Church, call sanctifying grace, deservedly holds the first place That this is an effect produced by the Sacraments, we know from these words of the Apostle: " Christ," says he, " loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life." [1] But how so great and so admirable an effect is produced by the Sacraments, that, to use the words of St. Augustine, "water cleanses the body, and reaches the heart:" [2] this, indeed, the mind of man, aided by the light of reason alone, is unequal to comprehend. It ought to be an established law, that nothing sensible can, of its own nature, reach the soul; but we know by the light of faith, that in the Sacraments exists the power of the Omnipotent, effectuating that which the natural elements cannot of themselves accomplish. [3]
That on this subject no doubt may exist in the minds of the faithful, God, in the abundance of his mercy, was pleased, from the moment of their institution, to manifest by exterior miracles, the effects which they operate interiorly in the soul: this he did, in order that we may always believe that the same interior effects, although inaccessible to the senses, are still produced by them. To say nothing of that which the Scripture re cords that, at the baptism of the Redeemer in the Jordan, " The heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost appeared in the form of a dove;" [4] to teach us, that when we are washed in the sacred font, his grace is infused into our souls to omit these splendid miracles which have reference rather to the consecration of baptism, than to the administration of the Sacraments do we not read, that on the day of Pentecost, when the Apostles received the Holy Ghost, and were, thenceforward, inspired with greater courage and firmer resolution to preach the faith, and brave danger of every sort for the glory of Christ, " there came suddenly a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and there appeared to them parted tongues, as it were of fire." [5] These visible effects give us to understand that, in the Sacrament of Confirmation, the same spirit is given us, and the same strength imparted, which enable us resolutely to encounter, and with fortitude to resist, our implacable enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. [6] As often as. these Sacraments were administered by the Apostles, so often, during the infancy of the Church, did the same miraculous effects follow; and they ceased not to be visible until the faith had acquired maturity and strength.
From what has been said of sanctifying grace, the first effect of the Sacraments, it also clearly follows, that there resides in the Sacraments of the New Law, a virtue far more exalted and
