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De la grâce de Jésus-Christ et du péché originel

40.

Lors même que le péché n'aurait pas été commis, le mariage aurait existé, car ce n'était pas en vain que Dieu avait donné pour aide à Adam non pas un autre homme, mais une femme. Quant à ces paroles : « Croissez et multipliez-vous¹ », elles ne sont pas la prédiction de péchés condamnables, mais la bénédiction du mariage et de sa fécondité. Autrement s'expliquerait-on pourquoi dans sa sagesse Dieu a déposé dans l'homme un principe de reproduction? Toutefois, si la nature n'avait pas été déshonorée par le péché, l'homme, loin de subir la force aveugle de la concupiscence, lui aurait commandé en maître absolu comme il commande à son pied de marcher, à sa main d'agir et à sa langue de parler. Le trouble et l'agitation des sens n'auraient point précédé et suivi la perte de la virginité; tout aurait été soumis à l'empire si calme de la charité; la virginité ne se serait point perdue dans la douleur, comme la maternité ne se serait point annoncée par les gémissements. Nous avons peine à croire à cet heureux état, parce que les choses se passent tout autrement sous nos yeux. Mais je m'adresse à des chrétiens qui savent croire à la vérité des divins oracles, lors même qu'ils ne la saisiraient par aucun fait extérieur. Est-ce que je pourrais vous montrer comment un homme a pu naître exclusivement du limon de la terre, comment une de ses côtes a pu former la femme²? Et cependant, ce que l'œil ne voit pas, la foi, le croit sans hésiter.

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A Treatise on the grace of christ, and on original sin

Chapter 40 [XXXV.]--Marriage Existed Before Sin Was Committed. How God's Blessing Operated in Our First Parents.

There was, however, undoubtedly marriage, even when sin had no prior existence; and for no other reason was it that woman, and not a second man, was created as a help for the man. Moreover, those words of God, "Be fruitful and multiply," ¹ are not prophetic of sins to be condemned, but a benediction upon the fertility of marriage. For by these ineffable words of His, I mean by the divine methods which are inherent in the truth of His wisdom by which all things were made, God endowed the primeval pair with their seminal power. Suppose, however, that nature had not been dishonoured by sin, God forbid that we should think that marriages in Paradise must have been such, that in them the procreative members would be excited by the mere ardour of lust, and not by the command of the will for producing offspring,--as the foot is for walking, the hand for labour, and the tongue for speech. Nor, as now happens, would the chastity of virginity be corrupted to the conception of offspring by the force of a turbid heat, but it would rather be submissive to the power of the gentlest love; and thus there would be no pain, no blood-effusion of the concumbent virgin, as there would also be no groan of the parturient mother. This, however, men refuse to believe, because it has not been verified in the actual condition of our mortal state. Nature, having been vitiated by sin, has never experienced an instance of that primeval purity. But we speak to faithful men, who have learnt to believe the inspired Scriptures, even though no examples are adduced of actual reality. For how could I now possibly prove that a man was made of the dust, without any parents, and a wife formed for him out of his own side? ² And yet faith takes on trust what the eye no longer discovers.