Let your children be as so many flowers, borrowed from God. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them.

In 1627 he was settled as minister of Anwoth in Kirkcudbrightshire Galloway from where he was baniSamuel Rutherfordd to Aberdeen for nonconformity. He was one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly of Divines in London and after his return to Scotland he became Rector of St. On the re-establishment of Presbyterianism in 1638 he was made Professor of Divinity at St.