Blair became minister of Bangor in Northern Ireland in 1623. But after
nine years there he was deposed for nonconformity with a number of
other ministers. A group of them took ship to emigrate to America in
search of religious liberty but were forced by the weather to return,
which is the occasion of this letter. In 1638 Blair was called to be
minister in Aye and later in St. Andrew, where he became a close friend
of Rutherford. In 1661 he was summoned before the Privy Council for a
sermon on the Covenant and deprived of his church. He died in 1666. See
also Letter LIV.
REVEREND AND DEARLY BELOVED BROTHER, -- Grace, mercy, and peace from God
our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, be unto you.
It is no great wonder, my dear brother, that ye be in heaviness for a
season, and that God's will (in crossing your design and desires to
dwell amongst a people whose God is the Lord) should move you. I deny
not but ye have cause to inquire what His providence speaketh in this
to you; but God's directing and commanding Will can by no good logic be
concluded from events of providence. The Lord sent Paul on many errands
for the spreading of His Gospel, where he found lions in his way. A
promise was made to His people of the Holy Land, and yet many nations
were in the way, fighting against, and ready to kill them that had the
promise, or to keep them from possessing the good land which the Lord
their God had given them. I know that ye have most to do with
submission of spirit; but I persuade myself that ye have learned, in
every condition wherein ye are cast, therein to be content, and to say,
'Good is the will of the Lord, let it be done.' I believe that the Lord
tacketh His ship often to fetch the wind, and that He purposeth to
bring mercy out of your sufferings and silence, which (I know from mine
own experience) is grievous to you. Seeing that He knoweth our willing
mind to serve Him, our wages and stipend is running to the fore with
our God, even as some sick soldiers get pay, when they are bedfast and
not able to go to the field with others.
When they have eaten and swallowed us up, they shall be sick and
vomit us out living men again; the devil's stomach cannot digest the
Church of God. Suffering is the other half of our ministry, howbeit the
hardest; for we would be content that our King Jesus should make an
open proclamation, and cry down crosses, and cry up joy, gladness,
ease, honor, and peace. But it must not be so; through many afflictions
we must enter into the kingdom of God. Not only by them, but through
them, must we go; and wiles will not take us past the cross. It is
folly to think to steal to heaven with a whole skin
For myself, I am here a prisoner confined in Aberdeen, threatened to
be removed to Caithness, because I desire to edify in this town; and am
openly preached against in the pulpits in my hearing.
There are none here to whom I can speak; I dwell in Kedar's tents.
Refresh me with a letter from you.
Dear brother, upon my salvation, this is His truth that we suffer
for. Courage! Courage! Joy, Joy, for evermore! O for help to set my
crowned lying on high! O for love to Him Who is altogether lovely -
that love which many waters cannot quench, neither can the floods
drown!
I remember you, and bear your name on my breast to Christ. I beseech
you, forget not His afflicted prisoner.
Your brother and fellow prisoner.
ABERDEEN, Feb. 7, 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.