To all Ignorant People.

To all Ignorant People,
that desire to be instructed.

Poor people, your manner is to soothe up yourselves, as though you were in a most happy estate; but if the matter come to a just trial, it will fall out far otherwise. For you lead your lives in great ignorance, as may appear by these your common opinions which follow:

1. That faith is a man’s good meaning, and his good serving of God.

2. That God is served by the rehearsing of the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Creed.

3. That ye have believed in Christ ever since you could remember.

4. That it is a pity that he should live, which doth any whit doubt of his salvation.

5. That none can tell whether he shall be saved or not certainly; but that all men must be of a good belief.

6. That howsoever a man live, yet if he call upon God on his death-bed, and say, "Lord have mercy upon me," and so go away like a lamb, he is certainly saved.

7. That if any be strangely visited, he is either taken with a planet, or bewitched.

8. That a man may lawfully swear when he speaketh nothing but the truth; and swears by nothing but that which is good, as by his faith and troth.

9. That a preacher is a good man no longer than he is in the pulpit. "They think all like themselves."

10. That a man may repent when he will, because the Scriptures saith, "At what time soever a sinner doth repent of his sins," &c.

11. That it is an easier thing to please God, than to please our neighbour.

12. That ye can keep the commandments as well as God will give you leave.

13. That it is the safest to do in religion as most do.

14. That merry ballads and books, as Skoggin, Bevis of South Hampton, &c., are good to drive away the time, and to remove heart-qualms.

15. That ye can serve God with all your hearts, and that ye would be sorry else.

16. That a man need not hear so many sermons, except he could follow them better.

17. That a man, which cometh at no sermons, may as well believe, as he which hears 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 neighbours as ourselves, 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 cheap.

20. That drinking or bezeling in the ale house or tavern, is good fellowship, and shows a good kind nature, and maintains neighbourhood.

21. That a man may swear by the Mass, because it is nothing now; and by our Lady, because she is gone out of the country.

22. That every man must be for himself, and God for us all.

23. That a man may make of his own, whatsoever he can.

24. That if a man remember to say his prayers every morning (though he never understand them) he hath blessed himself for all the day following.

25. That a man prayeth when he saith the Ten Commandments.

26. That a man eats his Maker in the sacrament.

27. That if a man be no adulterer, no thief, no murderer, and do no man harm, he is a right honest man.

28. That a man need not have any knowledge of religion, because he is not book-learned.

29. That one may have a good meaning when he saith and doth that which is evil.

30. That a man may go to wizards, called wise-men, for counsel; because God hath provided a salve for every sore.

31. That ye are to be excused in all your doings, because the best men are sinners.

32. That ye have so strong a faith in Christ, that no evil company can hurt you.

These and such like sayings, what argue they, but your gross ignorance? Now, where ignorance reigneth, there reigns sin; and where sin reigns, there the devil rules; and where he rules, men are in a damnable case.

~William Perkins, THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION, Gathered into Six Principles.