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 Obj. 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 innermost
recesses of the heart."

Reply Obj. 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.
_______________________

FIFTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 62, Art. 5]

Whether the Sacraments of the New Law Derive Their Power from
Christ's Passion?

Objection 1: It seems that the sacraments of the New Law do not
derive their power from Christ's Passion. For the power of the
sacraments is in the causing of grace which is the principle of
spiritual life in the soul. But as Augustine says (Tract. xix in
Joan.): "The Word, as He was in the beginning with God, quickens
souls; as He was made flesh, quickens bodies." Since, therefore,
Christ's Passion pertains to the Word as made flesh, it seems that it
cannot cause the power of the sacraments.

Obj. 2: Further, the power of the sacraments seems to depend on
faith. for as Augustine says (Tract. lxxx in Joan.), the Divine Word
perfects the sacrament "not because it is spoken, but because it is
believed." But our faith regards not only Christ's Passion, but also
the other mysteries of His humanity, and in a yet higher measure, His
Godhead. Therefore it seems that the power of the sacraments is not
due specially to Christ's Passion.

Obj. 3: Further, the sacraments are ordained unto man's
justification, according to 1 Cor. 6:11: "You are washed . . . you
are justified." Now justification is