Question Fourth. On the Subject of the Sacraments

40. Who he is. The subject of the sacraments is called he who, capable of the grace of the sacrament, receives the sacrament. From the will of Christ, the institutor of the sacraments, only man in the state of the way is a subject capable of the effect of the sacraments. The reason for this divine will is that the sacraments were instituted for first conferring or increasing grace; but in the present order of providence, only man as a wayfarer is capable of first grace or of its increase: for the damned are not capable of the first grace, nor are the blessed in heaven and the souls in purgatory capable of the second grace.

All sacraments except the eucharist are confected in the subject to whom they are administered; in the eucharist alone the confection of the sacrament must be distinguished from its administration.

Note. What is required both for valid and for licit reception of the sacraments (especially of those which have been instituted for all) must now be explained briefly. Yet the things which are said here generally must be understood "with the exceptions to be excepted," concerning which it will be said below, where the individual sacraments will have to be treated.