CHAPTER XVII
nature which is enfeebled by old age or some defect and to recall it to its proper working; but it is another thing for God to cause something to occur in nature which is not only unknown and unheard of, but even unimaginable.
For if Adam had not sinned, then not only would he have remained unweakened by old age or any other infirmity, but also that nature created in him for the sake of reproduction would not have been impeded from its natural course by his fall; and it would have remained subject to his power and to his use.
Therefore, although in the case of the Son of the Virgin something new was given with respect to Adamic nature, nothing new was given in the case of John and others like him; but we see that their nature, which was weakened as a result of its own work, is simply restored. Therefore, since all these men were begotten by means of that natural propagation which was given to Adam, they neither can nor ought to be likened unto Jesus, whose miraculous concep tion we have been discussing; hence, they cannot be shown to be free from the bond of original sin.
CHAPTER XVII
Why God Was Incarnated Even Though He Was Able To Make Without Sin as Many Men as Were Necessary To Complete the Heavenly City
Now perhaps someone will say: 'If, as you say, someone who was purely man (and not God) could be made from Adam without any taint of sin, then why was it necessary for God to be incarnated? For either God was able to redeem sin ners through one man who was without any sin, or else by means of a similar kind of miracle God was able to make as many men as were necessary to complete the heavenly city.'
I shall briefly reply to this. First God was made man because a man who was not God /homo non-deus/ would not have been sufficient for the redemption
of other men--as I pointed out in the Cur Deus Homo. And second, God did not, by means of a miracle, make as many men as were necessary to fill up the heavenly city lest (if none of those who were propagated by natural means were saved) it should seem that He had created Adamic nature in vain and later cor rected it, as if He had not made it properly in the first place. But it is not fitting for Supreme Wisdom first to make and later to correct any nature.
Now you remember that I proposed above to inquire how that seed, which was taken from the Virgin and in which we have seen that there was no sin, could be free from those three necessities in which all men are conceived. I was confident that if it could first be shown rationally that this seed was free from the necessity of making satisfaction for the sin of Adam and of re cent ancestors, then—because Jesus is God-Man--His seed could also be free from the other two necessities; viz., from that necessity by which human nature is unable by itself to recover the justice it has deserted and from that neces sity by which 'the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul' (especially the souls of infants). I began by asking how we should understand the neces sity of making satisfaction for Adam's sin. I did this so that afterwards it would be easier to find what I sought with respect to the other two necessities.
And by the abundant grace of that one whose sinless conception we are discus sing, our inquiry was accomplished, so that we saw the seed of Jesus to be free from all the aforesaid necessities of sin and debt, and so that it was also rationally proven that a man thus conceived ought to be endowed with no less justice and happiness than Adam was when he was first created. And this should be the case even if a man thus conceived were not God, but were only and en tirely man. For indeed it seemed irrational both that (l) sin or the penalty of sin should descend from any ancestors to one born by means of such a propa-
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