It has been already stated that there are two MS. volumes, purporting to be copies of Gillespie's Notes. The one of these is in octavo, and seems to have been carefully taken; the other is in quarto, and appears to be partly a copy, partly an abstract. In it Gillespie is always spoken of in the third person, which has caused many variations. The transcriber has also made many omissions, not only of one, but of several paragraphs at a time, frequently passing over the remarks of the several speakers. It appears to have been his object to copy chiefly the argumentative part of the manuscript. This defective transcription had belonged to Mr William Veitch, as appears from his name written on the cover and first page, with the addition “minister at Peebles, 1691.” In the copy transcribed for the press, the octavo manuscript has been followed. The quarto, however, along with Lightfoot, has been found useful in correcting the Scripture references, which had all to be carefully examined and verified; but sometimes all three failed to give satisfaction, and a conjectural substitute has been given, enclosed in brackets, and with a point of interrogation. In concluding these remarks, we cannot help expressing great gratification to see for the first time a complete edition of the works of George Gillespie; and in order also to complete the memoir, we add, as an appendix, some very interesting extracts from the Maitland Club edition of Wodrow's Analecta, chiefly relative to his last illness and death.
APPENDIX. EXTRACTS FROM WODROW'S ANALECTA (MAITLAND CLUB EDITION)
“MR GEORGE GILLESPIE.
“Mr George Gillespie, first minister of Kirkcaldy, and afterward minister of Edinburgh; when he was a child, he seemed to be somewhat dull and soft like, so that his mother would have stricken and abused him, and she would have made much of Patrick, his younger brother. His father, Mr John Gillespie, minister of Kirkcaldy, was angry to see his wife carry so to his son George; and he would have said, ‘My heart, let alone; though Patrick may have some respect given him in the Church, yet my son George will be the great man in the Church of Scotland.’ And he said of him when he was a-dying, ‘George, George, I have gotten many a brave promise for thee.’ And indeed he was very soon a great man; for it's reported, that before he was a preacher, he wrote the ‘English Popish Ceremonies.’ He was, of all ministers in his time, one of the greatest men for disputing and arguing; so that he was, being but a young man, much admired at the Assembly at Westminster, by all that heard him; he being one of the youngest members that was there. I heard old Mr Patrick Simson say, that he heard his cousin, Mr George Gillespie say, ‘Let no man who is called of God to any work, be it never so great and difficult, distrust God for assistance, as I clearly found at that great Assembly at Westminster. If I were to live a long time in the world, I would not desire a more noble life, than the life of pure and single dependence on God; for, said he, though I may have a claim to some gifts of learning and parts, yet I ever found more advantage by single looking to God for assistance than by all the parts and gifts that ever I could pretend to, at that time.’
“When he was at London, he would be often on his knees; at another time, reading and writing. And when he was sitting in that great Assembly at Westminster, he was often observed to have a little book, and to be marking down something with his pen in that book, even when some of the most learned men, as Coleman and Selden, were delivering their long and learned orations, and all he was writing was for the most part his pithy ejaculations to God, writing these words; Da lucem, Domine; Da lucem! When these learned men had ended their oration, the Moderator proposed who should give an answer to their discourse; they all generally voted Mr Gillespie to be the person. He being a young man, seemed to blush, and desired to be excused, when so many old and learned divines were present, yet all the brethren, with one voice, determined he should be the person that should give an answer to that learned oration. Though he seemed to take little heed, yet being thus pressed, he rose up, and resumed all the particulars of that learned oration very distinctly, and answered every part of it so fully, that all that heard him were amazed and astonished; for he died in 1648, and was then but about thirty-six years of age. Mr Calamy, if I be not forgotten, said, we were ready to think more of Mr Gillespie than was truly meet; if he had not been stained by being against our way and judgment for the Engagement.
“He was one of the great men that had a chief hand in penning our most excellent Confession of Faith and Catechisms. He was a most grave and bold man, and had a most wonderful gift given him for disputing and arguing. My father told me, he observed that when there was a considerable number of ministers met, there were several of our great nobles were strongly reasoning with our ministers about the engagement 1648. When Mr Gillespie was busy studying his sermon that he was to preach before the Parliament to-morrow, the ministers sent privately for Mr Gillespie, whom he [pg xxxviii] observed to come in very quietly, and when Lauderdale, Glencairn, and some others, rose up and debated very strongly for the engagement, Mr Gillespie rose up and answered them so fully and distinctly, firstly, secondly, and thirdly, that he fully silenced them all; and Glencairn said, ‘There is no standing before this great and mighty man!’ I heard worthy Mr Rowat say, that Mr Gillespie said, ‘The more truly great a man is, he was really the more humble and low in his own eyes,’ as he instanced in the great man Daniel; and, said he, ‘God did not make choice of some of us as his instruments in the glorious work of Reformation, because we were more fit than others, but rather because we were more unfit than others.’ He was called Malleus Mallignantium, and Mr Baillie, writing to some in this church anent Mr George Gillespie, said, ‘He was truly an ornament to our church and nation.’ And Mr James Brown, late minister of Glasgow, told me that there was an English gentleman said to him, that he heard Mr Gillespie preach, and he said, he believed he was one of the greatest Presbyterians in the world. He was taken from the Greyfriars' Church to the New Church. He has written several pieces, as ‘Aaron's Rod Blossoming,’ and ‘Some Miscellany Questions,’ and his ‘Assertion of the Government of the Church of Scotland, about Ruling Elders.’ He had several little books wherein he set down his remarks upon the proceedings of the Assembly at Westminster.”—WODROW'S ANALECTA, vol. iii. pp. 109-18.
“What follows here I have in conversation with Mr Patrick Simpson, whose memory was most exact. What concerns Mr Gillespie, and the Marquis of Montrose, I read over to him, and he corrected. The rest are hints I set down after conversation, when two or three days with him in his house at Renfrew, in the year 1707.
(ACCOUNT OF THE LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH OF MR GEORGE GILLESPIE.)