CHRISTIAN AFFINITY
From: Sermons on Important Subjects – 1836 by
Charles G Finney
And modernized by Cliff Collins
“Can two walk together unless they agree?” (Amos
3:3)
The prophet is telling us that two cannot walk together unless they agree.
For two to agree implies something more than agreeing in theory, or in
understanding. We often see people who agree in theory, but who vastly differ
in feeling and practice. Their understandings may embrace the same truth, but
that truth will affect their hearts and lives differently. Saints and sinners
often embrace the same religious creed in theory, while it is obvious that they
differ widely in feeling and practice.
We have reason to believe that holy angels and devils understand and
intellectually embrace the same truths, and yet these truths affect them very
differently!
These different results, produced in different minds by the same truths,
are because their hearts are different.
The different results depend on how the person receives these truths, or
feels and acts in view of them. It’s
also true, that the same things and truths will affect the same mind very
differently at different times. This is because at different times we have
different states of feelings. Or rather, there is a difference because of the
different manner in which the mind acts at different times. All pleasure and pain, all happiness and
misery, all sin and holiness, have their seat in and belong to the heart or
emotions. All our joy or sorrow, pain
or pleasure, depends entirely on our feelings at the time. If it falls in with,
and excites, and feeds our pleasurable feelings, we are pleased because our
pleasure and happiness consists in these pleasurable feelings. Therefore, the higher these feelings are
elevated when we hear or receive some thing or truth, the greater our pleasure
will be. But if the thing or truth does
not fall in line with our affections it can’t please us. If it is different from how we currently
feel, and we refuse to change the course of our feelings, we will either view
it with indifference, our or if it pressures us we will turn from and resist
it. If it is not only different from the subject that we are currently
interested in, but also opposed to it, we shall and must (since our feelings remain
the same) resist and oppose it.
We feel uninterested or displeased and disgusted when a subject that is
different from one that we enjoy is introduced and presented to us. But, even if something we are interested in
is presented, if it is far above or below the way we feel, and if our feelings
remain the same and we refuse to enter in and we refuse to be brought to that
point that the subject draws us to, we must feel uninterested, and more often
grieved and offended. If the subject is exhibited in a light that is below our
present emotional state, we can’t be interested until it comes up to our
feelings; and if this cold subject is held up before our mind, we struggle to
maintain our higher emotional state. We
become upset because, instead of our affections being lifted, we become
emotionally drained. If the subject is presented in a manner that strikes far
above our emotional state, and our feelings grovel and refuse to rise, it does
not grab hold and stimulate our affections. Therefore we cannot be interested;
it is to enthusiastic for us; we are unhappy with its warmth. We will not choose to participate, and the
farther it is above our temperature the more we are disgusted.
The experience of every one will testify to these truths. This is true for
every person, under every circumstance.
These truths are based on principles incorporated into the very nature
of man. Present to the ardent politician his favorite subject in his favorite
light, and when it has gotten a hold of his affections then touch it with the
fire of eloquence, cause it to burn and blaze before his mind, and you will
delight him greatly. But change your style and tone, turn down your fire and
feeling - take the subject and present it in a drier light and at once, he will
lose nearly all of his interest, and become more and more uneasy as the dry
conversation continues. Now change the subject, introduce death and solemn
judgment. He is shocked and stunned.
Press him with them. He becomes disgusted and offended.
Now, the reason he lost interest in his favorite subject was because you
took away from him that burning view of it that poured fire through his
affections. The disgust that he felt
when the subject was changed to death and solemn judgment is the natural result
of presenting something that was at the time directly opposed to the state of
his feelings. Unless he chooses to turn his mind as you change the subject he
will not be pleased.
A refined musician is listening, almost in rapture, to the skillful
execution of a fine piece of music. Throw in some discords and he is in pain in
a moment. Increase and prolong the
dissonance, and he leaves the room in disgust. Suppose you are fond of music;
but right now you are melancholy as you listen to soft soothing music. You feel
like weeping. The sorrowful tones of a Stradivarius violin softly caress your
ear, and melts around your heart. Your tears flow fast. But suddenly there
erupts a din of trumpets, drums, and cymbals, and the piercing trombones in
mirthful quicksteps that fills the air, and drowns the soft breathing of the
violin. You feel distressed. You turn away and plug your ears. The sorrowful
violin touched your tender heart, it fell in harmony with your feelings and
therefore you were satisfied. The sudden marching music opposed the state of
feeling you were in. You were too melancholy to have your affections elevated
and enlivened by it and you became angry and distressed.
