Q. How do minsters murder other men’s souls?

A. By entering into the ministry without God’s call, which renders their labor unprofitable; by neglecting due pains for their people’s instruction and conversion; by preaching error, or truth in a wrong manner; by administration of the sacraments to the ignorant and profane; and by their loose and carnal example, Jer. 23.

Q. How do ministers murder men’s souls by a wrong way of preaching truth?

A. By preaching the law as a covenant, as it might and should be obeyed by us to render us welcome to Christ as a Savior; by insisting chiefly on circumstantial points; by preaching to a multitude as if they were all saints, or in such a manner as makes saints discredit their relation to Christ, or forget the duty of the present times, Ezek. 33. Jer. 23.

Q. How do magistrates murder other men’s souls?

A. By not providing their subjects with schools, and a pure gospel ministry; and by not punishing, but encouraging error, superstition, and gross immorality, Mic. 6:16.

John Brown of Haddington, Questions and Answers on the Shorter Catechism, 249-250.