WELCH, JOHN, a celebrated
divine of the seventeenth century, was born about the year 1570. His father
was a gentleman of considerable note in Nithsdale, where he possessed a
pretty extensive and valuable estate called Collieston. The outset of Mr
Welch’s career was an extraordinary one, and presents one of the most
striking and singular contrasts of conduct and disposition in one and the
same person at different periods of life which can perhaps be found in the
annals of biography.
This faithful and exemplary
minister of the church (for he became both in an eminent degree) began the
world by associating himself with a band of border thieves. While at school,
he was remarkable for the unsteadiness of his habits, and for an utter
disregard for the benefits of instruction and for the admonitions of his
friends and preceptors. He was also in the practice of absenting himself,
frequently and for long periods, from school, a habit in which he indulged
until it finally terminated in his not only abandoning the latter entirely,
but also his father’s house, and betaking himself to the borders, where, as
already noticed, he joined one of those numerous bands of freebooters with
which those districts were then infested. Whether, however, it was that a
better spirit came over the young prodigal, or that he found the life of a
border marauder either not such as he had pictured it, or in itself not
agreeable to him, he soon repented of the desperate step he had taken, and
resolved on returning to his father’s house.
In pursuance of this
resolution he called, on his way homewards, on one of his aunts, who lived
in Dumfries, with the view of making her a mediator between himself and his
offended father, an office which she undertook and accomplished in the
course of an accidental visit which young Welch’s father paid her whilst his
son was still under her roof. The former, however, had anticipated a very
different issue to his son’s profligate courses, for, on a sort of trial
question being put to him by the young man’s aunt, previously to her
producing him, whether he had heard anything lately of John, he replied, "
The first news I expect to hear of him is, that he is hanged for a thief."
On the reconciliation with his father being effected, young Welch entreated
him, with many protestations of future amendment, all of which he afterwards
faithfully implemented, to send him to college. With this request his father
complied, and the young convert gave him no reason to repent of his
indulgence. He became a diligent student, and made such rapid progress in
the learning of the times that he obtained a ministerial settlement at
Selkirk before he had attained his twentieth year. His stay here, however,
was but short, as, for some reason or another which has not been recorded,
he seems to have been an object of dislike and jealousy both to the clergy
and lay gentlemen of the district in which he resided. It is not improbable
that his former life was recollected to his disadvantage, and that this was,
at least in some measure, the cause of the enmity with which he was
persecuted. But, whatever the cause was, it is certain that it is not to be
found in his conduct, which was now exemplary, both in a moral and religious
point of view. The latter, indeed, was of an extraordiimary character. It
was marked by an intensity and fervour, an unremitting and indefatigable
zeal, which has been but rarely equalled in any other person, and never
surpassed. He preached publicly once every day, prayed, besides, for seven
or eight hours during the same period, and did not allow even the depth of
the night to pass without witnessing the ardency and enthusiasm of his
devotions. Every night, before going to bed, he threw a Scotch plaid above
his bed-clothes, that, when he awoke to his midnight prayers, it might be in
readiness to wrap around his shoulders. These devotional habits he commenced
with his ministry at Selkirk, and continued to the end of his life. Finding
his situation a very unpleasant one, Mr Welch readily obeyed a call which
had been made to him from Kirkcudbright, and lost no time in removing
thither. On this occasion a remarkable instance occurred of that
unaccountable dislike with which he was viewed, and which neither his
exemplary piety nor upright conduct seems to have been capable of
diminishing. He could not find any one person in the whole town excepting
one poor young man of the name of Ewart, who would lend him any assistance
in transporting his furniture to his new destination. Shortly after his
settlement at Kirkcudbright Mr Welch received a call from Ayr. This
invitation he thought proper also to accept, and proceeded thither in 1590.
Some of the details of this
period of Mr Welch’s life afford a remarkably striking evidence of the then
rude and barbarous state of the country. On his arrival at Ayr, so great was
the aversion of the inhabitants to the ministerial character, and to the
wholesome restraints which it ought always to impose, that he could find no
one in the town who would let him have a house to live in, and he was thus
compelled to avail himself of the hospitality of a merchant of the name of
Stewart, who offered him the shelter of his roof. At this period, too, it
appears that the streets of Ayr were constantly converted into scenes of the
most sanguinary combats between factious parties, and so frequent and to
such an extent was this murderous turbulence carried that no man could walk
through the town with safety.
