ll these
heretics believed that the largest measure of future happiness was to be
realised by those who practised the most rigid asceticism. Mani admitted
that an individual without any extraordinary amount of self-denial,
might reach the world of Light, for he held out the hope of heaven to
his Hearers; but he taught that its highest distinctions were reserved
for the Elect, who scrupulously refrained from bodily indulgence. The
Church silently adopted the same principle; and the distinction between
_precepts_ and _counsels_, which was soon introduced into its theology,
rests upon this foundation. By precepts are understood those duties
which are obligatory upon all; by counsels, those acts, whether of
charity or abstinence, which are expected from such only as aim at
superior sanctity. [443:1] The Elect of the Manichaeans, as well as many
of the Gnostics, [443:2] declined to enter into wedlock, and the
Montanists were disposed to confer double honour on the single clergy.
[443:3] The Church did not long stand out against the fascinations of
this popular delusion. Her members almost universally caught up the
impression that marriage stands in the way of the cultivation of piety;
and bishops and presbyters, who lived in celibacy, began to be regarded
as more holy than their brethren. This feeling continued to gain
strength; and from it sprung that vast system of monasticism which
spread throughout Christendom, with such amazing rapidity, in the fourth
century.

It thus appears that asceticism and clerical celibacy have been grafted
on Christianity by Paganism. Hundreds of years before the New Testament
was written, Buddhism could boast of multitudes of monks and eremites.
[443:4] The Gnostics, in the early part of the second century,
celebrated the praises of a single life; and the Elect of the
Manichaeans were all celibates. Meanwhile marriage was permitted to the
clergy of the catholic Church. Well might the apostle exhort the
disciples to beware of those ordinances which have "_a shew of wisdom_
in will-worship, and humility, and _neglecting of the body_," [444:1] as
the austerities of the cloister are miserable preparatives for the
enjoyments of a world of purity and love. Christianity exhibited
startling tokens of degeneracy when it attempted to nourish piety upon
the spawn of the heathen superstitions. The gospel is designed for
social and for active beings; as it hallows all the relations of life,
it also teache