Whether if man had not sinned, he should haue begotten children in Paradice, and vvhether there should there haue beene any contention be∣tvveene chastity and lust. CHAP. 23.
BVt he that saith that there should haue beene neither copulation nor propa∣gation but for sinne, what doth he els, but make sinne the originall of the ho∣ly number of Saints? for if they two should haue liued alone, not sinning, seeing sinne (as these say) was their onely meane of generation, then veryly was sinne necessary, to make the number of Saints more then two. But if it bee absurd to hold this, it is fit to hold that, that the number of Gods cittizen•…•… should haue beene as great, then, if no man had sinned, as now shalbe gathered by Gods grace out of the multitude of sinners, as long (a) as this worldly multiplication of the sonnes of the world (men) shal endure. And therefore that marriage that was held fit to bee in Paradice, should haue had increase, but no lust, had not sinne beene. How this might be, here is no fit place to discusse: but it neede not seeme incre∣dible that one member might serue the will without lust then, so many seruing it now. (b) Do wee now mooue our hands and feete so lasily when wee will vnto their offices, without resistance, as wee see in our selues, and others, chiefely han∣dicraftesmen, where industry hath made dull nature nimble; and may wee not be∣leeue that those members might haue serued our first father vnto procreation, if they had not beene seazed with lust, the reward of his disobedience, as well as all his other serued him to other acts? doth not Tully, disputing of the difference of gouerments (in his bookes of the Common-weale) and drawing a simyly from mans nature, say, that they (c) command our bodily members as sonnes, they are so obedient, and that wee must keepe an harder forme of rule ouer our mindes vicious partes, as our slaues? In order of nature the soule is aboue the body, yet * 1.1 is it harder to rule then the body. But this lust whereof we speake is the more shamefull in this, that the soule doth neither rule it selfe therein, so that it may not lust; nor the body neither, so that the will rather then lust might mooue these parts, which if it were so were not to bee ashamed of. But now, it shameth not in other rebellious affects, because when it is conquered of it selfe, it con∣quereth it selfe, (although it bee inordinately and vitiously) for although these parts be reasonlesse, that conquere it, yet are their parts of it selfe, and so as I say, it is conquered of it selfe. For when it conquereth it selfe orderly, and brings al the parts vnder reason, this is a laudable and vertuous conquest, if the soule bee Gods subiect. But it is lesse ashamed when it obeyeth not the vicious parts of it selfe, then when the body obeyeth not it, because it is vnder it, dependeth of it, and cannot liue without it. But the other members beeing all vnder the will, without which members nothing can bee performed against the will, the chasti∣ty is kept vnviolated: but the delight in sin is not permitted. (d) this contention,