Among the first duties which
Mr Welch imposed upon himself after his settlement at Ayr, was to correct
this ruthless and ferocious spirit, and the method he took to accomplish his
good work was a singular but, as it proved, effectual one. Regardless of the
consequences to himself, he rushed in between the infuriated combatants,
wholly unarmed, and no otherwise protected from any accidental stroke of
their weapons than by a steel cap which he previously placed on his head on
such occasions. When he had, by this fearless and determined proceeding,
succeeded in staying the strife, he ordered a table to be covered in the
street, and prevailed upon the hostile parties to sit down and eat and drink
together, and to profess themselves friends. This ceremony he concluded with
prayer and a psalm, in which all joined. The novelty of this proceeding, the
intrepidity of its originator, and above all the kind and christian-like
spirit which it breathed, soon had the most beneficial effects. The evil
which Mr Welch thus aimed at correcting gradually disappeared, and he
himself was received into high favour by the inhabitants of the town, who
now began to reverence his piety and respect his worth. While in Ayr Mr
Welch not only adhered to the arduous course of devotional exercise which he
had laid down for himself at Selkirk, but increased its severity, by
adopting a practice of spending whole nights in prayer in the church of Ayr,
which was situated at some distance from the town, and to which he was in
the habit of repairing alone for this pious purpose. Among the other objects
of pastoral solicitude which particularly engaged Mr Welch’s attention
during his ministry at Ayr, was the profanation of the Sabbath, one of the
most prominent sins of the place. This he also succeeded in remedying to a
great extent by a similarly judicious conduct with that he observed in the
case of feuds and quarrels. This career of usefulness Mr Welch pursued with
unwearied diligence and unabated zeal till the year 1605, when on an attempt
on the part of the king (James VI.,) to suppress General Assemblies, and on
that of the clergy to maintain them, he, with several more of his brethren,
was thrown into prison for holding a diet, in opposition to the wishes of
the court of delegates of synods, of which Mr Welch was one, at Aberdeen.
For this offence they were summoned before the privy council, but, declining
the jurisdiction of that court in their particular case, they were indicted
to stand trial for high treason at Linlithgow. By a series of the most
unjust, illegal, and arbitrary proceedings on the part of the officers of
the crown, a verdict of guilty was obtained against them, and they were
sentenced to suffer the death of traitors. The conduct of the wives of the
condemned clergymen, and amongst those of Mrs Welch in particular, on this
melancholy occasion, was worthy of the brightest page in Spartan story. They
left their families and hastened to Linlithgow to be present at the trial of
their husbands, that they might share in their joy if the result was
favourable, and that they might inspire them with courage if it were
otherwise. On being informed of the sentence of the court, "these heroines,"
says Dr M’Crie, "instead of lamenting their fate, praised God who had given
their husbands courage to stand to the cause of their Master, adding, that,
like Him, they had been judged and condemned under the covert of night." If
spirit be hereditary, this magnanimous conduct, on the part of Mrs Welch at
any rate, may be considered accounted for by the circumstance of her having
been the daughter of John Knox. She was the third daughter of that
celebrated person. Either deterred by the popularity of the prisoners, and
the cause for which they suffered, or satisfied with the power which the
sentence of the court had given him over their persons, James, instead of
bringing that sentence to a fatal issue, contented himself with commuting it
into banishmnent; and on the 7th November, 1606, Mr Welch, accompanied by
his wife, and his associates in misfortune, sailed from Leith for France,
after an imprisonment of many months’ duration in the castles of Edinburgh
and Blackness. So great was the public sympathy for these persecuted men,
that, though the hour of their embarkation was as early as two o’clock
of the morning, and that in the depth of winter, they were attended by a
great number of persons who came to bid them an affectionate farewell. The
parting of the expatriated men and their friends was solemn and
characteristic, prayers were said, and a psalm, (the 23rd,) in which all who
were present joined, was sung.
On his arrival in France, Mr
Welch immediately commenced the study of the language of the country, and
such was his extraordinary diligence, and his anxiety to make himself again
useful, that he acquired, in the short space of fourteen weeks, such a
knowledge of French as enabled him to preach in it. This attainment was soon
after followed by a call to the ministry from a protestant congregation at
Nerac. Here, however, he remained but for a short period, being translated
to St Jean D’Angely, a fortified town in Lower Charente, where he continued
to reside during the remainder of his stay in France, which was upwards of
fourteen years.
