(Continued from Page 294)
I now come to speak of the great apostacy there should be towards the close of this period, and how the Church should, for a short time, be threatened by her enemies. And this I shall do under three particulars.
1. A little before the end of the world, a great part of the world shall fall away from Christ and His Church.
It is said, Rev. xx. 3. that Satan should be cast into the bottomless pit, and shut up, and have a seal set upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and that afterward he must be loosed out of his prison for a little season. Accordingly we are told (ver. 7, 8) that when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and go forth to deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog. This intimates, that the apostacy would be very general. The nations of the four quarters of the earth shall be deceived; and the number of those who shall now turn enemies to Christ shall be vastly great, as the army of Gog and Magog is represented in Ezek. It is said (Rev. xx. 8), that the number of them is as the sand of the sea, and that they went up on the breadth of the earth, as if they were an army large enough to reach from one side of the earth to the other.
Thus after a happy and glorious season, such a long day of light and holiness, of love and peace, and joy, it shall again be a dark time. Satan shall begin to set up his dominion again in the world; and this world shall again become a scene of darkness and wickedness. The bottomless pit shall be opened, and devils shall come up again out of it and a dreadful smoke shall ascend to darken the world. And the Church of Christ, instead of extending to the utmost bounds of the world, as it did before, shall be reduced to narrow limits. The world of mankind being continued so long in a state of great prosperity shall now begin to abuse their prosperity, to serve their lust and corruption. This we learn from Luke xvii. 26, etc.
2. Those apostates shall make great opposition to the Church of God.
The Church shall be threatened with a sudden and entire overthrow by them. It is said, Satan shall gather them together to battle, as the sand on the seashore; and they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. So that this beloved city shall seem just ready to be swallowed up by them: for her enemies shall not only threaten her, but shall actually have gathered together against her; and not only so, but shall have besieged her, shall have compassed her about on every side.—However, there is nothing in the prophecy which seems to hold forth, that the Church had actually fallen into their hands, as it had fallen into the hands of Antichrist, to whom it was given to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. God will never suffer this to take place after the fall of Antichrist; for then the day of her mourning shall be ended, alarmingly threatened with utter and sudden destruction.
3. Now the state of things will seem most remarkably to call for Christ’s immediate appearance to judgment.
For then the world shall be filled with the most aggravated wickedness. For much the greater part of the world shall have become visibly wicked and open enemies to Christ, and their wickedness shall be dreadfully aggravated by their apostacy. Before the fall of Antichrist, most of the world was full of visibly wicked men. But the greater part of these are poor heathens, who never enjoyed the light of the gospel; and others are those that have been bred up in the Mahometan or popish darkness. But these have apostatised from the Christian Church, the visible kingdom of Christ, in which they enjoyed the great light and privileges of glorious times, which shall be incomparably greater than the light and privileges which the Church of God enjoys now. This apostacy will be most like the apostacy of the devils of any that ever had before been: for the devils apostatised, and turned enemies to Christ, though they enjoyed the light of heaven; and these will apostatise, and turn enemies to Him, though they have enjoyed the light and privileges of the glorious times of the Church. That such should turn open and avowed enemies to Christ, and should seek the ruin of His Church, will cry aloud for such immediate vengeance as was executed on the devils when they fell.
The wickedness of the world will remarkably call for Christ’s immediate appearing in flaming fire to take vengeance on them, because of the way in which they shall manifest their wickedness. This will be by scoffing and blaspheming Christ and His Holy religion; and particularly, they will scoff at the notion of Christ’s coming to judgment, of which the Church shall be in expectation. For now doubtless will be the greatest fulfilment of 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” They shall be in no expectation of the coming of Christ to judgment, and shall laugh at the notion. They shall trample all such things underfoot, and shall give up themselves to their lusts, or to eat and drink, and wallow in sensual delights, as though they were to be here for ever. They shall despise the warnings the Church shall give them of the coming of Christ to judgment, as the people of the old world despised what Noah told them of the approaching flood, and as the people of Sodom did when Lot said to them, The Lord will destroy this city. Their wickedness on this account will cry aloud to heaven for Christ’s appearing in flaming fire to take vengeance of His enemies; and because they shall exercise their wickedness in a wicked design and violent attempt against the holy city of God, wherein, for so long a time, so much of the religion of Christ had been seen.
