Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 3 part 46/87

And fill the earth and have dominion over it — they understand 'earth' to mean the flesh, which the soul fills by its presence and chiefly has dominion over, when it is multiplied in strength; but carnal offspring, without the lust which arose after sin and, once beheld, was confusedly veiled, neither could then have been born, just as neither now can they, nor would there have been any in paradise, but outside, as indeed it came to pass. For after they were dismissed from there, they came together for begetting children and begot them. CHAPTER XXII. On the conjugal union first instituted and blessed by God.

But we in no way doubt that, according to the blessing of God, to increase and multiply and fill the earth is a gift of marriage, which God instituted from the beginning before the sin of man, by creating male and female — a distinction of sex which is certainly evident in the flesh. To this work of God the blessing itself was also joined. For when Scripture had said: Male and female He made them, it immediately added: And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over it, and the rest.

All which things, although they might not unsuitably also be referred to a spiritual understanding, yet 'male and female' cannot be understood as something analogous even within one man — namely, because in him there is one thing which rules and another which is ruled — but, as appears most evidently in the bodies of the two sexes, that male and female were so created that, by generating offspring, they should increase and multiply and fill the earth; and to resist this is a matter of great absurdity.

For it is not concerning the spirit which commands and the flesh which obeys, nor concerning the rational soul which rules and the irrational desire which is ruled, nor concerning the contemplative virtue which excels and the active which is subject, nor concerning the intellect of the mind and the sense of the body, but openly concerning the conjugal bond by which each sex is mutually bound to the other, that the Lord, being asked whether it was lawful to dismiss a wife for any cause whatever — since on account of the hardness of the Israelites' heart Moses permitted a bill of divorce to be given — answered and said: Have you not read that He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said: For this cause a man shall leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh?

And so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. It is certain, therefore, that male and female were thus first instituted, just as now we see and know two human beings of different sex; but they are called one, either on account of the conjunction, or on account of the origin of the woman, who was created from the side of the man. For the Apostle also, through this example, which preceded by God's institution as the first, admonishes each individual that husbands should love their wives. CHAPTER XXIII. Whether generation would have taken place even in paradise had no one sinned, or whether the reason of chastity would there have had to fight against the heat of lust.

But whoever says that they would not have copulated nor begotten unless they had sinned — what does he say, except that man's sin was necessary for the multitude of the saints? For if, by not sinning, they would have remained alone — because, as they suppose, unless they had sinned they could not have generated — then assuredly, in order that there might not be only two just men but many, sin was necessary. But if it is absurd to believe this, that rather is to be believed: that as great a number of saints as suffices to complete that most blessed city would have existed, even if no one had sinned, as great as is now gathered by the grace of God out of the multitude of sinners, so long as the children of this world generate and are generated.

And therefore those marriages, worthy of the felicity of paradise, had there been no sin, would both have begotten offspring to be loved and would not have had lust to be ashamed of. But how this could come about, there is now no example by which to demonstrate it. Nor on that account ought it to seem incredible that even that one member could have served the will without this lust, since so many members now serve it. Or do we not move hands and feet, when we will, to those things which are to be done by these members, without any resistance, with as great ease as we see both in ourselves and in others, especially in the craftsmen of any kinds of bodily works, where a more agile diligence has come to the aid of a weaker and slower nature?

And shall we not believe that, for the work of generating children, had there been no lust — which was rendered as a recompense for the sin of disobedience — those members likewise could have served men obediently at the beck of the will, just as the others do? Did not Cicero, in his books On the Republic, when he was disputing about the difference of governments and took a likeness of this matter from the nature of man, say that the bodily members are commanded like sons on account of the ease of obedience, but that the vicious parts of the soul are coerced like slaves with harsher command? And certainly in the natural order the soul is set before the body, and yet the soul itself commands the body more easily than itself.

