Summa summae S. Thomae, Tomus III

I answer. The primeval religion, observed from Adam to Moses, consisted of these three things, which are essential to all religion, namely dogmas, moral precepts, and divine worship,

1° Since man was constituted from the beginning heir of eternal life, destined to enjoy the clear vision of God in heaven, while the supernatural life, which takes its beginning on earth, has its first origin from faith — although God, in creating the first man, adorned his mind with natural reason, by which he could discern the Creator of all things in his works, and, addressing him as a friend, revealed himself to him in the manner said above as the one God, most perfect, omnipotent, maker of all things and supreme governor — so that Adam, just as now, knew God by the natural light of reason and by supernatural faith. Besides the divinely infused knowledge of all the things that men can know naturally, Adam received from God by revelation so much knowledge of supernatural things as was necessary for the governance of life in order to the supernatural end, as is proved by D. Thomas, Ia p., q. 94, aa. 2, 3, c. He was therefore conscious of the state of perfection which he had received first. He knew the condition laid down by God, that he might persevere in this state, and the punishment he was to suffer by transgression of the divine commandment. After the fall and the ruin anticipated for all his posterity, Adam received from God the promise of the reparation of the human race, that is, of the covenant of reconciliation to be entered upon through the merits of a mediator, the Lord saying to the serpent, that is, to the devil, Gen., III, 15 : I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed : he shall crush thy head. In this is intimated, at least implicitly, the mystery of the divine incarnation. The Angelic Doctor teaches, IIa IIae, q. 7, a. 1, c, that this mystery was then known and believed explicitly, because « the way for men to come to beatitude is the mystery of the incarnation and passion of Christ. » Moreover, if Adam had the explicit faith of the incarnation, consequently he had the same faith of the Trinity, since the incarnation cannot be believed explicitly without the explicit faith of the Trinity ¹ There were also to be made known to man the conditions of the aforesaid covenant, namely faith in the mediator, the practice of penance, and obedience in keeping the divine laws.

These things, however, though not all proposed explicitly, some rather more obscurely, since divine providence, on account of reasons most lofty, reserved them to be revealed more openly in the fullness of time, were nevertheless from the beginning and at all times the sum of doctrine upon which true religion is founded. These dogmas, since public doctrinal authority did not then exist, were handed down by oral tradition; and when divine faith together with the dictate of natural reason seemed wholly abolished, because all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth, Gen., VI, 12, man having been blotted out from the face of the earth, ibid., 7, by the flood, Noe, who found grace before the Lord, ibid., 8, and his family preserved the pristine tradition incorrupt for themselves and their posterity. Then the promise of the mediator to come unfolded successively, chiefly in those words which Abraham heard from God, ibid., XXVI, 4 : In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And in this promise were included all the truths enunciated above.

2° To natural reason pertains the moral law; for, as the Apostle testifies, Rom., II, 14 and 15, the Gentiles, who have not the law, do naturally those things that are of the law... Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them. From the aforesaid dogmas indeed many duties follow, both toward God, and toward our neighbor, and toward ourselves. It is beyond doubt that God positively revealed these duties to our first parents besides. From these duties was afterwards woven together the decalogue, if we except the third precept, which is not

² necessarily included in the natural law and is to be referred to the ritual law. Added to these was the negative precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; by the observance of which, as of the other commandments, man would render to God the honor due him, testifying his dependence toward his Creator. Because the primitive divine law, natural and positive, had fallen into oblivion through manifold transgressions, so that man was becoming flesh, Gen., VI, 3, the human race, except one family, was destroyed by the flood, so that the law was renewed and religiously observed by the patriarchs.

3° Worship is owed to God as most powerful creator of all and supreme lord. But since man, guided by natural reason alone, would not know how and by what external acts the Lord is to be fittingly honored, God himself had to determine the religious rites, and without doubt did determine them. What these rites were, however, all at least in the state of original justice, it is not so easy to define. It seems certain that God, having placed Adam in the paradise of pleasure to till and keep it, Gen., II, 15, commanded that on the seventh day he cease from labor, even if not laborious, in imitation of the creator who rested on the seventh day from all the work he had accomplished, ibid., 2, and that with duties of piety he sanctify this day and himself more fully. This law survived sin, and was solemnly sanctioned on mount Sinai. Hence it is that everywhere among the peoples the weekly order of days is kept and has always flourished, and the seventh is held sacred, doubtless because God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, ibid., 3.

Since sacrifice is the principal and also essential act of every religion, it was owed to God from innocent Adam, in the manner that befitted the primeval condition, to the threefold end of adoration, petition, and thanksgiving. Moreover the expiatory sacrifice, that is, the bloody sacrifice, by which after sin man confessed that he had himself merited death and destruction in punishment of rebellion, was not then necessary. Sufficiently therefore did Adam acknowledge and reverence the supreme dominion of God, by offering and consecrating to the Lord the fruits of the earth, in testimony of subjection and gratitude, thus referring his gifts to the author of all.

