Page:Catechismoftrent.djvu/115

 ciently intelligible, those who were planted in Christ by the ministry of bad men, sustain no injury from guilt which is not their own. Judas Iscariot, as the Holy Fathers infer from the Gospel of St. John, Conferred baptism on many; and yet none of those whom he baptized are recorded to have been baptized again. To use the memorable words of St. Augustine: " Judas baptized, and yet after him none were rebaptized: John baptized, and after John they were rebaptized, because the baptism administered by Judas was the baptism of Christ, but that ad ministered by John was the baptism of John: not that we prefer Judas to John, but that we justly prefer the baptism of Christ, although administered by Judas, to the baptism of John although administered by the hands of John."

But, let not the pastor, or other minister of the Sacraments, hence infer that he fully acquits himself of his duty, if, disregarding integrity of life and purity of morals, he attend only to the administration of the Sacraments in the manner prescribed. True, the manner of administering them is a matter of the highest importance; but it is no less true, that it does not constitute all that enters into the worthy discharge of this duty. It should never be forgotten, that the Sacraments, although they cannot lose the divine efficacy inherent in them, bring eternal death and everlasting perdition on him who dares to administer them with hands stained with the defilement of sin. Holy things, and the observation cannot be too often repeated, should be treated holily, and with due reverence: " To the sinner," says the prophet, "God has said: why dost thou declare my justices, and take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing that thou hast hated discipline?" If then, for him who is defiled by sin it is unlawful to speak on divine things, how enormous the guilt of that man, who, with conscious guilt, dreads not to consecrate with polluted lips these holy mysteries to take them to touch them nay more, with sacrilegious hands, to administer them to others? The symbols, (so he calls the Sacraments) " the wicked," says St. Denis, " are not allowed to touch." It therefore becomes the first, the most important duty of the minister of these holy things, to aspire to holiness of life, to approach with purity the administration of the Sacraments, and so to exercise himself in the practice of piety, that, from their frequent administration and use, they may every day receive, with the divine assistance, a more abundant effusion of grace.

When these important matters have been explained, the effects of the Sacraments present to the pastor the next subject of instruction; a subject, it is hoped, which will throw considerable light on the definition of a Sacrament as already given.

The principal effects of the Sacraments are two; sanctifying grace, and the character which they impress. The former, that is, the grace which we, in common with the doctors of the