Yet nevertheless this lust, of which we are now discoursing, became the more to be blushed at for this reason: that the soul in it neither effectively commands itself, so that it should not be aroused at all, nor altogether commands the body, so that the will rather than lust should move the shameful members; for if it were so, they would not be shameful. But now the soul is ashamed that it is resisted by the body, which by nature is subjected to it as inferior. For in the other affections, when it resists itself, there is therefore less shame, because, when it is conquered by itself, it conquers itself; even though inordinately and viciously, because this happens from those parts which ought to be subject to reason, yet it is conquered by its own parts and thereby, as has been said, by itself.

For when the soul orderly conquers itself, so that its irrational motions are subjected to mind and reason — provided that the mind itself is also subject to God — this is a matter of praise and virtue. Yet there is less shame when the soul does not obey itself from its vicious parts, than when the body, which is something other than it and beneath it, and whose nature does not live without it, does not yield to it though willing and commanding. But when other members are held by the command of the will, without which those members that are aroused against the will by lust cannot fulfil what they crave, chastity is preserved — the delight in sin not being lost, but not being permitted.

This resistance, this antagonism, this strife of will and lust, or at any rate the deficiency of lust in relation to the sufficiency of the will, without doubt — had not culpable disobedience been punished by penal disobedience — marriages in paradise would not have had; but the members would have served the will in all things, like the rest. So the genital field, a vessel created for this work, would have sown its seed, as the hand now does the earth; and that which now, when we wish to discuss this matter more carefully, modesty resists and compels us to ask pardon, with the foresaid honour, from chaste ears — for that there would have been no cause; but concerning all things touching the thought's perception of such members, free speech would have proceeded without any fear of obscenity.

Nor would the very words be such as are called obscene, but whatever was said thereof would be as honourable as when we speak of other parts of the body. Whoever, therefore, approaches these writings with an unchaste mind, let him shun the fault, not nature; let him brand the deeds of his own baseness, not the words of our necessity; in which the chaste and religious reader or hearer most readily pardons me, until I refute unbelief — which argues not from faith in things unexperienced, but from the sense of things experienced.

For he reads these things without offence who does not shudder at the Apostle reproving the horrible disgraces of women, who changed the natural use into that use which is against nature — especially because we now do not, as he did, commemorate and reprove a damnable obscenity, but, in explaining as far as we can the effects of human generation, we nevertheless, like him, avoid obscene words. CHAPTER XXIV. That innocent men, remaining in paradise by the merit of obedience, would have used the genital members for the generation of offspring just as the others, at the discretion of the will.

The man, therefore, would have sown the offspring, the woman would have received it, with the genital members, when there was need and as much as was needful, moved by the will, not aroused by lust. For we move at our beck not only those members which are jointed with compacted bones, such as the hands and feet and fingers, but also those which are loosened with soft sinews: when we will, we move them by agitating, and by extending we lengthen them, and by twisting we bend them, and by tightening we harden them — such as are those which, in the mouth and face, the will moves as far as it can.

The lungs, finally — softest of all the inner organs except the marrow, and on this account walled in by the cavern of the breast — serve the will for drawing in and sending out the breath, and for uttering or modulating the voice, like the bellows of smiths or of organs, of one blowing, breathing, speaking, shouting, singing. I pass over what has been naturally bestowed on certain animals: that the covering with which the whole body is clothed, if they have felt that something in any place of it must be driven off, they move only there where they feel it, and by the trembling of the skin shake off not only flies settling on it, but even spears sticking in it. Is it because man cannot do this, that the Creator could not bestow it on whatever living creatures He willed?

So therefore man himself could have had the obedience even of the lower members, which by his own disobedience he lost. For it was not difficult for God so to create him that even that in his flesh should be moved only by his will, which now is not moved except by lust. For we know also the natures of certain men much different from the rest, and marvellous in their very rarity, doing some things with the body as they will, which others can in no way do and scarcely believe when heard. For there are those who can move their ears, either singly or both at once. There are those who, with the head unmoved, bring down to the forehead the whole head of hair, as far as the hairs occupy, and draw it back when they will.

