James Kirkton

“ Welch's hands, which yet, did not discourage him, for having left the ladle, he filled his hat with powder, wherewith the gunner loaded his piece, and dismounted the king's gun at the first shot, so the citizens returned to their post of defence.
This discouraged the king so, that he sent to the citizens to offer them fair conditions, which were, That they should enjoy the liberty of their religion, their civil privileges, and their walls should not be demolished: only the king desired for his honours that he might enter the city with his servants in a friendly manner. ”

“ But before he left Scotland, some remarkable passages in his behaviour are to be remembered. And first when the dispute about church-government began to warm; as he was walking upon the street of Edinburgh, betwixt two honest citizens, he told them, they had in their town two great ministers, who were no great friends to Christ's cause, presently in controversy, but it should be seen, the world should never bear of their repentance. ”

“ There was in Ayr, before he came to it, an aged man a minister of the town, called Porterfield, the man was judged no bad man, for his personal inclinations, but so easy a disposition, that he used many times to go too great a length with his neighbours in many dangerous practices; and amongst the rest, he used to go to the bow-butts and archery, on Sabbath afternoon, to Mr. Welch's great dissatisfaction. ”

“ Welch gave him his blessing, and a piece of gold for a token, exhorting him to fear God, and promised he should never want, which promise, providence made good through the whole course of his life, as was observed by all his neighbours. ”

“ But he knew well, he should never preach more at Ayr; and accordingly before the next Sabbath, ho was carried prisoner to Blackness castle. After that, he, with many others were brought before the council of Scotland, at Edinburgh, to answer for their rebellion and contempt, in holding a general assembly, not authorised by the king. And because they declined the secret council, as judges competent in causes purely spiritual, such as the nature and constitution of a general assembly is, they were first remitted to the prison at Blackness, and other places. ”

“ And this young nobleman, though he lost the estato of Oehiltry, lived to aequire a great estate in Ireland, and was lord Castlestewart, and a man of such excellent parts, that he was courted by the earl of Stafford to be a counsellor in Ireland, which he refused to be, and then he engaged, and continued for all his life, not only in honour and power, but in the profession and practice of godliness, to the great comfort of the country where he lived. ”

“ His first post in the ministry was at Selkirk, while he was yet very young, and the country rude; while he was there, his ministry was rather admired by some, than received by many; for he was always attended by the prophet's shadow, the hatred of the wicked; yea, even the ministers of the country, were more ready to pick a quarrel with his person, than to follow his doctrine, as may appear to this day in their synodical records, where we find he had many to censure him, and only some to defend him ”

“ Welch's Armagaddon, printed I suppose, in France, wherein he gives his meditation upon tho enemies of the church, and their destruction: but the piece itself is rarely to be found.
Sometimes before he went to sermon, he would send for his elders, and tell them, he was afraid to go to pulpit because he found himself sore deserted: and thereafter desire one or more to pray, and then he would venture to pulpit. But, it was observed, this humbliug exercise used ordinarily to be followed, with a flame of extraordinary assistance: so near neighbours are many times contrary dispositions and frames. ”

“ The country man told him, he was much mistaken, and that it was nothing else, but the minister at his night prayer. O, said the friar, does the minister pray any? Yes, more than any man in France, answered the country man, and if you please to stay another night with him you may be satisfied. Tho friar got home to Mr. Welch's house, and pretending indisposition, entreated, another night's lodging, which was granted him. Before dinner, Mr. Welch came from his chamber, and made his family exercise, according to his custom. ”

“ Welch, to remove him and his family for Rochel, where he remained till he obtained liberty to come to England, and his friends made hard suit, that he might be permitted to return to Scotland; because the physicians declared there was no other way to preserve his life, but by the freedom he might have in his native air. But to this king James would never yield, protesting he should never be able to establish his beloved bishops in Scotland, if Mr. Welch were permitted to return thither ”

“ During the siege, the townsmen made stout defence, until one of the king's gunner's planted a great gun so conveniently upon a rising ground, that therewith he could command the whole wall upon which the townsmen made their greatest defence. ”

“ The plague was at that time very terrible, and ho being necessarily separate from his people, it was to him tho more grievous; but when the people of Ayr came to him to bemoan themselves his answer was, that Hugh Kennedy, a godly gentleman in their town, should pray for them, and God should hear him. ”

“ But if his diligence was great, so it is doubted whether his sowing in painfulness, or his harvest in his success was greatest; for if either his spiritual experiences in seeking the Lord, or his fruitfulness in converting souls be considered, they will be found unparalleled in Scotland: and many years after Mr Welch's death, Mr. David Dickson, at that time a flourishing minister at Irvine, was frequently heard to say, when people talked to him of the success of his ministry, that the grape gleanings in Ayr, in Mr. Welch's time, were far above the vintage of Irvine, in his own. Mr. ”