od immediately, but also those
things whereby His worshippers are duly prepared to worship Him: thus
too in other matters, whatever is preparatory to the end comes under
the science whose object is the end. Accordingly those precepts of
the Law which regard the clothing and food of God's worshippers, and
other such matters, pertain to a certain preparation of the
ministers, with the view of fitting them for the Divine worship: just
as those who administer to a king make use of certain special
observances. Consequently such are contained under the ceremonial
precepts.

Reply Obj. 2: The alleged explanation of the name does not seem very
probable: especially as the Law does not contain many instances of
the lighting of candles in solemnities; since, even the lamps of the
Candlestick were furnished with "oil of olives," as stated in Lev.
24:2. Nevertheless we may say that all things pertaining to the
Divine worship were more carefully observed on solemn festivals: so
that all ceremonial precepts may be included under the observance of
solemnities.

Reply Obj. 3: Neither does this explanation of the name appear to be
very much to the point, since the word "ceremony" is not Greek but
Latin. We may say, however, that, since man's salvation is from God,
those precepts above all seem to be rules of salvation, which direct
man to God: and accordingly those which refer to Divine worship are
called ceremonial precepts.

Reply Obj. 4: This explanation of the ceremonial precepts has a
certain amount of probability: not that they are called ceremonial
precisely because there is no evident reason for them; this is a kind
of consequence. For, since the precepts referring to the Divine
worship must needs be figurative, as we shall state further on (A.
2), the consequence is that the reason for them is not so very
evident.
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SECOND ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 101, Art. 2]

Whether the Ceremonial Precepts Are Figurative?

Objection 1: It would seem that the ceremonial precepts are not
figurative. For it is the duty of every teacher to express himself in
such a way as to be easily understood, as Augustine states (De Doctr.
Christ. iv, 4, 10) and this seems very necessary in the framing of a
law: because precepts of law are proposed to the populace; for which
reason a law should be manifest, as Isidore declares (Etym. v, 21).
If therefore the precepts of the Law were given as figures of
something, it seems unbecoming