language. (60) That the Divine law has in this sense come down to us
uncorrupted, is an assertion which admits of no dispute. (61) For from the
Bible itself we learn, without the smallest difficulty or ambiguity,, that
its cardinal precept is: To love God above all things, and one's neighbour
as one's self. (62) This cannot be a spurious passage, nor due to a hasty
and mistaken scribe, for if the Bible had ever put forth a different
doctrine it would have had to change the whole of its teaching, for this is
the corner-stone of religion, without which the whole fabric would fall
headlong to the ground. (63) The Bible would not be the work we have been
examining, but something quite different.

(64) We remain, then, unshaken in our belief that this has always been the
doctrine of Scripture, and, consequently, that no error sufficient to
vitiate it can have crept in without being instantly, observed by all; nor
can anyone have succeeded in tampering with it and escaped the discovery of
his malice.

(65) As this corner-stone is intact, we must perforce admit the same of
whatever other passages are indisputably dependent on it, and are also
fundamental, as, for instance, that a God exists, that He foresees all
things, that He is Almighty, that by His decree the good prosper and the
wicked come to naught, and, finally, that our salvation depends solely on
His grace.

(66) These are doctrines which Scripture plainly teaches throughout, and
which it is bound to teach, else all the rest would be empty and baseless;
nor can we be less positive about other moral doctrines, which plainly are
built upon this universal foundation - for instance, to uphold justice, to
aid the weak, to do no murder, to covet no man's goods, &c. (67) Precepts, I
repeat, such as these, human malice and the lapse of ages are alike