Title II: The Positive Offices of Religion

Utility. - In its positive part the treatise on religion embraces several things whose importance is immediately manifest. For the general exposition of acts of worship offers occasion to instruct the candidate of theology concerning the genuine notion of liturgy and its right estimation, and to preserve him from several practical errors. Concerning the efficacy of prayer one must speak prudently, and it is fitting, by a few notions, to prepare the way for mystical theology itself. The things then proposed concerning prayer, concerning oath and vow, pertain to daily use. It is of particular importance to know what must be thought concerning a fictitious oath, lest that holy thing become an instrument of tyrannical oppression, and in what way the power of invalidating vows must be understood.

The order of speaking will be this: first we shall treat of varied worship in general and of liturgy, then of prayer, then of oath and adjuration, finally of vow. The Decalogue itself is the author of this order for us, since prayer has customarily been referred to the first precept, but oath and vow to the second precept.