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Objection 1: It seems that there was no need for any sacraments
after Christ came. For the figure should cease with the advent of the
truth. But "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jn.
1:17). Since, therefore, the sacraments are signs or figures of
the truth, it seems that there was no need for any sacraments after
Christ's Passion.
Objection 2: Further, the sacraments consist in certain elements,
as stated above (Question 60, Article 4). But the Apostle
says (Gal. 4:3,4) that "when we were children we were serving
under the elements of the world": but that now "when the fulness of
time" has "come," we are no longer children. Therefore it seems
that we should not serve God under the elements of this world, by
making use of corporeal sacraments.
Objection 3: Further, according to James 1:17 with God
"there is no change, nor shadow of alteration." But it seems to
argue some change in the Divine will that God should give man certain
sacraments for his sanctification now during the time of grace, and
other sacraments before Christ's coming. Therefore it seems that
other sacraments should not have been instituted after Christ.
On the contrary, Augustine says (Contra Faust. xix) that the
sacraments of the Old Law "were abolished because they were
fulfilled; and others were instituted, fewer in number, but more
efficacious, more profitable, and of easier accomplishment."
I answer that, As the ancient Fathers were saved through faith in
Christ's future coming, so are we saved through faith in Christ's
past birth and Passion. Now the sacraments are signs in protestation
of the faith whereby man is justified; and signs should vary according
as they signify the future, the past, or the present; for as
Augustine says (Contra Faust. xix), "the same thing is variously
pronounced as to be done and as having been done: for instance the word
'passurus' [going to suffer] differs from 'passus' [having
suffered]." Therefore the sacraments of the New Law, that signify
Christ in relation to the past, must needs differ from those of the
Old Law, that foreshadowed the future.
Reply to Objection 1: As Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. v),
the state of the New Law. is between the state of the Old Law,
whose figures are fulfilled in the New, and the state of glory, in
which all truth will be openly and perfectly revealed. Wherefore then
there will be no sacraments. But now, so long as we know "through a
glass in a dark manner," (1 Cor. 13:12) we need sensible
signs in order to reach spiritual things: and this is the province of
the sacraments.
Reply to Objection 2: The Apostle calls the sacraments of the Old
Law "weak and needy elements" (Gal. 4:9) because they neither
contained nor caused grace. Hence the Apostle says that those who
used these sacraments served God "under the elements of this world":
for the very reason that these sacraments were nothing else than the
elements of this world. But our sacraments both contain and cause
grace: consequently the comparison does not hold.
Reply to Objection 3: Just as the head of the house is not proved
to have a changeable mind, through issuing various commands to his
household at various seasons, ordering things differently in winter and
summer; so it does not follow that there is any change in God,
because He instituted sacraments of one kind after Christ's coming,
and of another kind at the time of the Law. because the latter were
suitable as foreshadowing grace; the former as signifying the presence
of grace,
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