from within or from without. From without, by sickness or loss of
outward goods, of relations and friends, or by public shame; or
perhaps a man is moved by preaching, or by the examples of saints
and just men, by their words or works, till he comes to the
knowledge of himself. This is how God touches us from without.
Sometimes also a man is touched from within, by recalling the pains
and sufferings of our Lord, and the good which God has done to him
and to all men, or by the consideration of his sins, of the
shortness of life, of the eternal pains of hell and the eternal joys
of heaven, or because God has spared him in his sins and has waited
for his conversion; or he observes the marvellous works of God in
heaven, on earth, and in all creation. These are the works of
antecedent divine grace, which touch man from within or from
without, and in divers manners. And man has still a natural
inclination towards God, proceeding from the spark of his soul or
synteresis, [Footnote: See Introduction] and from the highest
reason, which always desires the good and hates the evil. Now, in
these three manners God touches every man according to his needs, so
that the man is struck, warned, frightened, and stops to consider
himself. All this is still antecedent grace and not merited; it thus
prepares us to receive the other grace, by which we merit eternal
life; when the mind is thus empty of bad wishes and bad deeds,
warned, struck, in fear of what it ought to do, and considers God,
and considers itself with its evil deeds. Thence come a natural
sorrow for sin and a natural good will. This is the highest work of
antecedent grace.

When man does what he can, and can go no further because of his
weakness, it is the infinite goodness of God which must finish this
work. Then comes a higher splendour of the grace of God, like a ray