Dalgleish was minister of a neighbouring parish and was responsible
for the parish of Anwoth also until Rutherford took charge of it. He
later became minister of Cramond, from which he was ejected in 1662.
See also Letter XXXVIII.
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. -- I am
well. My Lord Jesus is kinder to me than ever He was.
Brother, this is His own truth I now suffer for. He has sealed my
sufferings with His own comforts, and I know that He will not put His
seal upon blank paper. His seals are not dumb nor delusive, to confirm
imaginations and lies. Go on, my dear brother, in the strength of the
Lord, not fearing man who is a worm, nor the son of man that shall die.
Providence has a thousand keys, to open a thousand sundry doors for the
deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a "conclamatum est".
Let us be faithful, and care for our own part, which is to do and
suffer for Him, and lay Christ's part on Himself, and leave it there.
Duties are ours, events are the Lord's. When our faith goeth to meddle
with events, and to hold a court (if I may so speak) upon God's
providence, and beginneth to say, 'How wilt Thou do this and that?' we
lose ground. We have nothing to do there. It is our part to let the
Almighty exercise His own office, and steer His own helm. There is
nothing left to us, but to see how we may be approved of Him, and how
we may roll the weight of our weak souls in well-doing upon Him who is
God Omnipotent: and when what we thus essay miscarrieth, it will be
neither our sin nor cross.
Brother, remember the Lord's word to Peter; 'Simon, lovest thou me? -
Feed my sheep.' No greater testimony of our love to Christ can be, than
to feed carefully and faithfully His lambs.
I am in no better neighborhood with the ministers here than before:
they cannot endure that any speak of me, or to me. Thus I am, in the
meantime, silent, which is my greatest grief.
I hope, brother, that ye will help my people; and write to me what ye
hear the Bishop is to do with them. Grace be with you.
Your brother in bonds.
ABERDEEN
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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.