MADAM, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. -- Though not acquainted,
yet, at the desire of a Christian, I make bold to write a line or two
unto you, by way of counsel, howbeit I be most unfit for that.
I hear, and I bless the Father of lights for it, that ye have a
spirit set to seek God, and that the posture of your heart is to look
heavenward, which is a work and cast of the Mediator Christ's right
hand, who putteth on the heart a new frame. For the which I would have
your Ladyship to see a tie and bond of obedience laid upon you, that
all may be done, not so much from obligation of law, as from the tie of
free love; that the law of ransom-paying by Christ may be the chief
ground of all our obedience, seeing that ye are not under the law, but
under grace. Withal, know that unbelief is a spiritual sin, and so not
seen by nature's light; and that all which conscience saith is not
Scripture. Suppose that your heart bear witness against you for sins
done long ago: yet, because many have pardon with God that have not
peace with themselves, ye are to stand and fall by Christ's esteem and
verdict of you, and not by that which your heart saith.
Let faith hing by this small thread, that He loved you before He laid
the corner-stone of the world, and therefore He cannot change His mind;
because He is God and resteth in His love. Neither is sin in you a good
reason wherefore ye should doubt of Him, or think, because sin has put
you in the courtesy and reverence of justice, that therefore He is
wrath with you: neither is it presumption in you to lay the burden of
your salvation on One mighty to save, so being that ye lay aside all
confidence in yourself, your worth and righteousness. True faith is
humble, and seeth no way to escape but only in Christ. And I believe
that ye have put an esteem and high price upon Christ: and they cannot
but believe and so be saved, who love Christ and to whom He is
precious. And it were not like God, if ye should choose Him as your
liking and He not choose you again. Nay, He has prevented you in that,
for ye have not chosen Him, but He has chosen you.
And the more your Ladyship drink of this love, there is the more
room, and the greater delight and desire for this love. Be homely, and
hunger for a feast and fill of His love; for that is the borders and
march of heaven. Nothing has a nearer resemblance to the color and hue
and lustre of heaven than Christ loved. Remember what He is. When
twenty thousand millions of heaven's lovers have worn their hearts
threadbare of love, all is nothing, yea, less than nothing, to His
matchless worth and excellency. Oh so broad and so deep as the sea of
His desirable loveliness is! Glorified spirits, triumphing angels, the
crowned and exalted lovers of heaven, stand without His loveliness and
cannot put a circle on it.
Alas! what do I? I but spill and lose words in speaking highly of Him
who will bide and be above the music and songs of heaven, and never be
enough praised by us all; to whose boundless and bottomless love I
recommend your Ladyship.
ST ANDREWS, March 27, 1640
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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.