He was successively minister of Lauder, Berwickshire, 1707; Sprouston, Roxburghshire, 1718; Dunbar, East Lothian, 1721; and Trinity College Church, Edinburgh, 1732.
He strenuously supported the Hanoverian accession, and on the approach of the Jacobite army towards Edinburgh in 1745, was a warm but unsuccessful advocate for placing it in a state of defence.