While cheap grace and easy believism are relatively new terms, antinomianism is not. Martin Luther coined the phrase to refer to those who wanted all the benefits of salvation without any of the obligations. The Puritans decried this idea loudly and often. There are many classic Puritan treatises on true and spurious conversions. Among them are Anthony Burgess' Spiritual Refining Samuel Crook's Divine Characters, Thomas Shepard's Parable of the Ten Virgins, and Giles Furman's The Real Christian. To those who looked to some external act for confirmation of a regenerate heart, the Puritans pointed to proper motives as well as proper conduct. To those who looked merely to their orthodox beliefs, the Puritans pointed out that the demons are orthodox in their creed, but not in their conduct. Ever mindful not to stir up unnecessary doubts in weak believers, the Puritans nevertheless felt it imperative to awaken the carnal hypocrite out of his undeserved security. Matthew Mead, 1629-1699 Matthew Meade was an English Puritan preacher of the 17th century who preached in the ward of Stepney in London. The historian Edmund Callamy says that he had a very large congregation there and that no man was more followed than he in that city. Callamy says that he was a man of great prudence and an excellent preacher. Of him, Callamy says, He was much admiring God's mercies under his afflicting hand saying everything on this side of hell is mercy and the mercies I receive are greater than my burden. This book is recorded by permission of Soli Deo Gloria Publications for instruction in righteousness. The almost Christian discovered or the false professor tried and cast by the Reverend Matthew Meade. Foreword by John MacArthur. The almost Christian discovered is a rare treasure. It reveals the force and fervor of Puritan spirituality as vividly as any work I know. It delivers the kind of potent message one longs to hear but almost never does in this age of cheap grace and shallow conversion. If you just happened to pick up this copy, you might be tempted to write the book off as an anachronism. You'll detect more than a hint of King Jamesian dialect. The vocabulary is classic Puritanism. Even the expression, the almost Christian, sounds a little quaint. No wonder. We live in a day when much of what passes as evangelical preaching actually fosters superficiality. But hold on to this book. If its language seems dated, its message is not. Matthew Mead's challenge to spurious believers is as timely as when he wrote it in 1661. More than just a period piece, this volume offers a much-needed antidote to the shallowness and flippancy that characterizes today's Christianity. It contrasts sharply with the modern tendency to embrace as a brother or sister in the faith everyone who names the name of Christ. It sounds an alarm that few today would dare even whisper. In fact, the almost Christian discovered provides sobering proof of how far the contemporary church has slipped from the moorings of her heritage. 20th century Christians, conditioned to accept carnality, worldliness, and compromise as part of the normal Christian experience, are certain to be shocked by Mead's admonition. We are not used to hearing truths presented in such straightforward and confrontive terms. Matthew Mead is no diplomat. He is a real preacher, and he speaks with prophetic accuracy. A word of caution, this is not balm for the emotions, it is food for the soul. Those looking for a tranquilizing devotional study will not be soothed by this book. People who have come to Christ only for what they can get out of Him will find no encouragement here. On the other hand, true believers who want to deepen their walk Even struggling Christians who are open to reproof and instruction will find plenty of sustenance on these pages. I found in Matthew Meade a kindred spirit. Though he ministered more than 300 years ago, I feel as if I know him. I understand the passions that drove him. They're my passions, too. I share his frustration over people who profess to know Christ. but are indifferent or lackadaisical about spiritual matters. Compare Titus 1.16. I sense his zeal for the truth, tempered only by fear, born out of the knowledge that these are issues of eternal importance, and someone might misunderstand. To make sure no one would be confused, Mead chose a unique form of presentation, like a lawyer arguing his case, He puts the almost Christian on trial. Point by point, with the clarity and precision of a first-rate prosecuting attorney, Meade exposes the guilt of those who give lip service to Christ, but do not obey him. His arguments are devastating, and in the end, the verdict is clear. The almost Christian is convicted. So, by the way, are the rest of us. Every one but the most cold-hearted reader will sense some degree of conviction. The case Mead presents is meticulous. His expose of the almost Christian rips the cover away from subtle forms of hypocrisy that lurk in all our hearts. Mead realized weak and struggling Christians would read his words and ask, like the innocent disciples in the upper room, Is it I? One of his apparent fears was that some fragile believer might be hurt or discouraged by his indictment. The gospel does not speak these things to wound believers, he wrote, but to awaken sinners and formal professors. He acknowledged the severity of his theme, confessing a certain apprehension. He