43. [XXXVIII.]—Human Offspring, Even Previous to Birth, Under Condemnation at the Very Root. Uses of Matrimony Undertaken for Mere Pleasure Not Without Venial Fault.

Where God did nothing else than by a just sentence to condemn the man who wilfully sins, together with his stock; there also, as a matter of course, whatsoever was even not yet born is justly condemned in its sinful root. In this condemned stock carnal generation holds every man; and from it nothing but spiritual regeneration liberates him. In the case, therefore, of regenerate parents, if they continue in the same state of grace, it will undoubtedly work no injurious consequence, by reason of the remission of sins which has been bestowed upon them, unless they make a perverse use of it,—not alone all kinds of lawless corruptions, but even in the marriage state itself, whenever husband and wife toil at procreation, not from the desire of natural propagation of their species, but are mere slaves to the gratification of their lust out of very wantonness. As for the permission which the apostle gives to husbands and wives, “not to defraud one another, except with consent for a time, that they may have leisure for prayer,”246    1 Cor. vii. 5. he concedes it by way of indulgent allowance, and not as a command; but this very form of the concession evidently implies some degree of fault. The connubial embrace, however, which marriage-contracts point to as intended for the procreation of children, considered in itself simply, and without any reference to fornication, is good and right; because, although it is by reason of this body of death (which is unrenewed as yet by the resurrection) impracticable without a certain amount of bestial motion, which puts human nature to the blush, yet the embrace is not after all a sin in itself, when reason applies the concupiscence to a good end, and is not overmastered to evil.

CAPUT XXXVIII.

43. Ubi nihil Deus fecit, nisi quod hominem voluntate peccantem, justo judicio cum stirpe damnavit: et ideo ibi quidquid etiam nondum erat natum, merito est in praevaricatrice radice damnatum: in qua stirpe damnata tenet hominem generatio carnalis, unde sola liberat regeneratio spiritualis. Ideo regeneratis parentibus, si tamen in eadem gratia perseveraverint, procul dubio ista propter remissionem peccatorum, quae in eis facta est, non nocebit, nisi cum ea male utuntur, non solum in omnibus illicitis corruptelis, verum etiam in ipsis conjugibus quando non propagandi voluntate operam creandis filiis impendunt, sed lasciviendi voluptate exsaturandae cupidini inserviunt. Quod propter vitandas fornicationes maritis et uxoribus ne fraudent invicem, nisi ex consensu ad tempus, ut orationibus vacent, secundum veniam, non secundum imperium, concedit Apostolus (I Cor. VII, 5, 6). Evidenter quippe dum tribuit veniam, denotat culpam. Nuptialis autem concubitus, quem matrimoniales quoque indicant tabulae, causa procreandorum fieri filiorum, per se ipsum prorsus, non in comparatione fornicationis, 0407 est bonus: qui tametsi, propter corpus mortis, quod nondum est resurrectione renovatum, sine quodam bestiali motu, de quo natura erubescit humana, non potest fieri; tamen ipse concubitus non est peccatum, ubi ratio libidine utitur ad bonum, non suparatur ad malum.