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Objection 1: It would seem that generation by coition would not have
existed in the state of innocence. For, as Damascene says (De
Fide Orth. ii, 11; iv, 25), the first man in the terrestrial
Paradise was "like an angel." But in the future state of the
resurrection, when men will be like the angels, "they shall neither
marry nor be married," as is written Mt. 22:30. Therefore
neither in paradise would there have been generation by coition.
Objection 2: Further, our first parents were created at the age of
perfect development. Therefore, if generation by coition had existed
before sin, they would have had intercourse while still in paradise:
which was not the case according to Scripture (Gn. 4:1).
Objection 3: Further, in carnal intercourse, more than at any
other time, man becomes like the beasts, on account of the vehement
delight which he takes therein; whence contingency is praiseworthy,
whereby man refrains from such pleasures. But man is compared to
beasts by reason of sin, according to Ps. 48:13: "Man, when
he was in honor, did not understand; he is compared to senseless
beasts, and is become like to them." Therefore, before sin, there
would have been no such intercourse of man and woman.
Objection 4: Further, in the state of innocence there would have
been no corruption. But virginal integrity is corrupted by
intercourse. Therefore there would have been no such thing in the
state of innocence.
On the contrary, God made man and woman before sin (Gn. 1,2).
But nothing is void in God's works. Therefore, even if man had not
sinned, there would have been such intercourse, to which the
distinction of sex is ordained. Moreover, we are told that woman was
made to be a help to man (Gn. 2:18,20). But she is not
fitted to help man except in generation, because another man would have
proved a more effective help in anything else. Therefore there would
have been such generation also in the state of innocence.
I answer that, Some of the earlier doctors, considering the nature
of concupiscence as regards generation in our present state, concluded
that in the state of innocence generation would not have been effected
in the same way. Thus Gregory of Nyssa says (De Hom. Opif.
xvii) that in paradise the human race would have been multiplied by
some other means, as the angels were multiplied without coition by the
operation of the Divine Power. He adds that God made man male and
female before sin, because He foreknew the mode of generation which
would take place after sin, which He foresaw. But this is
unreasonable. For what is natural to man was neither acquired nor
forfeited by sin. Now it is clear that generation by coition is
natural to man by reason of his animal life, which he possessed even
before sin, as above explained (Question 97, Article 3), just
as it is natural to other perfect animals, as the corporeal members
make it clear. So we cannot allow that these members would not have
had a natural use, as other members had, before sin.
Thus, as regards generation by coition, there are, in the present
state of life, two things to be considered. One, which comes from
nature, is the union of man and woman; for in every act of generation
there is an active and a passive principle. Wherefore, since wherever
there is distinction of sex, the active principle is male and the
passive is female; the order of nature demands that for the purpose of
generation there should be concurrence of male and female. The second
thing to be observed is a certain deformity of excessive concupiscence,
which in the state of innocence would not have existed, when the lower
powers were entirely subject to reason. Wherefore Augustine says
(De Civ. Dei xiv, 26): "We must be far from supposing that
offspring could not be begotten without concupiscence. All the bodily
members would have been equally moved by the will, without ardent or
wanton incentive, with calmness of soul and body."
Reply to Objection 1: In paradise man would have been like an angel
in his spirituality of mind, yet with an animal life in his body.
After the resurrection man will be like an angel, spiritualized in
soul and body. Wherefore there is no parallel.
Reply to Objection 2: As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix,
4), our first parents did not come together in paradise, because on
account of sin they were ejected from paradise shortly after the
creation of the woman; or because, having received the general Divine
command relative to generation, they awaited the special command
relative to time.
Reply to Objection 3: Beasts are without reason. In this way man
becomes, as it were, like them in coition, because he cannot moderate
concupiscence. In the state of innocence nothing of this kind would
have happened that was not regulated by reason, not because delight of
sense was less, as some say (rather indeed would sensible delight have
been the greater in proportion to the greater purity of nature and the
greater sensibility of the body), but because the force of
concupiscence would not have so inordinately thrown itself into such
pleasure, being curbed by reason, whose place it is not to lessen
sensual pleasure, but to prevent the force of concupiscence from
cleaving to it immoderately. By "immoderately" I mean going beyond
the bounds of reason, as a sober person does not take less pleasure in
food taken in moderation than the glutton, but his concupiscence
lingers less in such pleasures. This is what Augustine means by the
words quoted, which do not exclude intensity of pleasure from the state
of innocence, but ardor of desire and restlessness of the mind.
Therefore continence would not have been praiseworthy in the state of
innocence, whereas it is praiseworthy in our present state, not
because it removes fecundity, but because it excludes inordinate
desire. In that state fecundity would have been without lust.
Reply to Objection 4: As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xiv,
26): In that state "intercourse would have been without prejudice
to virginal integrity; this would have remained intact, as it does in
the menses. And just as in giving birth the mother was then relieved,
not by groans of pain, but by the instigations of maturity; so in
conceiving, the union was one, not of lustful desire, but of
deliberate action."
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