In this convicting work directed to increase a healthy fear of the Living God to Christians, Mead works from Hebrews 10:31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.” Mead teaches in what sense God is the living God, and what it means to “fall into the hands” of this God who lives. Every sinner (redeemed, or remaining in unbelief) will ultimately stand in judgment before the Living God, and will have to deal with God both necessarily and everlastingly. Necessarily, as God requires an account of their life, and everlastingly, where the final state of the sinner will be determined. Mead demonstrates that having such a healthy fear of falling into God’s hands is evidenced from that terror which sinners themselves many times feel under the sense of God’s wrath in this world. Men must be saved by Christ to escape the dreadful judgment that accompanies unbelief when they fall into the hands of the Living God. This union with Christ, God’s only Redeemer, is such a union as that by it, a man’s state is fundamentally changed, so that he is no longer a child of wrath. It is a union fixed in the blessed state of justification, and the forgiveness of sins. By virtue of this union, he has a right to all the blessings of the covenant. This is what gives Christians great boldness in the day of judgment to stand before the Living God in whom hands they are judged. This is not a scan or facsimile, has been updated in modern English for easy reading and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.
In this work, Mead sets down the sincere choosing of God which should result in closing with Christ and being genuinely converted. His text is Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember your Creator now in the days of your youth.” He directed the sermons to the youth of the church, but they are by no means linked only to them, and will make older sinners blush as well as younger ones. He explains that the two great duties of the Christian life are to cease to do evil, and to learn to do well. No man can be good that does not cease to be evil. In the words of the preacher from Ecclesiastes, he shows that this exhortation is to take up a very concerning duty, backed with a threefold argument. In the duty, first, the act, which is to “remember.” Secondly, the object to be remembered, “your Creator.” And, thirdly, the time when he must be remembered, “now.” Sincere converts to the Christian faith should wisely improve this present life, and carefully provide for a better one to come. The one that is truly faithful in one will in some measure be conscious in both, and both are pointed at in Mead’s text. The one that in the days of his youth remembers his Creator as he ought, rightly improves the present life and wisely provides for that which is to come. In doing so, he unites in his practice those duties that God has joined together in the precept, “remember your Creator now in the days of your youth.” This work is not a scan or facsimile, has been carefully transcribed by hand being made easy to read in modern English, and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.
The title of this work, “Almost a Christian” is drawn from Mead’s main text, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian,” (Acts 26:28). This statement by Agrippa is the foundation on which the entire treatise revolves. What does it mean to be “almost a Christian?” How far can a man or woman go, how far can a teenager or child go, that they actually fall short of salvation? How far may a man, woman, or child run the race of the Christian, and yet not run as to obtain their end? It is, unfortunately, a sad consequence of so many people throughout history who have entered eternity unaware of their present danger. Mead warns and directs every professing Christian to consider what it means to lay under the scrutiny of a spiritual examination for the good of their souls. The reason? To find out whether that Christian is a true believer, or they have merely deceived themselves being “almost a Christian.” What a terrible place to be to delude one’s self for decades only to find out upon their last breath, at the judgment seat of God, that Christ “never knew them.” Many souls miscarry into eternity on such grounds. Mead has most orderly and precisely laid out a series of biblical propositions and their corollary answers to help the reader discern, and thoroughly examine, their current spiritual state before Jesus Christ. He desires that they be “altogether a Christian,” instead of “almost a Christian.” This work is not a scan or facsimile, has been carefully transcribed by hand being made easy to read in modern English, and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.
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