# George Gillespie



## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 17, 2004)

George Gillespie, one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly and one of the greatest Presbyterian theologians in church history, died on this date (December 17) in 1648. He was, I believe, 35 years old when he died. He wrote extensively against Erastianism and in favor of Presbyterian church government and worship. 

See here for a good biographical sketch: http://www.apuritansmind.com/GeorgeGillespie/GeorgeGillespieMainPage.htm


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## blhowes (Dec 17, 2004)

35 years. Its amazing what God can do with a person in such a short period of time.

Next to Jesus, who would you guys say has made the biggest impact on the church and/or Christian thought within the shortest lifespan?


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 17, 2004)

> _Originally posted by blhowes_
> 35 years. Its amazing what God can do with a person in such a short period of time.
> 
> Next to Jesus, who would you guys say has made the biggest impact on the church and/or Christian thought within the shortest lifespan?



Yes, I know. John Calvin wrote the Institutes when he was 27 years old, I believe. He went on to live longer and kept revising the book, but that was pretty impressive. 

James Renwick, one of the leaders of the Scottish Covenanters during the Killing Times, was martyred for the faith when he was 26 years old. See http://www.reformed.org/misc/James_Renwick.html

Ulrich Zwingli was 47 years old when he died. See http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/zwingli.htm

Patrick Hamilton, one of the first Protestant martyrs in Scotland, was 25 years old when he died. I once stood on the spot where he was killed. See http://www.tartans.com/modules.php....ticle,sid+82,mode+thread,order+0,thold+0.html

Margaret Wilson, one of the 'Two Margarets,' was martyred when she was 18 years old. I have been to her grave as well. See http://www.applesofgold.co.uk/the_two_margarets.htm

These all had various impacts on the history of the church, some more than others. Many more have died young without notice by men but certainly God knows his faithful ones. 

As Paul said to Timothy, "Let no man despise thy youth" (1 Tim. 4.12).


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Dec 17, 2004)

Andrew - 

If you have a "list" of sorts of Scots and Reformers and Puritans as to how long they lived, that owuld be an impressive list to God's glory and what he can do in a short amount of time with a life. I'd post that on my site if you came up with one....


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 17, 2004)

> _Originally posted by webmaster_
> Andrew -
> 
> If you have a "list" of sorts of Scots and Reformers and Puritans as to how long they lived, that owuld be an impressive list to God's glory and what he can do in a short amount of time with a life. I'd post that on my site if you came up with one....



Hmm, I'll give that some thought and see what I can come up with...I'll let you know.


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## Mayflower (Dec 17, 2004)

Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Christopher Love and David Brainerd, where i thought 30 years old ?


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 17, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Mayflower_
> Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Christopher Love and David Brainerd, where i thought 30 years old ?



Good suggestions. 

Robert Murray M'Cheyne was 29. See http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/M'Cheyne/hudson/Impact_of_McCheyne.htm

Christopher Love was 33. See http://www.apuritansmind.com/Christopher Love/ChristopherLove.htm

David Brainerd was 29. See http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/biobrain.html


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 7, 2005)

Our Webmaster was kind enough to post on A Puritan's Mind a compilation I prepared listing some young saints who glorified God in their short lives. 

http://www.apuritansmind.com/ChristianWalk/MyersAndrewYouthAndGlory.htm


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## crhoades (Jan 7, 2005)

Andrew,

You'd be proud to know that I recently picked up the Scot's Worthies - Banner of Truth by Howie. It looks great.

For what it's worth, if anyone has the puritan and reformation cd's from stillwaters revival, they have approx. 35-40 mp3's with someone reading the book.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 7, 2005)

> _Originally posted by crhoades_
> Andrew,
> 
> You'd be proud to know that I recently picked up the Scot's Worthies - Banner of Truth by Howie. It looks great.
> ...



 Enjoy!


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## bigheavyq (Jan 8, 2005)

lady jane grey, beheaded at 16 years old


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## RamistThomist (Jan 8, 2005)

I second the Scots Worthies. You picked up a great book, Chris.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 21, 2005)

Today is George Gillespie's birthday! 

He was born on January 21, 1613.


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## ChristianasJourney (Jan 21, 2005)

Very interesting...I discovered last week that in my otherwise ambiguous genealogy I'm think I' related to George Gillespie. He was the brother to an ancestor. Very noble people, and from all appearance, sitting here 300 years later, they had a deep Christian faith which was pretty much maintained by the succeeding generations. 

