MADAM, -- I determined, and was desirous also, to have seen your
Ladyship, but because of a pain in my arm I could not. I know ye will
not impute it to any unsuitable forgetfulness of your Ladyship, from
whom, at my first entry to my calling in this country (and since also),
I received such comfort in my affliction as I trust in God never to
forget, and shall labour by His grace to recompense in the only way
possible to me; and that is, by presenting your soul, person, house,
and all your necessities, in prayer to Him, whose I hope you are, and
who is able to keep you till that Day of Appearance, and to present you
before His face with joy.
I am confident your Ladyship is going forward in the begun journey to
your Lord and Father's home and kingdom. Howbeit ye want not
temptations within and without. And who among the saints has ever taken
that castle without stroke of sword? The Chief of the house, our Elder
brother, our Lord Jesus, not being excepted, who won His own house and
home, due to Him by birth, with much blood and many blows. Your
Ladyship has the more need to look to yourself, because our Lord has
placed you higher than the rest, and your way to heaven lieth through a
more wild and waste wilderness than the way of many of your
fellow-travellers -- not only through the midst of this wood of thorn,
the cumbersome world, but also through these dangerous paths, the
vain-glory of it; the consideration whereof has often moved me to pity
your soul, and the soul of your worthy and noble husband. And it is
more to you to win heaven, being ships of greater burden, and in the
main sea, than for little vessels, that are not so much in the mercy
and reverence of the storms, because they may come quietly to their
port by launching amongst the coast. For the which cause ye do much, if
in the midst of such a tumult of business, and crowd of temptations, ye
shall give Christ Jesus His own court and His own due place in your
soul. I know and am persuaded, that that lovely One, Jesus, is dearer
to you than many kingdoms; and that ye esteem Him your Well-beloved,
and the Standard-bearer among ten thousand (Song of Sol. 5.1O). And it
becometh Him full well to take the place and the board head in your
soul before all the world. I knew and saw Him with you in the furnace
of affliction; for there He wooed you to Himself, and chose you to be
His; and now He craveth no other hire of you but your love, and that He
get no cause to be jealous of you. And, therefore, dear and worthy
lady, be like to the fresh river, that keepeth its own fresh taste in
the salt sea.
Madam, many eyes are upon you, and many would be glad your Ladyship
should spill a Christian, and mar a good professor. Lord Jesus, mar
their godless desires, and keey the conscience whole without a crack!
If there be a hole in it, so that it take in water at a leak, it will
with difficulty mend again. It is a dainty, delicate creature, and a
rare piece of the workmanship of your Maker; and therefore deal gently
with it, and keep it entire, that amidst this world's glory your
Ladyship may learn to entertain Christ. And whatsoever creature your
Ladyship findeth not to smell of Him, may it have no better relish to
you than the white of an egg.
Madam, it is a part of the truth of your profession to drop words in
the ears of your noble husband continually of eternity, judgment,
death, hell, heaven, the honorable profession, the sins of his father's
house. He must reckon with God for his father's debt; forgetting of
accounts payeth no debt. Nay, the interest of a forgotten bond runneth
up with God to interest upon interest. I know he looketh homeward, and
loveth the truth; but I pity him with my soul, because of his many
temptations. Satan layeth upon men a burden of cares, above a load (and
maketh a pack horse of men's souls), when they are wholly set upon this
world. We owe the devil no such service. It were wisdom to throw off
that load into a mire, and cast all our cares over upon God.
Look for crosses, and while it is fair weather mend the sails of the
ship. Now hoping your Ladyship will pardon my tediousness, I recommend
your soul and person to the grace and mercy of our Lord, in whom I am
your Ladyship's obedient.
ANWOTH, Nov, 15, 1633
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Rutherford was also known for his spiritual and devotional works, such as Christ Dying and drawing Sinners to Himself and his Letters. Concerning his Letters, Charles Spurgeon wrote: "When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford's Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men". Published versions of the Letters contain 365 letters and fit well with reading one per day.
Rutherford was a strong supporter of the divine right of Presbytery, the principle that the Bible calls for Presbyterian church government. Among his polemical works are Due Right of Presbyteries (1644), Lex, Rex (1644), and Free Disputation against Pretended Liberty of Conscience.
Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian theologian and author. He was one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly.
Born in the village of Nisbet, Roxburghshire, Rutherford was educated at Edinburgh University, where he became in 1623 Regent of Humanity (Professor of Latin). In 1627 he was settled as minister of Anwoth in Galloway, from where he was banished to Aberdeen for nonconformity. His patron in Galloway was John Gordon, 1st Viscount of Kenmure. On the re-establishment of Presbytery in 1638 he was made Professor of Divinity at St. Andrews, and in 1651 Rector of St. Mary's College there. At the Restoration he was deprived of all his offices.
Rutherford's political book Lex, Rex (meaning "the law [and] the king" or "the law [is] king") presented a theory of limited government and constitutionalism. It was an explicit refutation of the doctrine of "Rex Lex" or "the king is the law." Rutherford was also known for his spiritual and devotional works, such as Christ Dying and drawing Sinners to Himself and his Letters.