The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried and Cast. by Matthew Mead Christian Classics Ethereal Library About The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried and Cast. by Matthew Mead Title: The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried and Cast. URL: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/mead_matthew/almost.html Author(s): Mead, Matthew (1629-1699) Publisher: Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library Description: Publication History: Print Basis: New York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co. (1856) Rights: Copyright Christian Classics Ethereal Library Date Created: 2008-08-10 General Comments: Page images provided by Google; images for pp. 238-239 taken from 1815 edition. CCEL Subjects: All; The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried Matthew Mead and Cast. Table of Contents About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. ii Title Page.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 1 Prefatory Material.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 3 Contents.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 3 Prefatory Note.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 5 Extracts from Preface to Glasgow Reprint.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 7 Dedication.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 10 To the Reader.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 12 The Almost Christian Discovered.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 17 Introduction.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 17 Question I. How far may a man go in the way to heaven, and yet be but almost a Christian?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 25 Question II. Why, or whence is it, that many men go so far, as that they come to be almost Christians?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 66 Question III. Whence is it that many are but almost Christians when they have gone thus far?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 74 Question IV. What is the reason that many go no farther in the profession of religion, than to be almost Christians?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 79 Application.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 83 Use of Examination.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 84 Use of Caution.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 90 Use of Exhortation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 96 Indexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 107 Index of Scripture References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 107 Latin Words and Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 108 Index of Pages of the Print Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 108 iii The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried Matthew Mead and Cast. iv The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried Matthew Mead and Cast. THE i ALMOST CHRISTIAN DISCOVERED; OR, THE FALSE PROFESSOR TRIED AND CAST. BY THE REV. MATTHEW MEAD. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS, PASTOR OF THE AMITY STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, N. Y. NEW YORK: SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO., 115 NASSAU STREET. 1856. ii The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried Matthew Mead and Cast. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, BYLEWISCOLBY, In the Clerk’s Office of the Southern District of New York. THOMAS B. SMITH, STEREOTYPER, 216 WILLIAM STREET, N. Y. iii 2 The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried Matthew Mead and Cast. CONTENTS. PAGE 5 DEDICATION, 11 To the Reader, 21 Introduction, 41 QUEST. I. How far a man may go in the way to heaven, and yet be but almost a Christian; this shown in twenty several steps, 41 SECT. I. A man may have much knowledge, and yet be but almost a Christian, 44 SECT. II. A man may have great and eminent gifts; yea, spiritual, and yet be but almost a Christian, 50 SECT. III. A man may have a high profession of religion, be much in external duties of godliness, and yet be but almost a Christian, 58 SECT. IV. A man may go far in opposing his sin, and yet be but almost a Christian, 67 SECT. V. A man may hate sin, and yet be but almost a Christian, 70 SECT. VI. A man may make great vows and promises, strong purposes and resolutions against sin, and yet be but an almost Christian, 74 SECT. VII. A man may maintain a strife and combat against sin. and. himself, and yet be but almost a Christian, 3 The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried Matthew Mead and Cast. 82 SECT. VIII. A man may be a member of the church of Christ, and yet be but almost a Christian, 84 SECT. IX. A man may have great hopes of heaven, and yet be but almost a Christian, 87 SECT. X. A man may be under visible changes, and yet be but almost a Christian, 92 SECT. XI. A man may be very zealous in matters xi of religion, and yet be but almost a Christian, 100 SECT. XII. A man may be much in prayer, and yet be but almost a Christian, 105 SECT. XIII. A man may suffer for Christ, and yet be but almost a Christian, 107 SECT. XIV. A man may be called of God and embrace his call, and yet be but an almost Christian, 110 SECT. XV. A man may have the Spirit of God, and yet be but almost a Christian, 113 SECT. XVI. A man may have faith, and yet be but almost a Christian, 118 SECT. XVII. A man may have a love to the people of God, and yet be but almost a Christian, 123 SECT. XVIII. A man may obey the commands of God, and yet be but almost a Christian, 128 SECT. XIX. A man may be sanctified, and yet be but almost a Christian, 4 The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried Matthew Mead and Cast. 182 SECT. XX. A man may do all (as to external duties and worship) that a true Christian can, and yet be but almost a Christian, 138 QUEST. II. Whence is it that many go far and yet no farther? 