Reply Obj. 1:  Grace is said to make pleasing, not efficiently but formally, i.e. because thereby a man is justified, and is made worthy to be called pleasing to God, according to Col. 1:21:  “He hath made us worthy to be made partakers of the lot of the saints in light.”

Reply Obj. 2:  Grace, inasmuch as it is gratuitously given, excludes the notion of debt.  Now debt may be taken in two ways:  first, as arising from merit; and this regards the person whose it is to do meritorious works, according to Rom. 4:4:  “Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt.”  The second debt regards the condition of nature.  Thus we say it is due to a man to have reason, and whatever else belongs to human nature.  Yet in neither way is debt taken to mean that God is under an obligation to His creature, but rather that the creature ought to be subject to God, that the Divine ordination may be fulfilled in it, which is that a certain nature should have certain conditions or properties, and that by doing certain works it should attain to something further.  And hence natural endowments are not a debt in the first sense but in the second.  But supernatural gifts are due in neither sense.  Hence they especially merit the name of grace.

Reply Obj. 3:  Sanctifying grace adds to the notion of gratuitous grace something pertaining to the nature of grace, since it makes man pleasing to God.  And hence gratuitous grace which does not do this keeps the common name, as happens in many other cases; and thus the two parts of the division are opposed as sanctifying and non-sanctifying grace. ________________________

SECOND ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 111, Art. 2]

Whether Grace Is Fittingly Divided into Operating and Cooperating
Grace?

Objection 1:  It would seem that grace is not fittingly divided into operating and cooperating grace.  For grace is an accident, as stated above (Q. 110, A. 2).  Now no accident can act upon its subject.  Therefore no grace can be called operating.

Obj. 2:  Further, if grace operates anything in us it assuredly brings about justification.  But not only grace works this.  For Augustine says, on John 14:12, “the works that I do he also shall do,” says (Serm. clxix):  “He Who created thee without thyself, will not justify thee without thyself.”  Therefore no grace ought to be called simply operating.

Obj. 3:  Further, to cooperate seems to pertain to the inferior agent, and not to the principal agent.  But grace works in us more than free-will, according to Rom. 9:16:  “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.”  Therefore no grace ought to be called cooperating.

Obj. 4:  Further, division ought to rest on opposition.  But to operate and to cooperate are not opposed; for one and the same thing can both operate and cooperate.  Therefore grace is not fittingly divided into operating and cooperating.