Your heart is glowing with religious feelings. You are not only opposed
to the introduction of any other subject at this time, but you are not
interested in anything on the same subject that is far below the tone of your
affections. Suppose you hear a cold man preach or pray. As long as he remains
cold and you are warm with feeling you are not interested, because your
affections are not fed and cherished unless he comes up to your emotional
level. If this does not happen you are distressed and perhaps disgusted with
his coldness. Suppose, like Paul, you
have a great heaviness and constant sorrow in your heart for dying sinners;
that “the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we
should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Rom 8:26) In this state of mind you
hear a person pray who does not mention sinners. You hear a minister preach who
says little to the sinners in the congregation, and the few words he says is
said in a heartless, unmeaning manner. You are not interested. You can’t be,
feeling as you do. Instead you are grieved and distressed.
Suppose you are lukewarm, and carnal, and earthly in your affections and
you hear one exhort, pray, or preach who is highly spiritual, fervent, and
affectionate. If you cling to your sins, and refuse to allow your affections to
rise; if through prejudice, or pride, or the earthly and sensual state of your
affections, you refuse to kindle and to grasp the subject, although you agree
with every word he says, you are not pleased.
He is above your temperature, you are annoyed with his manner, fire, and
spirit. The higher he rises, as long as
your affections remain the same, the farther apart you become and the more
upset you become. While your heart is
wrong and the more he drives the truth deeper into your soul, the more his
message burns within you. If your heart will not catch on fire, the more
disgusted you become.
Now, in both these cases, those people, whose affections are at or near
the same level with the one who speaks or prays will not feel disturbed, but
pleased. Those that are lukewarm will listen to a lukewarm person and say,
“That was a good prayer.” or “I really enjoyed his message.” Their pleasure
will be small because their affections are low; but on the whole they are
pleased. Those who have no affections at the time will, of course, not feel
anything at all. All who have a lot of feeling will listen with grief and pain.
They find the man dull and boring. However, these people will listen to an
impassioned and zealous man with great interest. Let him glow and blaze and
they are in rapture. But the carnal and cold-hearted, as long as they refuse to
allow their feelings to rise, will be disturbed and offended with his fire.
From what we have just said we may learn,
People that differ in theory on doctrinal issues and belong to different
denominations will often, for a while, walk together in great harmony and
affection because emotionally they feel alike.
Their differences are in a great measure lost or forgotten as long as
they fall in with each other's state of feeling. They will walk together as
long as they agree in their hearts.
Do you see why young converts love to associate with each other, and with
those other older saints who have the strongest religious feelings? They walk
together because they feel alike.
Do you see why professing Christians and unrepentant sinners have the
same difficulties with some of the methods used today in certain services and
in revivals? We often hear them
complain about the manner of preaching and praying that often takes place
during a revival. Their objections are
the same. They find fault with the same things, and use the same arguments to
support their objections. The reason
is, that because their affections have not risen, it is the fire and the spirit
that disturbs their frosty hearts. But, for now, they walk together because
they agree in feeling.
Ministers and Christians who visit revivals, often,
especially at first, object to the means that are used, and oppose, and
sometimes takes sides with the wicked.
Coming from regions or churches where true revivals don’t exist, they
often feel reproved and annoyed by the warmth and spirit that they
witness. The atmosphere of praying and
preaching is above their present temperature.
Many do not enter into the spirit of the work because they are from a
different denomination, or prejudiced against the preacher or people, or
because pride, envy, or worldliness holds down their affections. As long as their hearts remain wrong, they
will oppose. The closer to the truth
anything is, the more spiritual and holy the atmosphere becomes, and the more
it displeases them as long as their affections grovel. (I do not intend to justify anything that is
wrong and unscriptural in many of the things that are done to promote a
revival. I won’t pretend that everything is right just because it may offend
those at a different emotional level. We know that as long as we have a human
nature, many things may be observed in revivals that are to be lamented, and
should carefully and wisely be corrected.