There are those who bring forth from the upper part, incredibly numerous and various, the things they have swallowed, quite intact, as if from a little bag, whatever they please, with the inward parts only slightly handled. Some so imitate and express the voices of birds and beasts and of any other men whatever, that, unless they be seen, they cannot be distinguished at all. Some, from the lower part, without any stench, produce at will such numerous sounds that they seem to be singing even from that quarter. I myself have known a man wont to sweat when he wished. It is well known that some weep when they will, and pour forth tears abundantly. But that is far more incredible which very many brethren have experienced within most recent memory.

There was a certain presbyter named Restitutus, in the parish of the church of Calama. Whenever it pleased him — and he was asked to do this by those who desired to know in person of the marvellous thing — at imitated voices as if of some man lamenting, he so withdrew himself from his senses and lay most like a dead man, that he not only did not at all feel those pinching and pricking him, but sometimes was even burned by fire applied, without any sense of pain except afterward from the wound; and that his body was kept motionless not by resisting but by not feeling was proved by this, that no breathing was found in him, as in a dead man; yet he afterward reported that he heard the voices of men, if they spoke more clearly, as if from a distance.

Since, therefore, the body even now serves certain men marvellously in very many motions and affections beyond the customary measure of nature — although they lead this toilsome life in corruptible flesh — what reason is there that we should not believe that, before the sin of disobedience and the punishment of corruption, the human members could have served the human will for the propagation of offspring without any lust? Man, therefore, was given over to himself, because he forsook God by pleasing himself; and not obeying God, he could not obey even himself. Hence the more evident misery, by which man does not live as he wills. For if he lived as he willed, he would think himself happy; yet not even so would he be, if he lived basely. CHAPTER XXV.

On the true blessedness which temporal life does not obtain. Although, if we attend more carefully, no one lives as he wills except the blessed, and no one is blessed except the just. But even the just man himself will not live as he wills, until he arrives there where he can in no way die, be deceived, or be offended, and where it is certain to him that it will always be so. For this nature seeks, nor will it be fully and perfectly blessed until it has attained what it seeks. But now, which of men can live as he wills, when to live itself is not in his power? For he wills to live, he is compelled to die. How, then, does he live as he wills, who does not live as long as he wills? But if he should wish to die, how can he live as he wills, who does not wish to live?

And if he wishes to die for this reason — not because he does not wish to live, but that after death he may live better — then he does not yet live as he wills, but only when by dying he shall have arrived at that which he wills. But behold, let him live as he wills, since he has wrung from himself and commanded himself not to wish what he cannot, and to wish this which he can, as Terence says: Since that cannot be done which you wish, wish that which you can: is he therefore blessed because he is patiently wretched? For the blessed life, if it is not loved, is not possessed. Furthermore, if it is loved and possessed, it must necessarily be loved more excellently than all other things, since for the sake of this is to be loved whatever else is loved.

Furthermore, if it is loved as much as it is worthy to be loved — for he is not blessed by whom the blessed life itself is not loved as it is worthy — it cannot be that he who so loves it should not will it to be eternal. Then, therefore, it will be blessed, when it shall be eternal. CHAPTER XXVI. That the felicity of those living in paradise is to be believed to have been able to fulfil the office of generating without a shameful appetite. Man, therefore, lived in paradise as he willed, so long as he willed what God had commanded; he lived enjoying God, from which good he was good; he lived without any want, having it in his power so to live always. Food was at hand lest he should hunger, drink lest he should thirst, the tree of life lest old age should dissolve him.

Nothing of corruption in the body or from the body inflicted any troubles on any of his senses. No internal disease, no blow from without was feared. The highest health in the flesh, complete tranquillity in the soul. As in paradise there was neither heat nor cold, so in its dweller there occurred no offence to the good will from desire or fear. There was nothing at all sad, nothing vainly merry. True joy was perpetuated from God, toward whom love blazed out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned; and between the spouses a faithful fellowship from honourable love, a harmonious vigilance of mind and body, and a keeping of the commandment without toil. No weariness wearied the man at leisure, no sleep pressed upon him unwilling.

