family nor one person old or young would deny us this request which we make to our own Labour but for your Good First that you would take some pains to Learn over the Creed with out Expository Profession the Ten Commandments and the Lords Prayer our small Catechism and the Assemblies shorter Catechism Secondly that you would see that all your Children and Servants that are capable learn them especially on the Lords day Thirdly that you would not refuse to come when you are called to give your Teachers an account of your Knowledge and how little soever you have learned yet to receive Instruction by them And think it not too much that we desire you to come to us for as you know it is a more regular and certain way for all to come to one place then for us to go seek after every person not knowing where and when to find them so is it no more then you owe to your Teachers in order to your own good when God hath made them Stewards of his household to give them their meat in due season Luke 12.42 Tit. 1.7 1 Cor. 4.1 2. and hath Commanded you to obey them that have the Rule over you for they watch for your souls as those that must give account that they may do it with Joy and not with Grief for that is unprofitable for you And Mal. 2.7 For the Priests lips should keep Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts If the Lord bow your hearts sincerely to yield to this our advice it will be the Joy of your Families the honour of your Towns Parishâ—s and Country a good example for the whole Nation to imitate and it will be the Comfort of your Teachers and a good preparative to your own everlasting Peace so great Benefits will follow a Small a Certain a Reasonable duty But if after all that we can say or do you unthankfully and obstinately refuse the help that is freely offered you your Blood will be upon your own heads and your Consciences shall bear us witness that we made you this offer and this our Exhortation shall rise up in Judgement for a witness against you And then Christ will have the glory of his Justice on all that set so light by the Riches of his Grace May 4th 1655. These are the Testimonies Warnings and Requests of us the servants of Christ for the saving of your souls whole names are before written The Ancient Western CREED I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and earth And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord which was Conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified dead and buryed he descended into Hell The third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the Right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come to Judge the quick and the dead I believe in the Holy Ghost the holy Catholike Church the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting The Lords Prayer Math. 6. OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The ten Commandments Exod. 20. GOD spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondâ—ge Thou shalt have no other Gods before me Thoâ— shalt not make unto thee any grauen Image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the eaâ—â—h beneath or that is in the water under â—he earâ—h â—hou shâ—lt not how down thy self to them nor â—erve hâ—m Fâ—â—â—â—he Lord â—hy God am a jealous God visitâ—ng â—he iniquiries of the Faâ—hers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six daies shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor the stranger that is within thy gates For in six daies the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy daies may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife nor his man-servant nor his maid-servant nor his ox nor his ass nor any thing that is thy neighbours The fuller profession of our Faith taken out of Scripture for the better understanding of the Creed I Believe that there is One only God * or in three Persons the Father The Son and the Holy Ghost The Father Infinite in Being the Father The Son Wisdom Goodness and Power the Maker Preserver and Disposer of all things and the most Just and Merciful Lord of all I Believe that Mankind being fallen by sin from God and Happiness under the wrath of God the curse of his Law the Power of the Devil God so loved the world that he gave his only son to be their Redeemer who being God and one with the Father did take to him our nature and became man being conceived of the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary and born of her and named Jesus Christ and having lived on earth without sin and wrought many Miracles for a witness of his truth he gave up himself a sacrifice for our sins and a Ransome for us in suffering death on the Cross and being Buried he rose again the third day and afterward Ascended into Heaven where he is Lord of All in Glory with the Father And having Ordained that all that truly Repent and Believe in him and love him above all things and sincerely Obey him and that to the death shall be saved and they that will not shall be damned and commanded his ministers to preach the Gospel to the world He will come again and raise the bodies of all men from Death and will Judge all men according to what they have done in the body and the Righteous shall go
