Chapter II.
On the Variation of the Sacraments.
Concerning the variation of the Sacraments, this must be held: that the Sacraments were instituted from the beginning for the healing of man, and have always kept pace with the disease of man, and will endure until the end of the age; but some existed under the law of nature, others under the written law, and others under grace. And among all of these, those which are later are more evident in signification and more worthy in the effect of grace.
For under the law of nature there were offerings, sacrifices, and tithes. Under the written law, however, circumcision was introduced, expiation was superadded, and a manifold distinction of offerings, tithes, and sacrifices was further added.
Under the new law, however, "the Sacraments established are fewer in number, more powerful in utility, more efficacious in virtue," and more worthy in preeminence: in which there is at once the fulfillment and the superseding of all the aforementioned Sacraments.
Now the reason for understanding the foregoing is this: because the incarnate Word, which is the principle of our restoration and the font and origin of the Sacraments, since it is most merciful and most wise — because it is most merciful, it did not permit the disease of sin to run its course without the remedy of a Sacrament; and because it is most wise, therefore according to the dictate of its immutable wisdom governing all things in most perfect order, it applied diverse and varied medicines according to the varied changes of different times. Since therefore "from the beginning, as time progressed and the coming of the Savior drew ever nearer, the effect of salvation grew more and more, and the knowledge of truth increased: it was fitting that the very signs of salvation should be varied one after another through the succession of times, so that the effect of divine grace unto salvation might increase, and at the same time the signification itself might appear more evident in the visible signs themselves." And therefore "first through offering, and afterward through circumcision, and finally through baptismal washing, the Sacrament of expiation and justification was instituted to be formed: because the form and likeness of that same cleansing is indeed found hidden in offering, is more evidently expressed in circumcision, and is more manifestly declared through baptism. " And hence it is that "those Sacraments of the first time, as Hugh says, were like a shadow of the truth, those of the middle time like a figure or image, and those of the last time, namely of grace, like the body " , because they contain within themselves the truth and healing grace which they present, and they confer in present reality what they promise.
Again, since the presence of truth and grace which is exhibited in the law of grace could not be expressed through a single sign, as was fitting, by reason of its excellence and manifoldness in work and power: hence it is that in every time and law, many Sacraments were given for expressing that truth and grace. But especially in the time of the figurative law, whose nature it is to prefigure, many and varied signs preceded, which by their variety would express the grace of Christ in manifold ways and commend it more excellently, and by commending it in manifold ways would nourish the little ones, exercise the imperfect, and by burdening the obstinate would break them and tame them to the yoke of grace and in a certain way soften them.
Finally, since when truth arrives the shadow ceases, and the prefiguring figure attains its intended end, which once obtained, its use and exercise ought to cease: hence it is that with the arrival of grace, the old Sacraments and signs were at once fulfilled and removed, because they were prognostic signs of future things and, as it were, announcing from afar; and new ones were nevertheless instituted as demonstrative of present grace and in a certain way commemorative of the Lord's passion, which is the font and origin of curative grace, whether in us or in those who preceded Christ's advent: but in those who preceded, as a price promised, and in those who follow, as a price paid in full. And since grace is not owed to the promise of a price except by reason of its payment, and more abundant grace is owed to a price paid in full than to one promised: hence it is that the passion of Christ more immediately sanctifies the Sacraments of the time of the new law, and a fuller grace overflows in them. On account of which, those former Sacraments prepared and led to these, as a way to its terminus, as a sign to what it signifies, as a figure to the truth, and as the imperfect leads back and prepares for the perfect.