AMONG those who may be reckoned as bright ornaments of the Church of Christ none can claim a higher place than John Welsh of Ayr. The name is sometimes spelt Welch, and Welsche, but the spelling adopted in the present article is that which is now mostly in use. Welsh, who was the son of the Laird of Colieston, was born about 1570 in the parish of Dunscore in Dumfries-shire. His boyhood gave a very clear demonstration of man’s Fall in Adam and the total depravity of his nature, for he was wild and reckless, and at last ran away from home and spent some time among a band of Border robbers. Though he was, in this way, permitted for a time to give ample proof of the fact that he was a child of wrath even as others, yet God, who sovereignly and lovingly elected him from all eternity, caused him to halt in his mad course of sin. Like the prodigal, he resolved to go to his father’s house, and on his way, stayed for a few days at the house of an aunt. In accordance with the divine foreordination his father called at the house while his son was there, and father and son were reconciled, so that instead of the father hearing of him as he expected, that he had been hanged as a thief, he had the happiness of bringing home a repentant son whom he afterwards sent to college.
During the time he studied in Edinburgh University, known at that time as King James’s College, the subject of our sketch showed himself a sincere convert and a diligent student of great promise. Though he was not in the class taught by the famous Robert Rollock, who was then Principal of the College, yet he benefited much by his instruction and general oversight of the College. He completed his studies, taking his degree of Master of Arts in 1588, and was ordained as minister of Selkirk soon afterwards, for his name appears in connection with the Edinburgh Assembly of March 1590. His parish, which was very extensive, was sunk in ignorance and vice, with very few who had even the appearance of religion. His labours in preaching and teaching were incessant, and there is reason to believe that the fruits of these labours were to be seen for years after he left for Kirkcudbright in 1593. It was, however, the malice of those who hated his faithful preaching and consistent life that caused him to leave Selkirk. Kirkcudbright, his second sphere of labour, though also rude and barbarous, had, under his preaching, showers of blessing, and long after his departure many to whose souls he was the messenger of God formed part of Samuel Rutherford’s stated hearers while he was minister of Anwoth.
About the year 1599 John Welsh was transported to Ayr, a town with which his name was ever afterwards associated. The inhabitants of the town were rough and turbulent, with little or no religion. Though a Protestant ministry had been established there for many years previous to this, yet the doctrines brought to light at the Reformation seemed to have little impression on the lives of the inhabitants, but their new minister, in the strength of that grace given him by God, was equal to the circumstances in which he was placed. Conflicts by armed partisans in the streets of the town were a daily occurrence which vexed him greatly, and in order to put a stop to such feuds he would rush in between the combatants, unarmed, and with no protection but a steel head-piece. When he had succeeded in separating them he would cause a table to be set in the street, and then, after persuading those who were enemies to profess themselves friends, he would begin with prayer, and cause them to eat and drink together, ending the whole with the singing of a psalm. In a short while the town became very peaceful and orderly.
It may truly be said that Welsh set himself to do the work of an evangelist. It is said of him that he preached once every day, and that he spent, at least, eight hours of each day in prayer. He often spent whole nights in prayer in the Church of Ayr, which was some distance from the town. In his preaching he was spiritual and searching, and his utterances were so tender and moving that, according to one of his hearers, “No man could hardly hear him and forbear weeping.” He was not a stranger to the temptations of Satan and the attacks of unbelief, and when he would be under a feeling of desertion it was difficult to prevail upon him to preach. Under these circumstances he would often tell his elders that he was afraid to go to the pulpit, and would desire one of them to pray before he would do so. This often was followed by great liberty in proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ.
The scheme which King James VI. set his heart upon above everything else was the suppression of the General Assemblies of the Church and the setting up of Bishops, and John Welsh, as one who was faithful to his Lord and to the dictates of an enlightened conscience, was foremost among those who resisted such work. He first became obnoxious to the King in 1596, while he was still minister of Kirkcudbright. On a Sabbath afternoon, following a tumult which broke out in Edinburgh, and for which King James tried to fix the blame on the ministers who were at the time assembled in the city, Welsh occupied the pulpit of the High Church by the appointment of the other ministers. Owing to the serious nature of the attempts made by the King at this time on the liberties of the Church it was not to be expected that such a man as Welsh would be silent concerning the dangers which threatened the Church. A garbled version of his sermon was sent to the King and a charge of treason was preferred against him with orders to arrest and imprison him. He, however, withdrew himself to a place of safety until the storm was past, which happened when the policy of the King required that he should be more favourable to the ministers. When the King’s purpose for setting up Bishops in Scotland was ripe he postponed the General Assembly which was to meet in Aberdeen in July, 1604, from one date to another till at last he issued a proclamation prohibiting a meeting of Assembly altogether. Some of the godly ministers, and among them John Welsh, met in Aberdeen in July, 1605, one of the dates formerly fixed on by the King. Although they did nothing but constitute the Assembly and then dismissed, they incurred the wrath of the King, who had them imprisoned within a month of their meeting. Welsh was sent, first to the Tolbooth in Edinburgh, then to Blackness Castle and ultimately banished to France. It was from Blackness that he wrote his famous letter to Dame Liliias Grahame, Countess of Wigton, which recently appeared in the Free Presbyterian Magazine.