The Agreement Of divers Ministers of Christ In the County of WORCESTER and some adjacent parts For Catechizing or Personal Instructing All in their several Parishes that will consent thereunto Containing I. The Articles of our Agreement II. An Exhortation to the People to submit to this necessary Work III. The Profession of Faith and Catechism which we desire them first to Learn London Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons Bookseller at Kidderminster and are to be sold there by him and at London by William Roybould at the Vnicorn in Pauls Church-yard 1656. Our warrant from God ACT 20.20.28 And have taught you publikely and from house to house Take heed therefore to your selves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Luke 12.42 Who then is that faithful and wise Steward whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season Col. 1.28 Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Iesus Mal. 2.7 For the Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of hosts Mark 4.34 And when they were alone he expounded all things to his Disciples Heb. 5.12 Ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat See 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3. to 8. 1 Cor. 4.1 Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you 1 Thes 5.12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and be at peacâ— among your selves In the sixth general Council at Trull in Constantinople it is thus decreed Can. 78. That they that are baptized ought to learn the Belief and on the fift day of the week to say it over to the Bishop or the Presbyters WE Ministers of Christ whose names are under-written having sought Gods direction and enquired of his holy Word concerning our duty and finding our selves under many obligations to seek diligently the edification and salvation of souls and withal considering the greatness of our Work and the shortness of our own and our neighbours lives and the strict account that we and they must shortly yield to God our Judge Do humbly bewail our too great neglect that we have not more frequently earnestly and unweariedly employed our care and time and labour on so great a Work according to the strict and holy precepts and patterns in Gods Word especially that we have done no more in Catechising and familiar personal instructing to acquaint men with the most necessary points of our Religion and to work them on their hearts for the awakening of them from security and drawing them from sin to God by the faith of Christ and for the directing them in the right way to their everlasting peace And as we earnestly beg of God to pardon this our great neglect through the blood and intercession of Iesus Christ so do we by his grace resolve to be hereafter more faithfull and diligent and therefore do unanimously agree and resolve on the particulars following I. That we will in the several united Churches of this County the adjacent parts where we are Teachers set apart _____ the _____ day of _____ publikely to humble our souls before God in Fasting and Prayer for our former negligence and to beg pardon thereof and of all our miscarriages that the everlasting misery of mens souls may not be charged on our heads and to seek his direction and assistance for the time to come and to acquaint our Hearers with their duties in reference to the following Work to be undertaken II. That we will hereafter by Gods assistance lay out more of our time and labour in the foresaid work of Catechizing and familiar instructing people in the Doctrine of Salvation And that ordinarily we will set apart a convenient stated time for this work at least on one day every week and in greater Parishes either two or three or else more hours on that one day as our strength and other necessary imployments shall permit And whereas we have only hitherto Catechized the younger people in publike we shall now desire either the whole Families to come together by their turns to a certain place on a certain stated day hour or so many of them that are not Catechized publikely And the Clerk or some other fit person shall be sent to them some days before to remember them of their turns and to know whether they will come or not III. We conceive the fitttest place for the aged will be the Ministers house unless where some special accident may make another place more Fit Or if any rather choose to do it in the Church or that their children and servants be chatechized in publique and themselves in private We shall grant their desire and though it be the duty of the people to come to the Ministers for instruction in any convenient place which they shall appoint which all humble and obedient Chrâ—stians wil readily yield to yet if any will not come to us we shal go to them if they consent to hear us and to be instructed The like we shall do to those who by reason of Age or other weakness or distance cannot well come to us or at least we shall procure some that are sit for such a work to go to them and instruct them if by weakness or greater works we are hindred our selves IV. If any be unwilling to be chatechized or instructed before the rest of the family we shall do it as privately as they please only we shall catechize the women especially the younger sort in the presence of some of the rest lest malicious wicked persons should make it an occasion of scandal and reproach but we shall as carefully as we can avoid the opening of the weaknesses of parents or masters in the hearing of their children or servants in any way that may tend to the diminishing of their authority and due respect V. We shall desire all our parishioners old and young that are able to learn the ancient Creed with out Expository profession or Catechism containing it the ten Commandments and the Lords prayer and the Assemblies shorter Catechism and those that cannot at least without longer time learn the Catechism we desire them first to learn all the rest and those that
cannot so soon learn our profession we shal expect at least that they learn the Creed the Commandments and the Lords prayer and endeavour to learn the rest in further time as they are able or if any pretend scruples against our Profession or the allowed Catechism they shall use any Orthodox Catechism which themselves will choose VI. When we receive an account from them of what they have learned of these heads of Chatechism we shall also faithfully endeavour to help them in the right understanding of them and to get the truths which they learn into their hearts and lives in all which we shall endeavour as prudently as we can to suit our Instructions and Qâ—estions to the capacity of the persons to whom we speak Not seeking to disgrace them or puzzle them by hard unnecessary questions or words but express the plainest necessary truths in the plainest words and if they understand not one phrase we shall try whether they understand the same truth in other phrases nor shall we stand so much on their words as their meanings and if they