Whether a Sacrament Is a Kind of Sign?
Objection 1: It seems that a sacrament is not a kind of sign. For
sacrament appears to be derived from "sacring" (_sacrando_); just as
medicament, from _medicando_ (healing). But this seems to be of the
nature of a cause rather than of a sign. Therefore a sacrament is a
kind of cause rather than a kind of sign.
Obj. 2: Further, sacrament seems to signify something hidden,
according to Tob. 12:7: "It is good to hide the secret
(_sacramentum_) of a king"; and Eph. 3:9: "What is the dispensation
of the mystery (_sacramenti_) which hath been hidden from eternity in
God." But that which is hidden, seems foreign to the nature of a
sign; for "a sign is that which conveys something else to the mind,
besides the species which it impresses on the senses," as Augustine
explains (De Doctr. Christ. ii). Therefore it seems that a sacrament
is not a kind of sign.
Obj. 3: Further, an oath is sometimes called a sacrament: for it is
written in the Decretals (Caus. xxii, qu. 5): "Children who have not
attained the use of reason must not be obliged to swear: and whoever
has foresworn himself once, must no more be a witness, nor be allowed
to take a sacrament," i.e. an oath. But an oath is not a kind of
sign, therefore it seems that a sacrament is not a kind of sign.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Civ. Dei x): "The visible
sacrifice is the sacrament, i.e. the sacred sign, of the invisible
sacrifice."
_I answer that,_ All things that are ordained to one, even in
different ways, can be denominated from it: thus, from health which
is in an animal, not only is the animal said to be healthy through
being the subject of health: but medicine also is said to be healthy
through producing health; diet through preserving it; and urine,
through being a sign of health. Consequently, a thing may be called a
"sacrament," either from having a certain hidden sanctity, and in
this sense a sacrament is a "sacred secret"; or from having some
relationship to this sanctity, which relationship may be that of a
cause, or of a sign or of any other relation. But now we are speaking
of sacraments in a special sense, as implying the habitude of sign:
and in this way a sacrament is a kind of sign.
Reply Obj. 1: Because medicine is an efficient cause of health,
consequently whatever things are denominated from medicine are to be
referred to some first active cause: so that a medicament implies a
certain causality. But sanctity from which a sacrament is
denominated, is not there taken as an efficient cause, but rather as
a formal or a final cause. Therefore it does not follow that a
sacrament need always imply causality.
Reply Obj. 2: This argument considers sacrament in the sense of a
"sacred secret." Now not only God's but also the king's, secret, is
said to be sacred and to be a sacrament: because according to the
ancients, whatever it was unlawful to lay violent hands on was said
to be holy or sacrosanct, such as the city walls, and persons of high
rank. Consequently those secrets, whether Divine or human, which it
is unlawful to violate by making them known to anybody whatever, are
called "sacred secrets or sacraments."
Reply Obj. 3: Even an oath has a certain relation to sacred things,
in so far as it consists in calling a sacred thing to witness. And in
this sense it is called a sacrament: not in the sense in which we
speak of sacraments now; the word "sacrament" being thus used not
equivocally but analogically, i.e. by reason of a different relation
to the one thing, viz. something sacred.
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