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THE

CONFESSION OF FAITH;

THE

LARGER AND SHORTER CATECHISMS,

WITH THE

SCRIPTURE-PROOFS AT LARGE,

TOGETHER WITH

THE SUM OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE,

(CONTAINED IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, AND HELD FORTH IN THE SAID CONFESSION
AND CATECHISMS,) AND PRACTICAL USE THEREOF;

COVENANTS,
LEAGUE;

NATIONAL

AND SOLEMN

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SINS, AND ENGAGE.
MENT TO DUTIES;

DIRECTORIES FOR PUBLIC AND FAMILY
WORSHIP;

FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c.
OF PUBLICK AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH OF
SCOTLAND;

WITH ACTS OF ASSEMBLY AND PARLIA-
MENT, RELATIVE TO, AND APPROBATIVE
OF, THE SAME.

Deut. vi. 6, 7. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when
thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest
down, and when thou risest up.

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PRINTED BY SIR D. HUNTER BLAIR AND M. S. TYNDALL BRUCE,
Late Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty.

MDCCCXLV.

LICENSE.

In terms of Her Majesty's Letters Patent to Her Printers for Scotland, and of the Instructions issued by Her Majesty in Council, dated Eleventh July One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, I hereby License and Authorize Sir David Hunter Blair and Mrs Margaret Stuart Tyndall Bruce, late Printers to the Queen's, most Excellent Majesty, to Print, within the Premises situated in Blair Street, in the city of Edinburgh, belonging to them, and to Publish, as by the authority of Her Majesty, an Edition of the Confession of Faith, in Duodecimo Minion Brévier, consisting of Twelve thousand copies, as proposed in their Declaration, dated the Twentieth day of October Eighteen hundred and forty-five years; the Terms and Conditions of the said Instructions being always, and in all points, fully complied with and observed by the said Sir David Hunter Blair and Mrs Margaret Stuart Tyndall Bruce.

Edinburgh, 93d Queer 1846**

DUN. M'NEILL

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S we cannot but with grief of soul lament those multitudes of errors, blasphemies, and all kinds of profaneness, which have in this last age, like a mighty deluge, overflown this nation; so, among several other sins which have helped to open the flood-gates of all these impieties, we cannot but esteem the disuse of family instruction one of the greatest. The two great pillars upon which the kingdom of Satan is erected, and by which it is upheld, are ignorance and error; the first step of our manumission from this spiritual thraldom consists in having our eyes opened, and being turned from darkness to light, Aets xxvi. 18. How much the serious endeavours of godly parents and masters might contribute to an early seasoning the tender years of such as are under their inspection, is abundantly evident, not only from their special influence upon them, in respect of their authority over them, interest in them, continual presence with them, and frequent opportunities of being helpful to them; but also from the sad effects which, by woeful experience, we find to be the fruit of the omission of this duty. It were easy to set before you a cloud of witnesses, the language of whose practice hath been not only an eminent commendation of this duty, but also a serious exhortation to it. As Abel, though dead, yet speaks by his example to us for imitation of his faith, &c. Heb. xi. 4.; so do the examples of Abraham, of Joshua, of the parents of Solomon, of the grandmother and mother of Timothy, the mother of Augustine, whose care was as well to nurse up the souls as the bodies of their little ones; and as their pains herein was great, so was their success no way unanswerable.

We should scarce imagine it any better than an impertinency, in this noon-day of the gospel, either to inform or persuade in a duty so expressly commanded, so frequently urged, so highly encouraged, and so eminently owned by the Lord in all ages with his blessing, but that our sad experience tells us, this duty is not more needful, than it is of late neglected. For the restoring of this duty to its due observance, give us leave to suggest this double advice.

The first concerns heads of families in respect of themselves; That as the Lord hath set them in place above the rest of their family, they would labour in all wisdom and spiritual understanding to be above them also. It is an uncomely sight to behold men in year babes in knowledge; and how unmeet are they to instruct others

