MY VERY NOBLE AND WORTHY LADY, -- So oft as I call to mind the comforts
that I myself, a poor friendless stranger, received from your Ladyship
here in a strange part of the country, when my Lord took from me the
delight of mine eyes (Ezek. 24.1), as the Word speaketh (which wound is
not yet fully healed and cured), I trust your Lord shall remember that,
and give you comfort now at such a time as this, wherein your dearest
Lord has made you a widow, albeit I must out of some experience say,
the mourning for the husband of your youth be, by God's own mouth, the
heaviest worldly sorrow (Joel 1.8). And though this be the weightiest
burden that ever lay upon your back; yet ye know (when the fields are
emptied and your husband now asleep in the Lord), if ye shall wait upon
Him who hideth His face for a while, that it lieth upon God's honor and
truth to fill the field, and to be a Husband to the widow. Let your
faith and patience be seen, that it may be known your only beloved
first and last has been Christ. And, therefore, now ware your whole
love upon Him; He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the
affections of your soul. God has dried up one channel of your love by
the removal of your husband. Let now that speat run upon Christ.
And I dare say that God's hammering of you from your youth is only to
make you a fair carved stone in the high upper temple of the New
Jerusalem. Your Lord never thought this world's vain painted glory a
gift worthy of you; and therefore would not bestow it on you, because
He is to propane you with a better portion. Let the movable go; the
inheritance is yours. Ye are a child of the house, and joy is laid up
for you, it is long in coming, but not the worse for that. I am now
expecting to see, and that with joy and comfort, that which I hoped of
you since I knew you fully; even that ye have laid such strength upon
the Holy One of Israel, that ye defy troubles, and that your soul is a
castle that may be besieged, but cannot be taken. And withal consider
how in all these trials (and truly they have been many) your Lord has
been loosing you at the root from perishing things, and hunting after
you to grip your soul. Madam, for the Son of God's sake, let Him not
miss His grip, but stay and abide in the love of God, as Jude saith
(Jude 21).
Now. Madam, I hope your Ladyship will take these lines in good part;
and wherein I have fallen short and failed to your Ladyship, in not
evidencing what I was obliged to your more-than-undeserved love and
respect, I request for a full pardon for it. Again, my dear and noble
lady, let me beseech you to lift up your head, for the day of your
redemption draweth near. And remember, that star that shined in
Galloway is now shining in another world. Now I pray that God may
answer, in His own style, to your soul, and that He may be to you the
God of all consolations.
ANWOTH, Sept. 14, 1634
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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.