Part II: On the Precepts of the Decalogue and of the Church

418. In this second part, in which we enter upon SPECIAL THEOLOGY, there comes to be treated the exercise of virtues, or the acts by which due order is preserved and man attains his end, that is, eternal life. But those things which must be done or avoided for this end are contained in the DECALOGUE, according to that saying of the Lord (Matt. 19:17): But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Now some things are had explicitly in the Decalogue, namely those which are enunciated in the several precepts; others implicitly, and indeed in two ways: for they are either preambles to the Decalogue, namely the theological virtues: FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY; or they are as it were consequences of the same, such as the positive laws of the Church, more strictly defining certain offices of men and establishing diverse penalties.

Therefore there will be three sections of this second part:

SECTION I. ON THE PREAMBLES TO THE DECALOGUE, or on the theological virtues.

SECTION II. ON THE SEVERAL PRECEPTS OF THE DECALOGUE.

SECTION III. ON ECCLESIASTICAL PRECEPTS AND PENALTIES.