Can it ever, at any time or place, be unrighteous for a
man to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with
all his mind; and his neighbor as himself?[74] Similarly,
offenses against nature are everywhere and at all times to be held
in detestation and should be punished. Such offenses, for
example, were those of the Sodomites; and, even if all nations
should commit them, they would all be judged guilty of the same
crime by the divine law, which has not made men so that they
should ever abuse one another in that way. For the fellowship
that should be between God and us is violated whenever that nature
of which he is the author is polluted by perverted lust. But
these offenses against customary morality are to be avoided
according to the variety of such customs. Thus, what is agreed
upon by convention, and confirmed by custom or the law of any city
or nation, may not be violated at the lawless pleasure of any,
whether citizen or stranger. For any part that is not consistent
with its whole is unseemly. Nevertheless, when God commands
anything contrary to the customs or compacts of any nation, even
though it were never done by them before, it is to be done; and if
it has been interrupted, it is to be restored; and if it has never
been established, it is to be established.
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