Chapter 36 [XXI.]—God Made Nature Good: the Saviour Restores It When Corrupted.

Now we do not reprehend bread and wine because some men are luxurious and drunkards, any more than we disapprove of gold because of the greedy and avaricious. Wherefore on the same principle we do not censure the honourable connection between husband and wife, because of the shame-causing lust of bodies. For the former would have been quite possible before any antecedent commission of sin, and by it the united pair would not have been made to blush; whereas the latter arose after the perpetration of sin, and they were obliged to hide it, from very shame.221    Gen. iii. 7. Accordingly, in all united pairs ever since, however well and lawfully they have used this evil, there has been a permanent necessity of avoiding the sight of man in any work of this kind, and thus acknowledging what caused inevitable shame, though a good thing would certainly cause no man to be ashamed. In this way we have two distinct facts insensibly introduced to our notice: the good of that laudable union of the sexes for the purpose of generating children; and the evil of that shameful lust, in consequence of which the offspring must be regenerated in order to escape condemnation. The man, therefore, who, though with the lust which causes shame, joins in lawful cohabitation, turns an evil to good account; whereas he who joins in an unlawful cohabitation uses an evil badly; for that is more correctly called evil than good, at which both bad and good alike blush. We do better to believe him who has said, “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing,”222    Rom. vii. 18. rather than him who calls that good, by which he is so conformed that he admits it to be evil; but if he feels no shame, he adds the worse evil of impudence. Rightly then did we declare that “the good of marriage is no more impeachable because of the original sin which is derived therefrom, than the evil of adultery and fornication can be excused, because of the natural good which is born of them:” since the human nature which is born, whether of wedlock or of adultery, is the work of God. Now if this nature were an evil, it ought not to have been born; if it had not evil, it would not have to be regenerated: and (that I may combine the two cases in one and the same predicate) if human nature were an evil thing, it would not have to be saved; if it had not in it any evil, it would not have to be saved. He, therefore, who contends that nature is not good, says that the Maker of the creature is not good; whilst he who will have it, that nature has no evil in it, deprives it in its corrupted condition of a merciful Saviour. From this, then, it follows, that in the birth of human beings neither fornication is to be excused on account of the good which is formed out of it by the good Creator, nor is marriage to be impeached by reason of the evil which has to be healed in it by the merciful Saviour.

CAPUT XXI.

36. Panem vero et vinum sic non reprehendimus propter luxuriosos et ebriosos, quomodo nec aurum propter cupidos et avaros. Quocirca commixtionem quoque honestam conjugum non reprehendimus propter pudendam corporum libidinem. Illa enim posset esse nulla praecedente perpetratione peccati, de qua non erubescerent conjugati: haec autem exorta est post peccatum, quam coacti sunt velare confusi (Gen. III, 7). Unde remansit posterioribus conjugatis, quamvis hoc malo bene et licite utentibus, in ejusmodi opere humanum vitare conspectum, atque ita confiteri quod pudendum est, cum debeat neminem pudere quod bonum est. Sic insinuantur haec duo, et bonum laudandae conjunctionis, unde filii generentur, et malum pudendae libidinis, unde qui generantur, regenerandi sunt ne damnentur. Proinde pudenda libidine qui licite concumbit, malo bene utitur: qui autem illicite, malo male utitur. Rectius enim accipit nomen mali quam boni, unde erubescunt et mali et boni: meliusque credimus ei qui dicit, Scio quia non habitat in me, hoc est in carne mea, bonum (Rom. VII, 18); quam huic qui dicit hoc bonum, unde si confunditur, confitetur malum; si autem non confunditur, addit impudentiam, pejus malum. Recte igitur diximus, «Ita nuptiarum bonum malo originali, quod inde trahitur, non potest accusari; sicut adulteriorum malum bono naturali, quod inde nascitur, non potest excusari:» quoniam natura humana quae nascitur vel de conjugio, vel de adulterio, Dei opus est. Quae si malum esset, non esset generanda; si malum non haberet, non esset regeneranda: atque ut ad unum verbum utrumque concludam, natura humana si malum esset, salvanda non esset; si ei mali nihil inesset, salvanda non esset. Qui ergo dicit eam bonum non esse, bonum negat conditae creatorem: qui vero negat ei malum inesse, misericordem vitiatae invidet salvatorem. Quapropter in hominibus nascentibus neque excusanda sunt adulteria per bonum quod inde a conditore bono creatum est, nec accusanda conjugia per malum quod ibi a misericorde salvatore sanandum est.