Grace (virtue)

“ Guided by the light of reason, we comprehend under the name of virtue those habitual dispositions of the heart which tend to the happiness and the real advantage of those with whom we associate, and by the exercise of which our fellow-creatures are induced to feel a reciprocal interest in our welfare. Under the Christian system the name of virtues is bestowed upon dispositions which it is impossible to possess without supernatural grace; and which, when possessed, are useless, if not injurious, both to ourselves and others. ”

“ Actual grace exercises a healing influence on the will27 and is therefore called gratia sanans sive medicinalis. “Unless something is put before the soul to please and attract it,” says St. Augustine, “the will can in no wise be moved; but it is not in man's power to bring this about.”28 Concretely, this moral causality of grace manifests itself as a divinely inspired joy in virtue and a hatred of sin, both of which incline the will to the free performance of salutary acts. These sentiments may in some cases be so strong as to deprive the will temporarily of its freedom to resist. ”

“ If we scrutinize more closely the particular acts We have above referred to, we shall discover that oftentimes they have more the appearance than the reality of virtue. But let us grant that these are real. If we do not wish to run in vain, if we do not wish to lose sight of the eternal blessedness to which God in His goodness has destined us, of what use are the natural virtues unless the gift and strength of divine grace be added? ”

“ We have already said that this grace is in truth nothing but that simple consent of the creature to let God be all, in virtue of which it surrenders itself to His working alone. ”

“ The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it. ”

“ Cause grace and virtue are within
Prohibited degrees of kin
And therefore no true Saint allows, 1295
They shall be suffer'd to espouse; ”

“ What are you? A creature, a dependant, a slave. What would a master do if his slave should strike him? And you, a servant, a slave, a mere nothing, have not hesitated to raise your hand against Almighty God!
And for what have you done all this? For the pleasure of sin. You have preferred a vile, temporary gratification, to the favor of Almighty God. When you sinned, there was on one side the beauty of God, the beauty of perfection, the splendor of grace, the joy of saints, peace of conscience, heaven; on the other there was the false pleasure of sin. ”

“ They that willingly and freely serve Me shall receive grace for grace. But he who desires to glory in things out of Me, or to take pleasure in some private good, shall not be grounded in true joy, nor be enlarged in his heart, but shall many ways be encumbered and straitened.... And if heavenly grace enter in and true charity, there will be no envy nor narrowness of heart, neither will self-love busy itself. ”

“ By grace ye are saved through faith.
1. ALL the blessings which God hath bestowed upon man are of his mere grace, bounty or favour: his free, undeserved favour; favour altogether undeserved; man having no claim to the least of his mercies. It was free grace that formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into him a living soul, and stamped on that soul the image of God, and put all things under his feet. The same free grace continues to us, at this day, life and breath, and all things. For there is nothing we are, or have, or do, which can deserve the least thing at God’s hand. ”

“ It is love, but it being set on some, and not on others; some are elect angels, some are not; some are elect men, some are not; and this love being so distinguished, is grace, or free favour; and this favour manifested to us as fallen, guilty, hell-deserving creatures, is mercy. I wish you to make these distinctions, as they will open many blessed texts and doctrines of the word. Now as grace and mercy flows to us so divinely, this brings peace indeed, and in fact. ”

“ But as this special and efficacious grace is the pure gift of God's great mercy and liberality, he is not pleased to give it to all men, nor upon all occasions, but only to whom he pleases, and to such as act generously and liberally towards him, according to these words of the prophet: " With the holy, you will be holy; with the innocent you will be innocent ”

“ He tried to stop his railing and blaspheming, and bring him to a better mind. ‘Does not you fear God’, he says, ‘seeing you are in the same condemnation?’ There is no surer mark of grace than this! Grace shakes a man out of his selfishness, and makes him feel for the souls of others. ”

“ Still, I think you limit the grace of God, as if people must be very good first, in order to deserve it, and then he will come and add his grace to their goodness. Whereas grace has been most conspicuous in the most notorious sinners. ”

“ In effect, what man, till then, had appeared upon the earth with more incontestable marks of innocence and sanctity than Jesus, Son of the living God? In what philosopher had ever been observed such a love of virtue, so sincere a contempt of the world, so much charity toward men, such indifference for human glory, such zeal for the glory of the Supreme Being, such elevation above whatever is admired or sought after by men? How great is his zeal for the salvation of men! ”

“ But was not he a respectable priest and respected by all, a minister of God, a leader of the holy flock, a pastor of men, and yet....
How then? where is virtue?
"Virtue," answered that voice which we have within ourselves, that voice odious to hypocrites and deceivers, which the Church calls the Devil's voice, and which is the voice of reason. Virtue? Of which do you speak, fool? Without counting the three theological, there are fifty thousand kinds of virtues. ”

“ That grace of God which hath appeared unto all men, taught him that Christ was not the minister of sin—not one who gave out patents conferring impunity in sin, and signed with his own life-blood—not one who wiped out the sins of the soul, as men sponge out marks from a note-book, to make room for more of the same sort of matter—not one to make his own righteousness the shield for our wilful unrighteousness. ”

“ To make thee more worthy of the grace of God? Alas, thou art still establishing thy own righteousness. He will have mercy, not because thou art worthy of it, but because his compassions fail not: not because thou art righteous; but because Jesus Christ hath atoned for thy sins.
Again, if there be any thing good in sincerity, why dost thou expect it, before thou hast faith? Seeing faith itself is the only root of whatever is really good and holy. ”