But I am certain that while one’s heart is wrong, anything that falls in
line with it and pleases it must also be wrong, just as one false weight can be
balanced only be another false weight. And while a heart is in this state, the
best things will be the most likely to offend.
And if this heart that remains wrong could be brought in view of a state
of things as perfect as heaven, it will curse, blaspheme, and be filled with
the torments of hell. The only remedy
is to call on him to repent and allow God to create within him a new heart.
(Psalm 51:10). Only when he has done
this, will right things please him, but not before.)
Do we see why Christians at different spiritual levels differ about such
things as how preachers should deliver their messages, how services should be
held, how people should worship, and how revivals should be conducted? The one, who sees and feels the infinitely
solemn things of eternity, will conduct a revival using totally different means
than one whose spiritual eye is almost closed. The man whose heart is breaking
for perishing sinners will, of course, consider it wise, right, and necessary,
to get right to the point, and deal with sinners very earnestly and
affectionately. He would consider a
different course foolish, dangerous, and even criminal. While the one who has little feelings for
sinners and sees little danger of their damnation, will be quite happy using
very different means, or using those means very differently, and will, of
course, have very different ideas of what is wise. We also see that the same person can have very different thoughts
about what is wise, and as a result he does something different than he would
have done earlier. Indeed, a man's thoughts about what is wise as to what
should be done in services or in revivals will depend on the state of his own
affections, and on the state of the feelings that surround him. For, what would be wise under some
circumstances would be highly imprudent in other circumstances. What would be prudent for a man in a certain
state of his affections and under certain circumstances would be the height of
foolishness for the same person if he were in a different state of feeling and
under different circumstances. In most
cases, it is extremely difficult to form an opinion, and often very wrong to
publicly express an opinion condemning something that is done as imprudent,
(which is not condemned by God’s word) without being in a situation to enter
into the feelings and circumstances of the people at the time that they decided
to do that thing. If Christians and ministers would keep these things in mind,
a great many uncharitable and censorious comments would be avoided, and a lot
of injury to the cause of truth and righteousness would be prevented.
We see why boring sermons or prayers do not disturb lukewarm Christians
and sinners. It does not affect their
feelings at all, and therefore does not distress or offend them. Hence we see that if, in a revival, when
cold and wicked hearts are disturbed with plain and pungent dealing, a dull
minister is suddenly called on to preach, the wicked and cold-hearted will
praise his preaching. This shows why,
in seasons of revival, we often hear sinners and lukewarm Christians wish that
their minister would preach like he used to; that he would his old self
again. The reason for this is clear. He
never moved them, but now his fire, spirit, and honesty annoys them, and
disturbs their slumber.
How does such a man approve of what was said or done? What is his opinion as to the means and
measures that are used in Christian service?
The answer to questions like these does not depend on the state of that
man's emotions at the time. We are
wrong to place confidence in our own opinions or in the opinions of others as
to what measures are prudent, if we have no evidence of the right state of our
or their emotions; because it is almost certain that should our feelings
change, we would see things in a different light, and as a result our opinion
will change.
In most churches there are hypocrites who when revivals are to some
degree stripped of their emotionalism and become highly spiritual, are
disturbed by the fire and spirit of them, and they inwardly and sometimes
openly oppose them. But when only a few
of the real Christians in a church awake from their slumber and become very
spiritual and heavenly, while the rest of the church remains carnal and earthly
in their affections, the church is in danger of being torn in two. Those who are awake become more engaged,
more spiritual and active, while the others become jealous and offended. They feel rebuked by the consecration of
others. They become more and more upset as those that are more spiritual rise
farther above them. The nearer to a right state of feeling the engaged ones
attain, the farther apart they become; and as they ascend on the scale of holy
feeling, if the others will not ascend with them, it is almost certain that
those others will descend, until they have little or nothing in common, and can
no longer walk together because they do not agree. This state of feeling in a church calls for all its members to
search their hearts, and although it should be greatly dreaded and deeply
lamented when it happens, we can easily see why it happens once we understand
these plain principles of our nature.
This is what sometimes happens in spite of all the efforts of men or
angels to prevent it.
