Part I (Prima Pars) Part 153 (2/2)
THIRD ARTICLE [I, Q. 102, Art. 3]
Whether Man Was Placed in Paradise to Dress It and Keep It?
Objection 1: It would seem that man was not placed in paradise to dress and keep it. For what was brought on him as a punishment of sin would not have existed in paradise in the state of innocence. But the cultivation of the soil was a punishment of sin (Gen. 3:17).
Therefore man was not placed in paradise to dress and keep it.
Obj. 2: Further, there is no need of a keeper when there is no fear of trespa.s.s with violence. But in paradise there was no fear of trespa.s.s with violence. Therefore there was no need for man to keep paradise.
Obj. 3: Further, if man was placed in paradise to dress and keep it, man would apparently have been made for the sake of paradise, and not contrariwise; which seems to be false. Therefore man was not place in paradise to dress and keep it.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Gen. 2: 15): ”The Lord G.o.d took man and placed in the paradise of pleasure, to dress and keep it.”
_I answer that,_ As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. viii, 10), these words in Genesis may be understood in two ways. First, in the sense that G.o.d placed man in paradise that He might Himself work in man and keep him, by sanctifying him (for if this work cease, man at once relapses into darkness, as the air grows dark when the light ceases to s.h.i.+ne); and by keeping man from all corruption and evil. Secondly, that man might dress and keep paradise, which dressing would not have involved labor, as it did after sin; but would have been pleasant on account of man's practical knowledge of the powers of nature. Nor would man have kept paradise against a trespa.s.ser; but he would have striven to keep paradise for himself lest he should lose it by sin.
All of which was for man's good; wherefore paradise was ordered to man's benefit, and not conversely.
Whence the Replies to the Objections are made clear.
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FOURTH ARTICLE [I, Q. 102, Art. 4]
Whether Man Was Created in Paradise?
Objection 1: It would seem that man was created in paradise. For the angel was created in his dwelling-place--namely, the empyrean heaven.
But before sin paradise was a fitting abode for man. Therefore it seems that man was created in paradise.
Obj. 2: Further, other animals remain in the place where they are produced, as the fish in the water, and walking animals on the earth from which they were made. Now man would have remained in paradise after he was created (Q. 97, A. 4). Therefore he was created in paradise.
Obj. 3: Further, woman was made in paradise. But man is greater than woman. Therefore much more should man have been made in paradise.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Gen. 2:15): ”G.o.d took man and placed him in paradise.”
_I answer that,_ Paradise was a fitting abode for man as regards the incorruptibility of the primitive state. Now this incorruptibility was man's, not by nature, but by a supernatural gift of G.o.d.
Therefore that this might be attributed to G.o.d, and not to human nature, G.o.d made man outside of paradise, and afterwards placed him there to live there during the whole of his animal life; and, having attained to the spiritual life, to be transferred thence to heaven.
Reply Obj. 1: The empyrean heaven was a fitting abode for the angels as regards their nature, and therefore they were created there.
In the same way I reply to the second objection, for those places befit those animals in their nature.
Reply Obj. 3: Woman was made in paradise, not by reason of her own dignity, but on account of the dignity of the principle from which her body was formed. For the same reason the children would have been born in paradise, where their parents were already.
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TREATISE ON THE CONSERVATION AND GOVERNMENT OF CREATURES (QQ. 103-119) _______________________
QUESTION 103
OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THINGS IN GENERAL (In Eight Articles)
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