Prima Secundae
268. Aquinas on the Necessity of Grace (ST I-II q.109 a.8–10): Avoiding Sin, Help for Those Already in Grace, Perseverance, and a Preview of q.110
Class of 2016-02-25
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/11-prima-secundae/268-aquinas-on-the-necessity-of-grace-st-i-ii-q-109-a-8-10-avoiding/

[0:00] Up to Article Eight, huh? To the eighth, one goes forward thus. It seems that man, without grace, is able to not sin, right, huh?

[0:17] For for no one sins in that which is not able to what avoid, right, huh? As Augustine says in the book on the two what?

[0:32] Two souls, I guess. Whatever that work is. Okay. And in the book on free will, right? Okay. If therefore man, existing in mortal sin, is not able to avoid sin, it seems that he did not what sin by sinning. I got the right, which is inconvenient for our thinking, huh?

[1:13] To the first, therefore, it should be said that man is able to avoid right individual acts of sin, but not all, except through grace, as has been said.

[1:30] But nevertheless, because is from his own defect that a man does not prepare himself for having grace, huh? Through this, he is then not excused from sin. That without grace, he cannot what avoid sin, right? Okay. Doesn't seek that aid, I guess, huh? Yeah, that's the same. Alphonsus says that if a man goes, he says, like a month without thinking about the business of his soul, that's a sin by itself, Apart from everything else.

[2:07] that's a grave sin because he's neglecting what's most important. Moreover, man is what? Correct, is it? That he not sinned, right? If therefore man, in mortal sin, existing, is not able not to sin, it seems in vain that a what? Rebuke is used. Yeah. Which is inconvenient, huh?

[2:52] To second, it should be said that the useful what? Rebuke. Rebuke. Yeah. Is that what? From the sadness of the rebuke, the will of regeneration arises.

[3:16] Now, the one who is corrected is a son of what? The promise that by the the what we say that disturbance maybe or something yeah

[3:33] sounding in an extrinsic way right and whipping him right God in him intrinsic by a what hidden inspiration operates and what yeah as Augustine says in the book on corruption and grace

[3:57] therefore it is necessary what rebuke is necessary yeah because the will of man requires requires this in order that he might abstain from sin but nevertheless this corruption corruption is in is not sufficient without the aid of God whence it is said in Ecclesiastes seven fourteen consider the works of God that no one can be corrected whom he despises huh tough words tough love

[4:41] that's what Augustine says in the Confessions he loves us so much and threatens us with eternal war if we don't obey yeah yeah third objection before man is life and death the good and the bad what pleases him will be given to him right but someone by sinning but someone by sinning does not cease to be a man therefore it is still in his power to choose good or evil and thus a man can without grace avoid sin

[5:28] Augustine says in the what Hypognosticon is that against the Hypognosticon, inter suppositiones Augustine maybe not that word should be understood about man according to the status of what integral nature when he was not yet the slave of sin. Whence he was able to sin and to not sin, right? Now also, whatever a man wishes will be given to him. But this that he wishes, the good, he has from the what?

[6:13] Help of grace, huh? Okay. Against this, what Augustine says in the book on perfect justice, huh? Whoever denies, huh, that we ought to pray, lest we enter into temptation, right? He negates, right, this which he attempts in not sinning. That the grace of God is not the aid of the grace of God is not necessary for man, but only by the law taken in human philosophies, this should be removed from the ears of all, right?

[7:06] And the mouth of all, anathematizing. I don't doubt, huh? Yeah I don't think Those are hard words, Augustine. I guess to me But I realized that the danger are mentally I guess So you've got to pray. You're talking. I need us not into temptation, right now. Yeah, yeah. You need to pray that. That prayer is got. It's essential, right?

[7:45] Answer should be said that we can speak of man in two ways. In one way, according to the status of integral nature. In another way, according to the status of corrupt nature. Now, according to the status of integral nature.

[8:08] Even what. Without habitual grace, a man is able to what? Not sin, neither mortally nor venially. Because to sin is nothing other than to recede from that which is according to nature. Which man can avoid in the integrity of nature, right?

