til the consummation of the
world.

_I answer that,_ The state of the world may change in two ways. In
one way, according to a change of law: and thus no other state will
succeed this state of the New Law. Because the state of the New Law
succeeded the state of the Old Law, as a more perfect law a less
perfect one. Now no state of the present life can be more perfect
that the state of the New Law: since nothing can approach nearer to
the last end than that which is the immediate cause of our being
brought to the last end. But the New Law does this: wherefore the
Apostle says (Heb. 10:19-22): "Having therefore, brethren, a
confidence in the entering into the Holies by the blood of Christ, a
new . . . way which He hath dedicated for us . . . let us draw near."
Therefore no state of the present life can be more perfect than that
of the New Law, since the nearer a thing is to the last end the more
perfect it is.

In another way the state of mankind may change according as man
stands in relation to one and the same law more or less perfectly.
And thus the state of the Old Law underwent frequent changes, since
at times the laws were very well kept, and at other times were
altogether unheeded. Thus, too, the state of the New Law is subject
to change with regard to various places, times, and persons,
according as the grace of the Holy Ghost dwells in man more or less
perfectly. Nevertheless we are not to look forward to a state wherein
man is to possess the grace of the Holy Ghost more perfectly than he
has possessed it hitherto, especially the apostles who "received the
firstfruits of the Spirit, i.e. sooner and more abundantly than
others," as a gloss expounds on Rom. 8:23.

Reply Obj. 1: As Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. v), there is a threefold
state of mankind; the first was under the Old Law; the second is that
of the New Law; the third will take place not in this life, but in
heaven. But as the first state is figurative and imperfect in
comparison with the state of the Gospel; so is the present state
figurative and imperfect in comparison with the heavenly state, with
the advent of which the present state will be done away as expressed
in that very passage (1 Cor. 13:12): "We see now through a glass in a
dark manner; but then face to face."

Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (Contra Faust. xix, 31), Montanus and
Priscilla pretended that Our Lord's promise to give the Holy Ghost
was fulfilled, not in the apostles, but in