Whether Perseverance Needs the Help of Grace?
[*Cf. I-II, Q. 109, A. 10]
Objection 1: It seems that perseverance does not need the help of
grace. For perseverance is a virtue, as stated above (A. 1). Now
according to Tully (De Invent. Rhet. ii) virtue acts after the manner
of nature. Therefore the sole inclination of virtue suffices for
perseverance. Therefore this does not need the help of grace.
Obj. 2: Further, the gift of Christ's grace is greater than the harm
brought upon us by Adam, as appears from Rom. 5:15, seqq. Now "before
sin man was so framed that he could persevere by means of what he had
received," as Augustine says (De Correp. et Grat. xi). Much more
therefore can man, after being repaired by the grace of Christ,
persevere without the help of a further grace.
Obj. 3: Further, sinful deeds are sometimes more difficult than deeds
of virtue: hence it is said in the person of the wicked (Wis. 5:7):
"We . . . have walked through hard ways." Now some persevere in
sinful deeds without the help of another. Therefore man can also
persevere in deeds of virtue without the help of grace.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Persev. i): "We hold that
perseverance is a gift of God, whereby we persevere unto the end, in
Christ."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 1, ad 2; A. 2, ad 3),
perseverance has a twofold signification. First, it denotes the habit
of perseverance, considered as a virtue. In this way it needs the
gift of habitual grace, even as the other infused virtues. Secondly,
it may be taken to denote the act of perseverance enduring until
death: and in this sense it needs not only habitual grace, but also
the gratuitous help of God sustaining man in good until the end of
life, as stated above (I-II, Q. 109, A. 10), when we were treating of
grace. Because, since the free-will is changeable by its very nature,
which changeableness is not taken away from it by the habitual grace
bestowed in the present life, it is not in the power of the
free-will, albeit repaired by grace, to abide unchangeably in good,
though it is in its power to choose this: for it is often in our
power to choose yet not to accomplish.
Reply Obj. 1: The virtue of perseverance, so far as it is concerned,
inclines one to persevere: yet since it is a habit, and a habit is a
thing one uses at will, it does not follow that a person who has the
habit of virtue uses it unchangeably until death.
Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (De Correp. et Grat. xi), "it was
given to the first man, not to persevere, but to be able to persevere
of his free-will: because then no corruption was in human nature to
make perseverance difficult. Now, however, by the grace of Christ,
the predestined receive not only the possibility of persevering, but
perseverance itself. Wherefore the first man whom no man threatened,
of his own free-will rebelling against a threatening God, forfeited
so great a happiness and so great a facility of avoiding sin: whereas
these, although the world rage against their constancy, have
persevered in faith."
Reply Obj. 3: Man is able by himself to fall into sin, but he cannot
by himself arise from sin without the help of grace. Hence by falling
into sin, so far as he is concerned man makes himself to be
persevering in sin, unless he be delivered by God's grace. On the
other hand, by doing good he does not make himself to be persevering
in good, because he is able, by himself, to sin: wherefore he needs
the help of grace for that end.
_______________________