On 7th November, 1606, Welsh was taken from Blackness Castle and, with other exiles, put on board ship at Leith for France. In spite of the secrecy with which they were taken from their prison, and the early hour at which this was done, an immense crowd gathered on the shore at Leith to bid them farewell. Welsh led the farewell devotions, and at the bitter moment of parting, the exiles cheered the hearts of the multitude on shore by sweetly singing the twenty-third psalm, manifesting their own unshaken confidence in Israel’s Shepherd. The faithful minister was now taken from his beloved flock, but the memory of his faithfulness could not be effaced from their memories, and the seals to his ministry, in the persons who had been converted and edified under his preaching, were still witnesses in his mourning congregation to remind them, if that were necessary, of the great loss they had sustained. They knew him as one with whom, in a large measure, the secret of the Lord was, and, if space permitted, many instances could be given to show this to have been the case.
Before Mr. Welsh left Selkirk he was united in marriage to Elizabeth Knox, a daughter of John Knox, the Reformer. She proved herself a worthy daughter of so eminent a father, for she bravely shared her husband’s trials, comforting him, and encouraging him to continue faithful. Now that she was faced with the great trial of parting with him at Leith Harbour, she did not waver. With what feelings she endured their last parting in Scotland none can describe, but grace was given her to bear it, and she went back to their home in Ayr to act the part of father and mother to the family, and to commit all their concerns to the God who is the Hearer of prayer. Six months after his arrival in France, Mrs. Welsh and the family joined him at Bordeaux, cheering him not a little, and making his lot more tolerable under the many trials which he had in a foreign land.
In the depth of winter Welsh arrived at Bordeaux, and his first work was to begin learning French so as to preach in that language, a matter which he accomplished in fourteen weeks after his arrival. He spent some time in various villages preaching the gospel, and at last became minister of the Protestant town of St Jean d’Angely, where he continued for the rest of his sojourn in France. Here he had many trials. The town of which he was minister was strongly walled, and when Louis XIII. of France, impelled by priestly advisers, issued an edict suppressing the Protestant Church, the inhabitants resolved to resist him. In May, 1621, the French Army surrounded the town and under these circumstances Welsh showed that he was both a Christian and a man. He wrestled in secret at a Throne of Grace, and went abroad through the streets of the town, regardless of danger, encouraging and helping where that was needed. One instance of his faith and courage may be given at a time when one of the enemy’s guns was giving considerable trouble. When none else would venture he undertook to carry powder to the only gunner left on that part of the wall. In the act of doing so a shot from the enemy’s gun took both powder and ladle out of his hands, but, nothing daunted, he took his hat and carried the powder in it to the gunner, saying at the same time, “Level well, and God will direct the shot.” That shot dismantled the besiegers’ gun and the renewed efforts of the defenders were the means of procuring for them better terms of surrender. These terms, however, were shamelessly violated by the King’s troops.
During the occupation of St. Jean d’Angely by the King’s army, Welsh preached as usual, and, this giving offence, he was summoned before the King. In reply to the King’s demand as to why he acted as he did, he said, “I preach that you must be saved by the death and merits of Jesus Christ, and not your own . . . Next I preach that as you are King of France you are under the authority and command of no man on earth. Those men whom you usually hear subject you to the Pope of Rome, which I will never do.” This reply pleased Louis so much that he ever after treated him with respect.
At last, through the perfidy of a Romanist French Government, his congregation was scattered, and his own health becoming enfeebled, he was advised by his doctors to seek his native air. With this end in view he came to London and his wife presented a petition to King James asking for permission for him to return to Scotland. The coarse buffoonery and profanity, so characteristic of small minds, displayed by the King on this occasion, and the dignified attitude of the daughter of John Knox, shows that real nobility is only where the grace of God reigns. The King at last told Mrs. Welsh that if her husband would submit to the bishops he would allow him to return to Scotland. She held out her apron and her spirited reply was, “Please Your Majesty I would rather kep (receive) his head there.” After repeated refusals he was at last given liberty to preach and gladly availed himself of the opportunity. He preached long and fervently, but it was his last sermon. In two hours’ time he was at his eternal rest at the age of fifty-two years, and was buried beside Mr. Deering, a famous English divine, in St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, London, on 4th April, 1622. On his death-bed he received such a fullness of communion with God that he was obliged to cry out, “Lord hold Thy hand, it is enough; Thy servant is a clay vessel, and can hold no more.” He left one son, Josias Welsh, who was minister of Templepatrick in Ireland.
During his ministry at Kirkcudbright he wrote and published *Popery Anatomized,* being a reply to Abbot Brown. This treatise was dedicated to King James VI., and shows both his acuteness as a controversialist and his learning as a theologian, and a reprint of it would be useful in our own day. He also published, while in France, “L’Armageddon de la Babylon Apocalyptique,” which deals with the enemies of the Church and their destruction. Besides these a volume of forty-eight of his sermons was published, one of them being the last sermon he preached at Ayr, on 23rd July, 1605, before he was cast into Blackness prison. The last edition of these sermons appeared in 1825, and it does not say much for the reading public of Scotland that a more recent edition has not yet appeared.—J.C.