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AND THEIR REFUTATION. 321
from sin, since man was created in grace ;
but in a state of pure
nature it would not come from sin, but from the very condition
itself, in which human nature would have been created.
15. They say, secondly, that God could not create a rational
being with anything which would incline him to sin, as concu
piscence would. We answer, that God could not create man
with anything which, in itself, in se, would incline him to sin, as
with a vicious habit, for example, which of itself inclines and
induces one to sin; but he might create man with that which
accidentally, per accidens, inclines him to sin, for in this is the
condition of his nature only accomplished, for otherwise God
should create man impeccable, for it is a defect to be peccable.
Concupiscence, of itself, does not incline man to sin, but solely to
that happiness adapted to human nature, and for the preservation
of nature itself, which is composed of soul and body ; so that it is
not of itself, but only accidentally, and through the deficiency of
the condition of human nature itself, that it sometimes inclines
us to sin. God, surely, was not obliged, when he produced his
creatures, to give them greater perfections than those adapted to
their natures. Because he has not given sensation to plants, or
reason to brutes, we cannot say that the defect is his ; it belongs
to the nature itself of these creatures, and so if, in the state of
pure nature, God did not exempt man from concupiscence,
which might accidentally incline him to evil, it would not be a
defect of God himself, but of the condition itself of human
nature.
16. The third is objection on the score of the
"
Miseries" of
human nature. St. Augustin, they say, when opposing the
Pelagians, frequently deduced the existence of original
sin from
the miseries of this life. We briefly answer, that the Holy
Doctor speaks of the misery of man in his present state, remem
bering the original holiness in which he was created, and know
ing, from the Scriptures, that Adam was created free from death
and from all the penalties of this life. On this principle, God
could not, with justice, deprive him of the gifts granted to him,
without some positive fault on his side ; and, hence, the Saint
inferred that Adam sinned, from the calamities which we endure
in this life. He would say quite the contrary, however, if he
were speaking of the state of pure nature, in which the miseries
y