MY VERY HONORABLE AND DEAR LADY, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I
cannot forget your Ladyship, and that sweet child. I desire to hear
what the Lord is doing to you and him. To write to me were charity. I
cannot but write to my friends, that Christ has trysted me in Aberdeen;
and my adversaries have sent me here to be feasted with love banquets
with my royal, high, high, and princely King Jesus. Madam, why should I
smother Christ's honesty? I dare not conceal His goodness to my soul;
He looked fremed and unco-like upon me when I came first here; but I
believe Himself better than His looks. God forgive them that raise an
ill report upon the sweet cross of Christ. It is but our weak and dim
eyes, and our looking only to the black side that makes us mistake.
Those who can take that crabbed tree handsomely upon their back, and
fasten it on cannily, shall find it such a burden as wings unto a bird,
or sails to a ship. Madam, rue not of your having chosen the better
part. Upon my salvation, this is Christ's truth I now suffer for. If I
found but cold comfort in my sufferings, I would not beguile others; I
would have told you plainly. But the truth is, Christ's crown, His
sceptre, and the freedom of His kingdom, is that which is now called in
question; because we will not allow that Christ should pay tribute and
be a vassal to the shields of the earth, therefore the sons of our
mother are angry at us. But it becometh not Christ to hold any man's
stirrup. It is little to see Christ in a book. They talk of Christ by
the book and the tongue, and no more; but to come nigh Christ, and
embrace Him, is another thing. Madam, I write to your honor, for your
encouragement in that honorable profession Christ has honored you with.
Ye have gotten the sunny side of the bras, and the best of Christ's
good things; and howbeit you get strokes and sour looks from your Lord,
yet believe His love more than your own feeling, for this world can
take nothing from you that is truly yours, and death can do you no
wrong. Your rock does not ebb and flow, but your sea. That which Christ
has said, He will bide by it.
Madam, I find folks here kind to me; but in the night, and under
their breath. My Master's cause may not come to the crown of the
causeway. Others are kind according to their fashion. Many think me a
strange man, and my cause not good; but I care not much for man's
thoughts or approbation. I think no shame of the cross. The preachers
of the town pretend great love, but the prelates have added to the rest
this gentle cruelty (for so they think of it), to discharge me of the
pulpits of this town. The people murmur and cry out against it; and to
speak truly (howbeit) Christ is most indulgent to me otherwise), my
silence on the Lord's day keeps me from being exalted above measure,
and from startling in the heat of my Lord's love. Some people affect
me, for the which cause, I hear the preachers here purpose to have my
confinement changed to another place; so cold is northern love; but
Christ and I will bear it. I have wrestled long with this sad silence.
I said, what aileth Christ at my service? And my soul has been at a
pleading with Christ, and at yea and nay. But I will yield to Him,
providing my suffering may preach more than my tongue did; for I give
not Christ an inch but for twice as good again. In a word, I am a fool,
and He is God. I will hold my peace hereafter.
Let me hear from your Ladyship, and your dear child. Pray for the
prisoner of Christ, who is mindful of your ladyship.
ABERDEEN, Nov. 22, 1636
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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.