supposed to interest a general reader. He was now occupied, apparently, in
the routine of his duties, and in the business of the General Assembly, of which
he was several times (in 1563, 1565, and 1568) chosen moderator. In or
before 1567, he seems to have gone to England; and the General Assembly, in
testimony of their esteem, and of the value of his services, ordered John Knox
to request him to return. This he did in a most affectionate letter, and it had
its effect Willock did return, and was appointed moderator of the next Assembly. For reasons which it is now in vain to conjecture, he is supposed to have
returned to England, almost immediately afterwards. With this period closes
every authentic trace of this excellent man, of whose history throughout, we unfor-
tunately only know enough to excite, but not to gratify, our interest. A charge,
apparently of a very absurd nature, has been brought against him by Mr George
Chalmers. In a MS. in the State Paper office, that author discovered, that in
April, 1590, "twa men, the ane namyt Johnne Gibsonne, Scottishman, preacher, and Johne Willokes, were convicted by a jury of robbery;" and he immediately concluded that this could be no one else, but "the reforming co-adjutor of Knox:" a conclusion which could not fail to gratify his prejudices.
Without troubling the reader with any lengthened defence of the supposition
that there may have been more than one John Willock in broad England, we
shall merely state, that as our Willock was a preacher in 1540, if not earlier,
he must now have been at an age when robbers (when the gallows spares them) generally think of retiring from their profession.
Respecting the works of John Willock, we have not been able to learn anything. Dempster, in his account of him,_ one of the most bitter articles in his "Historia Ecclesiastica," ascribes to him, "Impia Quaedam;" which, however, he had not seen when he pronounced this opinion of them.'*
WILLISON John, an eminent divine, and author of several well known religious works, was born in the year 1680. The singularly gentle and pious disposition which he evinced, even in his boyhood, together with the extraordinary aptness which he discovered for learning, determined his parents to devote him, from a very early period of his life, to the service of the church, and in this determination young Willison cordially acquiesced. It was the profession of all others which he himself preferred.
On completing a regular course of academical education, he entered on the study of divinity, and prosecuted it with remarkable assiduity and success. Havin" duly qualified himself for the sacred calling of the ministry, he was almost immediately thereafter invited, 1703, by an unanimous cal 1, tc .the pastoral office at Brechin. Here he acquired so great a degree of popularity by labilities as a preacher, and by the simplicity and purity of his manners and conduct, and the benevolence of his disposition, that he was earnestly -a unanimously called upon by the people of Dundee
after occurred in that town. He accordingly removed thither, an
wmsonsaes procured him a remarkable prominency in all public
(Wod,
