a) As regards the intrinsic relation of (dogmatic) faith to other preparatory acts in the process of justification, the Tridentine Council declares: “Faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and the root of all justification.”(846) Supernatural faith, therefore, is the beginning of salvation, and not, as Harnack makes Luther say, “at once the beginning, the middle, and the end,” because no man can be converted unless he has believingly embraced God as his final goal. This faith is preceded by certain preliminary conditions, of which the first is an illumination of the intellect and a strengthening of the will, which results in the _affectus credulitatis_ (_initia fidei_). For justifying faith does not flash forth suddenly, like a _deus ex machina_, but requires time for its development, as the history of many conversions proves.(847) Faith is called the “foundation” of justification because it not only marks its beginning, but constitutes the basis upon which all subsequent stages of the process rest. To exclude the mistaken notion that the process of justification is a series of mechanical and disconnected acts, the Council calls faith the “root” of justification, from which the other preparatory acts spring organically, as the trunk of a tree from its root. The psychological description of the whole process given by the Tridentine Fathers, which even Harnack admits to be “a masterly piece of work,” runs as follows: “Now they [adults] are disposed unto justice when, excited and assisted by divine grace, conceiving faith by hearing, they are freely moved towards God, believing those things to be true which God has revealed and promised,—and this especially, that God justifies the impious by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ; and when, understanding themselves to be sinners, they, by turning themselves from the fear of divine justice, whereby they are profitably agitated, to consider the mercy of God, are raised unto hope, confiding that God will be propitious to them for Christ’s sake; and they begin to love Him as the fountain of all justice, and are therefore moved against sins by a certain hatred and detestation, to wit: by that penitence which must be performed before Baptism; lastly, when they purpose to receive Baptism, to begin a new life, and to keep the commandments of God....”(848) The four ordinary stages in the process of justification, therefore, are: (1) From faith to fear of divine justice; (2) from fear to hope; (3) from hope to initial love;(849) (4) from initial love to contrition and a firm purpose of amendment.(850) If contrition is dictated and transfused by perfect love,(851) and the sinner has an explicit or at least implicit desire for the Sacrament,(852) justification takes place at once. If, on the other hand, the sinner’s sorrow is imperfect (_attritio_), he attains justification only by actual reception of the Sacrament (Baptism or Penance).(853)