obliged him to remain for some time as chaplain in the family of the Earl of Cassilis. And here it was that he wrote that elaborate piece, though he was scarcely twenty-five years of age, entitled, A Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies, &c.; which book was in the year 1637 prohibited, by proclamation, from being read, it being of too corrosive a quality to be digested by the bishops' weak stomachs.

He was at length ordained minister of Wemyss, April 26, 1638, being the first who was admitted by a presbytery in that period, without an acknowledgment of the bishops. And now he began in a more public way to exert himself in defence of the Presbyterian interest, and at the 11th session of the memorable Assembly held at Glasgow, in 1638, preached a very learned and judicious sermon from these words, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, &c.; In this sermon, the Earl of Argyle thought that he touched the royal prerogative too near, and did very gravely admonish the Assembly concerning the same; which they all took in good part, as appeared from a discourse made by the moderator in support of the admonition.

At the General Assembly held at Edinburgh in 1641, a call was tabled for Mr. Gillespie, from the town of Aberdeen; but in this instance the Lord Commissioner and himself pled his cause so well, that he was still continued at Wemyss. Yet he did not get staying there long; for the General Assembly, in the following year, ordered him to be transported to the city of Edinburgh, where it appears he continued until the day of his death, which was about six years after.

Mr. Gillespie was one of those four ministers who were sent as commissioners from the Church of Scotland to the Westminster Assembly, in the year 1643, and there he displayed himself to be a man of great parts and learning, debating with such perspicuity, strength of argument, and calmness of spirit, as few could equal, and none excel. Upon one occasion, when both the Parliament and the Assembly were met together, a long studied discourse being made in favour of Erastianism, to which none seemed ready to make answer, Mr. Gillespie being urged by his brethren the Scots commissioners, repeated the subject matter of the whole discourse, and refuted it, to the admiration of all present;-and what most surprised them was, that though it was usual for the members to take down notes of what was spoken in the Assembly for the help of their memory, and Mr. Gillespie seemed to be employed that way, during the time of the speech to which he made answer, yet those who sat next him declared, that having looked into his note-book, they found nothing written, but here and there, "Lord, send light, Lord, give assistance-Lord, defend thine own cause," &c.

And although all our Scots commissioners had great advantages,

⚫ It appears he was also chaplain to the Viscount Kenmuir, about the year 1634.

in that they had the first forming of all those pieces which were afterwards revised and approved of by that Assembly, yet no one was more useful in supporting them therein than Mr. Gillespie. "None (says one of his colleagues who was present) in all the Assembly, did reason more pertinently than Mr. Gillespie : he is an excellent youth; my heart blesses God in his behalf." Again, when the passage, Acts xv. 22.† was brought forward in proof of the power of ordination, and keen disputing arose upon it," the very learned and accurate Gillespie," says Mr. Baillie, a singular ornament" of our Church, than whom not one in the Assembly spoke to better purpose, nor with better acceptance to all the hearers, showed · that the Greek word, by the Episcopals, translated Ordination, was truly Choosing, importing the people's suffrages in electing their own office-bearers." And elsewhere he says of him, " We get good help in our Assembly debates of Lord Warriston, an occasional commissioner, but of none more than the noble youth Mr. Gillespie. I admire his gifts, and bless God, as for all my colleagues, so for him in particular, as equal in these to the first in the Assembly."+

After his return from the Westminster Assembly, he was employed in most of the public affairs of the Church, until 1648, when he was chosen moderator of the General Assembly. In this Assembly several famous acts were made in favour of the covenanted work of Reformation, particularly that in reference to the unlawful engagement against England, at that time entered into, by the Duke of Hamilton, and those of the malignant faction. He was also one of those nominated by this assembly, to prosecute the treaty of uniformity in religion with England; but in a short time afterwards, his last sickness seized him, and he died about the 17th of December following.

Mr. Rutherford says to him, in a letter when on his deathbed, "Be not heavy, the life of faith is now called for, doing was never reckoned on your accounts, though Christ in and by you hath done more than by twenty, yea, a hundred gray haired and godly pastors. Look to that word, Gal. ii. 20. Nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.'

During his life he was always firmly attached to the work of Reformation, and continued so to the end. For about two months be fore his decease, he sent a paper to the Commission of the General Assembly, in which he gave faithful warning against every sin and

* Such as our Catechisms, Directory for worship, Form of Church-government; nd when the Confession of Faith was about to be compiled, they added to our Scots commissioners, Dr. Gouge, Dr. Hoyl, Mr. Herle the prolocutor, (Dr. Twisse being then dead), Mr. Gataker, Mr. Tuckney, Mr. Reynolds, and Mr. Reeves, who prepared materials for that purpose.

The Editor has taken upon him to alter this reference. In the previous editions, it is Acts xvii. 28; which passage has no connection with the subject in question: He has fixed upon that given in the text, as being more likely to have been referred to in discussing such a point.

backsliding that he then perceived to be growing in Church and State: and last of all, he emitted the following faithful testimony against association and compliance with the enemies of truth and true godliness in these words:

"Seeing now, in all appearance, the time of my dissolution draweth near, although I have, in my latter will declared my mind of public affairs, yet I have thought good to add this further testimony, that I esteem the malignant party in these kingdoms to be the seed of the serpent, enemies to piety and Presbyterial government, pretend what they will to the contrary; a generation who have not set God before them. With the malignant are to be joined the profane and scandalous; from all which, as from heresy and error, the Lord, I trust, is about to purge his Church. I have often comforted myself, and still do, with the hopes of the Lord's purging this polluted land. Surely the Lord hath began, and will carry on that great work of mercy, and will purge out the rebels. I know there will be always a mixture of hypocrites; but that cannot excuse the conniving at gross and scandalous sinners. I recommend to them that fear God, seriously to consider, that the holy scriptures doth plainly hold forth, 1. That the helping of the enemies of God, joining or mingling with wicked men, is a sin highly displeasing. 2. That this sin hath ordinarily ensnared God's people into divers other sins. 3. That it hath been punished of God with grievous judgments. And 4. That utter destruction is to be feared, when a people, after great mercies and judgments, relapse into this sin.*

"Upon these and the like grounds, for my own exoneration, that so necessary a truth want not the testimony of a dying witness of Christ, although the unworthiest of many thousands, and that light may be held forth, and warning given, I cannot be silent at this time, but speak by my pen when I cannot by my tongue, yea, now also by the pen of another, when I cannot by my own, seriously, and in the name of Jesus Christ, exhorting and obtesting all that fear God, and make conscience of their ways, to be very tender and circumspect, to watch and pray, that they be not ensnared in that great and dangerous sin of compliance with malignant or profane enemies of the truth, which if men will do, and trust God in his own way, they shall not repent it, but to the greater joy and peace of God's people, they shall see his work go on and prosper gloriously. In witness of these premises, I have subscribed the same, at Kirkcaldy, 15th December, 1648, before these witnesses." In about two days after, he gave up the ghost, death shutting his eyes, that he might see God, and be for ever with Him.

Thus died George Gillespie, very little past the prime of life; an excellent divine, a man of much boldness, and great freedom of expression. He signalized himself on every occasion in which he was called to exercise any part of his ministerial function. No man's death, at the time, was more lamented than his; and such was the