The ordinary Christian, who cannot read the Scriptures, is required to
learn and know the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer;
and this has not come to pass without God's special ordering. For
these three contain fully and completely everything that is in the
Scriptures, everything that ever should be preached, and everything
that a Christian needs to know, all put so briefly and so plainly that
no one can make complaint or excuse, saying that what he needs or his
salvation is too long or too hard to remember.
Three things a man needs to know in order to be saved. _First_, he
must know what he ought to do and what he ought not to do. _Second_,
when he finds that by his own strength he can neither do the things he
ought, nor leave undone the things he ought not to do, he must know
where to seek and find and get the strength he needs. _Third_, he must
know how to seek and find and get this strength.
When a man is ill, he needs to know first what his illness is,--what
he can do and what he cannot do. Then he needs to know where to find
the remedy that will restore his health and help him to do and leave
undone the things he ought. Third, he must ask for this remedy, and
seek it, and get it or have it brought to him. In like manner, the
_Commandments_ teach a man to know his illness, so that he feels and
sees what he can do and what he cannot do, what he can and what he
cannot leave undone, and thus knows himself to be a sinner and a
wicked man. After that the _Creed_ shows him and teaches him where he
may find the remedy,--the grace which helps him to become a good man
and to keep the Commandments; it shows him God, and the mercy which He
has revealed and offered in Christ. In the third place, the _Lord's
Prayer_ teaches him how to ask or this grace, get it, and take it to
himself, to wit, by habitual, humble, comforting prayer; then grace is
given, and by the fulfillment of God's commandments he is saved.
These are the three chief things in all the Scriptures. Therefore we
begin at the beginning, with the Commandments, which are the first
thing, and learn to recognise our sin and wickedness, that is, our
spiritual illness, which prevents us from doing the things we ought to
do and leaving undone the things we ought not to do.