113 What difference between a natural conscience and a renewed conscience?——-answered in several particulars, 159 QUEST. III. Whence is it that many are but almost Christians, when they have gone thus far? 170 QUEST. IV. What is the reason that many go no farther in the profession of religion, than to be almost Christians? 179 Application, 184 Use of Examination, 197 Use of Caution, 212 Use of Exhortation, v PREFATORY NOTE. IT can scarce be needed, for most of the readers into whose hands this volume may come, to commend a writer so well known as the Nonconformist worthy, Matthew Mead, or to bespeak respectful and devout perusal for a book, so long and widely circulated, and so greatly useful, as has been his treatise, “THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN.” He was of the times of Owen, Bunyan, and Baxter. How high a place the man and his writings occupied, in the esteem of the eminent author of the “CALL TO THE UNCONVERTED,” and of the “SAINT’S REST,” a single reference may sufficiently prove. In the great work of Richard Baxter, on the morals and casuistry of the gospel, his “CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY,” he furnishes lists of 5 The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried Matthew Mead and Cast. volumes suitable to form the library of a Christian. Classifying his catalogues according to the probable extent of the means, that various classes of his readers would possess for the purchase of books, he begins with those purchasers of most limited resources. “I will name you, first,” (says Baxter) “the poorest or smallest library that is tolerable.” Enumerating as its basis, a Bible, vi Concordance, and Catechisms, he proceeds to name some scores of writers on practical religion. In some cases he commends but a single treatise of an author, and in others, his entire writings this latter and higher honor, he accords to his contemporary and fellow-confessor, Matthew Mead. Among the “affectionate practical English writers,” as he describes them, and of which he advises the poor man to secure “as many of them as you can get,”1 he places “Mr. Mead’s works.” To those remembering the practised sagacity, the long and varied experience, the discursive reading, and the profound piety of the Kidderminster pastor, nothing need be said as to the value of his commendation, in favor of the character, or the compositions, to which it may be given. But Mead had other and not less eminent friends, among the great and good men of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. By the appointment of Oliver Cromwell himself, he held the New Chapel at Shadwell, in Middlesex. On the fatal St. Bartholomew’s day, he was ejected thence, among those illustrious nonconformist confessors, whose praises even the poet Wordsworth, attached vii as he is to the English Established Church, could not forbear to sing. In one of his ministerial charges, he had been associated with Greenhill, the author of a commentary on Ezekiel, of high repute. After some liberty granted to the Dissenters, he was a preacher at Stepney, where a large congregation gathered around him; and where, in 1674, a spacious house of worship was erected for their use. Accused, with the excellent Dr. Owen and others, of some participation in that Rye House Plot, for which Lord William Russel suffered death, Mead retired for a time to Holland, though conscious of entire innocence; but returned to Britain, and continued his labors until his death, October 16, 1699, at the age of seventy. His funeral sermon was delivered by the great John Howe, with whom his friendship stretched over more than half a life-time, having, as Howe declared, continued through some forty-three years. When asked, in his last sickness, how he was, his reply had the quaint, but earnest simplicity of one to whom the New Jerusalem had long been the theme of familiar and habitual aspirations: “Going home, as every honest man ought, when his work is done.” One of his sons was Dr. Richard Mead, the contemporary of Addison and Pope, eminent in viii the medical annals of England, and author, amongst other works, of a book on the diseases named in Scripture, “De Morbis Biblicis;” a topic, to the selection of which the memory of his excellent parent, and of the pursuits of that father, may have first directed him. One of the sermons, in the collection often reprinted of Farewell Discourses by the Ejected Ministers of 1662, is by Matthew Mead.2 1 Baxter’s Practical Works, Orme’s Ed. vol. v. pp. 585, 586. 2 Calmay’s Nonconf. Memorial, Ed. by S. Palmer. 2d. Ed. vol. ii. pp. 461-467. 6