Would show the hoof, and other sects devour.
Are not all churches while they hold the sway,
Alike dispos'd, on other sects, to prey?

All sects in pow'r, other sects, enthrall

For pow'r has spoil'd them, and would spoil them all.
It is the cause, and not the cause's name,
Which brings effects, or makes effects the same :
A sectal (112) spirit, join'd with civil laws,
And love of riches, form the common cause.
Which shackles (113) conscience, immolates all right;
And clouds the state with hierarchal night.
Hence ev'ry church would cause the same effect;
For party spirit lurks in ev'ry sect,

Which, cloth'd with pow'r, and urg'd by spirits fell,

Cause scenes (114) more dreadful than these lines can tell.
The rights of conscience, let all men revere ;

And, though ten thousand, thousand sects appear,
Let all exist as free as vital air;

Let ev'ry palate choose congenial fare.

Why stuff a man with bacon, (115) cats or cheese?

Or why should men not choose what food they please? Perhaps some palates relish not such feasts,

As filthy pork, or beef, (116) or sacred (117) beasts:

So let each sect, and ev'ry future brood,

Be free to choose their most congenial food.

This hurts no others: why should others grieve?
Or why should man, such foolish tales, believe ?
Does God omnipotent desire the aid

Of that poor creature he himself has made ?
Is foolish man to aid that pow'r supreme,

Whose wisdom form'd the universal scheme?
Were torture, flames, or force, by Christ employ'd?
Was any man, by his command, destroy'd,
Did he ordain that faith be spread by fire?
Does Christ, the aid of civil laws, require?
O foolish man!!! O vile unblushing priest !!!
When shall thy fires, and cruel craft have ceas'd
with thy curs'd errors plain to thy own eyes,
Thou causest flames around the blind to rise :
Does this consist with what thyself ascribes
To God supreme, the God of Israel's tribes ?
With that omnipotence, and ruth supreme,

Of him whose goodness form'd this boundless scheme !
Can God be merciful, and yet require,

That thou shouldst burn the heretic with fire
Thou filthy pest! to glut thy swinish maw,
Thou hast neglected all acknowledg'd law!
And self convicted, merit greater pain,
Than any man thy cursed fires have slain.
To torture men with such inhuman spite,
For being firm in what they think is right,
Must be a sin of that disgustful kind,
Which raises horror in the honest mind.
No cause on earth can ever justify
The use of torture even on a fly;

Still less on man, though stain'd with cruel deeds,
Much less on sects for having faith in creeds:
For he who loves the creed impress'd in youth,
Would be as firm had he receiv'd the truth;
And if convinc'd by Zeno's heavenly art,

Would prove the goodness of his mind and heart.
Here love of error, proves a love of truth :

But righteous firmness, priests exclude from ruth:
For nought but reason changes virtuous minds;
No force can bend them while conviction binds.
The priests who tortur'd those who doubted, knew
That none could credit what appear'd untrue :
Go, tell a man that he may roll in fire,
And not consume, nor yet with heat expire;
Can he believe it, if he will'd it so ?

Or can we doubt the plainest truths we know?
Can men believe what seems to them untrue?
No: priests require what none have pow'r to do.
Belief or doubt does not from choice arise;
For none can doubt what stands before his eyes;
Nor see a thing, unless the thing appears,`
Though bade observe it by the priests or seers.
If doubts by option neither rise nor end,
On proof and judgment, all our thoughts depend.
Can force convince? O fools! believe and (118) will
Are quite distinct, and must remain so still.
Priests torture men who feel most zeal to do,

Not wrong, but right, and what they think is true.
Shame on the priest ! (119) thou art a fiend from hell,
The same false seer of whom the scriptures tell :
For pow'r supreme could change each sect or clan
Without thy torture, or the help of man.

Bad constitutions never fail to sow
The seeds of mischief, ruin, toil and woe:

Feuds, broils, and discord, cruel war and strife,
The sinks of plenty, and the pests of life,

Are all conceiv'd in some ambitious brains,

When man, uncurb'd by sovereign people reigns.
Ah when will all the wretched nations know,
The cause from which their worst disorders flow!
In powers uncheck'd the great disorder lies,
And there the springs of moral evil rise.

And these curst fountains, where disorder'd springs
Are call'd grand seignors, princes, czars or kings;
Shaks, sophis, sultans, rajahs, khans or beys;
Grand lamas, (120) caliphs, bishops, popes, or deys,
Moguls, dukes, emp'rors, monarchs, lords or knights
Descending titles, or restraint of rights.

Sweep these away, no more shall discord reign,
Nor spread its havock round the wasted plain.
Sweep these away, and woeful war shall cease,
And man be bless'd with universal peace.
No more shall husbands, parents, infants, all,
Amid the waste of flagrant cities fall;

No more in rags shall houseless thousands roam,
Who once had riches, plenty, friends, and home:
But man in peace, the boon which heaven design'd,
His greatest good, and purest joy shall find.

All those who try to kindle war's dread flame, Commit what language is too weak to blame! And though some wish for thrones and direful war, Of all the monsters, man should these abhor! A few may gain, but still by war we find,

That much is lost, and lost to all mankind.
A nation's interest means a nation's peace,
Although her riches would by war increase.
Though wealth increase, by war the state's deprav'd,
One half corrupted, and the whole enslav'd.

And though ten states should be by one restrain'd,
Unless she robb'd them, wealth could not be gain'd.
For all would lie among the conquer'd still,
And if she takes it she must rob or kill.
What one state gains, another state must lose,
And yet the victor in the sequel rues.
For when we calculate the victor's cost,

We find her gain was less than what she lost.
Then add to this what all mankind abhor,
That if a nation take by wrongful war,
The whole are felons in a lit'ral sense,
The number guilty, lessens not th' offence.
If three or one should steal my goods from me,
The three are guilty as the one would be:
Alike to me if one, or thousands come,
If I am driven from my house and home.
To kill in war is, in the strictest sense,
An act of murder, (121) or of self defence:
For nations can't, like single persons feel,
And anger, therefore can't impel the steel :
'Tis mean ambition guides the cruel hand,
To murder millions in a distant land;
To spread promiscuous death without control,
From southern regions to the northern pole.
How vile is he, who dares to introduce,