Fleming was minister of a parish in East Lothian. He was strongly
opposed to the attempts of James and Charles I to impose prelacy and
the Prayer Book on Scotland. His first wife, Martha, was the eldest
daughter of John Knox.
REVEREND AND WELL-BELOVED IN OUR LORD, -- Grace, mercy, and peace to
you. I received your letter which has refreshed me in my bonds. I
cannot but testify unto you, my dear brother, what sweetness I find in
our Master's cross; but alas, what can I either do or suffer for Him? I
am not able, by tongue, pen, or sufferings, to provoke many to fall in
love with Him: but He knoweth, whom I love to serve in the Spirit, what
I would do and suffer by His own strength, so being that I might make
my Lord Jesus lovely and sweet to many thousands in this land. I think
it amongst God's wonders, that He will take any praise or glory, or any
testimony to His honorable cause, from such a forlorn sinner as I am.
But when Christ worketh, He needeth not ask the question, by whom He
will be glorious. I know (seeing His glory at the beginning did shine
out of poor nothing, to set up such a fair house for men and angels,
and so many glorious creatures, to proclaim His goodness, power, and
wisdom) that, if I were burnt to ashes, out of the smoke and powder of
my dissolved body He could raise glory to Himself. But, alas! Few know
the guiltiness that is on my part: it is a wonder, that this good cause
has not been marred and spilled in my foul hands. But I rejoice in
this, that my sweet Lord Jesus has found something ado, even a ready
market for His free grace and incomparable and matchless mercy, in my
wants. Only my loathsome wretchedness and my wants have qualified me
for Christ, and the riches of His glorious grace. Few know the unseen
and private reckonings betwixt Christ and me; yet His love, His
boundless love would not bide away, nor stay at home with Himself.
How joyful is my heart, that ye write that ye are desirous to join
with me in praising; for it is a charity to help a devour to pay his
debts. But when all have helped me, my name shall stand in His
account-book under ten thousand thousands of sums unpaid. But it easeth
my heart that His dear servants will but speak of my debts to such a
sweet Creditor. I desire that He may lay me in His own balance and
weigh me, if I would not fain have a feast of His boundless love made
to my own soul, and to many others. One thing I know, that we shall not
at all be able to come near His Excellency, with eye, heart, or tongue;
for He is above all created thoughts. All nations before Him are as
nothing, and less than nothing: He sitteth in the circuit of heaven,
and the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers before Him. Oh
that men would praise Him!
Ye complain of your private case. Alas! I am not the man to speak to
such an one as ye are. Any sweet presence which I have had in this
town, is, I know, for this cause, that I might express and make it
known to others. But I never find myself nearer Christ, that royal and
princely One, than after a great weight and sense of deadness and
gracelessness. I think that the sense of our wants, when withal we have
a restlessness and a sort of spiritual impatience under them and can
make a din, because we want Him whom our soul loveth, is that which
maketh an open door to Christ. And when we think we are going backward,
because we feel deadness, we are going forward; for the more sense, the
more life; and no sense argueth no life.
And for your complaints of your ministry, I now think all I do too
little. Plainness, freedom, watchfulness, fidelity, shall swell upon
you, in exceeding large comforts, in your sufferings. The feeding of
Christ's lambs in private visits lions and catechizing, in painful
preaching, and fair, honest, and free warning of the flock, is a
sufferer's garland. Oh, ten thousand times blessed are they who are
honored of Christ to be faithful and painful in wooing a bride to
Christ! My dear brother, I know that ye think more on this than I can
write; and I rejoice that your purpose is, in the Lord's strength, to
back your wronged Master; and to come out and call yourself Christ's
man when so many are now denying Him.
Help me with your prayers; and desire, from me, other brethren to
take courage for their Master.
ABERDEEN, Aug. 15, 1637
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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.