Chapter IV.
On the Institution of the Sacraments.
Concerning the institution of the Sacraments, this must be held: that Christ instituted the seven Sacraments of the law of grace as the mediator of the new testament and the chief lawgiver, in which law he called to the promises eternal, gave directing precepts, and instituted sanctifying Sacraments.
He instituted them indeed in words and elements for the evidence of signification and the efficacy of sanctification, such that they always have the significance of truth, but not always the efficacy of healing, not because of a defect on their own part, but on the part of the recipient.
He instituted the aforesaid Sacraments in diverse ways, some of them, namely, by confirming, approving, and consummating, as matrimony and penance; others by intimating and initiating, as confirmation and extreme unction; but others by initiating and consummating and by receiving them in himself, as the Sacrament of baptism, the eucharist, and orders. For these three he both fully instituted and was also the first to receive.
The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because our restorative principle is Christ crucified, namely the incarnate Word, which because it is the Word coequal and consubstantial with the Father, is the Word of supreme power, supreme truth, and supreme goodness, and thereby also of supreme authority; and therefore it properly belongs to him to introduce the new testament, and it also belongs to him to give a law that is complete and sufficient according to the demand of his supreme power and truth and goodness. By reason therefore of supreme goodness, he set forth beatifying promises; by reason of supreme truth, he gave directing precepts; but by reason of supreme power, he established assisting Sacraments: so that through the Sacraments power might be restored for fulfilling the directing precepts, and through the directive precepts one might arrive at the eternal promises, with the eternal Word, namely Christ the Lord, bringing this about in the evangelical law, insofar as he is the way, the truth, and the life.
Again, since the restorative principle is not only the Word insofar as it is the Word, but also insofar as it is incarnate, which, by the very fact that it is incarnate, offers itself to all for the knowledge of truth and presents itself to all who worthily approach for the grace of healing: hence it is that, as one full of grace and truth, for the greater evidence of signifying and efficacy of sanctifying, he instituted the Sacraments in elements together with words, so that, while the elements presented themselves to the eyes and the words to the ears, which are the two senses most conducive to knowledge, they would give evidence of the signification expressed; and then also the words would sanctify the elements, so that the efficacy of human healing would become more complete, which, since it is given to no one who resists and assails the font of grace interiorly in the heart: therefore they were so instituted that they would always and universally signify, but would not sanctify except those approaching worthily without any pretense.
Finally, since, even though the incarnate Word is the font of sacramental grace, some sacramental grace nonetheless existed before the incarnation, some indeed only after the sending of the Holy Spirit, some however holding a middle position: hence it is that the Sacraments had to be instituted in diverse ways. For before the incarnation, both penitential compunction and matrimonial generation were necessary: therefore he did not institute these two Sacraments anew, but brought to completion and confirmed in the evangelical law what had already been instituted by him and in a certain way impressed upon the dictate of nature, when he preached penance and attended the wedding and approved the law of marriage, as is gathered from various passages of the Gospel. - But before the sending of the Holy Spirit, there was neither the full gift of the Holy Spirit for confirmation and public confession of the name of Christ, nor the plenary anointing of the mind for departure; therefore Christ only initiated and intimated these two Sacraments, namely confirmation and extreme unction, confirmation by laying his hand on the little ones and by foretelling that the disciples would be baptized with the Holy Spirit; unction, however, extreme, by sending the disciples to heal, who anointed the sick with oil, as is said in Mark.
In the middle however of time there was both regeneration and the ordering of the Church and spiritual nourishment: therefore Christ instituted these three Sacraments, namely of baptism, the eucharist, and orders, both completely and clearly: first by receiving baptism, then by giving the form and making it known to the rest; orders, indeed, by first giving the power of binding and loosing the sins of the human race and the power of confecting the Sacrament of the altar; the eucharist, indeed, by comparing himself to a grain of wheat and by confecting and giving to the disciples, with the passion imminent, the Sacrament of his body and blood. - And therefore these three Sacraments ought to have been instituted by Christ distinctly and integrally and to have been prefigured in manifold ways in the old law, as the substantial Sacraments of the new testament and proper to the lawgiver, namely the incarnate Word.