be not able to deliver a fundamental truth in any tolerable words of their own we shall try by their affirmations or negations whether indeed they understand it or believe it when they hear it exprest by us we shall endeavour also to use such love and meekness as may win and avoid such harsh imperious speeches as may offend and to use such seriousness as may tend to awaken the stupid and secure lest all our labour with them be lost and yet such tenderness as that the weak may not be discouraged And because it is a work that requireth such great prudence and holy skill together with zeal and patience we shall the more reverently and cautelously attempt and mannage it avoiding all rashness observing and lamenting and striving against our imprudency unskilfulness and other unfitnesses and earnestly beg of God more fitness for his work VII Those that have not learned the words of any of the aforesaid Principles or Catechisms we shall yet desire to come to us with the rest of their families that we may have opportunity familiarly to discourse with them and instruct them VIII We shall desire that the most learned or judicious and Godly people among us would submit to this course as well as others though they have not the like need lest their forbearance be a pretence to others to keep off especially seeing the wisest and Godliest men are bound by God to obey their teachers and guides as well as others and all Christians have need to keep the great fundamental truths still in memory for their daily use that they may live upon them and the best may yet get some advantage by such conferences which Ministers will fit to their riper state IX Having procured this our Agreement to be printed together with an exhortation to our people to submit to this work we shall first read both to them in the publique assembly upon some Lords day and afterward give and cause to be delivered one Copy thereof to each family in our several parishes that will accept them desiring them that they may be read to all the family X. As for those that after sufficient admonition shal contemptuously and obstinately refuse to be either Catechised or Instructed thus personally by us giving us no valuable reason of their refusal if they are such that have professed themselves members of our Charge in the particular Churches whereof we are Pastors we shall proceed as in other cases of scandal or impenitency til we have either prevailed for their reformation or else rejected and avoided them And if they are such that are only members of the Parish and have withdrawn themselves from our charges and the particular Church by refusing to own and profess their membership we shall yet so far difference them from the rest of the parish who are Tractable and Teachable though refusing to be of our particular Church and charge as that we shall in regard of Communion and the application of sealing and confirming ordinances deal with them as the obstinate despisers of instruction should be dealt with THE reasons which move us to this Agreement and Resolution are these following 1. As it is undeniable that the everlasting perdition of multitudes is caused by their Ignorance and people perish for lack of knowledge so is it most evident that catechizing and familiar personal instruction is a great means to overcome that killing ignorance and that much of the darkness of this Land is chargeable on the neglect of this necessary work 2. The aged among us are too commonly more Ignorant then the younger sort and though their souls should be as much regarded by them yet have we no hope of prevailing with these to come publikly on the Lords day in the face of the congregation to be catechised but yet we are in hope that fewer of them will refuse to come to us in private and seeing we are thus necessitated to deal in private with one part of the family if it be their desire we shall take all together in the same way Perhaps one will encourage another We observe also that the younger when they are once married will come no more to be catechized publikely and so too many forget that which before they had learned which this course may prevent 3. It is the principles and fundamental truths that life or death doth most depend upon in which the essentials of Christianity do consist which therefore no man may be utterly ignorant of that hopeth for salvation and which the ripest Christians have the greatest daily use for and most continually live upon as their bread and drink and those that are well grounded in these fundamentals are likest to stand in a time of trial and to resist temptations and to hold fast and grow up in the knowledge of the superstructure and it is the want of being well grounded in these fundamentals that is the cause of much of the heresie and apostacy of this Age. It is the improvement of these principles that is the true Christians daily work for the managing of his duties the quickening and ordering of his affections and the guidance of his life and it is the want of sound digesting and improving of these that is the cause of much of the hypocrisie and self-deceiving opinionative and factious kind of Religiousness that hath so prevailed In a word the benefit of right Catechizing and the mischiefs that follow the neglect of it are more indeed then we can express or conceive 4. We finde by sad experience that the people understand not our publike teaching though we study to speak as plain as we can and that after many years preaching even of these same Fundamentals too many can scarce tell any thing that we have said when yet we finde that they better understand and lay to heart a familiar Conference 5. The Lords day is short enough for the
