He was a man somewhat rude-like in his clothing, and in some of his expressions and behaviour; and yet was a very loving tender hearted man; of a deep natural judgment; and very learned, especially in Hebrew. He often wished that most part of books were burnt, except the bible, and some short notes thereon. He had a peculiar talent for comforting the dejected. He used a very familiar but pressing manner of preaching. He was also an eminent wrestler with God, and had more than ordinary power and familiarity with him, as appears from the following instances.
When he was minister at Kinghorn, there was a certain godly woman under his charge, who fell sick of a very lingering disease, and was all the while assaulted with strong temptations, leading her to think that she was a cast-away, notwithstanding that her whole conversation had put the reality of grace in her beyond a doubt. He often visited her while in this deep exercise, but her trouble and terrors still remained; as her dissolution drew on, her spiritual trouble increased. He went with two of his elders to her, and began first, in their presence, to comfort her and pray with her, but she still grew worse: He ordered his elders to pray, and afterwards prayed himself, but no relief came. Then sitting pensive for a little space, he thus broke silence, "What is this! Our laying grounds of comfort before her will not do; prayer will not do: We must try another remedy. Sure I am, this is a daughter of Abraham; sure I am, she hath sent for me, and therefore, in the name of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who sent him to redeem sinners; in the name of Jesus Christ, who obeyed the Father, and came to save us; and in the name of the Holy and blessed Spirit, our Quickner and Sanctifier—I, the elder, command thee, a daughter of Abraham, to be loosed from these bonds." And immediately peace and joy ensued.
Mr. Scrimzeor had several friends and children taken away by death, and his only daughter who, at that time survived (and whom he dearly loved), being seized with the king's evil, by which she was reduced to the very point of death, so that he was called up to see her die; and finding her in this condition, he went out to the fields (as he himself told) in the night-time, in great grief and anxiety, and began to expostulate with the Lord, with such expressions as, for all the world, he durst not again utter. In a fit of displeasure he said, "Thou, O Lord, knowest that I have been serving thee in the uprightness of my heart, according to my power and measure, nor have I stood in awe to declare thy mind even unto the greatest in the time, and thou seest that I take pleasure in this child. O that I could obtain such a thing at thy hand, as to spare her." And being in great agony of spirit, at last it was said to him from the Lord, "I have heard thee at this time, but use not the like boldness in time coming, for such particulars." When he came home the child was recovered, and, sitting up in the bed, took some meat, and when he looked at her arm it was perfectly whole.
The Life of Mr. John Welch.
Mr. John Welch was born a gentleman, his father being laird of Colieston (an estate rather competent than large, in the shire of Nithsdale), about the year 1570, the dawning of our reformation being then but dark. He was a rich example of grace and mercy, but the night went before the day, being a most hopeless extravagant boy: It was not enough to him, frequently when he was a young stripling to run away from the school, and play the truant; but, after he had past his grammar, and was come to be a youth, he left the school, and his father's house, and went and joined himself to the thieves on the English border, who lived by robbing the two nations, and amongst them he stayed till he spent a suit of clothes. Then when he was clothed only with rags, the prodigal's misery brought him to the prodigal's resolution, so he resolved to return to his father's house, but durst not adventure, till he should enterpose a reconciler. In his return homeward, he took Dumfries in his way, where he had an aunt, one Agnes Forsyth, and with her he spent some days, earnestly intreating her to reconcile him to his father. While he lurked in her house, his father came providentially to the house to visit his cousin Mrs. Forsyth; and after they had talked a while, she asked him, Whether ever he had heard any news of his son John; to her he replied with great grief, O cruel woman, how can you name him to me? The first news I expect to hear of him, is, That he is hanged for a thief. She answered, Many a profligate boy had become a virtuous man, and comforted him. He insisted upon his sad complaint, but asked, Whether she knew his lost son was yet alive. She answered, Yes, he was, and she hoped he should prove a better man than he was a boy, and with that she called upon him to come to his father. He came weeping, and kneeled, beseeching his father, for Christ's sake, to pardon his misbehaviour, and deeply engaged to be a new man. His father reproached him and threatened him. Yet at length, by his tears, and Mrs. Forsyth's importunities, he was persuaded to a reconciliation. The boy entreated his father to send him to the college, and there to try his behaviour, and if ever thereafter he should break, he said, He should be content his father should disclaim him for ever: So his father carried him home, and put him to the college, and there he became a diligent student, of great expectation, and shewed himself a sincere convert; and so he proceeded to the ministry. His first settlement 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 that country, were more ready to pick a quarrel with his person, than to follow his doctrine, as may appear to this day in their synodal records, where we find he had many to censure him, and only some to defend him; yet it was thought his ministry in that place was not without fruit, though he stayed but short time there. Being a young man unmarried, he boarded himself in the house of one Mitchelhill, and took a young boy of his to be his bedfellow, who to his dying day retained both a respect to Mr. Welch and his ministry, from the impressions Mr. Welch's behaviour made upon his apprehension, though but a child. His custom was when he went to bed at night, to lay a Scots plaid above his bed-clothes, and when he went to his night-prayers, to sit up and cover himself negligently therewith, and so to continue. For from the beginning of his ministry to his death, he reckoned the day ill spent if he stayed not seven or eight hours in prayer; and this the boy did not forget even to old age.
An old man of the name of Ewart in Selkirk, who remembered Mr. Welch's being in that place said, He was a type of Christ; an expression more significant than proper, for his meaning was, That he was an example that imitated Christ, as indeed in many things he did: He also said, That his custom was to preach publicly once every day, and to spend his whole time in spiritual exercises, that some in that place waited well upon his ministry with great tenderness, but that he was constrained to leave that place, because of the malice of the wicked.
The special cause of his departure was, a prophane gentleman in the country (one Scot of Headschaw, whose family is now extinct), because Mr. Welch had either reproved him, or merely from hatred, Mr. Welch was most unworthily abused by the unhappy man, and among the rest of the injuries he did him, this was one:—Mr. Welch kept always two good horses for his own use, and the wicked gentleman, when he could do no more, either with his own hand, or by his servants, cut off the rumps of the two innocent beasts, upon which they both died. Such base usage as this persuaded him to listen to a call to the ministry at Kirkcudbright, which was his next post.
But when he was to leave Selkirk, he could not find a man in all the town to transport his furniture, except only Ewart, who was at that time a poor young man, but master of two horses, with which he transported Mr. Welch's goods, and so left him; but as he took his leave, Mr. 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 the man's life, as was observed by all his neighbours.
At Kirkcudbright he stayed not long; but there he reaped a harvest of converts, which subsisted long after his departure, and were a part of Mr. Samuel Rutherford's flock, though not his parish, while he was minister at Anwoth. Yet when his call to Ayr came to him, the people of the parish of Kirkcudbright never offered to detain him, so his transportation to Ayr was the more easy.