from:
"The History of Heresies and Their Refutation: or, The Triumph of the Church"[ps: great book!--Bill]
By Saint Alfonso Maria de' Liguori
http://books.google.com/books?id=KDUcMAXZ2yEC&pg=PA456&output=text
SEC. II OBJECTIONS ANSWERED: The Semipelagians
"They [SemiPelagians] object, fourthly, and say: If even for the beginning of Faith preventing grace is necessary, then the infidels,
who do not believe, are excusable, because the Gospel was never preached to them, and they, therefore, never refused to hear it. Jansenius [heretic] (9) says that these are not excused, but are condemned, without having had any sufficient grace, either proximate or remote, to become converted to the faith, and that is, he says, in punishment of original sin, which has deprived them of all help. And those theologians, he says, who in general teach that these infidels have sufficient grace for salvation, some way or other have adopted this opinion from the Semipelagians.
This [heretical] sentiment of Jansenius, however, is not in accordance with the Scripture, which says that God " will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. ii. 4); "He was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world" (John, i. 9); "Who is the Saviour of all men, especially the faithful" (1 Tim. iv. 10); "And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world''(1 John, ii. 2); "Who gave himself a redemption for all" (1 Tim. ii. 6).
From these texts Bellarmin (10) remarks, that St. Chrysostom, St. Augustin, and St. Prosper conclude that God never fails to give to all men sufficient assistance to work out their salvation, if they desire it. And St. Augustin (11), especially, and St. Prosper (12), express this doctrine in several parts of their works.
Besides, this [heretical] sentiment of Jansenius is in direct opposition to the condemnation pronounced by Alexander VIII., in 1690, on that proposition, that Pagans, Jews, etc..., have no sufficient grace: "Pagani, Judxi, Haeretici, aliique hujus generis nulluru omnino accipiunt a Jesu Christo influxum: adeoque hinc recte inferes, in illis esse voluntatem nudam et inermem sine omni gratia sufficiente." [Pagans, Jews, heretics, and others of this kind do not receive in any way any influence from Jesus Christ, and so you will rightly infer from this that in them there is a bare and weak will without any sufficient grace.--condemned DZ. 1295]
Neither does it agree with the condemnation pronounced by Clement XI. on two propositions of Quesnel (26, 29): "That there are no graces unless by Faith," and that " no grace is granted outside the Church."*
11. Still we answer the Semipelagians, and say, that infidels who arrive at the use of reason, and are not converted to the Faith, cannot be excused, because though they do not receive sufficient proximate grace, still they are not deprived of remote grace, as a means of becoming converted.
But what is this remote grace?
St. Thomas (13) explains it, when he says, that if any one was brought up in the wilds, or even among brute beasts, and if he followed the law of natural reason, to desire what is good, and to avoid what is wicked, we should certainly believe either that God, by an internal inspiration, would reveal to him what he should believe, or would send someone to preach the [Catholic] Faith to him, as he sent Peter to Cornelius.
Thus, then, according to the Angelic Doctor, God, at least remotely, gives to the infidels, who have the use of reason, sufficient grace to obtain salvation, and this grace consists in a certain instruction of the mind, and in a movement of the will, to observe the natural law; and if the infidel co-operates with this movement, observing the precepts of the law of nature, and abstaining from grievous sins, he will certainly receive, through the merits of Jesus Christ, the grace proximately sufficient to embrace the [Catholic] Faith, and save his soul. "
9) Jansen. I 3, de Grat. Christ . e. 11.
(10) Bellar. /.2, do Grot. & Lib. Arb. c. 3.
(11) St . Aug. I ds Spir.. & lit. c. 33, & in Pt. 11, n. 7.
(12) St. Pros. de Voe. Gent, i 2, c. 5.
(13) St. Thom. Qtiscs. 14, do Verit. art. 11, ad. I.
*-- Some have accused us, of CFT and "Catholic Vox ", of holding this heresy of no Grace is found outside the Church, which is a false claim against us. Helping Graces, aka Actual Graces, are available outside the Church but Sanctifying Grace is granted by entering the Church by the Sacrament of Baptism--“With Faith urging us we are forced to believe and to hold the one, holy, Catholic Church and that, apostolic, and we firmly believe and simply confess this Church outside of which there is no salvation nor remission of sin" (de fide --Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.) Sanctifying Grace is the remission of sins.
