2: Further, the offering made by a leper after being cleansed
was a ceremony of the Law. But the Gospel commands the leper, who has
been cleansed, to make this offering (Matt. 8:4). Therefore the
ceremonies of the Old Law did not cease at Christ's coming.

Obj. 3: Further, as long as the cause remains, the effect remains.
But the ceremonies of the Old Law had certain reasonable causes,
inasmuch as they were ordained to the worship of God, besides the
fact that they were intended to be figures of Christ. Therefore the
ceremonies of the Old Law should not have ceased.

Obj. 4: Further, circumcision was instituted as a sign of Abraham's
faith: the observance of the sabbath, to recall the blessing of
creation: and other solemnities, in memory of other Divine favors, as
stated above (Q. 102, A. 4, ad 10; A. 5, ad 1). But Abraham's faith
is ever to be imitated even by us: and the blessing of creation and
other Divine favors should never be forgotten. Therefore at least
circumcision and the other legal solemnities should not have ceased.

_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (Col. 2:16, 17): "Let no man . .
. judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a festival day, or
of the new moon, or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to
come": and (Heb. 8:13): "In saying a new (testament), he hath made
the former old: and that which decayeth and groweth old, is near its
end."

_I answer that,_ All the ceremonial precepts of the Old Law were
ordained to the worship of God as stated above (Q. 101, AA. 1, 2).
Now external worship should be in proportion to the internal worship,
which consists in faith, hope and charity. Consequently exterior
worship had to be subject to variations according to the variations
in the internal worship, in which a threefold state may be
distinguished. One state was in respect of faith and hope, both in
heavenly goods, and in the means of obtaining them--in both of these
considered as things to come. Such was the state of faith and hope in
the Old Law. Another state of interior worship is that in which we
have faith and hope in heavenly goods as things to come; but in the
means of obtaining heavenly goods, as in things present or past. Such
is the state of the New Law. The third state is that in which both
are possessed as present; wherein nothing is believed in as lacking,
nothing hoped for as being yet to come. Such is the state of the
Blessed.

In this state of the Blessed, then, nothin