Question One. Whether it is Possible for a Sacrament, Perfect to any Extent whatever, to have an Active Causality with respect to Conferring Grace

262. Whether it is possible for some sacrament, perfect to any extent whatever, to have an active causality with respect to conferring grace.

263. That it is:

Augustine Homily on John 80 n.3 (and Gratian Decretum p.2 cause 2 q.1 ch.54), “What is this virtue of water, that it touch the body and cleanse the heart?” He is speaking of the water of baptism;     therefore this water cleanses the heart. But the heart, that is the soul, is not cleansed save by grace or by the cause of grace; therefore etc     .

264. Again, the Master [Lombard] in the text sets down the nature of a sacrament, and it is “a sign of grace, such that it bears its likeness and exists as its cause.” And hereby he assigns the difference between the sacraments of the New Law and the Old Law, because those of the Old Law were only signs of grace while those of the New Law are not only signs but also causes. Therefore ‘to be the cause of grace’ is the completing condition in the definition of a perfect sacrament.

265. Again in one of its prayers the Church asks, “May your sacraments, Lord, perfect in us what they contain” [Gratian, Decretum p.3 d.2 ch.34]. From this a twofold argument is made: first, that grace is asked for, and the impossible is not asked for, so it is possible for the sacraments to cause grace; second, that the sacraments are implied to contain what is asked for, that is, grace; but they do not contain grace formally (as is plain); therefore virtually or causally.

266. To the contrary:

Bernard in his sermon The Wedding Feast of the Lord n.2, “As the investiture of a canon is by a book, of an abbot by a staff, of a bishop by a ring, so are diverse divisions of graces dispensed by the sacraments.” But it is plain that the examples he gives are only signs and not causes.

267. Again, Augustine 83 Questions q.53 n.2, “Some things are what God causes by himself, as for example, the enlightening of souls.” Therefore in this way too does he cause grace.

268. Again, if a sacrament were a cause of grace it would be either a univocal or an equivocal cause. Plainly not a univocal cause, because grace cannot exist formally in a sacrament; nor an equivocal cause because an equivocal cause is simply more perfect than what it causes, and something more noble or more eminent than grace cannot exist in a sensible thing as in a subject.