Good thoughts before faith; how a natural help is 'somehow above nature'
So that doctor holds that not every holy thought either is faith itself or begins after faith or from it. He maintains that God inspires holy thoughts in men through natural causes even before they believe and come to faith.
Yet he notes that this kind of help, though it belongs to the natural order, since it consists in good thoughts that do not go beyond the light of nature, can be called in a sense above our nature. It is above our own effort and care: God prepared and granted us such a thought without them, when he could have sent us the opposite one.
It can also be called so because the helps he gives us for living rightly in any kind of virtue, and for overcoming temptations and desires, are given us by God with our blessedness in view, which is our supernatural end. Vol. 2 on the Prima Secundae, disputation 189, chapter 16.
Latin
XXV. Statuit ergo Doctor ille non omnem Sanctam cogitationem vel esse fidem ipsam, vel incipere post fidem, aut a fide: sed vult sanctas cogitationes hominibus a Deo inspirari per causas naturales, etiam antequam credant & fidem concipiant. Et nihilominus observat hoc genus auxilii quod est ordinis naturalis, quandoquidem consistit in bonis cogitationibus quae naturae lumen non transcendunt, dici posse quodammodo supra naturam nostram, quatenus est supra nostram industriam, & solicitudinem, sine qua Deus nobis talem cogitationem praeparavit, & concessit, cum posset oppositam immittere. Tum etiam quia haec auxilia, quae nobis confert ad recte vivendum quocunque genere virtutis, & ad vincendas tentationes, & concupiscentias, dantur nobis a Deo ex intentione nostrae beatitudinis, quae est finis noster supernaturalis. Tom. 2. in 1. 2. disput. 189. cap. 16.