Article 7 — Whether there is grace in the sacraments

Seventh, it is asked whether there is grace in the sacraments. (Parallel texts: In I Sent., d. 15, q. 5, a. 1, qa. 1, ad 2; In IV Sent., d. 1, q. 1, a. 4, qa. 4; ST I.43.6, ad 4; III.62.3; On the Faith and Sacraments of the Church.)

Obj. 1: It seems that there is not, for guilt is opposed to grace; but guilt is not in any bodily thing; therefore neither is there grace in the sacraments, which are material elements according to Hugh of Saint Victor. (Cf. Hugh of St. Victor, On the Sacraments, bk. 1, part 9, ch. 2 (PL 176:317D).)

Obj. 2: Furthermore, grace orders to glory; but only the rational nature is capable of glory; therefore in it alone can there be grace, and so it is not in the sacraments.

Obj. 3: Furthermore, grace is numbered among the greatest goods; but the greatest goods exist within intermediary goods as in a subject; therefore, since the intermediary goods are the soul and its powers, it seems that grace cannot exist in another subject, and so it does not exist in the sacraments.

Obj. 4: Furthermore, just as a bodily subject is related to a bodily accident, so also is a spiritual subject to a spiritual accident; thus, by transposition, as a bodily subject is to a spiritual accident, so also is a spiritual subject to a bodily accident; but a bodily accident cannot exist in any spiritual subject; thus neither can a spiritual accident, which is grace, exist in the bodily elements of the sacraments.

On the contrary (1) is what Hugh of Saint Victor says, (Cf. Hugh of St. Victor, On the Sacraments, bk. 1, part 9, ch. 2 (PL 176:317D).) that the sacraments contain invisible grace by sanctification.

Furthermore (2), the Apostle says in Galatians 4:9 that the sacraments of the Law are weak and needy elements; since, as the Gloss says, (Glossa Petri Lomb. (PL 192, 141 B).) they do not contain grace; therefore, if there were not grace in the sacraments of the New Law, they themselves would also be weak and needy elements, which is absurd.

Furthermore (3), commenting on Psalm 27:12, he made darkness his covering, the Gloss (Glossa Petri Lomb. (PL 191, 192 B).) says that the remission of sins happens by grace; thus, there is grace in the sacrament of baptism, and in the others for the same reason.

I answer that it must be said that there is grace in the sacraments, not indeed as an accident is in a subject, but rather as an effect is in a cause, in that manner in which the sacraments can be a cause of grace. However, an effect is said to be in a cause in two ways.

In one way inasmuch as a cause has governance over an effect, just as our acts are said to be in us; and in this way no effect exists in an instrumental cause, which does not move unless having been moved; hence, neither in this way is grace in the sacraments. An effect is in a cause in another way through its own likeness, inasmuch as a cause produces an effect similar to itself; and this occurs in four ways. (Cf. Averroes, Metaphysics, bk. 12, comm. 24.) In one way when the effect's likeness is in the cause with respect to natural existence and according to the same definition, as is the case in univocal effects. In this way one can say that the heat of the air is in the heating fire. In a second way, when the effect's likeness is in the cause with respect to natural existence, but not according to the same definition, as is clear in equivocal effects. In this way the heat of the air is in the sun. In a third way, when the effect's likeness is in the cause not according to natural existence, but rather spiritual existence, yet as being at rest, as is the case with the likenesses of artifacts being in the mind of the artisan; for the form of the house in the builder is not a nature like the heating power in the sun or else the heat in fire, but rather it is a certain intelligible intention resting in the soul. In a fourth way, when the effect's likeness is not according to the same definition, and neither is it like any nature, nor as something at rest, but rather it exists within the cause in the manner of a certain flowing forth; such as are the likenesses of effects within their instruments, by means of which forms flow out of the principle causes and into their effects. And it is in this way that grace exists in the sacraments; but to a lesser degree insofar as the sacraments do not arrive directly and immediately at the grace itself, of which we are now speaking; but they arrive at its proper effects, which are called sacramental graces, upon which there follows an infusion or else an increase of sanctifying grace.

Reply Obj. 1: Therefore, to the first it must be said that even guilt exists in something purely corporeal as in a cause, just like original sin within the seed.

Reply Obj. 2–3: The second and the third conclude that grace is not in the sacraments as in a subject.

Reply Obj. 4: To the fourth it must be said that what is spiritual cannot be an instrument of a bodily thing, just as a bodily thing cannot be the instrument of something spiritual; and thus, the transposed proportion does not hold in the proposed objection.

We grant what said on the contrary, yet so long as grace is understood to be in the sacraments as in instrumental and disposing causes; and this is the case by reason of the power through which they act for the production of grace.