[8:35] But he's not able to do this without the what? God conserving him in the good. Which, being taken away, even the nature itself would fall to nothing. else. But in the state of corrupt nature, a man needs habitual grace, healing nature, in order that he can entirely abstain from sin.

[9:04] Which healing first is in the present life, in the what, spiritual side of man, the mind there. Mental means the will too. The fleshly desire not yet wholly repaired. Whence the apostle says in the epistle to Romans, "In the person of a man repaired, and I myself, right, in my mind I serve the law of God, but in my flesh I serve the law of sin."

[9:42] In which status a man is able to abstain from mortal sin, which consists in reason, right, as has been said above. But a man is not able to abstain from every what venial sin. That's when Saint Paul, I mean Saint John, says, "we all have some sin."right, on account of the corruption of the lower sensual appetite, right, of which singular or individual motions reason is able to repress, right, and from this they have the notion of sin voluntary if he give in to them, right, but not over all, because while he resists one, perhaps another one arises, right, and also because reason is not able always to be vigilant, right, to avoiding these what motions, as has been said above.

[10:40] Likewise, above human reason, in which is mortal sin is repaired through what before is repaired through justifying grace, he can avoid individual mortal sins, huh, and according to some time, right, huh, because it is not necessary that he continual sin in act, that's good to know, but that he long remain without mortal sin cannot be. Whence Gregory says upon Ezekiel that the sin that is not at once wiped out by penance by its weight draws into what another, and the reason for this is because just as the lower appetite ought to be subject to reason, so also reason ought to be subject to God, and to constitute in him the end of his will.

[11:41] But through the end, necessary that all human acts be ruled, just as through the judgment of reason to be ruled the motions of the lower appetite. Thus, therefore, the lower appetite, not being wholly subject to reason, it cannot be but that there be disordered movements, huh, in the sense desiring power. So also the reason of man, not existing subject to God, it is consequent that there happens many disorders in the acts of what reason, huh, let's bring court right there.

[12:28] Okay, since then man does not have his heart firmly in God, that for no good achieving it or avoiding an evil from which he wishes to be separated, right, there occurs many things, on account of which obtaining or avoiding man recedes recedes from God by condemning his precepts, right, and thus he sins mortally. Especially because in sudden things, a man acts according to his preconceived end and according to his preexisting habit, as the philosopher says, right, in the third book of the Ethics.

[13:15] Although, from the premeditation of reason, man is able to do something, you know, outside of the order of his end preconceived, right, and an account and outside of the inclination of habit. But because a man cannot be always in such premeditation, it cannot happen that he remains long, but that operates according to the consequence of a disordered will, By God. Unless he be repaired through grace to a suitable order, right?

[13:50] That's an understatement Yeah Now then, let's quote down here from another work of Thomas, Contra Gentiles. Says when the mind is inclined to something, it does not have itself equally to both opposites, right? But more to that to which it is inclined. But that to which the mind has itself more, it chooses, unless through a discussion of reason, it is led away from what? Yet by sudden solicitude, whence in sudden things the sign of the interior habit, especially, can be taken, right?

[14:34] Okay, it is not over possible for the mind of man to be continually in that vigilance that, through reason, it what discusses whatever it ought to do or will, right? Whence the mind sometimes chooses that to which is inclined, the inclination remaining. And thus, if it is inclined in sin, it cannot stand long, but that it sin,

[15:06] giving an impediment to grace, unless it be reduced to the state of rectitude. Okay. Little break here now. Article nine here. The ninth one goes forward. Thus, it seems that the one who has already achieved grace, through himself, now is able to do good and avoid sin, without another aid of grace. Huh?

[15:41] Well, the first argument is each thing is either in vain or it's imperfect if it does not fulfill that for which it is given. Right? But grace is given to us that we could do something good. Right? And avoid sin. If therefore through grace a man is not able to do this, it seems that grace is either given in vain or that it's imperfect. Okay, well, I'm convinced by that argument,

[16:15] To the first, it should be said, and that the habitual gift of grace is not given to us that to it we would not what need a further divine aid. For every creature, each creature needs, right? That he be conserved by God in the good that he has taken from him. Okay, even your your your your being right requires God's help to continue. And therefore, if after the grace received man still needs divine aid, it cannot be concluded that the grace has been given in vain, right?