Sometimes, without any imprudence on the part of the minister, many of
his church and congregation will not enter into the spirit of a great move of
God or a revival. If his own affections
get kindled, and he has strong feelings for his flock and for the honor of his
Lord and Master, he will press them with truth, and annoy them by his spirit,
and honesty, and fire, until he offends them.
More and more powerfully and irresistibly he forces truth on those
already under conviction and, unless their feelings change, he will offend
them, and in the end, perhaps, it will be necessary for him to leave them. All
this may happen, and be as right and necessary for the minister to leave as it
was for Paul to leave places and people when their hearts were hardened and
they contradicted, and blasphemed, and spoke evil of God’s way before the
multitude.
Another case may occur when the church and the people awake but the
shepherd sleeps and will not wake up.
This will inevitably alienate their affections from him and destroy
their confidence in him. In either of
these cases, they may find themselves unable to walk together because they do
not agree. In the first case, the
minister obeys the command of Christ, and “shakes off the dust from his feet,
as a testimony against them.” (Acts 13:51)
In the second case, the church shakes off their sleepy minister. They
are better off without him. “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of
Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds:
‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds
feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you
slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.’ Therefore, O shepherds,
hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I am against the
shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease
feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will
deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.’”
(Ezek. 34:2,3,9,10)
Surprisingly, carnal professors of Christianity and
sinners have little difficulty with emotionalism. Let me explain. It is not
uncommon in revival services to hear a great deal of opposition made to
emotionalism. This kind of feeling is sometimes produced in revivals. It is impossible that real religious
feelings should be excited to any considerable degree without exciting our
emotions and stimulating our senses. But to question this, or to object to a
revival because of this, is absurd.
Usually, it’s not the emotionalism that’s offensive, because saints and
sinners, and carnal and spiritual Christians are basically feeling the same
things. Sinners have as much emotionalism as saints. Just watch a football
game. Cold professing Christians can be just as emotional as warm and spiritual
Christians. So as far as emotionalism goes, everyone can sympathize, and indeed
we often see that they do. If your preaching is calculated to just stir up
sympathy and emotionalism, you will soon see that there is a perfect community
of feeling between cold-hearted and unbelievers; they will all weep and seem to
melt, and neither will be offended, and I may add, nobody will be convicted or
converted. But change your style, and become more spiritual and holy in your
preaching, and pour your heart out in an impassioned and powerful manner, directly
appealing to their conscience and their heart, their tears will soon be dried,
their carnal and cold hearted hearts will become uneasy, and they will soon
find themselves offended. As far as emotionalism goes, they walk together,
because they agree; but as soon as the feeling becomes spiritual and holy, they
can no longer walk together, because they are not spiritual and holy. And as
long as sinners remain impenitent and their hearts remain cold, they cannot
agree.
Unrepentant sinners don’t like pure revivals of religion because God is
in them. They hate God. This is the reason why God commands them to make to
themselves a new heart. This is the reason why sinners need a new heart. Now,
as long as they are under the influence of a carnal mind, which is enmity
against God, (see Rom 8:7) they hate everything that’s like God. The more a
revival is stripped of emotionalism and of everything that is wrong, the more
it will offend wrong hearts. The more of God, and the less human imperfection
there is to be seen in the godly, the more the godly will stir up resistance in
carnal hearts.
If people dominated by a carnal mind do not oppose revival, it must be
because of one of three causes. 1) Either they are so convicted that they dare
not openly oppose (and even then they are opposed in their hearts). 2) The
presence of the Holy Spirit, who convicts one of sin, is not in them. 3) The
work of the Holy Spirit is kept out of the sinner's view and buried in the
rubbish of emotionalism. This often
happens when too much time is spent appealing to the sympathies of the
multitude. Anything that keeps out of the sinner's view the work of the Holy
Spirit tends to prevent opposition. And
everything that exposes to the sinner's view the hand of God will certainly
excite the opposition of his unregenerate heart. Any excitement, therefore, which does not call out the
opposition of the wicked and wrong hearted, is either not true revival, or it
is so conducted that sinners do not see the hand of God in it.
