 He helped enforce increasingly harsh policies, including the death penalty for preaching at services held outside the approved church, or Conventicles, and was made a Commissioner of the Treasury in 1678.In 1679, dissidents murdered Archbishop Sharp and Moray helped put down a short-lived rebellion.This resulted in his appointment on 17 July 1680 as an Extraordinary Lord of Session; when Lauderdale was dismissed soon after, he nominated Moray as Secretary of State in his place.