deed, weel I wat, when he feeds his bystart sae weel.
Mess John. Woman, are you a hearer of the gospel? that ye reject the dictates of it, how come you to despise 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 through the Bible, and the New Testament, an I never saw a repenting-stool in't a'; then whar 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 when ony o' them turn'd Whigs, they were put' on a four neuked thing, like a yarn-winnle blades, an rave a' their gouls sindry till they turn'd Papists again; an then for anger they put them on a black stane or stool, in the middle o' the kirk, an the seck 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 tools, an whan the Whigs chas'd awa' the Papist fouk out o' this kintry, they left a wheen o' their religious pictures, an the stool o' repentance was amangst the spoil, but ye's no get my bairn to set upon a thing as high as a hen-bawk, an ilka body to be glowring 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.
Mith. 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 confes'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
