What They Said

"That the sacred name of Religion has been too often prostituted to the most detestable purposes; that furious bigots and bloody persecutors, and self-interested hypocrites of all qualities and dimensions, from the rapacious leader of an army, to the canting oracle of a congregation, have falsely called themselves Christians, are melancholy and humiliating truths, which (as none so deeply lament them) none will more readily admit, than they who best understand the nature, and are most concerned for the honor of Christianity. We are ready to acknowledge also without dispute, that the religious affections, and the doctrine of divine assistances, have almost at all times been more or less disgraced by the false pretences and extravagant conduct of wild fanatics and brain-sick enthusiasts. All this, however, is only as it happens in other instances, wherein the depravity of man perverts the bounty of God."

William Wilberforce

"I believe there are very few errors and false doctrines of which the beginning may not be traced up to unsound views about the corruption of human nature.  Wrong views of the disease will always bring with them wrong views of the remedy.  Wrong views of the corruption of human nature will always carry with them wrong views of the grand antidote and cure of that corruption."

J.C. Ryle