Theological Theses · §2464 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Thomists: sufficient grace gives proximate and complete power

Thesis XXVI. Although the grace they distinguish from efficacious grace does not include that final requirement for doing good, they still insist it is rightly called sufficient. It may not suffice for anyone actually to act, but it gives the strength to act well and suffices to make a person able to act well. Indeed they say such sufficient grace confers not just some power to do good, but a power that deserves to be called proximate and complete, even though, as they admit, a fresh aid from God must necessarily come before the good action.

Just so, a healthy person with sound eyes has, on their view, proximate and complete power to see even while he stays in darkness, although for sight actually to happen he needs, besides sound eyes, light to illuminate the objects before him.

Latin

XXVI. Quamvis autem gratia quam ab efficaci distinguunt, non complectatur istud ultimum praerequisitum ad bene agendum, nihilominus pertendunt illam recte sufficientem dici: quia licet non sufficiat ut aliquis actu operetur, dat tamen vires bene operandi, & ad hoc sufficit ut quis bene operari possit. Imo vero per ejusmodi gratiam sufficientem dicunt non simpliciter dari bene agendi potentiam, sed potentiam talem quae mereatur dici proxima & completa; quanquam, ipsis fatentibus, novum Dei auxilium necessario bonam actionem praecedere debeat. Quemadmodum homo sanus cujus oculi sunt bene constituti, etiamsi in tenebris degat, habet ex ipsorum sensu, potentiam videndi proximam & completam, quanquam ad hoc ut visio fiat, praeter oculos bene constitutos, necessario requiratur lumen, quod praesentia objecta illustret.

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