did not want it to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax. Yet his greater fear was that some false Christian might take solace in the promises and comforts of the Gospel. Given the choice between consoling a quasi-believer and unsettling someone who is weak in the faith, Mead believed the latter was preferable. He understood the value of self-examination and exercise modern psycho-evangelicals seem determined to do away with. Self-examination is thoroughly biblical. The Apostle Paul wrote, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test. 2nd Corinthians 13, 5. That is exactly what this book is all about. Don't read it unless you are willing to undergo the most intense kind of spiritual inventory. If you do read it, however, read it prayerfully and conscientiously. You're in for the most constructive spiritual pilgrimage any book can guide you through. To the congregation. to the congregation at St. Sepulchre, who were the hearers at these sermons. Grace and peace be multiplied. Beloved, what the meaning of that providence was that called me to the occupation of my talent among you this summer will be best read and understood by the effects of it upon your own souls. The kindly increase of grace and holiness in heart and life can only prove it to have been in mercy. Where this is not the fruit of the Word, there it becomes a judgment. The Word travels with life or death, salvation or damnation, and brings forth one or the other in every soul that hears it. I would not for a world were it in my power to make the choice that my labors, which were meant and designed for the promotion of your immortal souls, to the glory of the other world in a present pursuance of the things of your peace, should be found to have been a ministration of death and condemnation in the great day of Jesus Christ. Yet this, the Lord knows, is the too common effect of the most plain and powerful preaching of the gospel. The waters of the sanctuary do not always heal where they come, for there are miry and marshy places that shall be given to salt. The same word is elsewhere in scripture rendered barrenness. He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness. so that the judgment denounced upon these miry and marshy places is that the curse of barrenness shall rest upon them, notwithstanding the waters of the sanctuary overflow them. It is said with certainty that the gospel inflicts a death of its own as well as the law, or else how are those trees in Jude said to be twice dead and plucked up by the roots Yea, that which in itself is the greatest mercy through the interposition of men's lusts, and the efficacy of this cursed sin of unbelief, turns to the greatest judgment as the richest and most generous wine makes the sharpest vinegar. Our Lord Christ Himself, the choicest mercy with which the bowels of God could bless a perishing world, whose coming, Himself bearing witness, was on no less an errand than that of eternal life and blessedness to the lost and cursed sons of Adam. Yet to how many was He a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, yea, a djinn and a snare, and that to both the houses of Israel, the only professing people of God at that day in the world. And is he not a stone of stumbling in the ministry of the gospel to many professors to this very day, upon which they fall and are broken? When he said, Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me, he therein plainly supposes that both in His person and doctrine, the generality of men would be offended in Him. Not that this is the design of Christ and the gospel, but it comes so to pass through the corruptions of the hearts of men, whereby they make light of Christ and stand out against that life and grace which the Lord Jesus, by His blood, so dearly purchased and is, by the preaching of the gospel, so freely tendered. The willful refusal whereof will as surely double our damnation, as the acceptance thereof will secure our eternal salvation. O consider, it is the thing of the most serious concern in the world, how we carry ourselves under the gospel, and with what dispositions and affections of heart, soul, seasons of grace are entertained. this being taken into the consideration to give it weight, that we are the nearer to heaven or hell, to salvation or damnation, by every ordinance we sit under. Boast not, therefore, of privileges enjoyed with neglect of the important duties thereby required. Remember Capernaum's case and tremble. As many go to heaven by the very gates of hell, so more go to hell by the gates of heaven, in that the number of those that profess Christ is greater than the number of those that truly close with Christ. Beloved, I know the preaching of the gospel has proselytized many of you into a profession But I fear that but few of you are brought by it to a true close with the Lord Christ for salvation. I beseech you, bear with my jealousy, for it is the fruit of a tender love for your precious souls. Most men are good Christians in the verdict of their own opinion, but you know the law allows no man to be a witness in his own case. because their affection usually overreaches conscience, and self-love deceives truth for its own interest. The heart of man is the greatest impostor and cheat in the world. God himself states it. The heart is deceitful above all things. Some of the deceits thereof you will find discovered in this