# Matthew Mead



## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 17, 2006)

Matthew Mead was a Puritan minister who lived from 1629 to October 6, 1699. 



> In 1648 he was elected scholar and on 6th August 1649 admitted a fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He resigned in 1651. He then became morning lecturer at St. Dunstan's Church, Stepney. He resided in Gracechurch Street. In 1656 he became a member of the Congregational church formed at Stepney by Greenhill in 1644. In 1658 he was appointed by Cromwell to the "new chapel" at Shadwell (St.Paul's). From Shadwell, as from his lecturership, he was displaced by the Restoration, but obtained a lecturership at St.Sepulchre's, Holborn, from which he was ejected by the Uniformity Act of 1662. In 1663 he was living at Worcester House, Stepney. Either the Conventicle Act or the Five Miles Act, which came into operation in 1666, drove him to Holland. He seems to have been in London during the great plague of 1665. In 1669 he became assistant to Greenhill in Stepney ad after Greenhill's death succeeded him as pastor. In 1674 a meeting house was built for Mead at Stepney; its roof was upheld by four round pillars "presented to him by the States of Holland"; above the ceiling was an attic with a concealed entrance, a hiding place for the congregation in troublous times. His congregation was the largest in London and he was probably the most eloquent preacher of his time. In 1686 he was again in Holland, preaching at Utrecht, but returned to England in 1687. In 1689 the residence and garden adjoining the meeting house were settled by the congregation on Mead and his heirs "in consideration for" his sufferings and services. He died on 6th October 1699 and was buried in Stepney Churchyard. A Latin inscription is on his tombstone. He was the author of several religious works and many of his sermons were printed.
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His works include _The Almost Christian Discovered_, _A Name in Heaven the Truest Ground of Joy_, and _Sermons of Matthew Mead_. 

He was also among the signers of the 1673 Puritan Preface to the Scottish Metrical Psalter.


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## Don Kistler (Jul 18, 2006)

His book "The Almost Christian Discovered" is our second best-selling Puritan title of all time, after Thomas Watson's "Heaven Taken by Storm."


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## VictorBravo (Jul 18, 2006)

It's also the scariest. I have read it many times, but I've heard that some seminaries banned it because the students were put into such distress.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Don Kistler (Jul 18, 2006)

Peter Masters in London at the Metropolitan Tabernacle won't sell it without a copy of Obadiah Sedgewick's book "The Doubting Believer" on assurance alongside it.

But Mead knew what his congregation needed, and was aware that this might unnecessarily upset weak believers. But he was more concerned, as we should be, about the false believers who had and have assurance.


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## VictorBravo (Jul 18, 2006)

I agree. It is a book for our time.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 5, 2006)

Matthew Mead died on October 6, 1699.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 4, 2007)

_The Almost Christian Discovered_


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 8, 2007)

Matthew Mead's _The Almost Christian Discovered_ is for sale at a good price on Ebay.


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## ReformedDave (Feb 8, 2007)

Read it with caution...for your soul.

Reactions: Like 1


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