We take nothing to the grave with us, but a good or evil conscience... It is true, terrors of conscience cast us down; and yet without terrors of conscience we cannot be raised up again.

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.