John Stuart, Provost of Aye, another correspondent of Rutherford
(Letter XXIX), was told that a ship of his, bound from Rochelle to Aye,
had been captured by the Turks. The rumour proved incorrect, for at
length it arrived in the roads. Kennedy, an intimate friend of Stuart,
was so overjoyed that he went out to it in a small boat. But a violent
storm suddenly arose and he was driven out to sea and given up for
drowned. But three days later Kennedy, who had managed to land safely
on another part of the coast, returned home. Kennedy was member for Aye
of the Scottish Parliament from 1664 to 1666, and was then Provost of
the town. He was also a member of the General Assembly of the Church
for some years.
MY LOVING AND MOST AFFECTIONATE BROTHER IN CHRIST, -- I salute you with
grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus
Christ.
I promised to write to you, and although late enough, yet I now make
it good. I heard with grief of your great danger of perishing by the
sea, and of your merciful deliverance with joy. Sure I am, brother,
that Satan will leave no stone unrolled, as the proverb is, to roll you
off your Rock, or at least to shake and unsettle you: for at that same
time the mouths of wicked men were opened in hard speeches against you,
by land, and the prince of the power of the air was angry with you by
sea. See then how much ye are obliged to that malicious murderer, who
would beat you with two rods at one time; but, blessed be God, his arm
is short; if the sea and wind would have obeyed him, ye had never come
to land. Thank your God, who saith, 'I have the keys of hell and death
(Rev 1.18); 'I kill, and I make alive' (Deut.. 32.39): 'The Lord
bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up' (I Sam. 2.6). Ye were
knocking at these black gates, and ye found the doors shut; and we do
all welcome you back again.
I trust that ye know that it is not for nothing that ye are sent to
us again. The Lord knew that ye had forgotten something that was
necessary for your journey; that your armour was not as yet thick
enough against the stroke of death. Now, in the strength of Jesus
dispatch your business; that debt is not forgiven, but fristed: death
has not bidden you farewell, but has only left you for a short season.
End your journey ere the night come upon you. Have all in readiness
against the time that ye must sail through that black and impetuous
Jordan; and Jesus, Jesus, who knoweth both those depths and the rocks,
and all the coasts, be your pilot. The last tide will not wait you for
one moment. If ye forget anything, when your sea is full, and your foot
in that ship, there is no returning again to fetch it. What ye do amiss
in your life to-day, ye may amend it to-morrow; for as many suns as God
maketh to arise upon you, ye have as many new lives; but ye can die but
once, and if ye mar or spill that business, ye cannot come back to mend
that piece of work again. No man sinneth twice in dying ill; as we die
but once, so we die but ill or well once. You see how the number of
your months is written in God's book; and as one of the Lord's
hirelings, ye must work till the shadow of the evening come upon you,
and ye shall run out your glass even to the last pickle of sand.
Fulfill your course with joy, for we take nothing to the grave with us,
but a good or evil conscience. And, although the sky clear after this
storm, yet clouds will engender another.
Ye contracted with Christ, I hope, when first ye began to follow Him,
that ye would bear His cross. Fulfill your part of the contract with
patience, and break not to Jesus Christ. Be honest, brother, in your
bargaining with Him; for who knoweth better how to bring up children
than our God? For (to lay aside His knowledge, of the which there is no
finding out) He has been practiced in bringing up His heirs these five
thousand years; and His bairns are all well brought up, and many of
them are honest men now at home, up in their own house in heaven, and
are entered heirs to their Father's inheritance. Now, the form of His
bringing up was by chastisements, scourging, correcting, nurturing; and
see if He maketh exception of any of His bairns; no, His eldest Son and
His Heir, Jesus, is not excepted (Rev. 3.19; Heb. 12.7-8; 2.10). Suffer
we must; ere we were born God decreed it, and it is easier to complain
of His decree than to change it. Forward then, dear brother, and lose
not your grips.
Now I commend you, your whole soul, and body, and spirit, to Jesus
Christ and His keeping, hoping that ye will live and die, stand and
fall, with the cause of our Master, Jesus. The Lord Jesus Himself be
with your spirit. Your loving brother in our Lord Jesus.
ANWOTH, Feb. 2, 1632
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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.