Lady Jane Campbell, Viscountess of Kenmure, was the third daughter of
Archibald Campbell, seventh Earl of Argyle, and sister to the Marquis
of Argyle who was beheaded in 1661. She was remarkable for ability and
Christian devotion, and for her generous help to those who suffered for
conscience' sake. She had many troubles of her own, which are reflected
in these letters. She lost two daughters in infancy and her husband
died in 1634. Her son, who succeeded to the title, also died before
attaining his majority, in 1649. The last of Rutherford's letters to
her is dated in 1661, just after the execution of her brother. She
herself lived to a great age, though suffering all her life from bad
health. Forty-seven letters to her from Rutherford have been preserved,
and sixteen of them are quoted in this selection. See below, numbers
II, IV, V, VII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XIX, XX, XLVIII, LX, LXX.
MADAM, -- All dutiful obedience in the Lord remembered. I have heard of
your Ladyship's infirmity and sickness with grief; yet I trust ye have
learned to say, 'It is the Lord, let Him do whatsoever seemeth good in
His eyes.' For there be many Christians most like unto young sailors,
who think the shore and the whole land doth move, when the ship and
they themselves are moved; just so, not a few do imagine that God
moveth and saileth and changeth places, because their giddy souls are
under sail, and subject to alteration, to ebbing and flowing. But 'the
foundation of the Lord abideth sure'. God knoweth that ye are His own.
Wrestle, fight, go forward, watch, fear, believe, pray; and then ye
have the infallible symptoms of one of the elect of Christ within you.
Ye have now, Madam, a sickness before you; and also after that a
death. Gather then now food for the journey. God give you eyes to see
through sickness and death, and to see something beyond death. Now, I
believe ye have only these two shallow brooks, sickness and death, to
pass through; and ye have also a promise that Christ shall do more than
meet you, even that He shall come Himself, and go with you foot for
foot, yea and bear you in His arms. O then! O then! for the joy that is
set before you; for the love of the Man (who is also 'God over all,
blessed forever') that is standing on the shore to welcome you, run
your race with patience. The Lord go with you. Your Lord will not have
you, nor any of His servants, to exchange for the worse. Death in
itself includeth both the death of the soul and the death of the body;
but to God's children the bounds and the limits of death are abridged
and drawn into a more narrow compass. So that when ye die, a piece of
death shall only seize upon you, or the least part of you shall die,
and that is the dissolution of the body; for in Christ ye are delivered
from the second death; and, therefore, as one born of God, commit not
sin (although ye cannot live and not sin), and that serpent shall but
eat your earthly part. As for your soul, it is above the law of death.
But it is fearful and dangerous to be a debtor and servant to sin; for
the count of sin ye will not be able to make good before God, except
Christ both count and pay for you.
I trust also, Madam, that ye will be careful to present to the Lord
the present estate of this decaying kirk. For what shall be concluded
in Parliament anent her, the Lord knoweth.
Stir up your husband, your brother, and all with whom you are in
favour and credit, to stand upon the Lord's side against Baal. I have
good hope your husband loveth the peace and prosperity of Zion: the
peace of God be upon him. Thus, not willing to weary your Ladyship
farther, I commend you, now and always, to the grace and mercy of that
God who is able to keep you, that you fall not. The Lord Jesus be with
your spirit.
ANWOTH, July 27, 1628
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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.