REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,- I bless you for your letter. He is come
down as rain upon the mown grass; He has revived my withered root, and
He is as the dew of herbs. I am most secure in this prison. Salvation
is for walls in it, and what think ye of these walls? He maketh the dry
plant to bud as the lily, and to blossom as Lebanon. The great
Husbandman's blessing cometh down upon the plants of righteousness: who
may say this, my dear brother, if I, His poor exiled stranger and
prisoner, may not say it? Though all the world should be silent, I
cannot hold my peace. No preaching, no book, no learning, could give me
that which it behaved me to come and get in this town. But what of all
this, if I were not misted and confounded and astonished how to be
thankful, and how to get Him praised for evermore!
Some have written to me that I am possibly too joyful at the cross;
but my joy overleapeth the cross, it is bounded and terminated upon
Christ. I know that the sun will overcloud and eclipse, and that I
shall again be put to walk in the shadow: but Christ must be welcome to
come and go, as He thinketh meet. I hope, when a change cometh, to cast
anchor at midnight upon the Rock which He has taught me to know in this
daylight; whither I may run, when I must say my lesson without book,
and believe in the dark. I am sure it is sin to tarrow at Christ's good
meat, and not to eat when He saith, 'Eat, O well-beloved, and drink
abundantly.' If He bear me on His back, or carry me in His arms over
this water, I hope for grace to set down my feet on dry ground, when
the way is better. But this is slippery ground: my Lord thought good I
should go by a hold, and lean on my Well-beloved's shoulder. It is good
to be ever taking from Him. I desire that He may get the fruit of
praises, for dawting and thus dandling me on His knee: and I may give
my bond of thankfulness, so being I have Christ's back-bond again for
my relief, that I shall be strengthened by His powerful grace to pay my
vows to Him. But, truly, I find that we have the advantage of the brae
upon our enemies: we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us;
and they know not wherein our strength lieth.
Pray for me. Grace be with you.
Your brother in Christ.
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.