treatise, which shows you that every grace has its counterfeit, and that the highest profession may be where true conversion is not. The design of it is not to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax, not to discourage the weakest believer, but to awaken formal professors. I would not sat in the hearts of any whom God would not have made sad, though I know it is hard to expose the dangerous state and condition of a professing hypocrite but that the weak Christian will think himself concerned in the discovery. And therefore, as I preached a sermon on sincerity among you, for the support and encouragement of such, so I purposed to have printed it with this. But who can be master of his own purposes? That is, I am under such daily variety of providences, your kindly acceptance of this will make me a detour for that. The dedication hereof belongs to you on a double account, for as it had not been preached, but that love to your souls caused it, so it had much less been printed, but that your importunate desire procured it. And therefore whatever entertainment it finds in the world, yet I hope I may expect you will welcome it, especially considering it was born under your roof and therefore hopes to find favor in your eyes and room in your heart. Accept it, I beseech you, as a public acknowledgment of the engagements which your great, and I think I may say, unparalleled respects have laid me under, which I can no way compensate but by my prayers, and if you will take them for satisfaction, I promise to be your remembrance, sir, at the throne of grace while I am. Matthew Meade To the reader. Reader, I know how customary it is for men to ascend the public stage with premised apologies for the weakness and unworthiness of their labors, which is an argument that their desires, either for the sake of others' profit or their own credit or both, are stretched beyond the bounds of their abilities, and that they covet to commend themselves to the world's censure in a better dress than common infirmity will allow. For my own part, I may truly say with Gideon, behold, my thousand is the meanest, my talent is the smallest, and I am the least in my father's house. And therefore this appearance in public is not the fruit of my own choice, which would rather have been on some other subject wherein I stand, in some sense indebted to the world, or else somewhat more digested and possibly better fitted for common acceptation. But this is but to consult the interest of a man's own name, which in matters of this concern is no better than a sewing to the flesh. and the harvest of such a seed time will be in corruption. You have here one of the saddest considerations imaginable presented to you, and that is how far it is possible a man may go in a profession of religion and yet, after all, fall short of salvation. How far he may run, and yet not so run as to obtain. This, I say, is sad, but not so sad as true. For our Lord Christ plainly attests it. Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. My design herein is that the formal sleepy professor may be awakened, and the close hypocrite discovered. But my fear is that weak believers may be hereby discouraged. It is hard to show how low a child of God may fall into sin, and yet have true grace without the sinner being apt thereupon to presume. and it is just as hard to show how high a hypocrite may rise in a profession and yet have no grace without the believer being asked thereupon to despond. I have carefully endeavored to prevent this by showing that Though a man may go thus far and yet be but almost a Christian, yet a man may fall short of this and be a true Christian, notwithstanding. Judge not, therefore, your state by any one character of a false professor you find laid down, but read the whole and then make a judgment. for I have been as careful not to give children's bread to dogs as not to use the dog's whip to scare the children. Yet I could wish that this book might fall into the hands of such only whom it chiefly concerns, who have a name to live and yet are dead, being busy with the form of godliness, but are strangers to the power of it. These are the proper subjects of this treatise, And may the Lord follow it with His blessing wherever it comes, that it may be an awakening word to all, and especially to that generation of profligate professors with which this age abounds, who, if they keep to their church, bow the knee, talk over a few prayers, and, at a good time, receive the sacrament, think they do enough for heaven, and hereupon judge their condition safe and their salvation sure. Though there is a hell of sin in their hearts, and the poison of asps under their lips, their minds being as yet carnal and unconverted, and their conversations filthy and unsanctified. If eternal life is of so easy attainment, and to be had at so cheap a rate, why did our Lord Christ tell us, Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be. that find it? And why should the Apostle perplex us with such a needless injunction to give diligence to make our calling and election sure? Certainly, therefore, it is no such easy thing to be saved as many make it, and that you will see plainly in the following discourse. Five Important Duties I have been somewhat short in the application of it, and therefore let me give you five important duties. 