And the great number of the wicked is another thing which shall especially call for Christ’s coming: for the world then will doubtless be exceeding full of people, having continued so long in so great a state of prosperity, without such terrible desolating extremities, as wars, pestilences, and the like, to diminish them. And the major part of this world, which shall be so populous, will be wicked contemptuous apostates from God. Undoubtedly the world will then be by far fuller of wickedness than ever it was before, from its foundation. And if the wickedness of the old world, when men began to multiply on the earth, called for the destruction of the world by a deluge of water, this wickedness will as much call for its destruction by a deluge of fire.
Again, the circumstances of the Church at that day will also eminently call for the immediate appearing of Christ, as they will be compassed about by their blasphemous murderous enemies, just ready to be swallowed up by them. And it will be a most distressing time with the Church, excepting the comfort they will have in the hope of deliverance from God: for all other help will seem to fail. The case will be come to the last extremity, and there will be an immediate need that Christ should come to their deliverance. And though the Church shall be so eminently threatened, yet so will Providence order it, that it shall be preserved till Christ shall appear in His immediate presence, coming in the glory of His Father with all His holy angels. And then will come the time when all the elect shall be gathered in. That work of conversion which has been carried on from the beginning of the Church after the fall through all those ages, shall be carried on no more. There never shall another soul be converted. Every one of those many millions, whose names were written in the book of life before the foundation of the world, shall be brought in; not one soul shall be lost. And the mystical body of Christ, which has been growing since it first began in the days of Adam, will be complete as to the number of parts, having every one of its members. In this respect, the work of redemption will now be finished. And now the end for which the means of grace have been instituted shall be obtained. — All that effect which was intended, shall now be accomplished.
(From “The History of Redemption”)
GEORGE GILLESPIE
A Sketch of His Life and Times
By Rev John Colquhoun, Glendale
(Continued from Page 303)
Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies. — When George Gillespie had finished his College course and was ready for the work of the Ministry, what appeared to be an insurmountable obstacle stood in the way. He would not receive ordination at the hands of a prelate and no Presbytery could be found who would ordain him. This led him into a more retired way of living as domestic chaplain, first to Lord Kenmuir until 1634, and afterwards in the same capacity, with the additional duties of a tutor, in the family of the Earl of Cassilis. While acting in this capacity he was not idle. He had leisure to study the questions of the day, and he studied them to some purpose for in 1637, when he was only 24 years of age, there appeared from his pen a production, entitled, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies Obtruded upon the Church of Scotland. He divides his treatise into four parts; i. Against the necessity of the ceremonies; ii. Against the expediency of the ceremonies; iii. Against the lawfulness of the ceremonies; iv. Against the indifference of the ceremonies. In the Prologue he states what are the duties of every one who would contend for the truth against all corruptions. (1) “To walk by the same rule, to mind the same thing.” (2) “To make diligent search for the truth, and (3) When we have attained to the acknowledging of the truth, then to give a testimony unto the same, according to our vocation, contending for the truth of God against the errors of men, for the purity of Christ against the corruptions of anti-Christ; For to understand the truth, and yet not contend for it, argueth cowardliness, not courage; fainting, not fervour; lukewarmness, not love; weakness, not valour; Wherefore since we cannot impetrate from the troublers of our Israel that true peace which derogateth not from the truth, we may not, we dare not, leave off to debate with them . . . These considerations have induced me to bestow some and to take some pains in the study of the controversies which are agitated in this church about the ceremonies, and (after due examination and discussion of the writings of such as have played the proctors for them) to compile this ensuing dispute against them, both for exonering myself, and provoking of others to contend yet more for the truth, and for Zion’s sake not to hold their peace, nor be at rest, until the amiable light of long-wished-for peace break forth out of all these confusions, which, O Prince of Peace, hasten, who ‘wilt ordain peace for us; for thou also hast wrought all our works in us,’ Isa. xxvi. 12.” In concluding his Preface, which is addressed “To all and every one in the Reformed Churches of Scotland, England, and Ireland, who love the Lord Jesus and mean to adhere unto the Reformation of Religion,” the author says, with reference to what he brought before them:—
