Thursday 15 September 2011

IDOLATRY

'It is not in bowing the knee to idols that idolatry consists, so much as in the internal homage of the heart; as in feeling toward them, any of that supreme love, or reverence, or gratitude, which God reserves to himself as his own exclusive prerogative. On the same principle, whatever else draws off the heart from him, engrosess our prime regard, and holds the chief place in our esteems and affections, that, in the estimation of reason, is no less an idol to us than an image of wood or stone would be; before which we should fall down and worship.'
William Wilberforce, A Practical View of Christianity, p.93.