'...if it be indeed true, that except the affections of the soul be supremely fixed on God; that unless it be the leading and governing desire and primary pursuit to possess his favor and promote his glory, we are considered as having transferred our fealty to an usurper, and as being in fact revolters for our lawful sovereign; if this be indeed the Scripture doctrine, all the several attachements which have been lately enumerated, of the different classes of society, wherever they interest the affections, and possess the soul in any measure of strength as deserves to be called predominance, are but so many varied expressions of disloyalty. God requires to set up his throne in the heart, and to reign in it without a rival: if he be kept out of his right, it matters not by what competitor. The revolt may be be more avowed or more secret; in may be the treason of deliberate preference, or inconsiderate levity; we may be the subjects of a more or a less creditable master; we may be employed in services more gross or more refined: but whether the slaves of avarice, of sensuality, of dissipation, of sloth, or the votaries of ambition, of taste, or of fashion; whether supremely governed by vanity and self-love, by the desire of literary fame or of military glory, we are all alike estranged from the dominion of our rightful sovereign.'
William Wilberforce, A Practical View of Christianity, p.102.