“ By free grace He holds out to her the sceptre of pardoning mercy; by free grace He clothes her with the royal garments of righteousness; by free grace He enables her to welcome Him and minister unto Him. He is more ready to hear than she to pray, more ready to grant than she to implore. He has loved and will love her for ever, will save her from all her enemies, and crown her with joy everlasting. ”

“ To maintain that all our felicity and most perfect freedom consists in that love—that the reward of virtue is virtue, and that a blind and impotent soul finds its punishment in its blindness—is this a denial of all religion? ”

“ He is a God of love and a God of justice; full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. But these are attributes which can only be conceived of as in action, from Person to person. How be gracious and merciful unless to a being in need of grace and mercy? ”

“ Grant me grace henceforth, for the love of thee, to hate sin; and out of a just esteem for thee, to despise all worldly vanities.
Have mercy on all sinners, Jesus, I beseech thee; turn their vices into virtues; and making them true observers of thy law, and sincere lovers of thee, bring them to bliss in everlasting glory.
Have mercy also on the souls in purgatory, for the sake of thy bitter passion, I beseech thee, and for thy glorious name, Jesus. ”

“ If any one shall say, that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the righteousness of Christ, or by the sole remission of sin, to the exclusion of that grace and charity which is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, and which inheres in them, or shall say that the grace whereby we are justified is merely and only the favor of God: let him be accursed. ”

“ This, then, is the grace in which we stand, the grace of imputation, the gracious gift of a righteousness reckoned, counted, or imputed to us when we do not deserve it; the marvellous mercy through which we are accounted righteous, accepted as righteous, beloved as righteous, and finally saved as righteous, although we are not really so in fact, and although we are conscious in our own hearts of matter for the most profound humiliation before God. Who can wonder that we rejoice in hope when we are placed in mercy on such a standing-ground as that? ”

“ In all our approaches to this throne of grace for mercy, we should come with a humble freedom and boldness, with a liberty of spirit and a liberty of speech; we should ask in faith, nothing doubting; we should come with a Spirit of adoption, as children to a reconciled God and Father. We are indeed to come with reverence and godly fear, but not with terror and amazement; not as if we were dragged before the tribunal of justice, but kindly invited to the mercy-seat, where grace reigns, and loves to exert and exalt itself towards us. ”

“ I depended entirely on the bounty of free grace, holding all the righteousness of man as filthy rags, and believing in the momentous and magnificent truth that, the more heavily loaden with transgressions, the more welcome was the believer at the throne of grace. ”

“ Mercy and truth are so met together, righteousness and peace have so kissed each other, that it is now become not only an act of grace and mercy, but an act of righteousness, in God, to pardon the sins of penitent believers, having accepted the satisfaction that Christ by dying made to his justice for them. ”

“ And if He find in your most noble heart such an obedience unto his will, that your Grace, without murmuration and over-much heaviness, do accept all adversities, not less thanking Him than when all things succeed after your Grace's will and pleasure, then I suppose your Grace did never thing more acceptable unto Him since your first governance of this your realm. ”

“ And, as God's grace enabled rich and delicate persons, women, and even children, to endure all extremities of pain and reproach in times past, so there is the same grace no less mighty now, and if we do not close ourselves against it, it might in us be no less glorified in a time of trial. ”

“ The treasures of grace are in his hands, for the benefit of his people, and to him all must come for the supply of their wants; while his adorable hand of awful, but gracious providence, executes the purposes of his grace, and brings the objects of his love, and the purchase of his blood, to his feet. Convinced of their enmity, envy and cruelty, ignorance and contempt, they, by the power of all-conquering grace, are brought to seek his favour, confess their sins, supplicate his throne, and obtain the pardon of their transgressions. ”

“ The same celestial Beatitude which Christ promised to the poor in spirit, under the name of the kingdom of heaven, He here promises to the merciful by the name of mercy, because, as the Apostle says (Rom. vi. 23) , “life eternal is of grace,” both because God promises it freely to those who do well and give alms, as because grace is the beginning of good works and merit. For grace prevents and stirs us up to good works, and gives them a divine worthiness and power of meriting. ”

“ Because the dignity which redounds from the relation to grace and eternall life, makes all those that are partakers of that grace, in some sort equall, and therefore restraines contempt, opposition, and all kinds of injuries. ”

“ Is it your grace and goodness, or eminency in religion, that you are proud of? This is most absurd; when predominant pride is a certain sign that you have no saving grace at all, and so are proud of what you have not: and if you have it, so far as you are proud of it you abuse it, contradict it, and destroy it; for pride is to grace, what the plague or consumption is to health. It is novices that have least grace and knowledge, that are aptest to be puffed up with pride, and thereby to fall into the condemnation of the devil, 1 Tim. iii. 6; that is, into the like punishment for the like sin. ”

“ On the other hand, the more perfectly he is disposed by frequent and fervent acts of faith, hope, and charity, and other holy virtues, the more abundant grace he will receive, both because these more perfect dispositions move Almighty God to be more liberal of His graces to him, and they also enlarge the capacity of the soul to receive a more abundant communication of grace. ”

“ XVII. Look to the nature and tendency of every grace and ordinance and duty, and use them diligently; for they all tend to the destruction of pride. Knowledge discerneth the folly and pernicious tendency of pride, and abundant matter for humiliation. Faith is the casting off our pride, and going with empty, hungry souls to Christ for mercy and supply. It showeth us the most powerful sight in the world for the humbling of a soul, even a crucified Christ, and a most holy God, and a glorified society of humble souls, and a dreadful judgment and damnation for the proud. ”