24.7. 7. Of the Laws of Perfection in Religion.
Human laws, made to direct
the will, ought to give precepts, and not counsels; religion, made to
influence the heart, should give many counsels, and few precepts.
When, for instance, it gives rules, not for what is good, but for
what is better; not to direct to what is right, but to what is perfect,
it is expedient that these should be counsels, and not laws: for
perfection can have no relation to the universality of men or things.
Besides, if these were laws, there would be a necessity for an infinite
number of others, to make people observe the first. Celibacy was advised
by Christianity; when they made it a law in respect to a certain order
of men, it became necessary to make new ones every day, in order to
oblige those men to observe it.
[4]
The legislator wearied himself, and
he wearied society, to make men execute by precept what those who love
perfection would have executed as counsel.
Footnotes
[4]
Dupin, "Ecclesiastical Library of the Sixth Century," vol. v.
