To all ignorant people that desire to be instructed.

POore people, your manner is
to sooth up your selves, as
though you were in a most
happy estate: but if the matter
come to a just tryall, it
will fall out far otherwise. For ye leade your
lives in great ignorance, as may appeare by
these your common opinions which follow.
1. That faith is a mans good meaning,
and his good serving of God.
2. That God is served by the rehearsing
of the tenne Commandements, the
Lords Prayer, and the Creed.
3. That ye have believed in Christ ever
since you could remember.
4. That it is pitty that hee should live,
which doth any whit doubt of his salvation.
5. That none can tell whether he shall
be saved or no certainly; but that all men
must be of a good beliefe.
6. That howsoever a man live, yet if
hee call upon God on his death-bed, and

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say, Lord, have mercy upon me: and so goe
away like a lambe, he is certainly saved.
7. That if any be strangely visited, hee
is either taken with a Planet, or bewitched.
8. That a man may lawfully sweare
when hee speaketh nothing but the truth;
and sweares by nothing, but that which is
good, as by his faith and troth.
9. That a Preacher is a good man no
longer then he is in the pulpit; They thinke
all like themselves.
10. That a man may repent when hee
will, because the Scripture saith, At what
time so ever a sinner doth repent him of his
sinne, &c.
11. That it is an easier thing to please
God, then to please our neighbour.
12. That yee can keepe the Commandements
as well as God will give you
leave.
13. That it is safest to doe in religion
as most doe.
14. That merry ballads and bookes, as
Skogging, Bevis of South-hampton, &c. are
good to drive away the time, and to remoove
heart-qualmes.
15. That yee serve God with all your
hearts; and that you would be sorry else.
16. That a man need not heare so many
Sermons, except hee could follow them
better.
17. That a man which commeth at no
Sermons, may as well beleeve, as hee
which heares all the Sermons in the
world.
18. That ye know all the Preacher can
tell you. For he can say nothing, but that
every man is a sinner, that we must love
our neighbour as our selves, that every
man must be saved 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 cheape.
20. That drinking and bezeling in the
Ale-house or Taverne, is good fellowship,
and shewes a good kind nature, and
maintaines neighbourhood.
21. That a man may sweare by the
Masse, because it is nothing now: and
by'r Lady, because shee is gone out of the
countrey.
22. That every man must be for himself,
and God for us all.
23. That a man may make of his owne
whatsoever he can.
24. That if a man remember to say

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his prayers in the morning though hee
never understand them hee hath blessed
himselfe for all the day following.
25. That a man prayeth when hee saith
the ten Commandements.
26. That a man eates his Maker in the
Sacrament.
27. That if a man bee no adulterer, no
thiefe, no Murtherer, and doe no man
harme, he is a right honest man.
28. That a man need not have any
knowledge of Religion, because he is not
booke-learned.
29. That one may have a good meaning,
when he saith and doth that which
is evill.
30. That a man may goe to wizzards
called wise-men, for counsell: because
God hath provided a salve for every
sore.
31. That yee are to bee excused in all
your doings, because the best men are sinners.
32. That yee have so strong a Faith in
Christ, that no evill company can hurt
you.
These and such like sayings, what argue
they, but your grosse ignorance? now where
ignorance raigneth, there raignes sinne; and
where sinne raignes, there the divell rules: and
where he rules, men are in a damnable case.
Ye will reply unto me thus: That ye are not
so bad as I would make you. If need bee, you
can say the Creed, the Lords Prayer, and
the ten Commandements: and therefore yee
will be of Gods beliefe, say all men what they
will; and you defie the Divell from your
hearts.
I answer againe, That it is not sufficient
to say all these without booke, unlesse ye can
understand the meaning of the words, and be
able to make a right use of the Commandements,
of the Creed, of the Lords Prayer, by
applying them inwardly to your hearts and
consciences, and outwardly to your lives and
conversations. This is the very point in which
ye faile.
And for an helpe in this your ignorance,
to bring you to true knowledge, unfained
faith and sound repentance, here I have set
downe the principall points of Christian Religion
in sixe plaine and easie Rules, even
such as the simplest may easily learne: and
hereunto is adjoyned an exposition of them,
word by word. If yee doe want other good
directions, then use this my labour for your
good instruction. In reading of it, first learne

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the sixe Principles: and when they have them
without booke, and the meaning of them withall,
then learne the exposition also: which being
well conceived, and in some measure felt in
the heart, ye shall be able to profit by Sermons,
whereas now ye cannot, and the ordinary parts
of the Catechisme, namely, the ten Commandements,
the Creed, the Lords Prayer, and
the institution of the two Sacraments, shall be
more easily understood.
Thine in Christ Iesus,
William Perkins