Only Question: On the Sacraments of Different Times

St. Thomas III, q. 61.

25. Principle I. After original sin the sacraments are necessary for man unto salvation, by necessity of fittingness. - The sacraments indeed are not necessary by absolute necessity: for God can sanctify man by the means by which He wills. But after original sin they were necessary by necessity of fittingness on account of the threefold condition of fallen human nature:

1. As to the intellect, to which it is proper in this state that it be led into spiritual and intelligible things only through corporeal and sensible things;¹ therefore divine wisdom fittingly confers the helps of salvation, by which man is instructed concerning spiritual things, under corporeal and sensible signs.

¹ In the state of innocence the intellect did not receive knowledge from sensible things but from the influence of the divine light. "Intellection," says Cajetan, on a. 2, ad 2, "because it proceeded from species not acquired from the senses but infused by God, did not depend on phantasms but used them as inferiors, just as the soul used the subjected body." Namely, he knew spiritual things more from the influence of the divine light.

2. As to the affection: for by sinning man subjected himself through affection to corporeal things; but a medicinal remedy ought to be applied to man where he suffers the disease; and therefore it was fitting that God should apply spiritual medicine to man through certain corporeal signs, so that he, in humility subjecting himself to corporeal things, might through them be raised up to God. Moreover, if spiritual things were proposed to him bare, his mind, devoted to corporeal things, could not be applied to them.

3. As to action: for fallen man is most prone to exterior and corporeal actions; whence it would be too hard for him to abstain totally in divine worship from corporeal acts; and therefore corporeal exercises were fittingly instituted in the sacraments to avoid any superstitious exercises whatever.

"Thus, therefore, through the institution of the sacraments man is fittingly instructed through sensible things according to his nature (fallen and left to itself); he is humbled, acknowledging himself subject to corporeal things, while he is assisted through corporeal things; he is also preserved from harmful actions through the salutary exercises of the sacraments" (a. 1). It can be added that this is fitting to the social nature of men, that they be gathered by sacred signs into one faith and one worship of religion, for "it is necessary for human salvation that men be united into one name of true religion" (a. 1), as Augustine notes, Against Faustus, book 19, c. 11.

26. Principle II. Before original sin it was not fitting that sacraments be given. - It is proved:

1. Medicine is not necessary except for the sick; but the sacraments are certain spiritual medicines, which are applied against the wounds of sin, as was said in the preceding number; therefore they were not necessary before sin.

2. In the state of innocence higher things ruled lower things and in no way depended on them; for just as the mind was totally subject to God, so also the lower powers of the soul were subject to the mind, and the body to the soul. But through the sacraments the soul depends on sensible things as to instruction and sanctification. Therefore the sacraments are contrary to the order of the state of innocence.

3. Moreover, men would be born furnished with grace; therefore this grace ought not to have been caused through sacraments.

Whence "in the state of innocence man did not need sacraments, not only insofar as they are ordained to the remedy of sin, but also insofar as they are ordained to the perfection of the soul" (a. 2).

27. Principle III. For fallen nature before and after Christ very different sacraments were necessary. - It is proved:

Sacraments are necessary for salvation as signs of the things by which man is sanctified. But after sin, no one can be sanctified except through Christ. Therefore before Him there were necessary signs by which man would profess his faith concerning the future advent of the Savior; after Him, signs which proceed from Him and have power, and by which we profess our faith in Christ born and suffering, and in redemption fulfilled (a. 3 and 4).

28. Observations. - 1. Different sacraments fit different times. Hence a) before the Mosaic law, men were moved toward God by the sole instinct of the law of nature and of divine inspiration, with no law given exteriorly; whence the sacraments were not determined, but from an interior instinct men determined by what sensible things they would use for the worship of God, or also signify faith in future redemption; - b) but in the course of time, both because of the darkening of the law of nature from the sins of men, and at the same time so that faith in Christ might be more express, a determinate written law was given, in which certain sacraments were also determined (a. 3, ad 2).

2. In the Old Law, properly speaking, sacraments are those things which were given in the people of God, whether to ministers or to the faithful, for a certain consecration or deputation to the worship of God; namely, a) the institution of the people in the state of worshiping God, which was done through circumcision; b) the institution of priests in the state of worshiping God through consecration (Ex. XXIX; Lev. VIII); c) the use of those things which pertain to worship, as for the people the eating of the paschal lamb (Ex. XIII), for the priests the eating of the loaves of proposition (Lev. XXIV, 9); d) the removal of uncleannesses by which some are impeded from worship, which was done through various expiations and purifications (Lev. XIV; Num. XIX). All these things were ordained to figuring Christ (I-II, q. 102, a. 5).

3. Certain sacraments of the New Law had figurative sacraments corresponding to them in the Old Law. For Baptism corresponds to circumcision, the Eucharist to the banquet of the paschal lamb, Penance to all the purifications, and Order to the consecration of the high priest and of priests. - But to Confirmation, which is the sacrament of the fullness of grace unto strength, no sacrament can correspond in the Old Law, because the time of fullness had not yet arrived; similarly to Extreme Unction, which is the immediate preparation for the entrance into glory, whose access was not yet open in the Old Law, the price not yet having been paid. Finally Matrimony existed in the Old Law insofar as it was unto the office of nature, but not insofar as it is the sacrament of the conjunction of Christ and the Church, which had not yet been made (ad 3).