Since it's a family occasion, I guess I'll have to bake a cake. 

[Edited on 21-1-2005 by ChristianasJourney]


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 21, 2005)

> _Originally posted by ChristianasJourney_
> Very interesting...I discovered last week that in my otherwise ambiguous genealogy I'm think I' related to George Gillespie. He was the brother to an ancestor. Very noble people, and from all appearance, sitting here 300 years later, they had a deep Christian faith which was pretty much maintained by the succeeding generations.
> 
> Since it's a family occasion, I guess I'll have to bake a cake.
> ...



Wow! That's _waaaayyyy cool_!


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## Arch2k (Jun 5, 2005)

*George Gillespie is my hero!*

Our bible study is going over the 4th question of the WSC tomorrow's Lord's Day, and I remembered this story about the origin of the 4th question. Here is an excerpt from Matt's bio of George Gillespie:



> It is told also that when the Committee of Assembly was engaged on the composition of the Shorter Catechism, and had come to the question, What is God? like the able men they were, they all shrank from attempting an answer to such an unfathomable question. In their perplexity they asked Gillespie to offer prayer for help, when he began his prayer with these words: 'O God, Thou art a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in Thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.' As soon as he said Amen, his opening sentences were remembered, and taken down, and they stand to this day the most scriptural and the most complete answer to that unanswerable question that we have in any creed or catechism of the Christian Church.





Oh that God would raise up mighty men like Gillespie once again!


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## NaphtaliPress (Jun 5, 2005)

Nice story; but Gillespie had left the Assembly by the time of WSC 4. See Mitchell I think who corrects Hetherington on this point. The confusion is everyone assumes the young man in the story is Gillespie; the story which may be true, did not id the man if I recall correctly. Mitchell simply provides the data to show that Gillespie was not there at the time the incident was taking place.


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## Arch2k (Jun 5, 2005)

> _Originally posted by NaphtaliPress_
> Nice story; but Gillespie had left the Assembly by the time of WSC 4. See Mitchell I think who corrects Hetherington on this point. The confusion is everyone assumes the young man in the story is Gillespie; the story which may be true, did not id the man if I recall correctly. Mitchell simply provides the data to show that Gillespie was not there at the time the incident was taking place.



You are just full of wonderful insight and knowledge! I think you should lead our bible study! 

I can't wait for the minutes to come out online so I can read them for myself.

Thanks for the correction.


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## NaphtaliPress (Jun 5, 2005)

It "might" make me a candidate to lead a Westminster trivia discussion; but that's about it. And I'd probably lose.... This is just one of those items I happened to recall.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 14, 2005)

George Gillespie bump - he died on December 17, 1648.


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## Casey (Dec 14, 2005)

Didn't Joseph Alleine die at an early age? He isn't on your list on APM . . of course, that might be because he didn't  young?


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 15, 2005)

> _Originally posted by StaunchPresbyterian_
> Didn't Joseph Alleine die at an early age? He isn't on your list on APM . . of course, that might be because he didn't  young?



Thanks for the reminder.

[Edited on 12-15-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 19, 2006)

Happy birthday George Gillespie!


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Apr 6, 2006)

The following is an interesting anecdote from Alexander Whyte's biographical sketch of Gillespie:



> Many stories were told in Scotland of the debating powers of young Gillespie as seen on the floor of the Westminster Assembly. Selden was one of the greatest lawyers in England, and he had made a speech one day that both friend and foe felt was unanswerable. One after another of the Constitutional and Evangelical party tried to reply to Selden's speech, but failed. 'Rise, George, man,' said Rutherford to Gillespie, who was sitting with his pencil and note-book beside him. 'Rise, George, man, and defend the Church which Christ hath purchased with His own blood.' George rose, and when he had sat down, Selden is reported to have said to some one who was sitting beside him, 'That young man has swept away the learning and labour of ten years of my life.' Gillespie's Scottish brethren seized upon his note-book to preserve and send home at least the heads of his magnificent speech, but all they found in his little book were these three words: Da lucem, Domine; Give light, O Lord.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 16, 2006)




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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 18, 2007)

George Gillespie was born on January 21, 1613 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. He is not listed, however, on Kirkcaldy's town website which lists famous people associated with the town. Or on the Kirkcaldy Civic Society's similiar listing. But Wikipedia at least makes note of this.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 15, 2007)

George Gillespie, _Aaron's Rod Blossoming_


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