The man, then, would have sown the seed, and the woman received it, as need required, the generative organs being moved by the will, not excited by lust.For we move at will not only those members which are furnished With joints of solid bone, as the hands, feet, and fingers, but we move also at will those Which are composed of slack and soft nerves: we can put them in motion, or stretch them out, or bend and twist them, or contract and stiffen them, as we do with the muscles of the mouth and face.The lungs, which are the very tenderest of the viscera except the brain, and are therefore carefully sheltered in the cavity of the chest, yet for all purposes of inhaling and exhaling the breath, and of uttering and modulating the voice, are obedient to the will when we breathe, exhale, speak, shout, or sing, just as the bellows obey the smith or the organist.I will not press the fact that some animals have a natural power to move a single spot of the skin with which their whole body is covered, if they have felt on it anything they wish to drive off,--a power so great, that by this shivering tremor of the skin they can not only shake off flies that have settled on them, but even spears that have fixed in their flesh.Man, it is true, has not this power; but is this any reason for supposing that God could not give it to such creatures as He wished to possess it? And therefore man himself also might very well have enjoyed absolute power over his members had he not forfeited it by his disobedience; for it was not difficult for God to form him so that what is now moved in his body only by lust should have been moved only at will.
We know, too, that some men are differently constituted from others, and have some rare and remarkable faculty of doing with their body what other men can by no effort do, and, indeed, scarcely believe when they hear of others doing.There are persons who can move their ears, either one at a time, or both together.
There are some who, without moving the head, can bring the hair down upon the forehead, and move the whole scalp backwards and forwards at pleasure.Some, by lightly pressing their stomach, bring up an incredible quantity and variety of things they have swallowed, and produce whatever they please, quite whole, as if out of a bag.Some so accurately mimic the voices of birds and beasts and other men, that, unless they are seen, the difference cannot be told.Some have such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce the effect of singing.I myself have known a man who was accustomed to sweat whenever he wished.It is well known that some weep when they please, and shed a flood of tears.But far more incredible is that which some of our brethren saw quite recently.There was a presbyter called Restitutus, in the parish of the Calamensian(3) Church, who, as often as he pleased (and he was asked to do this by those who desired to witness so remarkable a phenomenon), on some one imitating the wailings of mourners, became so insensible, and lay in a state so like death, that not only had he no feeling when they pinched and pricked him, but even when fire was applied to him, and he was burned by it, he had no sense of pain except afterwards from the wound.And that his body remained motionless, not by reason of his self-command, but because he was insensible, was proved by the fact that he breathed no more than a dead man; and yet he said that, when any one spoke with more than ordinary distinctness, he heard the voice, but as if it were a long way off.Seeing, then, that even in this mortal and miserable life the body serves some men by many remarkable movements and moods beyond the ordinary course of nature, what reason is there for doubting that, before man was involved by his sin in this weak and corruptible condition, his members might have served his will for the propagation of offspring without lust? Man has been given over to himself because he abandoned God, while he sought to be self-satisfying;and disobeying God, he could not obey even himself.
Hence it is that he is involved in the obvious misery of being unable to live as he wishes.For if he lived as he wished, he would think himself blessed; but he could not be so if he lived wickedly.
CHAP.25.--OF TRUE BLESSEDNESS, WHICH THISPRESENT LIFE CANNOT ENJOY.
However, if we look at this a little more closely, we see that no one lives as he wishes but the blessed, and that no one is blessed but the righteous.But even the righteous himself does not live as he wishes, until he has arrived where he cannot die, be deceived, or injured, and until he is assured that this shall be his eternal condition.For this nature demands; and nature is not fully and perfectly blessed till it attains what it seeks.But what man is at present able to live as he Wishes, when it is not in his power so much as to live? He wishes to live, he is compelled to die.
How, then, does he live as he wishes who does not live as long as he wishes? or if he wishes to die, how can he live as he wishes, since he does not wish even to live? Or if he wishes to die, not because he dislikes life, but that after death he may live better, still he is not yet living as he wishes, but only has the prospect of so living when, through death, he reaches that which he wishes.But admit that he lives as he wishes, because he has done violence to himself, and forced himself not to wish what he cannot obtain, and to wish only what he can (as Terence has it, "Since you cannot do what you will, will what you can"(1), is he therefore blessed because he is patiently wretched? For a blessed life is possessed only by the man Who loves it.If it is loved and possessed, it must necessarily be more ardently loved than all besides; for whatever else is loved must be loved for the sake of the blessed life.And if it is loved as it deserves to be,--and the man is not blessed who does not love the blessed life as it deserves,--then he who so loves it cannot but wish it to be eternal.Therefore it shall then only be blessed when it is eternal.