God's love both precedes the gifts and follows them
Thesis XLVI. So both sides will readily grant that there is an act of God's love that comes before the gifts and virtues the scholastics call grace that makes pleasing, since God wishes us well before we have them. They will also grant that there is an act of the same love that those gifts come before, since without them we cannot please God or win his approval.
Such gifts and virtues formally make the person adorned with them pleasing and acceptable to God. As Peter says in Acts 10: Truly I have found that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Latin
XLVI. Et sic utrique facile concedent esse aliquem divinae dilectionis actum qui praecedit illa dona & virtutes, quae Scholastici designant nomine gratiae gratum facientis: quia scilicet, Deus nobis bene vult priusquam illa habeamus: & simul esse quendam actum ejusdem dilectionis quem praecedunt ejusmodi dona, nempe quia Deo sine illis non possumus placere atque ipsi probari. Talia vero dona atque virtutes hominem qui illis ornatus est formaliter Deo gratum & placentem constituunt. Juxta illud Petri Actorum decimo, In veritate comperi quod non est personarum acceptor Deus: sed in omni gente qui timet eum, & operatur justitiam, acceptus est illi.