The second reply of Thomas CartwrightThe second replie of Thomas Cartwright

Onles you count every reproach / and railing word an argument / here is no word to prove, that it is meet to enjoin ministers to learn Catechisms: that is to say / to prove that they may be ministers off the word / before they have learned the Christian A. B. C. which children off seen yaere old in reformed churches / can answer unto. They are necessary points wh• he are taught there. So is the A. B. C. to him which will learn to read. they are the weightiest things in our Religion. Else they could not be the foundations which uphold the whole building. To have said something you should have said / they are the hardest / and difficultest points off religion, but that you can not / those being ⟨p. CCCLXV⟩without the circuit off a Catechism. I am content therefore you shall praise the book with what words you will: but when you have done / look that you leave it a Catechism / that is to say a treatise of the first elements / or A. B. C. off Christianity. And then it followeth / that your enjoining off your ministers to learn it: doth necessarily presuppose ignorance off those things / the want off knowledge whereof in that age / not only ought to remove them from the college off ministers: but leaveth them no place till they be better instructed / to sit amongest the Christians. And if you think this no discredit at all, you have your credit separate from the credit off the church: which is discredited / dishonoured / yea utterly destroyed by such blind eyes. And I may further say / that he which thinketh this no discredit, may be feared to seek credit in the ignorance off the ministers: whilst amongest such a blind company / his sight may be somewhat / and whilst he may use their simplicity / to the establishment off that tyranny / which a learned ministry would never bear.

Onles yow counte euery reproche / and raylinge worde an argumente / here is no worde to proue, that yt is meete to enioyne mynisters to learne Cathechismes: that is to saye / to proue that they maie be ministers off the worde / before they haue learned the Christian A. B. C. which children off seeen yaere olde in reformed churches / can answer vnto. They are necessarie poinctes wh• he are tawghte there. So ys the A. B. C. to him whiche will learne to reade. they are the weightieste thinges in our Religion. Els they coulde not be the foundations whiche vphold the whole buildinge. To haue saide somethinge yow shoulde haue saide / they are the hardeste / and difficulteste poinctes off religion, but that yow can not / those beinge