The purer and holier the means are that are used to promote a revival of
religion, the more like God it becomes, and the more it will excite the
opposition of all wrong hearts. As long as a man's heart is wrong on any subject, he can’t
heartily approve of what is right on that subject; because he cannot contradict
himself. It would be the same as saying that he could feel both right and wrong
at the same time.
And so it appears that those means of preaching which pierces the heart
like a two-edged sword, and speaks against wrong hearts, are closest to the
truth (Note: we do not advocate or recommend preaching, or any other means used
for the purpose of offending. Nor do we
advocate preaching the gospel, or doing anything in a wrong spirit, and in a
manner that is highly objectionable.
All such things should be condemned.
But we insist that holy things are offensive to unholy hearts, and while
hearts remain unholy, they can only be pleased with unholy things. One’s
understanding may approve, one’s conscience may approve, but the heart will not
approve, and, as long as the heart remains unholy, it cannot approve of that
which is holy. If, therefore, a sinner
who is under the dominion of a “carnal mind,” which is “enmity against God,” is
pleased with preaching, it must be either because the character of God is not
faithfully exhibited, or the sinner is prevented from apprehending it in its
true light, by inattention, or by being so taken up with the style and manner
of the preacher that he overlooks the offensiveness of the message. If, therefore, the preaching is right, and
the sinner is pleased, there is something defective in the manner; either a
lack of earnestness, or holy unction, or something else that prevents the
sinner from seeing what that preaching ought to show him: that he hates God and
His truth.)
And so, we see how foolish it is to labor to please people whose
affections are in a wrong state on religious subjects. They cannot be pleased
with anything right and holy while their hearts are in this wrong state, for
this would be a contradiction.
That is why so much wrong feeling is stirred up in revivals.
It is the natural effect of pure revivals to stir up wrong feeling in wrong hearts. Revivals of religion on earth stir up wrong feelings in hell. They will disturb the same spirit and stir up the same feelings whenever they come in contact with rebellious hearts, whether in the church or out of it. Whenever the Holy Spirit comes, or operates publicly, the opposite spirit will be disturbed. A lot of right and holy feeling among saints will naturally stir up a lot of unholy and wicked feeling in all those hearts that are determinately wrong. The more right and holy feeling there is, the more wrong and unholy feeling there will be of course, unless sinners and carnal professors bow and submit to the truth. They cannot walk together, because they do not agree; and the more holier and heavenlier the saints become in their affections and in their conduct, the farther apart the two will be, until the light of eternity will place them, in feeling and affections, as far apart as heaven and hell.
Speaking of one’s moral
character, this shows that the difference between heaven and hell, and
happiness and misery, depends on the condition of that person’s heart or
affections.
This demonstrates beyond all doubt, that sinners cannot be saved unless
they are born again. In other words, it is impossible for sinners to walk and
be happy with saints and holy angels without a complete change of heart. Sinners cannot walk with saints. As soon as the saints stop walking “after
the course of this world,” (Eph 2:2) sinners think that it is strange that they
no longer want to walk with them down the path of works and self-centered
goodness, and so sinners begin "speaking evil of them." (I Peter
4:4) As soon as Christians awake and
become spiritual and active, holy and heavenly, and cut off their vain and
wicked associations with the world, sinners become distressed and offended. They try to imagine that there is something
wrong in the saints and in revivals that offends them. But the truth is; there is something right
in the saints, and when the presence of God is the strongest they are offended
the most. And if the saints were as holy as angels are, or as holy as they will
be in heaven, sinners would be even farther from having any community of
feeling with them. And as saints rise in holiness, and sinners sink in sin,
they will grow farther and farther apart forever and ever.
This is why the lives and preaching of the prophets, of Christ and his
apostles, and the revivals of the early Church met with so much more violent
opposition from carnal professors of religion and from ungodly sinners than
preachers and revivals experience today.
