My query for your consideration regards the doctrine of grace.
Given that sanctifying grace, as taught by the Angelic Doctor (i.e. ST, Ia IIae, Q. 110, 111, 114; ST, IIIa, Q. 72), can be bestowed upon an individual prior to baptism, and that this grace is the grace of deification (divine sonship), and furthermore given that this grace may be lost by subsequent mortal sin, does this imply that the state of divine sonship is a transitory state which in and of itself imparts no permanent character on the soul? If this is the case then do we have a problem regarding multiple moments of regeneration, re-birth and justification?
Is there a way out? Three possibilities present themselves to me:
1. Sanctifying grace once received does indeed change the soul forever, so much so that even when it is lost through mortal sin the recipient remains a child of God (although a prodigal one)
2. Sanctifying grace is only bestowed prior to baptism upon those souls whom God in his omniscience knows will not receive the ordinary bath of deification in baptism
3. Sanctifying grace is only bestowed prior to baptism upon those souls whom God in his omniscience knows will reach the permanent seal of baptism without the guilt of mortal sin
A further question presents itself: If sanctifying grace can be gained prior to baptism (and as we know this would be a grace that justifies us) then in what way can the indelible seal imparted at baptism be salvific (rather than an optional extra endowment)? This was the conundrum that Feeney could not answer in the 1950s (he arrived to the absurd position of accepting that deified children of God possessing sanctifying grace and loving God with perfect supernatural charity could still be damned for lacking the seal of water baptism). Can we do better than this?
