Her husband, to whom Rutherford expresses his obligations at the close
of the letter, was Sheriff of Ayrshire and represented it in the
Scottish Parliament. He was one of three commissioners sent by
Parliament on behalf of the Covenant to Newcastle in 1641. In 1649 he
commanded a troop of Horse.
MISTRESS, -- I long to know how matters stand betwixt Christ and your
soul. Time cannot change Him in His love. Ye yourself may ebb and flow,
rise and fall, wax and wane; but your Lord is this day as He was
yesterday. And it is your comfort that your salvation is not rolled
upon wheels of your own making, neither have ye to do with a Christ at
your own shaping. God has singled out a Mediator, strong and mighty: if
ye and your burdens were as heavy as ten hills or hells, He is able to
bear you, and to save you to the uttermost. Your often seeking to Him
cannot make you a burden to Him. I know that Christ compassioneth you,
and maketh a moan for you, in all your dumps, and under your down
castings; but it is good for you that He hideth Himself sometimes. It
is not niceness, dryness, nor coldness of love, that causeth Christ to
withdraw, and slip in under a curtain and a vail, that ye cannot see
Him; but He knoweth that ye could not bear with upsails, a fair gale, a
full moon, and a high spring-tide of His felt love, and always a fair
summer-day and a summer-sun of a felt and possessed and embracing Lord
Jesus. His kisses and His visits to His dearest ones are thin-sown. He
could not let out His rivers of love upon His own, but these rivers
would be in hazard of loosening a young plant at the root; and He
knoweth this of you. Ye should, therefore, frist Christ's kindness, as
to its sensible and full manifestations, till ye and He be above sun
and moon. That is the country where ye will be enlarged for that love
which ye dow not now contain.
Cast the burden of your sweet babes upon Christ, and lighten your
heart, by laying your all upon Him: He will be their God. I hope to see
you up the mountain yet, and glad in the salvation of God. Frame
yourself for Christ, and gloom not upon His cross. I find Him so sweet,
that my love, suppose I would charge it to remove from Christ, would
not obey me: His love has stronger fingers than to let go its grips of
us bairns, who cannot go but by such a hold as Christ. It is good that
we want legs of our own, since we may borrow from Christ; and it is our
happiness that Christ is under an act of cautionary for heaven, and
that Christ is booked in heaven as the principal debtor for such poor
bodies as we are.
I request you, give the laird, your husband, thanks for his care of
me, in that he has appeared in public for a prisoner of Christ. I pray
and write mercy, and peace, and blessings to him and his.
Grace, grace be with you for ever.
ABERDEEN, 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.