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Objection 1: It seems that there is not in the sacraments a power of
causing grace. For the power of causing grace is a spiritual power.
But a spiritual power cannot be in a body; neither as proper to it,
because power flows from a thing's essence and consequently cannot
transcend it; nor as derived from something else, because that which
is received into anything follows the mode of the recipient. Therefore
in the sacraments there is no power of causing grace.
Objection 2: Further, whatever exists is reducible to some kind of
being and some degree of good. But there is no assignable kind of
being to which such a power can belong; as anyone may see by running.
through them all. Nor is it reducible to some degree of good; for
neither is it one of the goods of least account, since sacraments are
necessary for salvation: nor is it an intermediate good, such as are
the powers of the soul, which are natural powers; nor is it one of the
greater goods, for it is neither grace nor a virtue of the mind.
Therefore it seems that in the sacraments there is no power of causing
grace.
Objection 3: Further, if there be such a power in the sacraments,
its presence there must be due to nothing less than a creative act of
God. But it seems unbecoming that so excellent a being created by
God should cease to exist as soon as the sacrament is complete.
Therefore it seems that in the sacraments there is no power for causing
grace.
Objection 4: Further, the same thing cannot be in several. But
several things concur in the completion of a sacrament, namely, words
and things: while in one sacrament there can be but one power.
Therefore it seems that there is no power of causing grace in the
sacraments.
On the contrary, Augustine says (Tract. lxxx in Joan.):
"Whence hath water so great power, that it touches the body and
cleanses the heart?" And Bede says that "Our Lord conferred a
power of regeneration on the waters by the contact of His most pure
body."
I answer that, Those who hold that the sacraments do not cause grace
save by a certain coincidence, deny the sacraments any power that is
itself productive of the sacramental effect, and hold that the Divine
power assists the sacraments and produces their effect. But if we hold
that a sacrament is an instrumental cause of grace, we must needs allow
that there is in the sacraments a certain instrumental power of bringing
about the sacramental effects. Now such power is proportionate to the
instrument: and consequently it stands in comparison to the complete
and perfect power of anything, as the instrument to the principal
agent. For an instrument, as stated above (Article 1), does not
work save as moved by the principal agent, which works of itself. And
therefore the power of the principal agent exists in nature completely
and perfectly: whereas the instrumental power has a being that passes
from one thing into another, and is incomplete; just as motion is an
imperfect act passing from agent to patient.
Reply to Objection 1: A spiritual power cannot be in a corporeal
subject, after the manner of a permanent and complete power, as the
argument proves. But there is nothing to hinder an instrumental
spiritual power from being in a body; in so far as a body can be moved
by a particular spiritual substance so as to produce a particular
spiritual effect; thus in the very voice which is perceived by the
senses there is a certain spiritual power, inasmuch as it proceeds from
a mental concept, of arousing the mind of the hearer. It is in this
way that a spiritual power is in the sacraments, inasmuch as they are
ordained by God unto the production of a spiritual effect.
Reply to Objection 2: Just as motion, through being an imperfect
act, is not properly in a genus, but is reducible to a genus of
perfect act, for instance, alteration to the genus of quality: so,
instrumental power, properly speaking, is not in any genus, but is
reducible to a genus and species of perfect act.
Reply to Objection 3: Just as an instrumental power accrues to an
instrument through its being moved by the principal agent, so does a
sacrament receive spiritual power from Christ's blessing and from the
action of the minister in applying it to a sacramental use. Hence
Augustine says in a sermon on the Epiphany (St. Maximus of
Turin, Serm. xii): "Nor should you marvel, if we say that
water, a corporeal substance, achieves the cleansing of the soul. It
does indeed, and penetrates every secret hiding-place of the
conscience. For subtle and clear as it is, the blessing of Christ
makes it yet more subtle, so that it permeates into the very principles
of life and searches the inner-most recesses of the heart."
Reply to Objection 4: Just as the one same power of the principal
agent is instrumentally in all the instruments that are ordained unto
the production of an effect, forasmuch as they are one as being so
ordained: so also the one same sacramental power is in both words and
things, forasmuch as words and things combine to form one sacrament.
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