Series 3 > Register of the consultations of the ministers of Edinburgh and some other brethren of the ministry > Volume 1

190 THE REGISTER OF CONSULTATIONS
of a feare that they themselves shall incurre censure for
their miscariages.
7. The giving way unto the exercise of that expired
power doth enervate the power of the ordinarie judica¬
tures of the Kirk, by giving a patterne and precedent for
any that have a commission from them, to decline them as
corrupt, and to continue acting upon an expired power
without giving accompt to their respective judicatures.
And what dangerous consequences may this draw, if men,
following examples, should doe so by any ordinary judica¬
tures who intrust them with a commission, and colour
their practices with the specious pretences of the corrup¬
tion of the ordinare judicatures, and of their owne acting
for the publick good.
8. The countenancing of these Commissions that are
long since out of date, and pretended unto by persons
that have rent the unity of this Kirk, and rendered the
authority of kirk judicatures contemptible, will be most
greevous to the body of the Ministerie and people of the
land, who, out of the conscience of their duety 'to endeavour
the preservation of the established disciphne of this Kirk,
and abhorrencie from anie course of usurpation to the
prejudice thereof, will testifie their detestation of that
unheard of practice, and rather undergoe the hardest of
sufferings than subject themselves to such prelaticall
arrogancies. Ministers, being bound in conscience, will
publickly and plainly wame their people to beware of these
encroachments, and the consciences of people will be
burthened and ensnared by the violent practices of these
men that love the preeminence among the Brethren.
Wee are confident men of pitie and compassion will be
loath to minister a cause of greefe to the whole bodie of
the ministerie and people of the land, in a matter wherein
they are touched in conscience, by countenancing a practice,
the like whereof wes never heard of in this Kirk since the
first reformation untill those times.