After the fall of Adam sacrifice appears expressly, Gen., IV, 3 and 4. For it came to pass, after many days, that Cain offered of the fruits of the earth gifts to the Lord. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat. And because it did not befit individuals to offer external worship to God according to their own liking and their own judgment, Enos, son of Seth, led by heavenly light, began to call upon the name of the Lord, ibid., 26, that is, according to the common interpretation, he was the first who determined the time, place, and ceremonies of worshipping the deity, and the nature of the offerings to be presented to him. Among these rites, before and after the flood, bloody sacrifices hold the chief place, as is proved by the examples of Abel and Noe. Now sacrifices of this kind were not adopted with nature alone as guide; for the death of an irrational animal has no natural connection with gratitude for benefits received, or with expiation of sin. It must be said, therefore, that these sacrifices took their origin from the institution of God himself. For surely the destruction due to man for sin was transferred to a victim, which by vicarious lot expiated sin, because it figuratively foretold the immolation of Christ, in whom they who offered such hosts believed and hoped. For although, as the Apostle says, Hebr., X, 4, it is impossible for sins to be taken away by the blood of bulls and goats, that is, by the proper power of that blood itself, men then had confidence in entering into the holies by the blood of Christ prefigured, ibid., 19. And thus was fulfilled the law proclaimed by the same apostle, ibid., IX, 22 : Almost all things, according to the law, are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. This law was observed even among infidels and idolaters, the devil so mocking them that they were persuaded they professed the true religion.

For many centuries no people is found politically constituted, paternal authority governing men in each family. Therefore from the beginning the priesthood was not public, but domestic, as is shown by the example of Noe, Gen., VIII, 20, Abraham, ibid., XXI, 13, and Job, who among

the Idumaeans worshipped the true God, Iob., I, 5. Yet the office of sacrificer was not then so reserved to the father that private persons were forbidden to offer the hosts; for Cain offered to the Lord of the fruits of the earth, and Abel of the firstlings of his flock, and the Lord respected Abel and his offerings, Gen., IV, 3 and 4. The priesthood does not become public except when the people of God has already been separated from the other nations. Then Aaron, even before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, is acknowledged priest by God himself, Exod., IV, 14, and his sons are invested with the same dignity, Ibid., XXIX, 43, XXIV, 9 and 10 ; Levit., I, 5; so that from that time it is called the Aaronic priesthood.

Moreover certain sacraments ought then to have been given to men. For, as Augustine says, book XIX contra Faustum, cap. 11, « into no name of religion, whether true or false, can men be banded together, unless they are gathered by some fellowship of signs or visible sacraments : whose sacraments have an ineffably great power, and therefore, when despised, make men sacrilegious. For impiously is despised that without which piety cannot be made perfect. » The reason brought forward by the Saint, Ibid., is that « the observance of such figures was a foretelling of Christ. »

Ought any sacrament to have been given even before sin ? We judge that it must be answered affirmatively, because it befits the condition of man walking by faith upon the earth to be led through sensible signs to goods invisible and eternal. Yet no sacrament seems to have existed in the state of innocence besides the tree of life in the midst of paradise, Gen., II, 9. And this sufficed, both for preserving the unfailing vigor of the body, which it could not effect naturally, and for signifying the supernatural grace by which the soul lives spiritually, as St. Thomas says, 1 p., q. 102, a. 1, ad 4 : « The tree of life, he says, is a certain material tree, so called because its fruit had the power of preserving life, as was said q. 97, a. 4. And yet it signified something spiritually; just as the rock in the desert was something material, and yet signified Christ. » Not improbably, therefore, man being then ignorant of it, but God already disposing all things toward repairing the ruin of man which he had foreseen, this tree presignified the cross of Christ, which is the true tree of life planted in the earthly paradise of the Christian Church.

But what sacraments were in use after sin ? Augustine answers, book V contra Iulianum, cap. 11, num. 45, where he again asserts that certain sacraments were necessary : « It is not to be believed that, before circumcision, the servants of God — since the faith of a mediator to come in the flesh dwelt in them — were without any sacrament to aid their little ones : although sacred Scripture, for some necessary cause, willed that what that was should lie hidden. For we read also of their sacrifices, by which certainly that blood was figured which alone takes away the sins of the world. » Indeed the ancient sacrifices seem to be reckoned among the sacraments of this age, which namely shadowed forth and foretold the immolation of Christ on the cross, and stirred up faith in the mediator. To these was afterwards added circumcision, which was given by God as a sign of the covenant begun by him with the people to arise from Abraham, Gen., XVII, 10 and 11, just as now the new members of the Church of Christ are enrolled through baptism. These sacraments produced a spiritual effect, not ex opere operato, like the sacraments of the new law, but ex opere operantis, that is, by reason of the dispositions of those who used them.

These are the principal features of primitive religion, which the Mosaic law enlarged and the Christian law perfected.]