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What? your Christian Scripture, Which, as I have been told, hath bred more discord Than all the other firebrands of the earth, With church opposed to church, and sect to sect, In fierce contention; ay, fell bloody strife. Certes, if all from the same book be taught, Its words may give, as I before have said, A noble sound, but no distinctive meaning.

That which thou hast been told of shameful discord, Perversely drawn from the pure source of peace, Is true; and yet it is a book of wisdom, Whose clear, important, general truths may guide The simplest and the wisest: truths which still Have been by every church and sect acknowledged.

And what, I pray, are these acknowledged precepts, Which they but learn, it seems, to disobey?

The love of God, and of that blessed Being, Sent in his love to teach his will to men, Imploring them their hearts to purify From hatred, wrong, and ev'ry sensual excess,