MISTRESS, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you -- Though I have no
relation worldly or acquaintance with you, yet (upon the testimony and
importunity of your elder son now at London, where I am, but chiefly
because I esteem Jesus Christ in you to be in place of all relations) I
make bold, in Christ, to speak my poor thoughts to you concerning your
son lately fallen asleep in the Lord. I know that grace rooteth not out
the affections of a mother, but putteth them on His wheel who maketh
all things new, that they may be refined: therefore, sorrow for a dead
child is allowed to you, though by measure and ounce-weights. The
redeemed of the Lord have not a dominion, or lordship, over their
sorrow and other affections, to lavish out Christ's goods at their
pleasure. 'For ye are not your own, but bought with a price'; and your
sorrow is not your own. Nor has He redeemed you by halves; and
therefore, ye are not to make Christ's cross no cross. He commandeth
you to weep: and that princely One, who took up to heaven with Him a
man's heart to be a compassionate High Priest, became your fellow and
companion on earth by weeping for the dead (John 11.35). And,
therefore, ye are to love that cross, because it was once at Christ's
shoulders before you: so that by His own practice He has over-gilded
and covered your cross with the Mediator's lustre. The cup ye drink was
at the lip of sweet Jesus, and He drank of it. The kind and
compassionate Jesus, at every sigh you give for the loss of your now
glorified child (so I believe, as is meet), with a man's heart crieth,
'Half Mine'.
I was not a witness to his death, being called out of the kingdom;
but, if you will credit those whom I do credit (and I dare not lie), he
died comfortably. It is true, he died before he did so much service to
Christ on earth, as I hope and heartily desire that your son Mr Hugh
(very dear to me in Jesus Christ) will do. But that were a real matter
of sorrow if this were not to counterbalance it, that he has changed
service-houses, but has not changed services or Master. 'And there
shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be
in it; and His servants shall serve Him' (Rev. 22.3). What he could
have done in this lower house, he is now upon that same service in the
higher house; and it is all one: it is the same service and same
Master, only there is a change of conditions. And ye are not to think
it a bad bargain for your beloved son, where he has gold for copper and
brass, eternity for time.
I believe that Christ has taught you (for I give credit to such a
witness of you as your son Mr Hugh) not to sorrow because he died. All
the knot must be, 'He died too soon, he died too young, he died in the
morning of his life.' This is all; but sovereignty must silence your
thoughts. I was in your condition: I had but two children, and both are
dead since I came hither. The supreme and absolute Former of all things
giveth not an account of any of His matters. The good Husbandman may
pluck His roses, and gather in His lilies at mid-summer, and, for aught
I dare say, in the beginning of the first summer month, and He may
transplant young trees out of the lower ground to the higher, where
they may have more of the sun, and a more free air, at any season of
the year. What is that to you or me? The goods are His own. The Creator
of time and winds did a merciful injury, if I dare borrow the word, to
nature, in landing the passenger so early. They love the sea too well,
who complain of a fair wind and a desirable tide, and a speedy coming
ashore, especially a coming ashore in that land where all the
inhabitants have everlasting joy upon their heads. He cannot be too
early in heaven; his twelve hours were not short hours. And withal, if
you consider this, had you been at his bed-side, and should have seen
Christ coming to him, you could not have adjourned Christ's free love,
who would wants him no longer. And dying in another land, where his
mother could not close his eyes, is not much. The whole earth is his
Father's; any corner of his Father's house is good enough to die in.
It may be, the living child (I speak not of Mr Hugh) is more grief to
you than the dead. Ye are to wait on, if at any time God shall give him
repentance. Christ waited as long possibly on you and me, certainly
longer on me: and if He should deny repentance to him, I could say
something to that: but I hope better things of him. And think this a
favor, that He has bestowed upon you fine, free grace, that is, mercy
without hire; ye paid nothing for it: and who can put a price upon any
thing of royal and princely Jesus Christ? And God has given to you to
suffer for Him the spoiling of your goods. Esteem it as an act of free
grace also. Ye are no loser, having Himself; and I persuade myself, if
you could prize Christ, nothing could be bitter to you. Grace, grace be
with you.
Your brother and well-wisher.
LONDON, 1645
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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.