To all ignorant people that desire
to bee instructed.
POore people, your manner is to
sooth vp your selues, as though
ye wer in a most happy estate:
but of the matter come to a
iust triall, it will fall out farr
otherwise For yee lead your
liues in great ignorance, as may appeare by
these your common opinions which follow.
1 That faith is a mans good meaning &
his good seruing of God.
2 That God is serued by the rehearsing of
the ten commaundements, the Lords praier,
and the Creede.
3 That yee haue beleeued in Christ euer
since you could remember.
4 That it is pitie that he should liue which
dooth any whit doubt of his saluation.
5 That none can tell whether hee shall bee
saued or not certainly: but that all men must
be of a good beliefe.
6 That howsoeuer a man liue, yet if hee
call vpon God on his death bedde, and say,
Lord haue mercy on me, & so goe away like
a Lambe, he is certainly saued.
7 That, if anie be strangely visited, hee is
either taken with a Planet, or bewitched.
8 That a man may lawfully sweare when
hee speakes nothing but the truth: & sweares
by nothing but that which is good, as by his
faith or troth.

A 2

9 That a Preacher is a good man no longer
than he is in the pulpet. They thinke all
like themselues.
10 That a man may repent when hee will,
because the Scripture saith, At what time so euer
a sinner doth repent him of his sinne, &c.
11 That it is an easier thing to please God
than to please our neighbour.
12 That yee can keepe the Commandements,
as well as God will giue you leaue.
13 That it is the safest, to doo in Religion
as most doo.
14 That merry ballads & bookes, as Scoggin,
Beuis of Southampton, &c. are good to
driue away time, & to remoue hart quames.
15 That yee can serue God with all your
hearts: and that yee would be sorie else.
16 That a man neede not heare so many
Sermo~s, except he could follow them better.
17 That a man which co~meth at no Sermons,
may as wel beleeue, as he which heares
all the sermons in the world.
18 That yee know al the Preacher can tell
you: For he can say nothing, but that euery
man is a sinner, that we must loue our neighbours
as our selues, that euery man must bee
saued by Christ: and all this ye can tell as well
as he.
19 That it was a good world when the old
Religion was, because all things were cheap.
20 That drinking and bezeling in the alehouse
or tauerne is good fellowship, & shews
a good kinde nature.
21 That a man may sweare by the Masse,
because it is nothing now: and byr Ladie,
because she is gone out of the country.
22 That euery man must be for himselfe,
and God for vs all.
23 That a man may make of his owne
whatsoeuer he can.
24 That if a man remember to say his praiers
in the morning (thogh he neuer vndersta~d
them) he hath blessed himselfe for all the day
following.
25 That a man prayeth when hee saith the
ten Commaundements.
26 That a man eats his maker in the Sacra.
27 That if a man be no adulterer, no theef,
nor murderer, and do no man harme, he is a
right honest man.
28 That a man need not haue any knowledg
of religio~, because he is not book learnd.
29 That one may haue a good meaning,
when he saith and dooth that which is euill.
These and such like sayings, what argue they
but your grosse ignorance? Now, where ignorance
raigneth, there raignes sinne: & where
sinne raignes, there the deuil rules : and where
he rules, men are in a damnable case.
Ye will reply vnto me thus, that yee are not
so bad as I would make you: if need be you can
say the Creede, the Lords prayer, & the 10. co~mandements:
and therefore ye will be of Gods
beleefe say all men what they will, and you defie
the deuill from your hearts.

A 3

I answere againe, that it is not sufficient to
say all these without booke, vnlesse ye can vnderstand
the meaning of the words, and bee able
to make a right vse of the Co~mandements,
of the Creede, of the Lords prayer, by applying
them inwardly to your hearts and consciences,
and outwardly to your liues & conuersations.
This is the very point in which ye faile.
And for an helpe in this your ignorance, to
bring you to true knowledge, vnfained faith,
and sound repentance: here I haue set downe
the principall points of Christian Religion in
sixe plaine & easie rules, euen such as the simplest
may easily learne: and hereunto is adioyned
an exposition of them word by word. If ye
do want other good directions, then vse this my
labour for your instruction: In reading of it
first learne the six principles, & when ye haue
them without booke, & the meaning of them
withall, then learne the exposition also: which
being well conceaued, & in some measure felt
in the heart, ye shall be able to profite by Sermons,
whereas now ye cannot: and the ordinarie
parts of the Catechisme, namely, the ten
Commandements, the Creede, the Lords praier,
and the institution of the two Sacraments,
shall more easily be vnderstoode.
Thine in Christ Iesus,
William Perkins.