Theological Theses · §2471 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Sufficient grace lies in different things for different works

Thesis XXXIII. Since the grace called sufficient is so called in relation to the various works toward which it disposes a person and for which it gives him the ability, according to which work is in question, that sufficient grace must be located in various things. The same grace does not make a person sufficient for everything.

So in a righteous person, the grace sufficient for works of true piety, worthy of eternal life, consists both in habitual grace itself and in the gifts of the Holy Spirit he already possesses, and in the various illuminations and enlightenings by which he is invited and urged toward this or that work. In a believer not yet justified, faith together with such movements of the Holy Spirit is sufficient aid for praying, asking and obtaining from God justifying grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And in one who does not yet believe, the grace sufficient for the act of faith consists, as Alvarez has already said, in knowledge of what is to be believed, devout thoughts, devout desires to have faith, and the like.

Latin

XXXIII. Porro cum gratia quae sufficiens vocatur, sic dicatur relate ad diversa opera, ad quae hominem disponit, & respectu quorum illi posse donat, prout de variis operibus agitur: ita gratia illa sufficiens, in variis constituenda est. Nec enim eadem gratia hominem ad omnia sufficientem reddit. Sic in homine justo, gratia sufficiens ad opera verae pietatis, & quae vita aeterna digna sint, consistit tum in ipsa gratia habituali, & spiritus sancti donis, quibus jam praeditus est, tum in variis illustrationibus & illuminationibus, quibus ad haec & illa opera invitatur & sollicitatur. In homine fideli, & nondum justificato, fides cum ejusmodi spiritus sancti motibus, auxilium sufficiens est ad orandum & petendum ac impetrandum a Deo gratiam justificantem, & donum spiritus sancti. Et in eo qui nondum fidelis est, gratia sufficiens ad fidei actum sunt, ut jam dixit Alvarez, notitia credendorum, piae cogitationes, & pia desideria habendi fidem, & quae sunt ejusmodi.

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