_F. G. Holweck,_ _ Censor Librorum_ _IMPRIMATUR_ _Sti. Ludovici, die 21 Jan. 1919_ _Joannes J. Glennon_ _ Archiepiscopus_ _ Sti. Ludovici_ _Copyright, 1914_ _ by_ _ Joseph Gummersbach_ _All rights reserved_ _Printed in U. S. A._ BECKTOLD PRINTING & BOOK MFG. CO. ST. LOUIS. U. S. A. INTRODUCTION Humanity was reconciled to God by the Redemption. This does not, however, mean that every individual human being was forthwith justified, for individual justification is wrought by the application to the soul of grace derived from the inexhaustible merits of Jesus Christ. There are two kinds of grace: (1) actual and (2) habitual. Actual grace is a supernatural gift by which rational creatures are enabled to perform salutary acts. Habitual, or, as it is commonly called, sanctifying, grace is a habit, or more or less enduring state, which renders men pleasing to God. This distinction is of comparatively recent date, but it furnishes an excellent principle of division for a dogmatic treatise on grace.(1) PART I. ACTUAL GRACE Actual grace is a transient supernatural help given by God from the treasury of the merits of Jesus Christ for the purpose of enabling man to work out his eternal salvation. We shall consider: (1) The Nature of Actual Grace; (2) Its Properties, and (3) Its Relation to Free-Will. GENERAL READINGS:—St. Thomas, _Summa Theologica_, 1a 2ae, qu. 109-114, and the commentators, especially Billuart, _De Gratia_ (ed. Lequette, t. III); the Salmanticenses, _De Gratia Dei_ (_Cursus Theologiae_, Vol. IX sqq., Paris 1870); Thomas de Lemos, _Panoplia Divinae Gratiae_, Liège 1676; Dominicus Soto, _De Natura et Gratia_, l. III, Venice 1560; *Ripalda,(2) _De Ente Supernaturali_, 3 vols. (I, Bordeaux 1634; II, Lyons 1645; III, Cologne 1648).