Whether in the State of Innocence There Would Have Been Generation by
Coition?
Objection 1: It would seem that generation by coition would not have
existed in the state of innocence. For, as Damascene says (De Fide
Orth. ii, 11; iv, 25), the first man in the terrestrial Paradise was
"like an angel." But in the future state of the resurrection, when men
will be like the angels, "they shall neither marry nor be married," as
is written Matt. 22:30. Therefore neither in paradise would there have
been generation by coition.
Obj. 2: Further, our first parents were created at the age of perfect
development. Therefore, if generation by coition had existed before
sin, they would have had intercourse while still in paradise: which
was not the case according to Scripture (Gen. 4:1).
Obj. 3: Further, in carnal intercourse, more than at any other time,
man becomes like the beasts, on account of the vehement delight which
he takes therein; whence contingency is praiseworthy, whereby man
refrains from such pleasures. But man is compared to beasts by reason
of sin, according to Ps. 48:13: "Man, when he was in honor, did not
understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to
them." Therefore, before sin, there would have been no such
intercourse of man and woman.
Obj. 4: Further, in the state of innocence there would have been no
corruption. But virginal integrity is corrupted by intercourse.
Therefore there would have been no such thing in the state of
innocence.
_On the contrary,_ God made man and woman before sin (Gen. 1, 2). But
nothing is void in God's works. Therefore, even if man had not sinned,
there would have been such intercourse, to which the distinction of
sex is ordained. Moreover, we are told that woman was made to be a
help to man (Gen. 2:18, 20). But she is not fitted to help man except
in generation, because another man would have proved a more effective
help in anything else. Therefore there would have been such generation
also in the state of innocence.
_I answer that,_ Some of the earlier doctors, considering the
nature of concupiscence as regards generation in our present state,
concluded that in the state of innocence generation would not have
been effected in the same way. Thus Gregory of Nyssa says (De Hom.
Opif. xvii) that in paradise the human race would have been
multiplied by some other means, as the angels were multiplied without
coition by the operation of the Divine Power. He adds that God made
man male and female before sin, because He foreknew the mode of
generation which would take place after sin, which He foresaw. But
this is unreasonable. For what is natural to man was neither acquired
nor forfeited by sin. Now it is clear that generation by coition is
natural to man by reason of his animal life, which he possessed even
before sin, as above explained (Q. 97, A. 3), just as it is natural
to other perfect animals, as the corporeal members make it clear. So
we cannot allow that these members would not have had a natural use,
as other members had, before sin.
Thus, as regards generation by coition, there are, in the present
state of life, two things to be considered. One, which comes from
nature, is the union of man and woman; for in every act of generation
there is an active and a passive principle. Wherefore, since wherever
there is distinction of sex, the active principle is male and the
passive is female; the order of nature demands that for the purpose
of generation there should be concurrence of male and female. The
second thing to be observed is a certain deformity of excessive
concupiscence, which in the state of innocence would not have
existed, when the lower powers were entirely subject to reason.
Wherefore Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xiv, 26): "We must be far from
supposing that offspring could not be begotten without concupiscence.
All the bodily members would have been equally moved by the will,
without ardent or wanton incentive, with calmness of soul and body."
Reply Obj. 1: In paradise man would have been like an angel in his
spirituality of mind, yet with an animal life in his body. After the
resurrection man will be like an angel, spiritualized in soul and
body. Wherefore there is no parallel.
Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix, 4), our first
parents did not come together in paradise, because on account of sin
they were ejected from paradise shortly after the creation of the
woman; or because, having received the general Divine command
relative to generation, they awaited the special command relative to
time.
Reply Obj. 3: Beasts are without reason. In this way man becomes, as
it were, like them in coition, because he cannot moderate
concupiscence. In the state of innocence nothing of this kind would
have happened that was not regulated by reason, not because delight
of sense was less, as some say (rather indeed would sensible delight
have been the greater in proportion to the greater purity of nature
and the greater sensibility of the body), but because the force of
concupiscence would not have so inordinately thrown itself into such
pleasure, being curbed by reason, whose place it is not to lessen
sensual pleasure, but to prevent the force of concupiscence from
cleaving to it immoderately. By "immoderately" I mean going beyond
the bounds of reason, as a sober person does not take less pleasure
in food taken in moderation than the glutton, but his concupiscence
lingers less in such pleasures. This is what Augustine means by the
words quoted, which do not exclude intensity of pleasure from the
state of innocence, but ardor of desire and restlessness of the mind.
Therefore continence would not have been praiseworthy in the state of
innocence, whereas it is praiseworthy in our present state, not
because it removes fecundity, but because it excludes inordinate
desire. In that state fecundity would have been without lust.
Reply Obj. 4: As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xiv, 26): In that state
"intercourse would have been without prejudice to virginal integrity;
this would have remained intact, as it does in the menses. And just
as in giving birth the mother was then relieved, not by groans of
pain, but by the instigations of maturity; so in conceiving, the
union was one, not of lustful desire, but of deliberate action."
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