contradicteth his fellow-pleader
for the ceremonies.

2. That ancient discipline and policy of this church which is contrary to
the articles of Perth, and whereunto we are bound by the oath, was well
grounded upon God's word, and therefore should not have been ranked among
other alterable things.

3. Whereas the Bishop is of opinion that a man may, by his oath, tie
himself to things which a church shall afterwards ordain, he may consider,
that such an oath were unlawful, because not sworn in judgment, Jer. iv.
2. Now this judgment which is required as one of the inseparable
companions of a lawful oath, is not _executio justitiae_, but _judicium
discretionis_, as Thomas teacheth;(1288) whom Bullinger and Zanchius(1289)
do herein follow. But there is no judgment of discretion in his oath who
swears to that he knows not what, even to that which may fall out as
readily wrong as right.

4. Whereas the Bishop and the Doctor allege that every man who sware to
the discipline of this church standeth obliged to obey all that the church
ordained afterward, they greatly deceive themselves.

For, 1. The discipline spoken of in the promissory part of the oath must
be the same which was spoken of in the assertory part. Now that which is
mentioned in the assertory part cannot be imagined to be any other but
that which was then presently used in this church at the time of giving
the oath; for an assertory oath(1290) is either of that which is past or
of that which is present: and the assertory part of the oath whereof we
speak was not of any discipline past and away, therefore of that which was
present. Moreover, Thomas(1291) doth rightly put this difference betwixt
an assertory and a promissory oath, that the matter of a promissory oath
is a thing to come, which is alterable, as concerning the event. _Materia
autem juramenti assertorii, quod est de praeterito vel praesenti, in
quandam necessitatem jam transiit, et immutabilis facta est._ Since, then,
the discipline spoken of in the assertory part was no other than that
which was used in this church when the oath was sworn; and since the
promissory part is illative upon, and relative unto the matter of the
assertory part; therefore we conclude the discipline spoken of in the
promissory part could be no other than that which was then presently used
in this church at the swearing of the oath.

2. Since the doctrine mentioned in that oath is said to have been
professed openly by the