While living at St Jean
D’Angely, Mr Welch evinced, on an occasion which called for it, a degree of
courage in the field not less remarkable than that which
distinguished him in the pulpit. A war having broken out between Louis XIII.
and his protestant subjects, the former besieged the town in person. During
the siege Mr Welch not only exhorted the inhabitants to make a determined
and vigorous resistance, but took his place upon the walls of the city, and
assisted in serving the guns. When the town capitulated, which it finally
did, in terms of a treaty entered into with the besiegers, the French
monarch ordered that Mr Welch, who, with characteristic intrepidity,
continued to preach, to be brought before him. The messenger whom he
despatched for this purpose was the duke D’Espernon, who entered the church
in which Mr Welch was at the moment preaching, with a party of soldiers to
take him from the pulpit. On perceiving the duke enter, Mr Welch called out
to him in a loud and authoritative tone to sit down and hear the word of
God. The duke instinctively or unconsciously obeyed, and not only quietly
awaited the conclusion of the sermon, but listened to it throughout with the
greatest attention, and afterwards declared himself to have been much
edified by it. On being brought into the presence of the king, the latter
angrily demanded of Mr Welch how he had dared to preach, since it was
contrary to the laws of the kingdom for such as he to officiate in places
where the court resided. Mr Welch’s reply was bold and characteristic.
"Sir," he said, "if your majesty knew what I preached, you would not only
come and hear it yourself, but make all France hear it; for I preach not as
those men you used to hear. First, I preach that you must be saved by the
merits of Jesus Christ, and not your own, (and I am sure your conscience
tells you that your good works will never merit heaven:) next, I preach,
that, as you are king of France, there is no man on earth above you; but
these men whom you hear, subject you to the pope of Rome, which I will never
do." This last remark was so exceedingly gratifying to the king, that it had
the effect not only of disarming him of his wrath, but induced him to
receive the speaker instantly into his royal favour. "Very well," replied
Louis, "you shall be my minister," and to these expressions of goodwill he
added an assurance of his protection, a pledge which he afterwards amply
redeemed. When St Jean D’Angely was again besieged by the French monarch in
1621, he ordered the captain of his guard to protect the house and property
of "his minister," and afterwards supplied him with horses and wagons to
transport his family to Rochelle, whither he removed on the capture of the
town.
Mr Welch was at this period
seized with an illness which his physicians declared could be removed only
by his returning to breathe the air of his native country. Under these
circumstances he ventured, in 1622, to come to London hoping that when there
he should be able to obtain the king’s permission to proceed to Scotland.
This request, however, James, dreading Welch’s influence, absolutely
refused. Among those, and they were many, who interceded with the king in
behalf of the dying divine, was his wife. On obtaining access to James, the
following extraordinary, but highly characteristic conversation, as recorded
by Dr M’Crie, in his Life of Knox, took place between the intrepid daughter
of the stern reformer and the eccentric monarch of England: His majesty
asked her, who was her father. She replied "Mr Knox." "Knox and Welch,"
exclaimed he, "the devil never made such a match as that." "Its right like,
sir," said she, "for we never speired his advice." He asked her, how many
children her father had left, and if they were lads or lasses. She said
three, and they were all lasses. "God be thanked!" cried the king, lifting
up both his hands, "for an they had been three lads, I had never bruicked my
three kingdoms in peace." She again urged her request that he would give her
husband his native air. "Give him his native sir!" replied the king. "Give
him the devil!" a morsel which James had often in his mouth. "Give that to
your hungry courtiers," said she, offended at his profaneness. He told her
at last, that if she would persuade her husband to submit to the bishops, he
would allow him to return to Scotland. Mrs Welch, lifting up her apron, and
holding it towards the king, replied, in the true spirit of her father,
"Please your majesty, I’d rather kep his head there."
Although James would not
permit Mr Welch to return to Scotland, he was prevailed upon by the friends
of the latter, though not without much importunity, to allow him to preach
in London. They had entreated this as an alternative in the event of his
refusing him permission to return to his native country, and they eventually
succeeded in obtaining from James a reluctant consent. On learning that this
indulgence had been granted him, the dying preacher, for his complaint was
rapidly gaining ground upon him, hastened to avail himself of it. He
appeared once more in the pulpit, preached a long and pathetic sermon; but
it was his last. When he had concluded his discourse he returned to his
lodging, and in two hours afterwards expired, in the 53d year of his age. It
is said that Mr Welch’s death was occasioned by an ossification of the
limbs, brought on by much kneeling in his frequent, and long protracted
devotional exercises. Like many of the eminently pious and well-meaning men
of the times in which he lived, Mr Welch laid claim to the gift of
prescience, and his Life, as it appears in the "Scots Worthies," compiled by
Howie of Lochgoin, presents a number of instances of the successful exercise
of his gift, but no one now who has any sincere respect for the
memory of such truly worthy persons and sincere Christians as Mr Welch. can
feel much gratified by seeing him invested, by a mistaken veneration, with
an attribute which does not belong to humanity. |