DEAR AND CHRISTIAN LADY, -- I longed much to write to your Ladyship; but
now the Lord offering a fit occasion I would not omit to do it. I
cannot but acquaint your Ladyship with the kind dealing of Christ to my
soul, in this house of my pilgrimage, that your Ladyship may know that
He is as good as He is called. For at my first entry into this trial
(being cast down and troubled with challenges and jealousies of His
love, whose name and testimony I now bear in my bonds), I feared
nothing more than that I was casten over the dyke of the vineyard, as a
dry tree. But, blessed be His dear name, the dry tree was in the fire,
and was not burnt; His dew came down and quickened the root of a
withered plant. And now He is come again with joy, and has been pleased
to feast His exiled and amicted prisoner with the joy of His
consolations. Now I weep, but am not sad; I am chastened, but I die
not; I have loss, but I want nothing; this water cannot drown me, this
fire cannot burn me, because of the good-will of Him that dwelt in the
Bush. The worst things of Christ, His reproaches, His cross, are better
than Egypt's treasures. I would not give, nor exchange, my bonds for
the prelates' velvets; nor my prison for their coaches; nor my sighs
for all the world's laughter. This clay-idol, the world, has no great
court in my soul. Christ has come and run away to heaven with my heart
and my love, so that neither heart nor love is mine: I pray God, that
Christ may keep both without reversion.
Remember my service to the laird, your husband, and to your son, my
acquaintance. I wish that Christ had his young love, and that in the
morning he would start to the gate, to seek that which the world
knoweth not and therefore does not seek it.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
ABERDEEN, March 14, 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.