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Discussion of George Gillespie's Wholesome Severity Reconciled with Christian Liberty
GWS-7 <text> 
Subject: GWS-7 
From: Richard Bacon 
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 07:54:50 -0500

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Discussion: GWS. Post 7.
George Gillespie's Wholesome Severity 
Reconciled with Christian Liberty
The true resolution of a present controversy 
concerning liberty of conscience.
All text for this discussion taken from the 
edition of this work, Copyright (c) Naphtali 
Press 1996.  Full text available at: 
http://www.naphtali.com/naphtali
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[Part II. Point 1, proof from the law.]
II. The Arguments whereby this third or 
middle opinion is confirmed (that we may not 
build upon human authority) are these.
1. First, the law (Deut. 13:6-9), concerning 
the stoning and killing of him, who shall 
secretly entice people, saying, "Let us go 
after other gods." If it is said, that this law did 
bind the Jews only, and is not moral or 
perpetual, I answer, Jacobus Acontius,#11 
though he is of another opinion concerning 
this question than I am, yet he candidly and 
freely confesses that he sees nothing in that 
law which does not belong to the New 
Testament, as well as the Old; for, he says, 
the reason and ground of the law, the use and 
end of it, is moral and perpetual (v. 11): All 
Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no 
more any such wickedness, as this is among 
you. But yet, says Acontius, this law does not 
concern heretics, who believe and teach 
errors concerning the true God or his 
worship; but only apostates who fall away to 
other gods. In this#12 I shall not much 
contend with him; only thus far, if apostates 
are to be stoned and killed according to that 
law, then surely seducing heretics are also to 
receive their measure and proportion of 
punishment. The moral equity of the law 
requires this much at least, that if we compare 
heresy and apostasy together, look how much 
less the evil of sin is in heresy, so much and 
no more is to be remitted of the evil of 
punishment, especially the danger of 
contagion and seduction, being as much or 
rather more in heresy than in apostasy; yea, 
that which is called heresy being oftentimes a 
real following after other gods. But the Law 
(Deut. 13), for punishing with death, as well 
whole cities as particular persons, for falling 
away to other gods, is not the only law for 
punishing even capitally gross sins against 
the first table. See Ex. 22:20, He that 
sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord 
only, he shall be utterly destroyed. Ex. 31:14, 
Every one that defileth the sabbath, shall be 
put to death. Lev. 24:16, And he that 
blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall 
surely be put to death. Deut. 17:2-5, If there 
be found among you within any of thy gates, 
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or 
woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the 
sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing 
his covenant, and hath gone and served other 
gods and worshipped them . . . . Thou shalt 
bring forth that man or that woman unto thy 
gates, even that man or that woman, and 
shall stone them with stones till they die.

Footnotes:

11. Jacobus Acontius, Stratagematum 
Satanae (1631, 1st Edition, Basel, 1565; 
Translation, Satan's Stratagems, 1648), Book 
3, pp. 150-151. But there are those who think 
that the law only flourished up to the time of 
Christ, etc. And that corporal punishment is a 
type of eternal damnation, etc. Indeed this 
conjecture does not seem impertinent to me, 
so much so that I could not find a reason by 
which it can be thrown out, unless its 
reasoning can be thwarted by the law as a 
given. For it is in the law that all Israel 
should hear and fear, and after this nothing 
on the order of that conjecture is admitted. 
Certainly this reasoning is always 
flourishing.

12. Pelargus on Deuteronomy 13. Those who 
are blasphemers, who openly disfigure the 
church and the state, and who are seditious, 
incur deserved penalties: the rest are to be 
corrected and coerced by other means, as in 
the example of the Emperor Theodosius and 
Justinian in book 5 of Socrates, chapter 10: 
Theodosius threw those who believed 
otherwise out of the city.


Dick Bacon
Poster of the text and keeper of the order.