Part Two

Having established as certain the necessity we have of praying in order to attain salvation, as we proved in Part One, Chapter I, we must consequently also take it as certain that everyone has the Divine help to be actually able to pray, without need of any other special grace, and through prayer to obtain all the other graces necessary for perseveringly observing the precepts and thus acquiring eternal life — so that no one who is lost can ever have any excuse for having been lost through want of the helps necessary for salvation. Just as God in the natural order has ordained that man should be born naked and in need of many things to live, but then has given him hands and a mind with which he can clothe himself and provide for all his other needs, so in the supernatural order man is born powerless to obtain eternal salvation by his own strength, but the Lord in His goodness grants to everyone the grace of prayer, by which he can then obtain all the other graces he needs for observing the precepts and saving himself.

But before coming to explain this point, it is expedient to set forth two Preliminaries. The First, that God wills the salvation of all, and that therefore Jesus Christ died for all. The Second, that God for His part gives to all the graces necessary for salvation, with which everyone saves himself if he corresponds to them.