Andrada on the law that no mortal fulfils
Thesis XLVIII. Much the same is found in Andrada, another celebrated theologian of the Roman school and a man of some standing among those who attended the Council of Trent. In his Defence of the Tridentine faith, book 5, folio 330, he acknowledges that the law prescribes for us a heavenly and angelic integrity and righteousness, wholly set apart and free from any taint of wrongdoing, from which Paul himself confessed he was far removed.
He then adds, in Augustine's words, that God's admirable law so orders human life and so governs our affections that it not only prescribes duties that cannot be neglected without wrongdoing, but also points to things that must be pursued with every effort, even though mortals weighed down by the flesh cannot achieve them perfectly.
'Who,' he says, 'would be so mad as to think he can fill up every measure of love that God, best and greatest, included in the command "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength", when he knows that even the blessed minds, free of every care and enjoying the most blessed sight of the Godhead for all eternity, never go beyond these bounds of love?
Since God wished to set before mortal eyes the most complete image of love and righteousness, he prescribed not only what they could achieve but also what they were to pursue with love and longing. All the precepts that flatly forbid wicked desires belong here too. Mortals, in whom the sparks of vice have not yet died down, cannot be wholly free of such desires; but those precepts forbid them to obey their desires in such a way as to show plainly, at the same time, the goal toward which all the efforts and thoughts of the godly must be directed.'
Latin
XLVIII. His non absimilia reperiuntur apud Andradium celebrem quoque Scholae Romanae Theologum & non parvi nominis inter eos qui Concilio Tridentino interfuerunt. Nam in defensione fidei Tridentinae lib. 5. fol. 330. agnoscit legem coelestem quandam & angelicam integritatem & justitiam, ab omnique scelerum contagione maxime secretam & liberam, nobis praescribere, a qua Paulus ipse multum se distare fassus sit. Et postea subjungit, usurpans Augustini verba, Dei admirabilem legem ita hominum vitam instituere, affectionesque ita moderari, ut non modo officia praescribat quae deseri sine scelere non possint, sed illa etiam designet, quae expeti omni conatu debeant, quamvis a mortalibus carnis pondere pressis praestari perfecte nequeant. Quis enim, inquit, ita insaniet, ut omnes sese putet amoris numeros posse explere, quos Deus Opt. Max. illa oratione complexus est, Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, tota anima tua, & omnibus viribus tuis, cum ipsas intelligat felices mentes, quae omni solicitudine vacuae beatissimo numinis conspectu aevo sempiterno fruuntur, his amoris finibus nequaquam excedere? Verum cum absolutissimam amoris justitiaeque imaginem Deus voluisset mortalium oculis subjicere, non ea solummodo praescripsit, quae ab illis possent praestari, sed quae amore & desiderio essent prosequenda. Quo etiam omnia illa pertinent praecepta, quae nefariis cupiditatibus omnino interdicunt: nam quamvis illis prorsus carere mortales nequeant, in quibus vitiorum igniculi nondum consederunt, cupiditatibus tamen parere ita praeceptis illis prohibentur, ut simul quo omnia sunt piorum studia & cognitiones referendae plane demonstrent.