necessary to man before sin.

_On the contrary,_ None but the sick need remedies, according to
Matt. 9:12: "They that are in health need not a physician." Now the
sacraments are spiritual remedies for the healing of wounds inflicted
by sin. Therefore they were not necessary before sin.

_I answer that,_ Sacraments were not necessary in the state of
innocence. This can be proved from the rectitude of that state, in
which the higher (parts of man) ruled the lower, and nowise depended
on them: for just as the mind was subject to God, so were the lower
powers of the soul subject to the mind, and the body to the soul. And
it would be contrary to this order if the soul were perfected either
in knowledge or in grace, by anything corporeal; which happens in the
sacraments. Therefore in the state of innocence man needed no
sacraments, whether as remedies against sin or as means of perfecting
the soul.

Reply Obj. 1: In the state of innocence man needed grace: not so that
he needed to obtain grace by means of sensible signs, but in a
spiritual and invisible manner.

Reply Obj. 2: Man's nature is the same before and after sin, but the
state of his nature is not the same. Because after sin, the soul,
even in its higher part, needs to receive something from corporeal
things in order that it may be perfected: whereas man had no need of
this in that state.

Reply Obj. 3: Matrimony was instituted in the state of innocence, not
as a sacrament, but as a function of nature. Consequently, however,
it foreshadowed something in relation to Christ and the Church: just
as everything else foreshadowed Christ.
_______________________

THIRD ARTICLE [III, Q. 61, Art. 3]

Whether There Should Have Been Sacraments After Sin, Before Christ?

Objection 1: It seems that there should have been no sacraments after
sin, before Christ. For it has been stated that the Passion of Christ
is applied to men through the sacraments: so that Christ's Passion is
compared to the sacraments as cause to effect. But effect does not
precede cause. Therefore there should have been no sacraments before
Christ's coming.

Obj. 2: Further, sacraments should be suitable to the state of the
human race, as Augustine declares (Contra Faust. xix). But the state
of the human race underwent no change after sin until it was repaired
by Christ. Neither, therefore, should the sacraments have been
changed, so that besides the sacraments of the natural law, others
should