After his flock in France was scattered, he obtained liberty to return to England, and his friends intreated that he might have permission to come to Scotland, because the physicians declared there was no other method to preserve his life, but by the freedom he might have in his native air. But to this king James would never yield, protesting he would be unable to establish his beloved bishops in Scotland, if Mr. Welch was permitted to return thither; so he languished at London a considerable time; his disease was considered by some to have a tendency to a sort of leprosy, physicians said he had been poisoned; a languor he had together with a great weakness in his knees, caused by his continual kneeling at prayer, by which it came to pass, that though he was able to move his knees, and to walk, yet he was wholly insensible in them, and the flesh became hard like a sort of horn. But when in the time of his weakness, he was desired to remit somewhat of his excessive painfulness, his answer was, He had his life of God, and therefore it should be spent for him. His friends importuned king James very much, that if be might not return to Scotland, at least he might have liberty to preach in London, which he would not grant, till he heard all the hopes of life were past, and then he allowed him liberty to preach, not fearing his activity. Then as soon as ever he heard he might preach, he greedily embraced this liberty, and having access to a lecturer's pulpit, he went and preached both long and fervently: which was his last performance: For after he had ended his sermon, he returned to his chamber, and within two hours, quietly and without pain, he resigned his spirit into his Maker's hands, and was buried near Mr. Deering, the famous English divine, after he had lived little more than fifty two years. During his sickness, he was so filled and overcome with the sensible enjoyment of God, that he was overheard to utter these words, "O Lord, hold thy hand, it is enough, thy servant is a clay vessel, and can hold no more."---- If his diligence was great, so it may be doubted whether his sowing in painfulness, or his harvest in success was greatest; for if either his spiritual experiences in seeking the Lord, or his fruitfulness in converting souls be considered, they will be found unparallelled in Scotland; And many years after Mr. Welch's death, Mr. David Dickson, at that time a flourishing minister at Irvine, was frequently heard to say, when people talked to him of the success of his ministry, That the grape-gleanings in Ayr, in Mr. Welch's time, were far above the vintage of Irvine in his own. Mr. Welch in his preaching was spiritual and searching, his utterance tender and moving, he did not much insist upon scholastic purposes and made no shew of his learning. One of his hearers, who was afterward minister at Moor-kirk in Kyle, used to say, That no man could hear him and forbear weeping, his conveyance was so affecting.