Theorema de sacramentorum nucleo

ON THE NUCLEUS
OF THE SACRAMENTS.
Εἰσόδιον λόγον An introductory discourse.

A decorative drop cap letter D features floral scrollwork.Disputing about the Nucleus kernel/core lying hidden σχετικῶς relatively within the covering of the Sacraments, we demand that those who love the truth should embrace these αἰτήματα petitions, or Postulates, ἀναντιρρήτως irrefutably, with their whole heart.

1. Experience of divine blessing is always a necessity for man.

2. For man, consisting of a rational Soul and an organic Body (and therefore the bond of the universe), these two senses, Hearing and Sight, serve more than the others for attaining that knowledge of divine blessing which is prepared only through experience.

3. The Word of the Gospel is most suited to Hearing: but the Sacraments, above all, to Sight.

4. Hearing and Sight are not less correctly attributed to the Mind, in which the grace of God shines, κατὰ μεταφοράν by metaphor, than they are otherwise properly attributed to the Body and its specific organs.

5. True faith is to the spiritual Man what all the external and internal senses are to the animal Man.

II. Whether it exists.

However, since there is a place for Sacraments only while the animal life of men endures, we judge these points also to be placed beyond controversy.

1. In the State of primeval innocence, the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and its fruits, from the eating of which one had to abstain, were sacraments of the obedience owed to God: whereas the Tree of life and its fruits, which one was permitted to eat, were sacraments of immortality: both, together with their fruits, were sacraments of original justice and life. Gen. 2:17 and 3:22.