GRACE OF GOD, an expression borrowed from Saint Paul's writings. The apostle fre quently employs the term grace in the sense of a gift which enables those who have it to do what they could not do without it. In common parlance we use such expressions as the °gift of music," the °gift of poetry,* as belonging to one who might acquire many accomplishments, but could never acquire what is meant by a gift for anything. Saint Paul, speaking of his own con version, his calling to the apostolate and his many labors, says: the grace of God I am what I am." Again he addresses his followers in these words: °By grace are ye saved; not of yourselves, it is the gift of Gold." The Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States teach that grace is the assistance given by God to those who believe in Him, so that they may please Him and keep His commandments. All the Reformed churches agree on this point and they also agree that no man can dogood works °as God hath willed and commanded them to be done" (39 Articles), that is, from a right motive and in a religious spirit of devotion, without the grace of God. They also teach that the prin cipal means of grace is prayer, and study of the Scriptures, which latter make a man °thoroughly furnished unto all good (1 Tim. iii, 17). To these means of grace the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer adds the two sacra ments, of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper, which are not only means of grace, but also °outward and visible signs" and °pledges' of the grace received by those who participate in them. As defined by the eminent Roman Cath olic theologian, Perrone, grace is °that gratu itous inward aid (auxitium) which God affords to fallen man through Christ's merits, to en able him to perform supernatural acts, so that he may attain justification and persevere therein)) (Prwlect. Theol., c. d. Gratia). The Roman Catholic Church's doctrine of grace is opposed on one side to the teachings of Pelagius, who denied the necessity of grace, and on the other to the teachings of those who held that without grace every act of man is a sin, and specifically that 'the constancy of Socrates, the continence of Xenocrates ... must be regarded, not as virtues but as vices" (Melanc. Loci Theol.) ; and that °from man's corrupt nature proceeds naught that is not worthy of condem nation') (damnabile : Inst. i, 2). Roman Catholic
doctrine holds the middle ground between these extremes. As against the Pelagians the Roman Catholic Church teaches that for all acts con ducive to salvation (safutares) the innergrace of the Holy Spirit is necessary (Conc. Trid. Sess. VI, can. ii, 3). As against Melanc thon, Baius and the Jansenists, the same Church teaches that fallen man, before he receives the gift or grace of faith, can perform acts that are morally good. Further, the Roman Catholic Church, in opposition to the teaching of Calvin, holds that a man once justified may fall from that state. Again, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that in all his acts conducive to salva tion (salutaribus) man is free ; in other words, grace imposes on man no necessity.
The Council of Trent in Can. iv of Sess. VI, thus defines the Roman Catholic doctrine of the freedom of man's will while co-operating with grace : If one shall say that man's free will, moved and stirred by God, co-operates not, by giving assent to God so inciting and calling, toward disposing and fitting himself for grace of justification ; or that he cannot, if he wishes, dissent; but that like some life-. less thing he cannot do anything at all and is wholly passive; be he anathema?) The Roman Catholic Church further teaches that the state of grace and holiness in which man was con stituted in Paradise was supernatural, some thing added to the perfection of his human nature; in contradiction to those who teach that this state was in the same sense natural to him as any of his mental or bodily faculties. In consistency with this view such teachers hold that in his fall Adam lost all power and faculty for doing any good act, and that whatever he did was sin. All these views seem to have been influenced by the pre-pagan conception of the graces who bestowed upon man the favors of the gods, without which one could show no special gifts, such as oratory, music and poetry. Thus man, in so far as the graces were con cerned, was fated. Christian theologicians, among them Saint Paul, thinking in the terms of their day and looking upon religion as a special gift, were naturally guided by Roman philosophy in describing it. Thus the terms foreordination and predestination seem to have formed a part of the conception of certain re ligious sections of Christianity from very early days.