The saints in those days had times when they were cruelly mocked and
scourged. There were times when they were bound and imprisoned. They were tempted. Many were stoned, or sawn in two, or slain with the sword. They
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and
tormented. They wandered in deserts, in mountains, and in dens and caves of the
earth. The world did not consider them worthy to live. (Heb 11:36-38)
The preaching of the prophets, of Christ and His apostles, and of the
early Church, was opposed with great bitterness by many people who claimed to
be saints, and by multitudes of ungodly sinners. They endured more opposition
than preachers endure today. Professors
of religion were often the leaders in this opposition. They stirred up the
Romans to crucify Jesus, and afterwards persecuted and destroyed His saints,
and crucified His apostles. Even the religious leaders, and learned doctors of
the law, tried to prejudice the multitude against our Savior, and to prevent
them from listening to what Jesus had to say. “He has a devil and is mad,” they
claimed, “why listen to Him?” (Luke 11:14-20) They led
the way in opposing the apostles as revival fire spread out from
Jerusalem. We must also admit that
those revivals made a lot of noise in the world. It created such a stir that
the apostles were accused of “turning the world upside down:” (Acts 17:6) and
sinners, who were greatly hardened by the preaching of Christ and His apostles;
“were filled with great wrath,” (Luke 4:28) and opposed with such bitterness
that Christ told His apostles to “let them alone.” (Matt 15:14) In some places
where the apostles preached, “some were” so “hardened,” that they “did not
believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude.” (Acts 19:9) In some
places the apostles were forced to leave and go to other places, and sometimes
they had to leave under very humiliating circumstances, barely escaping with
their lives.
Now we can easily account for these facts from the principle contained in
today’s scripture and illustrated in this message. There is no evidence that the prophets, and Christ and His
apostles, were foolish and unholy men; that their preaching was too overbearing
and severe; or that there was something wrong in the management of revivals in
those days. The fact is, that the prophets were so much holier in their lives,
and so much bolder, and more faithful in delivering their messages; that Christ
was so much more searching, and plain, and to the point, and personal in His
preaching, and so entirely “separate from sinners” in His life; the apostles
were so honest, straightforward and plain in their dealing with sinners and
those who claimed to be saints, and so self-denying and holy in their lives
that carnal professors and ungodly sinners could not walk with them. The means
that were then used to promote revivals were more holy and free from corruption
than they are today. There was less
sympathy with the sinner and fewer of those hypocritical manners and fancy discourses
that are calculated and designed to court the applause of the ungodly. But
having renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, they preached, “not with persuasive words
of human wisdom,” but “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” so that the
ungodly in the church and out of it, were filled with wrath. (I Cor. 4:2; 2:4)
Stephen was so holy and searching in his address, that the elders of
Israel “cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with
one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.” (Acts
7:57:58) But there is no evidence that
he was foolish. The fact that revivals
today are so much quieter and more gradual in their progress than they were on
the day of Pentecost and during the early days of the Church, and today create
much less noise and opposition among cold professing Christians and ungodly
sinners does not prove that we know more about revivals now than they did then,
nor that ministers and Christians who are engaged in revivals today are wiser
than the apostles and the early Christians. To claim such a thing would only
reveal spiritual pride within us. Nor can we to say that the human heart is
different today, or that the character of God is less offensive to the carnal
mind. No! The fact is that the prophets, Christ, His apostles, and the early
saints were holier, bolder, more active, more direct and to the point in their
preaching and less conformed to this crazy world. In one word, they were wiser
and Godlier than we are today. These are the reasons why they were hated more
than we are, and why their preaching and praying was so much more offensive
than ours.
Those carnal policies and practices that tend to
keep the hand of God hidden from the sinner’s view did not bog down revivals in
those days. These are reasons why the world made so much more noise in the
early New Testament period than it does in the revivals that we witness today.
Back then, people stirred up so much of earth and hell to oppose the early
Christians, that they convulsed and turned the world upside down. The early Christians knew, that “men could
not serve God and mammon.” (Matt 6:24) They knew that “all who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (II Tim. 3:12) They understood
that if ministers pleased men, they were not the servants of Christ. (Eph 6:6)
The church and world could not walk together, for back then they could not
agree. Let us not be puffed up, and
imagine that we are prudent and wise, and that we have learned how to manage
carnal professors and sinners, whose “carnal mind is enmity against God,” (Rom
8:7) so as not to point out their opposition to truth and holiness as Christ
and His apostles did. But let us know
that if they have less difficulty with us, our lives, and our preaching today
than they had with those in the early church, it is because we are less holy,
less heavenly, and less like God than they were. If we walk with the lukewarm and ungodly, or they with us, it is
because we agree. For two cannot walk
together except they agree.