During the ministry of Mr. David Bassillie and his successor, Mr. R; Hunter, there was a weekly sermon in the church every Tuesday, except for a few weeks in seed-time and in harvest, and it was after this sermon that the meetings of session were usually held.  This weekly service was discontinued after Mr. Hunter's expulsion, and was not resumed until June 1674, when Mr. Henry, at the request of the elders, promised to preach every Thursday in time coming, except seed-time and harvest, and from this period it was kept up during the incumbency of Mr. Archibald Hamilton and his successor, Mr. Fordyce, at whose death it was finally given up.  Church discipline was much more strictly enforced, and the parish under a more efficient guardianship, while this service was continued, than during the incumbency of the three Episcopalian clergymen of the intervening period, from 1662 to 1672. During this disturbed period, there are many indications in the register, of comparative laxity of principle in the clergymen, and of the disaffection of the people to Episcopacy. As a specimen of the former, we may quote the following entry: " 2d May 1668. Anent scandal, &c.  The session thinks fit that the Justices of His Majesty's Peace who are heritors of this paroch, may be advertised to sit in session the next Lord's day, in regard that much of the matter contained in the two claims belongs to their part." This may be contrasted with the following entry on 15th May 1692, soon after the re-establishment of Presbytery; "Mr. Wilson's petition for remuneration for his trouble in providing preachers during the vacancy, not being a work fit for the Sabbath, is continued, and afterwards referred to a meeting of heritors."  The unpopularity of Episcopacy is well illustrated by the following entries: " 1st Sept. 1670.  This day, Lord Forrester desired the minister to cause every elder in their respective bounds, to give up a list of all such persons as absent ye church, in contempt of ye present government yrof;" and" 11th February 1677. The minister gave in a grievance against Alexander Lowrie, for baptising his child with ane unconformed minister, contrary to the established government of the church."

On the other hand, the register exhibits, during the ministry of Mr. Robert Hunter, Mr. Archibald Hamiltbn, and Mr. Fordyce, the most rigid examples of Presbyterian strictness in order and discipline.  In July 1655, Mr. Hunter assigned to the elders and deacons separate districts of the parish "for their special oversight of the manners and conversation of the people living in the same, to the end that they might visit every one in their quarters, take inspection of their carriage, and give, from time to time, information of any thing amiss therein."  In this arrangement, a deacon was joined to one or two elders in the superintendence of the district in which they respectively resided.   They were likewise instructed to search their bounds, to see what servants were lately come to the parish, and to make report of their testimonials, that their names might be taken up for examination, and the elder and deacon of the bounds was required to be present at the diet of examination of those in their own bounds.

When Mr. Archibald Hamilton and Mr. Fordyce were ministers of Corstorphine, the parochial machinery was still more efficient and complete.  The session of the former, in July 1695, assumed the singular power of directing their kirk-officer severely to punish all children whom he found breaking the Sabbath.   In October 1705, the minister recommended to all the elders to be careful that the worship of God be kept up in each family of their bounds. At this time also the elders and deacons had their privy censures, each leaving the meeting in turn, while the others reported what they knew of his life and conversation, and on his return he was commended or exhorted, as the report was favourable or the reverse. 

Mr. Fordyce, shortly after his ordination, proposed that for all time coming, the elders should meet in the church the first Monday of every month, at nine o'clock in the morning, where he would meet with them, and spend some time in prayer, and conference about the state of the parish, "when they would endeavour to edify one another by proposing and solving cases of conscience and Scripture doubts, and he also promised to explain to them a part of the Confession of Faith, each of these times, till they had gone through it all. To this proposal all the elders readily agreed."  In 1712, he laid before his session "the necessity of prayer, and setting up societies through the several bounds of the parish for the same, to which all the elders readily agreed, and it was resolved that he and the elders in their several districts, should speak to the heads of families anent the same."

After Mr. Fordyce's death, during the ministry of the two following clergymen, discipline was so totally relaxed, that on Mr. Oliver's appointment, he found only a single elder in the parish, and discovered that the register of discipline had been discontinued for ten years, while the few entries between that period and the death of Mr. Fordyce are in general dated at the manse, where it appears Mr. Chiesley usually held his meetings of session.