A Golden Chain, Dedication 7
To all ignorant people that desire to be instructed.
POore people, your manner is to sooth vp your selues, as though yee were in a most happie estate: but if the matter come to a iust triall, it will fall out farre otherwise. For you lead your liues in great ignorance, as may appeare by these your common opinions which follow.
1 That faith is a mans good meaning and his good seruing of God.
2 That God is serued by the rehearsing of the ten Commandements, the Lords prayer, and the Creede.
3 That ye hauehave beleeued in Christ euer since you could remember.
4 That it is pitie he should liue which doth any whit doubt of his saluation.
5 That none can tell whether he shall be saued or no certainely: … that all men must be of a good beleefe.
6 That howsoeuer a man liue, yet if he call vponupon God on his death-bed, and say, Lord hauehave merciemercy vponupon me, and so goe away like a lambe, he is certainely saued.
7 That, if any be strangely visited, he is either taken with a Planet, or bewitched.
8 That a man may lawfully sweare when he speakes nothing but the truth: and sweares by nothing but that which is good, as by his faith or troth.
9 That a Preacher is a good man no longer then he is in the pulpit. They thinke all like themselues.
10 That a man may repent when he will, because the Scripture saith, At what time soeuer 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 ye can keepe the commandements, as well as God will giuegive you leaue.
13 That it is the safest to doe in Religion as most doe.
14 That merrie ballads and books, as Scogin, Bevis of Southampton, &c. are good to driue away time, and to remooue heart-quames.
15 That ye can serue God with all your hearts, & that ye would be sory els.
16 That a man neede not heare so many sermons except he could followe them better.
17 That a man which commeth at no sermons, may as well beleeue, as he 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 eueryevery man is a sinner, that we must louelove our neighbours as our selues, that eueryevery man must be saued by Christ: and all this ye can tell as well as he.
19 That it was a good world when the olde Religion was, because all things were cheape.
20 That drinking and bezeling in the alehouse or tauerne is good felowship, and shewes a good kind nature, and maintaines neighbourhoode.
21 That a man may sweare by the Masse, because it is nothing now: and byr Ladie, because shee is gone out of the countrie.
22 That eueryevery man must be for himselfe, and God for vsus 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 (though h… neuer vnderstand them) he hath blessed himselfe for all the day following.
25 That a man praieth when he saith the ten Command…ments.
26 That a man eates his maker in the Sacrament.
27 That if a man be no adulterer, no thiefe, nor murderer, and doe no man harme, he is a right honest man.
28 That a man neede not hauehave any knowledge of Religion, because he is not booke-learned.
29 That one may hauehave a good meaning, when he saith and doth that which is euill.
30 That a man may goe to wizards, called wisemen, for counsell: because God hath prouided a salue for eueryevery sore.
31 That ye are to be excused in all your doings, because the best men are sinners.
32 That ye hauehave so strong a faith in Christ, that no euill companie 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 deuill rules: and where he rules, man are in a damnable case.
Ye will replie vntounto me thus: that ye are not so bad I would make you: if neede be you can say the Creede, the Lords prayer, and the ten Commandements: and therefore ye will be of Gods beleefe say all men what they will, and you defie the deuill from yours hearts.
I answer againe, that it is not sufficient to say all these without booke, vnlesse ye can vnderstand the meaning of the words, and be able to make a right vse of the Commandements, of the Creede, of the Lords prayer, by applying them inwardly to your hearts and consciences, and outwardly to your liues and 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 hauehave set downe the principall point of Christian religion in sixe plaine and easie rules, euen such as the simplest may easily learne: and hereunto is adioyned an exposition of them word by word. If ye doe want other good direction, then vse this my labour for your instruction. In reading of it first learne the sixe principles, and when ye hauehave them without the booke and the meaning of them withall, then learne the exposition also: which beeing well conceiued, and in some measure felt in the heart, ye shall be able to profit by Sermons, whereas now ye cannot: and the ordinarie parts of the Catechisme, namely the ten Commaundements, the Creede, the Lords prayer, and the institution of the two Sacraments shall more easily be vnderstood.
Thine in Christ Iesus, William Perkins.