. against the same, and that no
church-officer should be excepted at on account of these things, they
being found otherwise qualified, &c.[82]

So weighty was the ministerial charge upon his spirit, that if he were
to live ten years longer, he would choose to live nine years in study,
for preaching the tenth; and it was thought his close study and
thoughtfulness cast him into that decay whereof he died. In the time of
his sickness, the better part being afraid that the magistrates and some
of the ministry who were for the public resolutions, would put in one of
that stamp after his death, moved Mr. Carstairs his colleague, in a
visit to desire him to name his successor, which after some demur,
injoining secrecy till it was nearer his death, he at last named Mr.
David Vetch then minister of Govan; but afterwards when dying, to the
magistrates, ministers and some of the people, he named other three to
take any of them they pleased.--This alteration made Mr. Carstairs
inquire the reason after the rest were gone, to whom Mr. Durham replied,
O Brother, Mr. Vetch is too ripe for heaven to be transported to any
church on earth; he will be there almost as soon as I.--Which proved so;
for Mr. Durham died the Friday after, and next Sabbath Mr. Vetch
preached, and (though knowing nothing of this) told the people in the
afternoon it would be his last sermon to them, and the same night taking
bed, he died next Friday morning about three o'clock; the time that Mr.
Durham died, as Dr. Rattray, who was witness to both, did declare.--When
on his death-bed, he was under considerable darkness about his state,
and said to Mr. John Carstair's brother, "For all that I have preached
or written, there is but one scripture I can remember or dare gripe
unto; tell me if dare lay the weight of my salvation upon it, _Whosoever
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out._"--Mr. Carstairs answered,
"You may depend on it, though you had a thousand salvations at hazard."
When he was drawing towards his departure in a great conflict and agony,
finding some difficulty in his passage, yet he sensibly, through the
strength of God's grace, triumphantly overcame; he cried out in a
rapture of holy joy some little time before he committed his soul to
God, "Is not the Lord good! Is he not infinitely good! See how he
smiles! I do say it, and I do proclaim it." He died on Friday the 25th
of June 1658, in the thirty-sixth year of his age.

Thus died the eminently