pareant, ut videre est in homilia illa quam publice edidit in Heb. 12. 28. Verum hanc sententiam pluribus scio non placere.