REVEREND AND WELL-BELOVED BROTHER, Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you.
I have heard somewhat of your trials in Galloway. My witness is above,
my dearest brother, that ye have added much joy to me in my bonds, when
I hear that ye grow in the grace and zeal of God for your Master. Our
ministry, whether by preaching or suffering, will cast a smell through
the world both of heaven and hell (II Cor. 2.15, 16). I persuade you,
my dear brother, that there is nothing out of heaven, next to Christ,
dearer to me than my ministry.
And, let me speak to you now, how kind a fellow prisoner is Christ to
me! Believe me, this kind of cross (that would not go by my door, but
would needs visit me) is still the longer the more welcome to me. It is
true, my silent Sabbaths have been, and still are, as glassy ice,
whereon my faith can scarce hold its feet, and I am often blown on my
back, and off my feet, with a storm of doubting; yet truly, my bonds
all this time cast a mighty and rank smell of high and deep love in
Christ. I cannot, indeed, see through my cross to the far end; yet I
believe I am in Christ's books, and in His decree (not yet unfolded to
me), a man triumphing, dancing, and singing, on the other side of the
Red Sea, and laughing and praising the Lamb, over beyond time, sorrow,
deprivation, prelates' indignation, losses, want of friends, and death.
Woe is me, my dear brother, that I say often, 'I am but dry bones,
which my Lord will not bring out of the grave again'; and that my
faithless fears say, 'Oh, I am a dry tree, that can bear no fruit: I am
a useless body, who can beget no children to the Lord in His house!'
Hopes of deliverance look cold and uncertain and afar off, as if I had
done with it. If my sufferings could do beholders good and edify His
kirk and proclaim the incomparable worth of Christ's love to the world,
then would my soul be overjoyed and my sad heart be cheered and calmed!
Dear brother, I cannot tell what is become of my labours among that
people! If all that my Lord builded by me be casten down, and the
bottom be fallen out of the profession at that parish, and none stand
by Christ, whose love I once preached as clearly and plainly as I could
(though far below its worth and excellence) to that people; if so, how
can I bear it! And if another make a foul harvest, where I have made a
painful and honest sowing, it will not soon digest with me. But I know
that His ways pass finding out. Yet my witness, both within me and
above me, knoweth. And my pained breast upon the Lord's Day at night,
my desire to have had Christ awful, and amiable, and sweet to that
people, is now my joy. It was my desire and aim to make Christ and them
one; and, if I see my hopes die in the bud, see they bloom a little,
and come to no fruit, I die with grief.
But, my dear brother, go on in the strength of His rich grace, whom
ye serve. Stand fast for Christ. Deliver the Gospel off your hand, and
your ministry to your Master with a clean and undefiled conscience. Let
us make our part of it good, that it may be able to abide the fire,
when hay and stubble shall be burned to ashes. Nothing, nothing, I say,
nothing, but sound sanctification can abide the Lord's fan.
Now, remember my love to all my friends, and to my parishioners, as
if I named each one of them particularly. I recommend you, and God's
people, committed by Christ to your trust, to the rich grace of our
all-sufflcient Lord. Remember my bonds. Praise my Lord, who beareth me
up in my sufferings. As you find occasion, according to the wisdom
given you, show our acquaintance what the Lord has done for my soul.
This I seek not, verily, to hunt my own praise, but that my dearest
Master may be magnified.
ABERDEEN, June 17, 1637
Be the first to react on this!
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.