e girt in sign of
chastity: and the shoes of their feet are the examples of our dead
ancestors. The staves they were to hold in their hands denoted
pastoral authority: and it was commanded that the paschal lamb should
be eaten in one house, i.e. in a catholic church, and not in the
conventicles of heretics.

Reply Obj. 3: Some of the sacraments of the New Law had corresponding
figurative sacraments in the Old Law. For Baptism, which is the
sacrament of Faith, corresponds to circumcision. Hence it is written
(Col. 2:11, 12): "You are circumcised . . . in the circumcision of"
Our Lord Jesus "Christ: buried with Him in Baptism." In the New Law
the sacrament of the Eucharist corresponds to the banquet of the
paschal lamb. The sacrament of Penance in the New Law corresponds to
all the purifications of the Old Law. The sacrament of Orders
corresponds to the consecration of the pontiff and of the priests. To
the sacrament of Confirmation, which is the sacrament of the fulness
of grace, there would be no corresponding sacrament of the Old Law,
because the time of fulness had not yet come, since "the Law brought
no man [Vulg.: 'nothing'] to perfection" (Heb. 7:19). The same
applies to the sacrament of Extreme Unction, which is an immediate
preparation for entrance into glory, to which the way was not yet
opened out in the Old Law, since the price had not yet been paid.
Matrimony did indeed exist under the Old Law, as a function of
nature, but not as the sacrament of the union of Christ with the
Church, for that union was not as yet brought about. Hence under the
Old Law it was allowable to give a bill of divorce, which is contrary
to the nature of the sacrament.

Reply Obj. 4: As already stated, the purifications of the Old Law
were ordained for the removal of impediments to the divine worship:
which worship is twofold; viz. spiritual, consisting in devotion of
the mind to God; and corporal, consisting in sacrifices, oblations,
and so forth. Now men are hindered in the spiritual worship by sins,
whereby men were said to be polluted, for instance, by idolatry,
murder, adultery, or incest. From such pollutions men were purified
by certain sacrifices, offered either for the whole community in
general, or also for the sins of individuals; not that those carnal
sacrifices had of themselves the power of expiating sin; but that
they signified that expiation of sins which was to be effected by
Christ, and of which those of old became