Reply Obj. 1:  Charity loves God above all things in a higher way than nature does.  For nature loves God above all things inasmuch as He is the beginning and the end of natural good; whereas charity loves Him, as He is the object of beatitude, and inasmuch as man has a spiritual fellowship with God.  Moreover charity adds to natural love of God a certain quickness and joy, in the same way that every habit of virtue adds to the good act which is done merely by the natural reason of a man who has not the habit of virtue.

Reply Obj. 2:  When it is said that nature cannot rise above itself, we must not understand this as if it could not be drawn to any object above itself, for it is clear that our intellect by its natural knowledge can know things above itself, as is shown in our natural knowledge of God.  But we are to understand that nature cannot rise to an act exceeding the proportion of its strength.  Now to love God above all things is not such an act; for it is natural to every creature, as was said above.

Reply Obj. 3:  Love is said to be best, both with respect to degree of love, and with regard to the motive of loving, and the mode of love.  And thus the highest degree of love is that whereby charity loves God as the giver of beatitude, as was said above. ________________________

FOURTH ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 109, Art. 4]

Whether Man Without Grace and by His Own Natural Powers Can Fulfil the Commandments of the Law?

Objection 1:  It would seem that man without grace, and by his own natural powers, can fulfil the commandments of the Law.  For the Apostle says (Rom. 2:14) that “the Gentiles who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the Law.”  Now what a man does naturally he can do of himself without grace.  Hence a man can fulfil the commandments of the Law without grace.

Obj. 2:  Further, Jerome says (Expos.  Cathol.  Fide [Symboli Explanatio ad Damasum, among the supposititious works of St. Jerome:  now ascribed to Pelagius]) that “they are anathema who say God has laid impossibilities upon man.”  Now what a man cannot fulfil by himself is impossible to him.  Therefore a man can fulfil all the commandments of himself.

Obj. 3:  Further, of all the commandments of the Law, the greatest is this, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart” (Matt. 27:37).  Now man with his natural endowments can fulfil this command by loving God above all things, as stated above (A. 3).  Therefore man can fulfil all the commandments of the Law without grace.

On the contrary, Augustine says (De Haeres. lxxxviii) that it is part of the Pelagian heresy that “they believe that without grace man can fulfil all the Divine commandments.”