Breviloquium

Second, the grace of the Holy Spirit occurs to us to be considered in comparison to free choice, and this according to a double mode. First namely, insofar as it is aid to merit; but second, insofar as it is remedy against sin¹.

Concerning the grace of God, therefore, insofar as it is aid to meriting², these things are to be held: that since grace is said generally, specially and properly; generally is called the divine aid liberally and freely bestowed on the creature and indifferently to any act; and without such aid of grace we can neither effect anything nor endure in being. — Specially is called grace the aid divinely given, that one prepare himself to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which he arrive at the state of merit; and such is called grace freely given, and without this none sufficiently does what is in himself, that he prepare himself to salvation. — But properly grace is called the aid given divinely to meriting, which indeed is called the gift of grace making pleasing, without which none can merit nor in good advance nor to eternal salvation arrive. For it, as the root of merit, precedes all merits; on account of which it was said that "it precedes the will so that it may will, but follows it lest it will in vain."³ Whence none can merit it by merit of the condign, but "it merits to be augmented by God in the way, that augmented it merit also to be perfected" in the fatherland and everlasting glory by God himself, whose it is to infuse, augment and perfect grace according to the cooperation of our will and according to the purpose or good pleasure of eternal predestination.

The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because, since the first principle by its omnipotent virtue and most benign largess produced every creature from nothing to being; and thereby the creature of itself has non-being, but all being has from elsewhere: it was made in such a way that, because of its defectibility, it always needs its principle, and the first principle, because of its goodness, never ceases to pour itself into it⁴. Since, therefore, the rational spirit, precisely because it is from nothing, is defective in itself; precisely because it is a limited and needy nature, is turned inward upon itself, loving its own good; and precisely because it is wholly from God, is wholly subject to God; and because it is defective, of itself it tends into non-being; because recurved, through itself it does not rise to the rectitude of perfect justice; because totally obnoxious to God, and God needs not its goods⁵, it can do nothing from itself and its own power by which it might make God its debtor, especially its debtor of the eternal reward, which is God, except through divine condescension: hence, in order to be preserved in being, because it is defective, it always needs the aid of the divine presence, maintenance, and inflow, by which it is maintained in being; and although this aid is universal in all creatures, it is nevertheless called grace, because it proceeds not from debt, but from the liberality of divine goodness. — Hence also, in order to prepare itself for the gift of heavenly grace, because it is turned inward upon itself, it needs the gift of another grace freely given, especially after fallen nature, by which it may be made capable of moral goods, which are goods by circumstance⁶, and these cannot in any way be called goods unless they proceed from a right intention, namely, that they be done not for our sake but for the sake of the highest good. Our turned-inward spirit does not rise to this unless God goes before it through some grace freely given. — Hence also, in order to perform works meriting the eternal reward, since it is wholly subject to God and indebted for its whole self, it needs the gift of grace that makes pleasing, through which God condescends to it, first accepting its image and will rather than the work flowing from them; because, since "the cause is nobler than the effect,"⁷ no one can make himself better or make a work pleasing to God unless he himself first pleases him, so that God first regards him rather than his gifts⁸.

And therefore the whole root of merit is founded in grace making pleasing, whose it is to make man worthy of God; on account of which none can merit it by merit of the condign, but only by merit of the congruous.

Once possessed, grace merits its own increase in the state of pilgrimage through its good use, by merit of worthiness. For since God alone is the fontal principle of inflowing of grace itself, he alone is the principle of augmenting by mode of infusing, and grace by mode of merit and dignity, and free choice by mode of cooperating and meriting, because free choice cooperates with grace and makes its own what is of grace.

And therefore not only does free choice through grace merit the augmentation of grace in the state of way by merit of the worthy, but also the complement in the state of fatherland by merit of the condign, both on account of the sublimity of the gift of the Holy Spirit cooperating in merit; and on account of the veracity of God promising; and on account of the mutability of free choice consenting and finally persevering; and on account of the difficulty of the meriting state⁹; and on account of the dignity of Christ our head intervening, who ought to be glorified with his members; and on account of the liberality of God retributing, whom it befits not to render small things on account of the service faithfully obeying him; and on account of the nobility of the work, which proceeds from charity, which so much weighs in the sight of the judge, as the love from which it proceeds, which incomparably prefers God to all creatures, and therefore cannot sufficiently and competently be remunerated except in God and the highest good. — From all which as from seven reasons the sevenfold grace makes to merit eternal glory by merit not only of the congruous, but also of the condign.