HeadTheology

“But when zeal spends itself about the less essential matters of forms and names, about points in which the wisest and the best have always differed, I would, if I could, lull it fast asleep.  De he wait till we are all exactly of a mind?  Does He confine His regards, His grace, His presence, within the wall of a party?  Is He the God of the Presbyterians of the Independents only?… And shall zeal presume to come in with its ifs and its buts, and to build up walls of separation?  Yet many true believers are so much under the spirit of self and prejudice that they verily mean to do the Lord’s service by substituting their own commands in the room of His.  And they see no harm in saying, ‘You must think and act as I do, subscribe to my paper, and worship in my way, or else, though I hope the Lord has received you, I think it my duty to keep my distance from you.’”

From ‘But Now I See’: The Life of John Newton, by Josiah Bull