Mess John.] Woman are you a hearer of the gospel? that ye reject the dictates of it, how come you to dispise the discipline of the church? Is not offenders to be rebuked and chastised!
Mit.] Yes stir, a' that is very true, but I hae been three or four times thro' the Bible and the New testament, and I never saw a repenting stool in’t a‘, them whare cou‘d the first o‘ them come frae, the Apostles had nane o‘ them. But a daft history Book tells me, that the first o‘ them was used about Rome amang the Papists, an ay whan ony o‘ them turn‘d Whigs, they were put on a four neuked thing, like a yarn-winnel blades, an rive a‘ their gouls findry till they turn‘d Papists again n then for anger they put them on a black stane or stool, in the mids o‘ the kirk, an the sock gown about them, wi‘ the picture o‘ the de‘il an Satan on‘t, a sweet be wi‘ us, we sudna speak o‘ the ill thief in the kirk, but it is a mercy the minister's here an he come, but that was the original o‘ your repenting stools, an whan the Whigs chac'd awa‘ the Papist souk out o‘ this country, they left a wheen o‘ their religious pictures and the stool o‘ repentance was amangst the spoil, but ye’se no get my bairn to set upon a thing as high as a hen bawd, an ilka body to be glowrin at him.
Mess John.] Woman I told you formerly that any who refuses submission to the government of the church, is liable to excommunication: an that we are to put the law in execution against adultery and fornication, or the sin thereof lies partly on our head.
Mit.] As for your sin of adultery, I have naething ado wi‘t, I ken my son is a fornicator, an ye can neither mak him better nor war nor he is, there‘s nae man can keep a standing in their ain hand, fortune I mean, if it be a sin let him confess't, an forsake it, and we‘s pay the buttock-mail and mak nae mair about it.
Mess John.] Goodwife, you need not think your
