MADAM, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied upon you. I received
your Ladyship's letter, in the which I perceive your case in this world
smelleth of a fellowship and communion with the Son of God in His
sufferings. Ye cannot, ye must not, have a more pleasant or more easy
condition here, than He had, who 'through afflictions was made perfect'
(Heb. 2.10). We may indeed think, Cannot God bring us to heaven with
ease and prosperity? Who doubteth but He can? But His infinite wisdom
thinketh and decreeth the contrary; and we cannot see a reason for it,
yet He hath a most just reason. We never with our eyes saw our own
soul; yet we have a soul. We see many rivers, but we know not their
first spring and original fountain; yet they have a beginning. Madam,
when ye are come to the other side of the water, and have set down your
foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back again to the
waters and to your wearisome journey, and shall see, in that clear
glass of endless glory, nearer to the bottom of God's wisdom, ye shall
then be forced to say, 'If God had done otherwise with me than He hath
done, I had never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory.' It is
your part now to believe, and suffer, and hope, and wait on; for I
protest, in the presence of that all-discerning eye, who knoweth what I
write and what I think, that I would not want the sweet experience of
the consolations of God for all the bitterness of affliction. Nay,
whether God come to His children with a rod or a crown, if He come
Himself with it, it is well. Welcome, welcome, Jesus, what way soever
Thou come, if we can get a sight of Thee! And sure I am, it is better
to be sick, providing Christ come to the bedside and draw by the
curtains, and say, 'Courage, I am thy salvation', than to enjoy
health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited of God
My wife now, after long disease and torment, for the space of a year
and a month, is departed this life. The Lord hath done it; blessed be
His name. I have been diseased of a fever tertian for the space of
thirteen weeks, and am yet in the sickness, so that I preach but once
on the Sabbath with great difficulty. I am not able either to visit or
examine the congregation. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
ANWOTH, June 26, 1630.
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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.