In so great an ease of things and felicity of men, far be it that we should suspect that offspring could not have been sown without the disease of lust; but those members would have been moved by that beck of the will by which the rest are moved, and without the enticing sting of ardour, with tranquillity of soul and body and no corruption of integrity, the husband would have poured into the bosom of his wife. For it ought not to be believed incredible just because it cannot be proved by experience — that, when not a turbid heat but a spontaneous power moved those parts of the body, applying them as there was need — then the male seed could have been admitted into the womb of the wife with the integrity of the female genital preserved, just as now, with that same integrity preserved, the flow of menstrual blood can be emitted from the womb of a virgin.

For by the same way that this can be expelled, that could be injected. For just as, for bringing forth, it would not be the groan of pain but the impulse of maturity that should relax the female organs, so for fecundation and conception it would not be the appetite of lust but the voluntary use that should join the two natures. We are now speaking of shameful things; and therefore, although we conjecture as we can what they might have been before there was shame at them, yet it is necessary that our discussion be bridled more by that modesty which calls us back, than aided by an eloquence which scarcely suffices us.

For since even those who could have experienced it did not experience what I am speaking of — because, sin forestalling them, they earned exile from paradise before they could come together in the work of sowing offspring by tranquil choice — how now, when these things are recalled, do they occur to human perception except by the experience of turbid lust, not by the conjecture of placid will? Hence it is that shame impedes the speaker, even though reason does not fail the one thinking. But nevertheless, to almighty God, the highest and supremely good Creator of all natures, the helper and rewarder of good wills,

but the abandoner and condemner of evil wills, the orderer of both — there was certainly not lacking a counsel by which He might fill out a certain number of citizens, predestined in His wisdom, for His city even from the condemned human race; distinguishing them now not by merits — since indeed the whole mass has been condemned as in a corrupted root — but by grace, and showing, both to the liberated and not only from themselves but also from the not-liberated, what is bestowed upon them. For each one acknowledges that he was rescued from evils not by a due but by a gratuitous goodness, when he is made exempt from the fellowship of those men with whom his just penalty would have been common.

Why, then, should God not create those whom He foreknew would sin, since indeed in them and from them He could show both what their fault deserved and what His grace would bestow; nor under that Creator and Disposer would the perverse disorder of those who transgress pervert the right order of things? CHAPTER XXVII. On the sinners, both angels and men, whose perversity does not disturb providence. Accordingly, sinners, both angels and men, do nothing whereby the great works of the Lord may be hindered, sought out in all His wills, since He who providently and omnipotently distributes His own to each one knows how to use well not only the good but even the evil.

And therefore, when the evil angel had been condemned and hardened on account of the demerit of his first evil will, so that he should never again possess a good will, why should God, who uses such a one well, not have permitted the first man—who had been created upright, that is, of good will—to be tempted by him? Since indeed man had been so constituted that, if as a good man he trusted in God's help, he would conquer the evil angel; but if, proudly pleasing himself, he forsook God his creator and helper, he would be conquered: possessing good merit in a will made upright by divine aid, but evil merit in a perverse will that forsakes God.

For even this very trusting in God's help he could not have done without God's help; yet it was not therefore beyond his power, by pleasing himself, to withdraw from these benefits of divine grace. For just as to live in this flesh without the support of nourishment is not within our power, while yet not to live in it is within our power—as those do who kill themselves—so to live well without God's help, even in paradise, was not within his power; but to live wickedly was within his power, though with a happiness that would not endure and a most just punishment to follow. Since therefore God was not ignorant of this future fall of man, why should He not have allowed him to be tempted by the malice of the envious angel?

He was indeed in no way uncertain that man would be conquered, yet none the less foreknew that the same devil was destined to be conquered by the greater glory of the saints, through that seed of man which His grace would assist. Thus it came about that nothing of the future was hidden from God, nor by foreknowing did He compel anyone to sin; and that, by the experience which followed, He demonstrated to the rational creation, both angelic and human, what a difference there is between each one's own presumption and His protection. For who would dare to believe or say that it was not in God's power that neither angel nor man should fall? But He preferred not to take this from their power, and thereby to show both how much evil their pride, and how much good His grace, could accomplish. CHAPTER XXVIII.