it is exprest We have very great Numbers of excellent Books expounding this Scripture and plainly directing us in the way to Salvation so that we know no Nation that in their own tongue hath the like And among the rest we have the summ of Christian Religion in Catechisms in so small a room that the weak may learn understand and remember it Yet after these wonderful mercies and means we must needs confess it to the grief of our souls that many thousands in this Land of light do wilfully live in darkness And whereas they might all for the time and means have been able to teach others they have need to be taught again the very principles of Gods Oracles and to be fed as babes with milk and not with strong meat as being unskilful in the word of Righteousness Heb. 5.12 13 14. It astonisheth us many times when we have occasion to talk with some of our hearers to perceive that they know very little of the Doctrine which we have been preaching to them so many years as plainly as we could speak If we could speak plainer to them we would for we know it is a matter that they must understand or perish It is sad to us to hear many men that can talk understandingly about matters of the world that can scarce speak a word of sense about the matters of their Salvation or scarce give us any reasonable answer if we Qâ—estion them about the very Fundamentals of Christianity without the knowledge of which they cannot be saved Upon this sad experience of mens Ignorance we have been brought to a deep Consideration of our own Neglects and the Lord hath partly set it home upon our hearts and in the apprehension thereof our souls have been brought low to think how we have wronged Christ and you and lest God should require your blood at our hands For though we have frequently and faithfully taught you in publike which is enough to leave you without excuse yet perceiving that it must be a more familiar course that must help the extreamly ignorant to understand we lament that we have done no more in it then we have done And though some of uâ— have hitherto excused our selves by our bodily weakness or other pressing business of our calling and from your neglect of coming to us according to your duty yet daâ—e we no longer be guilty of these excuses while we discern any further means to be used for your good Having therefore sought Gods direction and Consulted together with his word before our eyes we do all with one mind Agree and Resolve to set upon the practice of Constant Catechizing and personal familiar Instruction of All that shall not obstinately refuse our help and this we shall do by Gods assistance according to the Rules which we have hereunto adjoyned And because we cannot expect that the Aged and Rich should be perswaded to be Catechizâ—d in the open Congregation and because it is many waies inconvenient that we should go from house to house if we can avoid iâ— and it is your unquestionable duty to seek to your Teachers and obey them in as great a thing as this we do earnestly intreat you that you will submit to this order and willingly come to the place which the Minister shall appoint even your whole families in their turns when they are called both old and young and that Parents and Masters will lead their Children and Servaâ—ts and give them a good example and not Condemn themselves by refusing that duty which they confess their children should perform especially seeing â—gnoâ—ance in the Aged is a double sin and shame We intreat you also that you will bestow some time and labour to learn by memory the Common Creed with our Expository Profession and the ten Commandments and the Lords Prayer and this small Catechism and the shorter Catechism of the Assembly of Divines And if you cannot read get some to read them to you that can We intreat you also to take some pains to see that your families do all learn the same and especially bestow all that time on the Lords day in this exercise which can be spared from the greater parts of Gods service As also that you would bring all your family with you except the children who are catechized in the Congregation at the time and to the place that shall be appointed there to render some account of what you learn and to entertain some familiar conference about it that you may be further Instructed in the way to life If you know never so much already we suppose you will not lose your labour and the most Judicious should be the most humble Obedient and exemplary to the weak If you have learned never so little and find it hard to remember the words yet we intreat you to come with the rest for some familiar Conference and Instruction For the less you know and remember the more help you need Now the Lord hath awakened us his unworthy Messengers to the sense of our duty O do not you discourage us and please the Devil and frustrate all our work and hopes by your wilful refusal especially when we call you to no Controverted work but that which all the sober Christians in the world will confess to be your duty In some other matters some are of one miâ—d and some of another but through the great mercâ— of God it is not so here You can have no such excuse to cover your refusal but if you will not Learn and Obey you must even speak out and say you will not and tell God plainly so to his face and so let your nakedness appear to all Now God hath put it into our hearts to do you good and caused us to thirst after the welfare of your souls we beseech you take heed of Refusing your mercies If you come to us to enquire the way to salvation we dare not for all the world refuse to teach you for then how should we meet the Lord in Judgement and look him in the face that made us watchmen for mens safeties How then Dare you refuse to be Taught or to bestow your time and Labour for to Learn Dear Brethren the Lord who is our Judge and yours knows that it is not a desire to domineer over your Consciences nor any pleasure that we take in needless troubling you much less any ill will to you that caused us to take up this Resolution and to call you to this work But it is the sense of our former sin and present duty and of the great Necessity hereof to your Salvation Alas flesh and blood hath kept us from this duty too long already and if we would hearken to it we should not so much trouâ—le our selves or you but let you alone in your sinful Ignorance you mâ—y qâ—ickly understand that it is far easier to us to please you and let you alone Indeed we cannot but expect that this work which we have now