1. Take heed of resting in a form of godliness. As if duties ex operae operato could confer grace, a lifeless formality is advanced to a very high esteem in the world. as a cab of dove's dung was sold in the famine of Samaria at a very dear rate. Alas, the profession of godliness is but a sandy foundation to build the hope of an immortal soul upon for eternity. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ called him a foolish builder who founded his house upon the sand, and the sad event proved him so, for it fell and great was the fall of it. Oh, therefore, lay your foundation by faith upon the rock of Christ Jesus. Look to Christ through all and rest upon Christ in all. Two, labor to see an excellency in the power of godliness, a beauty in the life of Christ. If the means of grace have a loveliness in them, surely grace itself has much more For the goodness of the means lies in its suitableness and serviceableness to the end. The form of godliness has no goodness in it any further than it's said, and becomes useful to the soul in the power and practice of godliness. The life of holiness is the only excellent life. It is the life of saints and angels in heaven. Yea, it is the life of God in himself. as it is a great proof of the baseness and filthiness of sin that sinners seek to cover it. So it is a great proof the excellence of godliness that so many pretend to it. The very hypocrite's fair profession pleads the cause of religion, although the hypocrite is then really worst when he is seemingly best. Three, look upon things to come as the greatest realities. For things that are not believed work no more upon the affections than if they had no being. And this is the grand reason why the generality of men suffer their affections to go after the world, setting the creature in the place of God in their hearts. Most men judge the reality of things by their visibility and proximity to sense, and therefore the choice of that wretched cardinal becomes their option who would not leave his part in Paris for his part in paradise. Surely whatever his interest might be in the farmer, he had little enough in the latter. Well may covetousness be called idolatry when it thus chooses the world for its God. Oh, consider that eternity is no dream. Hell and the worm that never dies is no melancholic conceit. Heaven is no feigned Elysium. There is the greatest reality imaginable in these things. Though they are spiritual and out of the view of sense, yet they are real and within the view of faith. Look not, therefore, at the things which are seen, but look at the things which are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. set a high rate upon your soul, what we lightly prize, we easily part with. Many men sell their souls at the rate of profane Esau's birthright, for a morsel of meat, nay, for that which, in the sense of the Holy Ghost, is not bread. Oh, consider your soul is the most precious and invaluable jewel in the world. It is the most beautiful piece of God's workmanship in the whole creation. It is that which bears the image of God, and which was bought with the blood of the Son of God. And shall we not set a value upon it, and count it precious?" The Apostle Peter speaks of three very precious things. One, a precious Christ. Two, precious promises. Three, precious faith. Now the preciousness of all these lies in their youthfulness to the soul. Christ is precious, being the redeemer of precious souls. The promises are precious, as making over this precious Christ to precious souls. Faith is precious, as bringing a precious soul to close with a precious Christ, as he is held forth in the precious promises. O take heed that you are not found overvaluing other things and undervaluing your soul. Shall your flesh, nay, your beast, be loved, and shall your soul be slighted? Will you clothe and pamper your body and yet take no care of your soul? This is as if a man should feed his dog and starve his child. meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God will destroy both it and them. Oh, let not a tottering, perishing carcass have all your time and care, as if the life and salvation of your soul were not worth the while. Last, meditate upon the strictness and suddenness of that judgment day through which you and I must pass into an everlasting state wherein God, the impartial judge, will require an account at our hands of all our talents and entrustments. We must then account for time, how we have spent that, for estate, how we have employed that, for strength, How we have laid out that for afflictions and mercies. How they have been improved for the relations we stood in here. How they have been discharged and for seasons and means of grace. How they have been husbanded. And look how we have sowed here. We shall reap hereafter. Reader, these are things that, of all others, deserve most of, and call loudest for, our utmost care and endeavors, though they are, by most, least minded. To consider what a spirit of atheism, if we may judge the tree by the fruit, and the principle by the practice, the hearts of most men are filled with, who live as if God were not to be served, nor Christ to be sought, nor lust to be mortified, nor self to be denied, nor the scripture to be believed, nor the judgment day to be minded, nor hell to be feared, nor heaven to be desired, nor the soul to be valued, but give up themselves to a worse than brutish sensuality, to work all uncleanness with greediness, living