On the character of the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly. Two loves, then, have made two cities: namely, the earthly is made by the love of self even to the contempt of God, but the heavenly by the love of God even to the contempt of self. In short, the one glories in itself, the other in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men, but for the other God, the witness of conscience, is its greatest glory. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, 'You are my glory, and the lifter up of my head.' In the one, the lust of domination dominates both its princes and the nations it subjugates; in the other, they serve one another in love, both the rulers by their counsel and the subjects by their obedience. The one loves its own strength in its mighty men; the other says to its God:

'I will love You, O Lord, my strength.' And therefore in the one its wise men, living according to man, have pursued either the goods of the body or of the soul or of both; or those who could know God did not honour Him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened;

professing themselves to be wise (that is, exalting themselves in their own wisdom, with pride lording it over them) they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things (for to images of this kind, either as leaders of the peoples or as their followers, they bowed in worship), and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. But in the other city there is no wisdom of man except the piety by which the true God is rightly worshipped, looking for that reward in the fellowship of the saints—not only of men but also of angels—that God may be all in all.

On the two orders of the human race, which from the beginning run forward to diverse ends. Concerning the happiness of paradise, or paradise itself, and the life of the first men there, and their sin and punishment, many have thought many things, said many things, committed many things to writing. We also, according to the holy Scriptures—either what we have read in them, or what we have been able to understand from them in accordance with their authority—have spoken of these matters in the earlier books.

But if these matters be inquired into more minutely, they give birth to manifold and many-sided disputes, which would need to be woven into more volumes than this work and the time demand—a time which we do not have so abundantly that we ought to linger over all the questions which idle and over-scrupulous men, more ready to ask than able to understand, might raise. Yet I think we have already done enough justice to the great and most difficult questions concerning the beginning of the world, or of the soul, or of the human race itself, which we have divided into two kinds: one of those who live according to man, the other of those who live according to God;

which we also mystically call two cities, that is, two societies of men, of which one is predestined to reign eternally with God, the other to undergo eternal punishment with the devil. But this is their end, of which we must speak afterward. Now, however, since enough has been said about their origin—whether among the angels, whose number is unknown to us, or in the first two human beings—it now seems to me that I should take up the course of their progress, from the time when those two began to beget, until men shall cease to beget. For this whole time, or age, in which the dying give place and the newborn succeed, is the course of these two cities of which we are speaking.

There was born, then, first Cain from those two parents of the human race, belonging to the city of men; afterward Abel, belonging to the city of God. For just as in one man—what the apostle said—we experience that the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual (whence each one, since he springs from a condemned stock, must first be evil and carnal from Adam; but if, by being reborn into Christ, he advances, he will afterward be good and spiritual):

so in the whole human race, when those two cities began to run their course by being born and dying, first was born the citizen of this age, and afterward the one who is a stranger in this age and belonging to the city of God—predestined by grace, elected by grace, a stranger below by grace, a citizen above by grace. For as far as concerns himself, he springs from the same lump which is in its origin wholly condemned; but God, like a potter (for the apostle introduces this comparison not impudently but wisely), out of the same lump made one vessel unto honour, another unto dishonour.

But first was made the vessel unto dishonour, and afterward the other unto honour; because even in that one man, as I have already said, the reprobate part is first—from which we must necessarily begin, and where we need not remain—and the approved part is afterward, toward which by advancing we may come, and at which by arriving we may abide. Accordingly, not indeed will every evil man become good, yet no one will be good who was not evil; but the sooner anyone is changed for the better, the more swiftly does he cause to be named in himself what he has laid hold of, and covers the former name with the latter. It is written, therefore, of Cain, that he founded a city; but Abel, as a stranger, did not found one.