§ 62. Preliminary Statement.

MAN attains his final aim, not in this life, but in that which is to come. What lies between the two, and what must take place in order to secure for individual men, and for the entire Church, final completion, constitutes the subject of this article. [1] It bears the title — of the Last Things (de novissimis) — because it discusses what is the last, viz., that with which the present world comes to an end. [2] We treat of the separate features in the order in which they will occur, viz.: (1) of death; (2) of the resurrection of the dead; (3) of the final judgment; (4) of the end of the world; (5) of eternal damnation and eternal life. [3]