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,

NATIONAL AND SOLEMN LEAGUE;

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SINS, AND.
ENGAGEMENT TO DUTIES;

DIRECTORIES FOR PUBLICK AND FAMILY WORSHIP;

FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c.

OF PUBLICK AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

WITH ACTS OF ASSEMBLY AND PARLIAMENT, 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.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY SIR D. HUNTER BLAIR AND J. BRUCE,
Printers to the King's most Excellent Majesty.

S

CHRISTIAN READER,

1

ESPECIALLY

HEADS OF FAMILIES.

of soul lament those multi-

we cannot but with grief

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tudes 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 dark-
ness to light, Acts 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 inspec-
tion, is abundantly evident, not only from their special influ-
ence upon them, in respect of their authority over them, in-
terest 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

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