[16:59] Or that it's imperfect, any more than that by being right, huh? Still requires God, huh? Now that's one of the articles that take up on the discussion of creation, right, huh? You know whether God can give to the creature a being so he doesn't require God any more for his being, right? Well, he can't do that, right, huh? Because being depends upon God, right? That gift. Can you make another God Because even in the state of glory, right, when grace will be altogether what perfect, right?

[17:41] God or man rather will need divine what assistance, yeah. However, grace is in some way what imperfect, insofar as man is not entirely what healed, as has been said, right, huh? Okay, now the second objection. Moreover, through grace the Holy Spirit Himself dwells in us, huh? According to that of the first epistle to the Corinthians, do you not know that you are the temple of God, that the holy, the Spirit of God dwells in you?

[18:27] But the Holy Spirit, since he is omnipotent, is sufficient that he lead us to doing well, and that he guard us from sin. Therefore, man is able to what?

[18:46] Having attained grace, man is able to do both of these. without these things without another aid of grace. So he gets kind of you know annoyed all this dependence. Yeah.

[19:03] To the second, it should be said that the operation of the Holy Spirit by which he moves us and protects us is not what circumscribed through the effect of the habitual gift that he causes in us, but in addition to this what effect he moves and what protects us together with the Father and the Son.

[19:36] More, if man, having achieved grace, still needs another aid of grace, in order that he might live rightly and abstain from sin, for like reason, if that other aid of grace he has achieved, still he would need what another aid, huh? And this would go on forever, my gosh, which is inconvenient, huh? Therefore, the one who is in grace does not need another aid of grace in order that he act well and he abstain from sin.

[20:11] Well, Thomas answered we did that other objection earlier, right? To the third, it should be said that that argument concludes that man does not need another habitual grace, huh? Okay.

[20:29] But against this is what Augustine says in the book on nature and what grace, huh? That just as the eye of the body, fully what healthy, needs to be aided by the candor. Brightness of light. Brightness of light. Is not able to what discern things, right?

[20:59] So also man, most perfectly justified, unless he be aided by the eternal light of divine justice, divinely, he cannot live what rightly. But justification comes about through grace, according to that of Romans three. You are justified gratuitously through His grace. Therefore, also man, having grace, needs another aid of grace in order that he might live rightly.

[21:34] But now it's grace being used here, unequivocally. See, later on I think we'll have that distinction between habitual grace and this emotion. I answer: It should be said that, as has been said above, man needs for living rightly in two ways the aid of what God, right? Now, skip a little line there, right? Then you write down the first way. In one way, as regards some what habitual gift, through which human nature, corrupt human nature, is healed, right?

[22:16] Being healed is elevated to doing works meritorious of eternal life, which exceed the proportion of nature. In another way, man needs the aid of grace that he might be moved by God to what doing something. Now, as regards the first kind of aid, man existing in grace does not need another aid of grace, as it were another habit infused. That habit is what in the line more a form than a doing, right?

[22:59] He needs another aid of grace according to another mode that he be moved by God to acting what right thing, huh? I'm often thinking of how in Aristotle talks about the four kinds of causes, huh? And the first cause is called matter, and the second cause is called form, and the third is called mover. But he kind of puts in there and also the maker, right? And there's a difference in the causality of the maker, right, and the mover, right, because the mover is responsible for the motion of the move, right?

[23:39] But the maker is responsible for the form of the made, right? And then I think of you know what is Thomas doing in the second and the third book of the Summa Contra Gentiles? Maker, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because in the second book you're talking about God making heaven and earth, right? God creating things, giving them their form, their nature, right? And what are you talking about in the third book, right?

[24:11] In the third book, you're talking about God being the end of all things, and then is moving everything He's made towards Himself. Huh? Yeah. Kind of little difference there between the mover and the maker, right? Huh? Well, it's kind of that distinction is similar to distinction being made here, right?

[24:32] That we need God's aid, both as regards this form, which is habitual grace, right? And then we need to also be moved by God, right?

