A. The Opinion of Others

11. On this point it is said that grace is first in the essence [Aquinas Sentences 2 d.26 a.3].

12. The proof is from Augustine On Charity [Sermon 350 n.1], that charity is “the root and life of all the good;” ibid., “charity is the life of the dying;” life and death pertain to the essence;     therefore etc     .

13. A confirmation is that if grace is posited in the essence, it gives supernatural and primary being; therefore by parity of reasoning it will be able to give supernatural acting. Now it would not give per se supernatural being if it was only in the power, but since being necessarily precedes all acting, natural being necessarily precedes natural acting, and supernatural being supernatural acting.a

a. a[Interpolation] Or in another way thus, that acting presupposes being;     therefore what gives natural or supernatural acting gives natural or supernatural being. But grace gives acting to the soul, therefore it gives being to it; but being belongs to the essence; therefore etc     .