George Gillespie

George Gillespie (21 January 1613 – 17 December 1648) was a Scottish theologian.

Gillespie was born at Kirkcaldy, where his father, John Gillespie, was parish minister. He studied at St. Andrews University as a "presbytery bursar". On graduating he became domestic chaplain to John Gordon, 1st Viscount Kenmure (d. 1634), and afterwards to John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis. His conscience did not permit him to accept the episcopal ordination, which was at that time an indispensable condition of induction to a parish in Scotland.

In April 1638, soon after the authority of the bishops had been abolished by the nation in Scotland, Gillespie was ordained minister of Wemyss (Fife) by the presbytery of Kirkcaldy. In the same year he was a member of the Glasgow Assembly, before which he preached a sermon, on November 21, against royal interference in matters ecclesiastical. It was so pronounced as to call for some remonstrance on the part of Argyll, the Lord High Commissioner.

In 1640 he accompanied the commissioners of the peace to England as one of their chaplains. In 1642 Gillespie was translated to Edinburgh; but the remainder of his life was chiefly spent in the conduct of public business in London. From 1643 onwards, he was a member of the Westminster Assembly, in which he took a prominent part: he was appointed by the Scottish Church as one of the four commissioners to the Assembly. He was the youngest member at the Assembly, but took a great part in almost all the discussions on church government, discipline, and worship. He strongly supported Presbyterianism by numerous writings, as well as by fluency and readiness in debate. One of the most notable is his well preserved encounter with John Selden on Erastianism and Presbyterian polity.

In 1645 he returned to Scotland, and is said to have drawn the Act of Assembly sanctioning the directory of public worship. On his return to London he had a hand in drafting the Westminster confession of faith, especially chapter I.

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