MADAM, -- Oh how sweet is it that the company of the firstborn should be
divided into two great bodies of an army, and some in their country,
and some in the way to their country! If it were no more than once to
see the face of the Prince of this good land, and to be feasted for
eternity with the fatness, sweetness, dainties of the rays and beams of
matchless glory, and incomparable fountain-love, it were a well-spent
journey to creep hands and feet through seven deaths and seven hells,
to enjoy Him up at the well-head. Only let us not weary: the miles to
that land are fewer and shorter than when we first believed. Strangers
are not wise to quarrel with their host, and complain of their lodging.
It is a foul way, but a fair home. Oh that I had but such grapes and
clusters out of the land as I have sometimes seen and tasted in the
place whereof your Ladyship maketh mention! But the hope of it in the
end is a heart some convoy in the way.
Grace be with you.
Your Ladyship's, in Jesus Christ.
LONDON, Jan. 26, 1646
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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.