“If you disregard those things whereof, in the name of God, I have admonished you, and draw back your helping hands from the reproached and afflicted cause of Christ, for which we plead, then do not put evil far from you, for wrath is determined against you. And as for you my dear brethren and countrymen of Scotland, as it is long since first Christianity was preached and professed in this land, as also it was blessed with a most glorious and much renowned Reformation: and, further, as the gospel hath been longer continued in purity and peace with us than with any church in Europe: moreover, as the Church of Scotland hath treacherously broken her bonds of oath and subscription wherewith other churches about us were not so tied; and finally, as Almighty God, though he hath most consumed other churches by His dreadful judgments, yet hath showed far greater long-suffering kindness towards us, to reclaim us to repentance, though, notwithstanding all this, we go on in a most doleful security, induration, blindness and backslidings; so now, in the most ordinary course of God’s justice, we are certainly to expect, that after so many mercies, so great long-suffering, and such a long day of grace, all despised, He is to send upon us such judgments as should not be believed though they were told. O Scotland, understand and turn again, or else, as God lives, most terrible judgments are abiding thee.
“But if you lay these things to heart — if you be humbled before God for the provocation of your defection and turn back from the same — if with all your hearts and according to all your power, you bestow your best endeavours for making help to the wounded church of Christ, and vindicating the cause of pure religion, yea, though it were with the loss of all that you have in the world, (angetur enim religio Die, quo magis premitur—God’s true religion is enlarged the more it is pressed down), then shall you not only escape the evils which shall come upon this generation, but likewise be recompensed a hundred fold with the sweet consolations of God’s Spirit here, and with the immortal crown of never-fading glory hence.”
Gillespie’s treatise could not have been better timed for it appeared when the Church was groaning under the galling yoke of the oppressor, and the new Service Book was about to be publicly used for the first time. On 23rd July, 1637, the Dean of Edinburgh, attired in his surplice, ascended the reading desk of St. Giles, and began to read the hated Service Book. The story is that an old woman, named Jenny Geddes, flung the stool on which she had been sitting at the Dean’s head, saying, “Villain, dost thou say Mass at my lug?” Immediately everything was in confusion, and it was impossible to continue the service. Primate Spottiswood tried in vain to quiten the tumult, and the Magistrates, with their halberdiers, who were present, had to eject those who created the tumult and the service was finished without any further disturbance from within the church, but it was not so outside. Windows were broken, doors were battered, and everything told the innovators what reception they would meet with once they were out of the church. Owing to precautions by the authorities the afternoon service was performed in quietness to a select audience, but those who performed it narrowly escaped with their lives when they ventured on to the street. King Charles issued orders to continue the use of the Liturgy but no Readers could be found, for love or money, who would carry out his instructions. For the time being Prelacy lost its high place and even the royal authority could not give it any material support. Gillespie’s book proved a powerful means for educating the people so that they could say with the Apostles of old, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.” It therefore contributed very much towards the confirming of men in their resolution to resist prelatical innovations, and thus it naturally paved the way for entering into the National Covenant of 1638.