[24:44] So as regards that first kind of aid, man existing in grace does not need another aid of grace as were another infused habit, another form, right? Huh? But he needs the aid of grace another way that he be moved by God to acting. rightly? And this, an account of two things: first, for a general reason, right, An account of this that has been said above, no created thing can be in any what can can in any act go forth except by the what power of the divine motion.

[25:44] Secondly, for a special reason, on account of the condition of the state of human nature, which although it is healed by grace, right, as regards the higher powers, you might say, the mind, nevertheless, in it there is the corruption, infection, as regards the flesh, through which it serves the law of sin, as is said in Romans seven, right. There remains also a certain obscurity of ignorance in the understanding, huh, according as it is it is said in Romans eight, what we ought to what pray for as we ought, we don't know, on account of various what happenings of things, huh, because also we ourselves do not know ourselves perfectly, right.

[26:43] We cannot fully know what is expedient for us, right, according to that of wisdom, chapter nine, the thoughts of mortals are timid, huh, and uncertain are our providences, right,

[27:02] and therefore it is necessary for us that we be directed by God and protected, who knows all things and is able to do all things, right, and on account of this also those we born as sons of God to grace, it is suitable, it's convenient, right, belongs to us to say, and ne nos inducas in tentationem and lead us not into temptation, right, and may your will be done, as it is in heaven, so also in earth, and the other things which in the Lord's prayer are contained pertaining to this, huh,

[27:52] so it's reasoning from the prayer, right, okay, one more article. Then we have no necessity of grace, completely, huh? I always like this this thing about perseverance, right? Do you need special grace to persevere, right? Continue in good works until your end. Well, can I can I choose, you know, to to continue to be good throughout the rest of my life, to do good works the rest of my life?

[28:30] Can I choose that? See, do I have the ability to choose that? Do I have the, you know, I can choose to do something good, maybe right today. Can I choose to be doing something good every day, you know, rest of my life and nothing bad? Can I choose that? So I might want it. Can I? But can I choose it? Is it in my power to do that?

[28:54] To the tenth, one goes forward. Thus, it seems that man, constituted in grace, does not need the aid of grace to persevere, for perseverance is something less than what virtue, just as what continence is, clear through the philosopher in the seventh book of the ethics.

[29:18] Aristotle is not, about perseverance. There he talks about continence being something less than virtue, right? Because the continent man, he resists the temptation, right? But he's got hell of a temptation to resist. By the virtuous man, right, his his emotions are, you know, controlled, you know, quieted down, right? So it doesn't have a great thing, huh? Some of these some saints had this trouble with even anger, right?

[29:44] Which is kind of interesting, huh? Yeah. Yeah, Father Hardin says he had a professor a Jesuit when he was a young Jesuit Yeah He had this volcanic temper Yeah He said he didn't know if in class he'd throw a book at you You know and then he said after class he'd kneel down in front of you and ask forgiveness This was all his life he was like this He was constantly burst together but then he would humble himself every single night Humble It's amazing But man does not need another aid of grace to having virtues right from which he is justified by grace Therefore much less does he need an aid of grace to having perseverance

[30:39] Well maybe you have to wait there huh Because you have to see the body of the article to see that you reply to that objection In the same way for the second objection All virtues are poured in together but perseverance is laid down to be a certain virtue Therefore it seems that together with grace the what Poured in with the other virtues Yeah perseverance. Perseverance to be given, right?

[31:08] Okay, but perseverance, you know, a virtue. You see, I've got to wait to see the body of the article. See that. Moreover, as the apostle says in the epistle to the Romans. More is returned to man through the gift of Christ than was lost through the sin of Adam. But Adam had taken, had received that, whence he was able to persevere. Therefore, much more to us is restored through the grace of Christ that we are able to persevere.

[31:43] And thus, man does not need grace to persevere. Okay, we'll see what he says to that. We see the body. Against this is what Augustine says in the book on perseverance. He's got a book on everything, is Augustine.

[32:00] Wherefore, why is perseverance asked from God if it is not given by God, right? And this would be a what laughable petition when that is asked from someone that one knows is not what is to give. But him not giving, it would would be in the power of man.

