Part Third: On the Sacraments

1389. In order that men, who have suffered the loss of original justice, may return into that state in which they can truly satisfy all the precepts of the natural law; and that they may be able to rise again to supernatural life, which in them, through sin, has been utterly extinguished, and thus be gathered into the most honorable company of the sons of God: they are commanded to approach the fonts of grace and salvation placed in the midst of the Church, namely the SACRAMENTS OF THE NEW LAW: which indeed were instituted for this end by Christ the Lord, that through them, conferred by the ministers of the Church, supernatural life may either first be infused, or, if lost, restored, or, once acquired, increased, and thence the Christian people be divinely constituted.

Hence there arises a new order of offices, regarding both those who are about to receive these Sacraments, and those by whom, from the will of Christ, they are to be administered. The explanation of these offices is the task of moral Theology, in which nevertheless, by reason of the intimate connection of things, not a few matters which properly pertain to the dogmatic discipline are commonly touched upon.

There will be eight treatises: 1. on the Sacraments in general; 2. on Baptism; 3. on Confirmation; 4. on the Eucharist; 5. on Penance; 6. on Extreme Unction; 7. on Order; 8. on Matrimony.