Chapter 36 [XXII.]—Man’s State Before the Fall.

Before they had thus violated their obedience they were pleasing to God, and God was pleasing to them; and though they carried about an animal body, they yet felt in it no disobedience moving against themselves. This was the righteous appointment, that inasmuch as their soul had received from the Lord the body for its servant, as it itself obeyed the Lord, even so its body should obey Him, and should exhibit a service suitable to the life given it without resistance. Hence “they were both naked, and were not ashamed.”383    Gen. ii. 25. It is with a natural instinct of shame that the rational soul is now indeed affected, because in that flesh, over whose service it received the right of power, it can no longer, owing to some indescribable infirmity, prevent the motion of the members thereof, notwithstanding its own unwillingness, nor excite them to motion even when it wishes. Now these members are on this account, in every man of chastity, rightly called “pudenda,”384    i.e. “Parts of shame.” because they excite themselves, just as they like, in opposition to the mind which is their master, as if they were their own masters; and the sole authority which the bridle of virtue possesses over them is to check them from approaching impure and unlawful pollutions. Such disobedience of the flesh as this, which lies in the very excitement, even when it is not allowed to take effect, did not exist in the first man and woman whilst they were naked and not ashamed. For not yet had the rational soul, which rules the flesh, developed such a disobedience to its Lord, as by a reciprocity of punishment to bring on itself the rebellion of its own servant the flesh, along with that feeling of confusion and trouble to itself which it certainly failed to inflict upon God by its own disobedience to Him; for God is put to no shame or trouble when we do not obey Him, nor are we able in any wise to lessen His very great power over us; but we are shamed in that the flesh is not submissive to our government,—a result which is brought about by the infirmity which we have earned by sinning, and is called “the sin which dwelleth in our members.”385    Rom. vii. 17, 23. But this sin is of such a character that it is the punishment of sin. As soon, indeed, as that transgression was effected, and the disobedient soul turned away from the law of its Lord, then its servant, the body, began to cherish a law of disobedience against it; and then the man and the woman grew ashamed of their nakedness, when they perceived the rebellious motion of the flesh, which they had not felt before, and which perception is called “the opening of their eyes;” 386    Gen. iii. 7. for, of course, they did not walk about among the trees with closed eyes. The same thing is said of Hagar: “Her eyes were opened, and she saw a well.”387    Gen. xxi. 19. Then the man and the woman covered their parts of shame, which God had made for them as members, but they had made parts of shame.

CAPUT XXII.

36. Status hominis ante peccatum. Hanc ergo priusquam violassent, placebant Deo, et placebat eis Deus; et quamvis corpus animale gestarent, nihil inobediens in illo adversum se moveri sentiebant. Faciebat quippe hoc ordo justitiae, ut quia eorum anima famulum corpus a Domino acceperat, sicut ipsa eidem Domino suo, ita illi corpus ejus obediret, atque exhiberet vitae illi congruum sine ulla resistentia famulatum. Hinc et nudi erant, et non confundebantur. Animam quippe rationalem naturali verecundia nunc pudet, quod in carne, in cujus servitutem jus potestatis accepit, nescio qua infirmitate efficere non potest, ut se nolente 0173 non moveantur membra, et se volente moveantur. Quae propter hoc in quovis casto, merito appellantur pudenda, quod adversus dominam mentem, quasi suae sint potestatis, sicut libitum est, excitantur: idque solum juris in his habent frena virtutis, ut ad immundas et illicitas corruptiones ea pervenire non sinant. Haec igitur carnis inobedientia, quae in ipso motu est, etiamsi habere non permittatur effectum, non erat in illis primis hominibus, quando nudi erant, et non confundebantur. Nondum quippe anima rationalis domina carnis inobediens exstiterat Domino suo, ut poena reciproca inobedientem experiretur carnem famulam suam cum sensu quodam confusionis et molestiae suae, quem sensum certe ipsa per inobedientiam suam non intulit Deo. Neque enim Deo pudendum est aut molestum, si nos ei non obedimus, cujus in nos summam potestatem nullo modo minuere valemus: sed nobis pudendum est, quod imperio nostro caro non servit; quia hoc fit per infirmitatem quam peccando meruimus, vocaturque peccatum habitans in membris nostris (Rom. VII, 17, 23). Sic est autem hoc peccatum, ut sit poena peccati. Denique posteaquam est illa facta transgressio, et anima inobediens a lege sui Domini aversa est, habere coepit contra eam servus ejus, hoc est corpus ejus, legem inobedientiae; et puduit illos homines nuditatis suae, animadverso in se motu, quem ante non senserant: quae animadversio apertio dicta est oculorum (Gen. III, 7); neque enim oculis clausis inter illas arbores oberrabant. Sic et de Agar scriptum est, Aperti sunt oculi ejus, et vidit puteum (Id. XXI, 19). Tunc illi homines pudenda texerunt: quae Deus illis membra, ipsi vero pudenda fecerunt.