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ANDASH SHT.OT ZITZIJA ZAT

who need themselves to be taught which be the first principles of the oracles of God Heb. 121 WKnowledge is an accomplishment so desirable, that the devils themselves knew not a more taking bait by which to tempt bur first parents, than by the fruit of the tree of knowledges So shall you be as gods, knowing goods and revit. When Solomon had that favour showed him of the Lord, that he was made his own chuser what to ask, he knew no greater mercy to beg than wisdompleKings iii. 5,9.The understanding is the guide and pilot of the whole man, that faculty which sits at the stern of the souls but as the most expert guide may mistake in the dark, so may the understanding, when it wants the light of knowledge: Without know ledge the mind cannot be good, Prov. xixe 29 nor the life good, nor the eternal condition safe, Ephuiv. 218. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hos. iv. 6. It is ordinary in scripture to set profaneness, and all kind of miscarriages, upon the score of ignorance. Diseases in the body have many times their rise from distempers in the head, and exorbitancies in practice from errors in judgment and indeed in every sin there, is something both of ignorance and error at the bottom fordid sinners truly know what they do in sinning, we might say of every sin what the Apostle speaks concerning that great sin, Had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory did they truly know that every sin is a provoking the Lord to jealousy, a proclaiming war against Heaven, dorucifying the Lord Jesus afresh, a treasuring up wrath unto themselves against the day of wrath and that, if ever they be pardoned, it must be at no lowered rate than the price of his blood it were scarce possible but sin, in stead of alluring, should affright, and instead of tempting, scare.fet is one of the arch devices and principal methods of Satan to deceive men into sin thus he prevailed against our first parents, not as a lion, but as a serpent, acting his enmity under a pretence of friendship, and tempting them to evil under an appearance of good and thus hath he all along carried on his designs of darkness, by trans forming himself into an angel of light, making poorideceived menigh love with their miseries, and hugotheir own destruction Amost sovereign antidote against all kind of errors, isoto be grounded and settled in the faith: persons unfixed in the true religion, are very receptive of a false; and they who are nothing in spiritual knowledge are easily made anything Clouds without water are driven to land fra with every wind, and ships without ballast liable to the violence of every tempest But yet the knowledge we especially commend, is not a brain-knowledge, a mere speculation this may be in the worst of men, may, in the worst of creatures, the devils themselves, and that in such an eminency, as the best of saints cannot attain to in this life of imperfection; but an inward, a savoury, an heart knowledge, such as was in that martyr, who, though she could not dispute for: Christe could die for him. This is that spiritual sense and feeling of divine truths the Apostle speaks of, Hebv4. Having your senses sexer. eised, &oles of tedy prot997ib s es eid to 1977 tont au figust biBut, alas, we may say of most men's religion what learned Rivet speaks concerning the errors of the fathers, They were not so much their own errors, as the errors of the times wherein they lived Thus do most men take up their religion upon no better an account than Turks and Papists take up theirs, because it is the religion of the times and places wherein they live; and what they take up thus bcords bas smod is diod virgolni bas qnimesi,in9mgbuj risult Rivet, Crit. Sacr.

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THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.

slightly, they lay down as easily. Whereas an inward taste and relish of the things of God, is an excellent preservative to keep us settled in the most unsettled times. Corrupt and unsavoury principles have great advantage upon us, above those that are spiritual and sound the former being suitable to corrupt nature, the latter contrary; the former springing up of themselves, the latter, brought forth not without a painful industry. The ground needs no other midwifery in bringing forth weeds than only the neglect of the hus bandman's hand to pluck them up; the air needs no other cause of darkness than the absence of the sun; nor water of coldness than its distance from the fire; because these are the genuine products of nature Were it so with the soul, (as some of the philosophers have yainly imagined,) to come into the world as an abrasa tabula, a mere blank or piece of white paper, on which neither any thing is written, nor any blots, it would then be equally receptive of good and evil, and no more averse to the one than to the other: but how much worse its condition indeed is, were scripture silent, every man's experience does evidently manifesto For who is there that knows any thing of his own heart, and knows not thus much, that the suggestions of Satan have so easy and free admittance into our hearts, that our tmost watchfulness is too little to guard us from them whereas the motions of God's, Spirit are so unacceptable to us, that our utmost diligence is too little to get our hearts open to entertain them. Let therefore the excellency, necessity, difficulty of true wisdom stir up endeavours in you somewhat proportionable to such an accom plishment; Above all getting, get understanding, Prov. iv. 7. and search for wisdom as for hidden treasures, Prov. ii. 4. It much concerns you in respect of yourselves 3-0

[Our second advice concerns heads of families, in respect of their families Whatever hath been said already, though it concerns every private Christian that hath a soul to look after; yet, upon a doubler account,bit concerns parents and masters, as having themselves and others to look after: some there are, who, because of their ignorance, cannot others, because of their sluggishness, will not mind this duty. To the former we propound the method of Joshua, who first began with himself, and then is careful of his family. To the latter we shall only hint, what a dreadful meeting those parents and masters must have at that great day, with their children and servants, when all that were under their inspection shall not only accuse them, but charge their eternal miscarrying upon their score. Never did any age of the Church enjoy such choice helps as this of ours Every ages of the gospel hath had its Creeds, Confessions, Catechisms, and such breviaries and models of divinity as have been singularly useful. Such forms of sound words (however in these days decriedy have been in use in the Church ever since God himself wrote the Decalogue, as a summary of things to be done'; and Christ taught us that prayer of his, as a directory what to ask. Concerning the usefulness of such compendiary systems, so much hath been said already by a learned divine of this age, as is sufficient to satisfy all Who nie pot resolved to remain unsatisfied.odi es eToro nwo wódź à Concerning the particular excellency of these ensuing treatises, we judge it unneedful to mention those eminent testimonies which have been given them from persons of known worth, in respect of their judgment, learning, and integrity, both at home and abroad,

* Doctor Tuckney in his Sermon on 2 Tim. i. 13.

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