Chapter 23 [XXI.]—Sin Has Not Arisen Out of the Goodness of Marriage; The Sacrament of Matrimony a Great One in the Case of Christ and the Church—A Very Small One in the Case of a Man and His Wife.

If now we interrogate, so to speak, those goods of marriage to which we have often referred,88    See above, chs. 11, 19, and On Original Sin, ch. 39. and inquire how it is that sin could possibly have been propagated from them to infants, we shall get this answer from the first of them—the work of procreation of offspring: “My happiness would in paradise have been greater if sin had not been committed. For to me belongs that blessing of almighty God: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply.’89    Gen. i. 29. For accomplishing this good work, divers members were created suited to each sex; these members were, of course, in existence before sin, but they were not objects of shame.” This will be the answer of the second good—the fidelity of chastity: “If sin had not been committed, what in paradise could have been more secure than myself, when there was no lust of my own to spur me, none of another to tempt me?” And then this will be the answer of the sacramental bond of marriage,—the third good: “Of me was that word spoken in paradise before the entrance of sin: ‘A man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they two shall become one flesh.’”90    Gen. ii. 24. This the apostle applies to the case of Christ and of the Church, and calls it then “a great sacrament.”91    Eph v. 32. [In the original Greek, “a great mystery;” i.e., “a great revelation,”—W.] What, then, in Christ and in the Church is great, in the instances of each married pair it is but very small, but even then it is the sacrament of an inseparable union. What now is there in these three blessings of marriage out of which the bond of sin could pass over to posterity? Absolutely nothing. And in these blessings it is certain that the goodness of matrimony is entirely comprised; and even now good wedlock consists of these same blessings.

CAPUT XXI.

23. Ex bonis conjugii non esse ortum peccatum. Connubii sacramentum in Christo et Ecclesia magnum, in viro et uxore minimum. Jam nunc si quodam modo interrogemus bona illa nuptialia, unde ab eis potuerit peccatum in parvulos propagari; respondebit nobis operatio propagandae prolis: Ego in paradiso magis felix essem, si peccatum non fuisset admissum. Ad me namque pertinet illa benedictio Dei, Crescite, et multiplicamini (Gen. I, 28). Ad hoc opus bonum diversi sexus diversa membra sunt condita, quae quidem ante peccatum jam erant, sed pudenda non erant. Respondebit pudicitiae fides: Si peccatum non fuisset, quid me in paradiso securius esse potuisset, ubi nec stimularet mea, nec alterius me libido tentaret. Respondebit etiam connubii Sacramentum: De me ante peccatum dictum est in paradiso, Relinquet homo patrem et matrem, et adhaerebit uxori suae, et erunt duo in carne una (Id. II, 24). Quod magnum Sacramentum dicit Apostolus in Christo et in Ecclesia (Ephes. V, 32). Quod ergo est in Christo et in Ecclesia magnum, hoc in singulis quibusque viris atque uxoribus minimum, sed tamen conjunctionis inseparabilis Sacramentum. Quid horum est in nuptiis, unde peccati vinculum transiret in posteros? Nempe nihil: et certe his tribus bonis perfecte se haberet bonitas nuptiarum, quibus bonis etiam nunc bonae sunt nuptiae.