Part of Horrobin's doctrine was his approval of a book which Wilson had censured. On 19 January 1722 John Stevenson, a layman of Balladoole, forwarded to Wilson a copy of the "Independent Whig", 1721, which had been circulated in the island and sent to Stevenson by Richard Worthington for the public library. Wilson issued a pastoral letter to his clergy, bidding them excommunicate the "agents and abettors" of "such-like blasphemous books". For suppressing the book Stevenson was imprisoned in Castle Rushen by Horne, who required Wilson to deliver up the volume as a condition of Stevenson's release. This he did under protest. When the book reached William Koss, the librarian, he said "he would as soon take poison as receive that book into the library upon any other terms or conditions than immediately to burn it". Horrobin, on the other hand, affirmed that the work "had rules and directions in it sufficient to bring us to heaven, if we could observe them".