[32:23] But perseverance is asked from those who, is asked by those who are what sanctified by grace, which is understood when we say, "Hallowed be thy name?" As Augustine confirms there through the words of Cyprian. Therefore, man also constituted in grace needs that he what.

[32:49] Persevere in the beginning. Yeah, That's the thing that Cyprian's famous thing on the Our Fathers, and then he got a famous little work on the Our Father. I read it one time, but that's part of his explanation there, right? Okay. Now Thomas says, "I answer it should be said that perseverance is said in three ways." Okay, that distinction I'm sure you're all familiar with, huh?

[33:15] At least, at least, I'm praying for three. Okay. For sometimes it signifies a habit of the mind by which a man firmly stands, right? Lest he be what removed from that which is according to virtue through what being. Sadness. Yeah, It's kind of worn down, right? Through sadnesses, right?

[33:51] Thus he has perseverance as regards sadnesses, right? Just as continence, right? To what, concupiscence and pleasures, yeah, desires and pleasures, yeah, as the philosopher says in the seventh book of the Ethics, right? There he says in a comparison between those things.

[34:15] In another way, perseverance can be said to be a certain habit by which a man has the proposal of persevering in good, usque in finem, right? And in both of these ways, perseverance together with grace is poured in, just as continence and the other what virtues. In another way, perseverance is said the continuation of good all the way to the end of life. And for such perseverance, having man constituted in grace does not need another what habitual grace, but the divine aid directing him and protecting him against the impulse of what temptations, just as is clear from the what preceding question.

[35:19] And therefore, after someone is justified by grace, he necessarily has to ask from God the foresaid gift of perseverance that he be guarded right from evil all the way to the end of what life.

[35:39] But to many is given what grace to whom is not given to persevere in the grace, so you got to ask God. So he says to the first objection, then it proceeds about the first way of perseverance, just as the second one proceeds about the what second.

[36:09] To third, it should be said, as Augustine says in the book on Nature and Grace, man in his first state received a gift by which he is able to persevere. He did not, however, receive that he would persevere. Now, through the grace of Christ, many receive and what gift the grace by which they are able to persevere, and further is given to them that they will in fact persevere.

[36:43] And thus the gift of Christ is greater than the defect of Adam. Nevertheless, a man more easily through the gift of grace is able to persevere in the state of innocence. In which there is no rebellion of flesh to the spirit, which now we are able, and now we are able, with the operation of the grace of Christ, although it has begun as regards the mind, is not yet completed, yeah, consummated, as regards the flesh, which will be in the fatherland, where man not only is able to persevere, but also he cannot, what?

[37:28] Yeah. Can't stop loving God there. In eternal life I guess. Reminds me kind of the argument, you know, for the the perpetuation of the species, right? You know, can. Can the

[38:07] reproducing animals ensure their perseverance of their kind? Or does it need some superior cause? Right. Well, no one animal can, you know. I mean, I got all these grandchildren, but I didn't really generate them. I generated my son, my daughter. They generated some more, but can I?

[38:36] I won't be here, you know. I can't be responsible for this. My line, you know, will the line of Berkus die out or something? You know, or with Glan, you know, can I be responsible for that? I'm not going to be forever around here, so I can't be doing this, right? I can't do it. Can all of us together, or we're not all together?

[39:00] Well, some higher power must be what directing this continuation of this. You know, of course, you realize it's not one. So they said this line died out. This line, Kevin, you read the history books all the time. You know, this line around this line of kings or what it was, you know, died out and so on, so then have some. Henry VIII, I mean it wasn't a big worry.

[39:24] That was just excuse, isn't it? Now, should we go on, or should we wait till next class? Yeah, this is nice now. Question one ten.

[39:40] Let's look at the premium, though. Put your appetite down. Then we're not to consider about the grace of God as regards its what essence.

[39:53] About this four things are asked: Whether grace places something in the soul, Whether grace is a quality. Now we're back to the categories, right? Goes around, comes around. Then whether grace differs from the what infused virtue.

[40:15] And then fourth, the subject grace. What what is grace?