It may be stated that as far as any authentic records are concerned there is no mention of Jenny Geddes and the part which tradition assigns to her in opposing the reading of the Liturgy. In fact there does not seem to be any documentary proof that such a person, as is named by tradition, ever existed, yet such a tradition could hardly be based on the action assigned to a person who never existed. The prelates were in too much confusion to give a correct narrative of what took place, and the opposers of the Liturgy would not wish to give away any person, who acted such a noble part in striking the first blow in the battle for religious freedom, therefore, we may be quite sure that she had every opportunity of retiring into that obscurity from which she had momentarily been drawn by her religious fervour. It may have been a fictitious name given to her at the time by those who knew her real name, in order to lead off the scent such as were only too ready to visit with severe punishment any who showed a love to Christ’s Cause and to Scotland’s ancient institutions. Her real name, as was sometimes the case in similar affairs, may be cleverly hid in the fictitious one, if only one had enough ingenuity to decipher it. On the raised stone flooring of the Moray Aisle in St. Giles there is a copper plate with the following inscription:—”Constant oral tradition affirms that near this spot a brave Scotch woman, Janet Geddes, on the 23rd July, 1637, struck the first blow in the great struggle for freedom of conscience, which after a conflict of half a century, ended in the establishment of civil and religious liberty.”
This refusal to accept the odious Service Book was very evidently owned of God, and though the King thought to overawe his Scottish subjects into compliance with that which their very souls abominated, he had to beat a retreat before men who had a Scripture-enlightened conscience which they were determined not to put under the feet of King or Churchman. The matter is well put by Dr Hetherington when he says, “When Charles I ascended the throne, he found England in a state of discontent swelling towards insurrection, in consequence of the long course of tyranny, civil and religious, which it had uneasily endured. Unfortunately for him and for the kingdom, he had imbibed all his father’s despotic notions of the absolute and irresponsible nature of the royal prerogative; and to little less than his father’s dissimulation and insincerity, he added far greater strength of mind, and strength, or rather obstinacy of purpose. Yielding himself entirely to the counsels of Laud, and of his beautiful but imperious and relentless queen, he not only refused to mitigate the sufferings of the English Puritans, but resolved to complete what his father had begun, and to bring the Scottish Church into an entire conformity with that of England. A Book of Canons, and a Liturgy, were framed by the Scottish bishops, chiefly by Maxwell, bishop of Ross, revised by Laud, and sent to Scotland to be at once adopted and used, without even the formality of having them laid before any Scottish civil or ecclesiastical court. The free spirit of Scotland was roused by this mingled insult and tyranny. At first a sudden tumult broke out, and rendered the scheme abortive; and then followed a wide, deep, and steady determination to wrench asunder the despotic yoke of Prelacy, and to restore to Scotland, in all its original purity and freedom, her own dearly purchased and beloved Presbyterian Church. Pledging themselves in a sacred National Covenant, the noblest, the wisest, and the best of Scotland’s sons and daughters prepared to encounter every peril, and to sacrifice all that life holds dear, rather than yield up their most precious birthright and inheritance—their religious liberty. Provoked to see so bold and firm a front of resistance shown to his despotic designs in the poorest and least populous part of his dominions, Charles raised an army and marched against his hitherto unconquered Scottish subjects. He was met on the border by an equal array of that high-hearted and intelligent class of men, the Scottish peasantry, who have no parallel in any land, trained as they are from infancy to know, to love, and to fear God, and fearing Him, to have no other fear. The King could, in bitterness, mock their poverty, but he shrunk from the encounter with men who knew better how to die in what they believed to be the cause of sacred truth and liberty, than how to yield. He framed an evasive peace, and returned to England, purposing to conciliate the Parliament so far that he might obtain the means of overwhelming Scotland by a new army too mighty for that small kingdom to resist. “History of the Westminster Assembly, 3rd ed., p. 103.
The tumult in Edinburgh and the opposition towards the Service Book manifested in various places, strengthened the hearts and hands of the friends of the Cause of Christ. The bishops, having realised the damaging nature of Gillespie’s book, a proclamation was procured from the Privy Council ordering every copy of the book that could be obtained to be gathered in and burned by the common hangman. It was much easier to burn many copies of the work than to answer it, and so it remains unanswered to this day, while no exertion of arbitrary power by the sovereign, aided by the bishops and the Privy Council, could daunt the hearts or stay the hands of those who read the book. Its author became known and very soon the congregation of Wemyss set their hearts on obtaining him as their minister.
(To be continued)