Series 1 > Diary of Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston 1632-1639

INTRODUCTION
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In the early part of the Diary, Wariston has so much to say
about the churches which he attended and the sermons which
he heard that a short digression may be permitted by way of
reference to the learned ministers whose pulpit services seem
to have specially interested him. Among them were:—
The accomplished scholar, Andrew Ramsay, of the Balmain
family, a poet of the delicioe, who then held the First Charge of
Greyfriars. He was delivering courses of sermons (1) upon the
text ‘ But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love,’ and (2) upon the text ‘ A bruised
reed will he not break,’ etc., upon which ‘ he teached wondrously
well.’ Ramsay had studied theology in France, where he was
for some time a Professor in the University of Saumur. He
was afterwards Rector and Professor of Theology in the
University of Edinburgh, which offices he demitted on being
appointed to Greyfriars parish. He became one of the leaders
of the Covenanting party :
Harry (Hery) Rollock, nephew of Robert Rollock the first
Principal of the University of Edinburgh, a descendant of the
ancient Barons of Duncrub. He was minister of the College
Church and was then preaching a course on the text ‘And
God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very
good. Then the heavens and the earth were finished and all
the host of them,’ etc. Contrasting his style of preach¬
ing with that of Henderson, Wariston wrote that, while
Henderson moved ‘the judgment wonderfully,’ Rollock moved
‘the affections most pouerfully.’1 Rollock seems up to the
attempted introduction of the Service Book to have belonged
to the Bishops’ party, indeed he had shortly before been put
forward for the Bishopric of Argyll, but at the last moment
he withdrew from that party, and became one of its most
strenuous and, by his power of moving the people, one of its
most effective opponents:
James Fairlie, minister of the Second Charge of Greyfriars,
P. 4ii.
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