Matthew Mead was born in 1629 in Bedfordshire. He was elected a scholar
at King's College in 1648 and a fellow of that college in 1649. Mead
was chosen to be lecturer to the Stepney church (St. Dunstan's),
following the death of the celebrated Jeremiah Burroughs. Mead assumed the
morning preaching and William Greenhill preached in the afternoons. He
later went on to preach at St. Sepulchre's, but was ejected from that
pulpit by the Act of Uniformity of 1662. Along with numerous other Puritans,
he was forced to flee to Holland to avoid persecution during this time,
but, in 1669, was called back to assist William Greenhill at the
Stepney church. Upon Greenhill's death, Mead was called to be the pastor, and
was ordained by Joseph Caryl and John Owen to that work.
Mead is most famous in our day for his work on true versus spurious
conversions, The Almost Christian Discovered. In this book he lists 26
things that a professing Christian must do, but also shows that doing
these things does not prove him to be a Christian; however, not doing them
would prove that he was most certainly not a Christian at all. This is
a searching, penetrating book that was taken from sermons Mead preached
to his own congregations. He realized that this kind of preaching might
unnecessarily unsettle weak believers, but, knowing that their
salvation could not be lost if true, he took the chance so as to necessarily
unsettle false believers! His congregation was said to be the largest in
London.
In his own day, Mead was probably more famous for his sermons "The
Vision of the Wheels," and "Two Sticks Made One," the latter being a sermon
preached at the union of the Presbyterians and Congregationalists in
London. Soli Deo Gloria has also published two other books by Matthew
Mead:
A Name in Heaven the Truest Ground of Joy
The Sermons of Matthew Mead (7 sermons on "Falling Into the Hands of
the Living God" and 5 sermons on "The Conversion of the Jews")
Another title by Mead known as The Good of Early Obedience has been
retypeset, and is in the editting process. |
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