without God in the world. This is a meditation fit enough to break our hearts if at least we were of holy David's temper who beheld the transgressors and was grieved and had rivers of waters running down his eyes because men kept not God's laws. The prevention and correction of this soul-destroying distemper is not the least design of this treatise now put into your hand. Though the chief virtue of this receipt lies in its sovereign use to assuage and cure the swelling tymphony of hypocrisy, yet it may serve also, with God's blessing, as a plaster for the plague sore of profaneness, if timely applied by serious meditation and carefully kept on by constant prayer. Reader, expect nothing of curiosity or quaintness, for then I will deceive you. But if you would have a touchstone for the trial of your state, possibly this may serve you. If you are either a stranger to a profession, or a hypocrite under a profession, then read and tremble, for you are the man here pointed at. But if the kingdom of God is come with power into your soul, if Christ is formed in you, if your heart is upright and sincere with God, then read and rejoice. I fear I have transgressed the bounds of an epistle. the mighty God, whose prerogative it is to teach, to profit, whether by the tongue or the pen, by speaking or writing. Bless this tract, that it may be to you as a cloud of rain to the dry ground, dropping fatness to your soul, so that your fleece, being watered with the dew of heaven, you may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. in whom I am your friend and servant, Matthew Meade, London, October 1661. The Almost Christian Discovered. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, Acts 26, 28. Introduction. In this chapter you have the Apostle Paul's apology and defensive plea which he makes for himself against these blind Jews who so maliciously persecuted him before Agrippa, Festus, Bernice, and the Council. In this plea he chiefly insists upon three things. 1. The manner of his life before conversion. 2. The manner of his conversion. 3. The manner of his life after conversion. How he lived before conversion, he tells you in verses 4-13. How God wrought on him to conversion, he tells you verses 13-18. How he lived after conversion, he tells you in verses 19-23. Before conversion, he was very pharisaical. The manner of his conversion was very wonderful. The fruit of his conversion was very remarkable. Before conversion, he persecuted the gospel which others preached. After conversion, he preached the gospel which he himself had persecuted. While he was a persecutor of the gospel, the Jews loved him, and now that, by the grace of God, he had become a preacher of the gospel, the Jews hated him and sought to kill him. He was once against Christ, and then many were for him. But now that he was for Christ, all were against him. His being an enemy to Jesus made others his friends, But when he came to own Jesus, then they became his enemies. And this was the great charge they had against him. That of a great opposer, he had become a great professor, because God had changed him. Therefore this enraged them, as if they would be the worse, because God had made him better. God had wrought on him by grace, and they seemed to envy him the grace of God. He preached no treason, nor sowed sedition. He only preached repentance, faith in Christ, and the resurrection, and for this he was called in question. This is abbreviate and some of Paul's defense and plea for himself, which you find in the sequel of the chapter, had a different effect upon his judges. Festus seems to censure him. Verse 24. Agrippa seems to be convinced by him. Verse 28. The whole bench seems to acquit him. Verses 30 and 31. Festus thinks Paul was beside himself. Agrippa is almost persuaded to be such a one as himself. Festus thinks him mad because he did not understand the doctrine of Christ and the resurrection Much learning has made thee mad. Agrippa is so affected with his plea that he is almost wrought into his principle. Paul pleads so effectually for his religion that Agrippa seems to be upon the turning point to his profession. Then Agrippa said to Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Almost. The words make for some debate among the learned. I shall not trouble you with the various hints upon them by Vala, Simplicius, Visa, Erasmus, and others. I take the words as we read them, and they show what an efficacy Paul's doctrine had upon Agrippa's conscience. Though he would not be converted, yet he could not but be convinced. His conscience was touched, though his heart was not renewed. Observation. There is that in religion which carries its own evidence along with it even to the consciences of ungodly men. Thou persuadest me. The word is from the Hebrew and it signifies both suadere and persuadere, either to use arguments to prevail or to prevail by the arguments used. Now it is to be taken in the latter sense here, to show the influence of Paul's argument upon Agrippa, which had almost proselytized him to the profession of Christianity. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. A Christian. I hope I need not tell you what a Christian is, though I am persuaded there are many who are called Christians who do not know what a Christian is. or if they do, yet they do not know what it is to be a Christian. A Christian is a disciple of Jesus Christ, one who believes in and follows Christ. As one who embraces the doctrine of Arminius is called an Arminian, and he who owns the doctrine and way of Luther is called a Lutheran, so he who embraces, owns, and follows the doctrine of Jesus Christ is called a Christian. the word is taken more largely and more strictly more largely and so all who profess Christ come in the flesh are called Christians in opposition to heathens who do not know Christ and to the poor blind Jews who will not own Christ and to the Mahometan who prefers Mohammed above Christ but now in scripture the word is of a more strict and narrow acceptation It is used only to denominate the true disciples and followers of Christ. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, who is as a member and disciple of Christ. And so, in the text, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. The word is used only in these three places in all the New Testament, and in each of them it is used in the sense aforementioned. The Italians make the name to be a name of reproach among them, and usually abuse the word Christian to signify a fool. But if, as the apostles said, the preaching of Christ is to the world foolishness, then it is no wonder who the disciples of Christ are to the world, fools. Yet it is true in a sound sense who they are, for the whole of godliness is a mystery. A man must die who would live. He must be empty who would be full. He must be lost who would be found. He must have nothing who would have all things. He must be blind who would have illumination. He must be condemned who would have redemption, so he must be a fool who would be a Christian. If any man among you seem to be wise, let him become a fool who he may be wise. He is the true Christian, who is the world a fool, but wise to salvation. Thus you have the sense and meaning of the words briefly explained. The text needs no division, and yet it is a pity the word almost should not be divided from the word Christian. It is of little avail, however, to divide them as they are linked in the text, unless I could divide them as they are united in your heart. This would be a blessed division if the almost might be taken from the Christian, that you may not be only pro p modem, but ad modem. Not only almost, but altogether, Christians. This is God's work to effect it, but it is our duty to persuade to it. Oh, that God would help me to manage this subject, so that you may say in the conclusion, You persuade me not almost but altogether to be a Christian. The observation that I shall propound to handle is this. Doctrine. There are very many in the world that are almost and yet but almost Christians. Many are near heaven and yet are never the nearer. Many are within a little of salvation and yet shall never enjoy the least salvation. They are within sight of heaven and yet shall never have a sight of God. There are two sad expressions in scripture which I cannot but take notice of in this place. The one is concerning the truly righteous. The other is concerning the seemingly righteous. It is said of the truly righteous, he shall scarcely be saved. And it is said of the seemingly righteous, he shall be almost saved. Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. The righteous shall be saved with a scarcely, that is, through much difficulty. He shall go to heaven through many sad fears of hell. The hypocrite shall be saved with an almost, that is, he shall go to hell through many fair hopes of heaven. There are two things which arise from hence of a very serious meditation. The one is how often a believer may miscarry, how low he may fall and yet have true grace. The other is how far a hypocrite may go in the way to heaven, how high he may attain and yet have no grace. The saint may be cast down very near to hell and yet shall never come there. And the hypocrite may be lifted up very near to heaven and yet never come there. The saint may also perish, and yet be saved eternally. The hypocrite may almost be saved, and yet perish finally. For the saint at worst is really a believer, and the hypocrite at best is really a sinner. Three. Things to help weak believers. Before I handle the doctrine, I must premise three things which are of great use for the establishing of weak believers, that they may not be shaken and discouraged by this doctrine. One, there is nothing in the doctrine that should be a matter of stumbling or discouragement to weak Christians. The gospel does not seek these things to wound believers, but to awaken sinners and formal professors. as there are none more averse than weak believers to apply the promises and comforts of the gospel to themselves for whom they are properly designed. So there are none more ready than they to apply the threats and severest things of the word to themselves for whom they were never intended. As the disciples, when Christ told them, one of you shall betray me, They that were innocent suspected themselves most, and therefore cried out, Master, is it I? So weak Christians, when they hear sinners reproved, or the hypocrite laid open in the ministry of the Word, immediately cry out, Is it I? This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. S-W-R-B makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. It can also be reached by email. at SWRB at SWRB.com by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions. since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.