LXIV. To MR DAVID DICKSON, on the death of his son
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER, -- Ye look like the house whereof ye are a
branch: the cross is a part of the life rent that lieth to all the sons
of the house. I desire to suffer with you, if I could take a lift of
your house-trial off you; but ye ha ... read more
XIII. To LADY KENMURE
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, tha ... read more
XX. To lady KENMURE
MADAM, -- Upon the offered opportunity of this worthy bearer, I could
not omit to answer the heads of your letter.
Firstly, I think not much to set down on paper some good things agent
Christ, and to feed my soul with raw wishes to be one with ... read more
XX. To lady KENMURE
MADAM, -- Upon the offered opportunity of this worthy bearer, I could
not omit to answer the heads of your letter.
Firstly, I think not much to set down on paper some good things agent
Christ, and to feed my soul with raw wishes to be one with ... read more
A Brief Life and Times of Samuel Rutherford
Before and During his Exile
Rutherford was born about the year 1600 near Nisbet, Scotland. Little is known of his early life. In 1627 he earned a M.A. from Edinburgh College, where he was appointed Professor of Humanity. He became pastor of the church ... read more
A Letter of Comfort
Letter 37 to Lady Kenmure (on the death of her husband),
My Very Noble And Worthy Lady,
I often call to mind the comforts that I, a poor friendless stranger, received from your ladyship here in a strange part of the country,** when my Lord took from ... read more
Be Thankful for the Grace Within You
Thank God for any good thing that thou hast, and that thou art kept in a good estate. They never kent [knew] Christ's help well who put man in such a tutor's hand as free-will, to be kept by it; who say that Christ has conquershed [acquired] salvation t ... read more
Believers Safe though Tried
Madam,
Grace, mercy, and peace be to your Ladyship
God be thanked you are yet in possession of Christ,
and that sweet child. I pray God that the first may be a sure heritage, and the second a loan for your comfort, while you do good to His p ... read more
Christ to be Kept at Every Sacrifice
Mistress,
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you. You are not a little obliged to His rich grace, who has separated you for Himself**, and for the promised inheritance with the saints in light **, from this condemned and guilty world.
Hold fast to C ... read more
Christ Wholly to be Loved
Danger of FormalityChrist Wholly to be LovedOther Objects of Love
Mistress,
Grace, mercy, and peace he to you.I have meant to write to you for a long time, but I have been hindered. I heartily desire that you would think about your country**, a ... read more
Christian Directions
1. That hours of the day, less or more time, for the Word and prayer, be given to God; not sparing the twelfth hour, or mid-day, howbeit it should then be the shorter time.
2. In the midst of worldly employments, there should be some thoughts of sin, ... read more
Christ's Prisoner
Letter 104 To Lady Kenmure
Greetings - Thanksgiving for Recovery
Madam, grace, mercy, and peace be to you. Your letter refreshed me. The right hand of Him who has authority over life and death have been gracious to that sweet child.** I dare not, I d ... read more
Christ's Ways Misunderstood
Honoured and Dear Brother,
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I received your letter, which refreshed my soul.
I thank God that the court is closed **; I think shame of my part of it. I pass now from my unjust summons of unkindness libelled again ... read more
Conscientious Acting in the World
My Dearly Beloved, and Longed-For in the Lord,
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I long to hear how your soul prospers, and how the kingdom of Christ thrives in you. I exhort you and beseech you in the bowels of Christ, faint not, weary not. There ... read more
Crying unto Jesus
Behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto Him (Matt. 15:22, KJV).
In this prayer the Syro-Phoenician woman cried with intense feeling. Would it not have been more modest for her to speak gently to this soul-redeeming Savio ... read more
Difficulties in Providence
Worthy and Much Honoured in our Lord,
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you,
1. I am glad of our more than paper acquaintance. Seeing we have one Father, it is less significant if we should never see one another's face. I profess myself most unworth ... read more
Heavenly Mindedness
Letter 103 to the Lady Cardoness
Greetings - Walk in the Truth
Worthy and well-beloved in the Lord,
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I long to read a letter from you, so that I may know how your soul prospers. My desire and longing is to hear t ... read more
His Wisdom in Our Trials
Greetings - Disdain Temporary Glory
Mistress,
Grace, Mercy, and peace be to you. I am glad that you follow closely after Christ in this dark and cloudy time. It is a good thing to sell the things of this world in order to buy Him,** for when all thes ... read more
I. To LADY KENMURE, at a time of illness and spiritual depression
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 gen ... read more
II. To LADY KENMURE, on the occasion of the death of her infant
MADAM, -- Saluting your Ladyship with grace and mercy from God our
Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. I was sorry, at my departure,
leaving your Ladyship in grief, and would be still grieved at it if I
were not assured that ye have one with y ... read more
III. To MARION MCNAUGHT, when his wife was ill
Marion McNaught, a niece of Viscount Kenmure, married William
Fullerton, Provost of Kirkcudbright. She was a close and lifelong
friend of Rutherford. The manner in which he discusses with her the
most profound questions of Christian doctrine and ... read more
IV. To LADY KENMURE
MADAM, -- I have longed exceedingly to hear of your life, and health,
and growth in the grace of God. I entreat you, Madam, let me have two
lines from you, concerning your present condition. I know you are in
grief and heaviness; and if it were n ... read more
IX. To LADY KENMURE, on the perils of rank and prosperity
MADAM, -- I determined, and was desirous also, to have seen your
Ladyship, but because of a pain in my arm I could not. I know ye will
not impute it to any unsuitable forgetfulness of your Ladyship, from
whom, at my first entry to my calling in t ... read more
L. To MR JAMES FLEMING
Fleming was minister of a parish in East Lothian. He was strongly
opposed to the attempts of James and Charles I to impose prelacy and
the Prayer Book on Scotland. His first wife, Martha, was the eldest
daughter of John Knox.
REVEREND AND WE ... read more
LII. To MR MATTHEW MOWAT, minister of Kilmarnock
Mowat was one of seven leading ministers in the west of Scotland whom
Parliament after the Restoration brought before them to demand their
agreement to the establishment of episcopacy, thinking their agreement
would influence others. On their ref ... read more
LIII. To JAMES BAUTIE, theological student
LOVING BROTHER, -- I received your letter and render you thanks for the
same; but I have not time to answer all the heads of it, as the bearer
can inform you.
It is a sweet law of the New Covenant and a privilege of the new
burgh that citize ... read more
LIV. To MR ROBERT BLAIR
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER, -- The reason ye give for not writing to me
affecteth me much, and giveth me a dash, when such an one as ye
conceive an opinion of me, or of anything in me. The truth is, when I
come home to myself, oh, what penury do I ... read more
LIX. To THE HONORABLE, REVEREND, AND WELL-BELOVED PROFESSORS OF CHRIST
At the time of this letter the Presbyterian Church of Ireland was in
a very depressed condition. In 1632, as we have seen, Robert Blair and
other ministers were deposed for nonconformity. In the autumn of 1636
the same thing happened to five more ... read more
Ll. To MR FULK ELLIS
Ellis was an Irish Presbyterian serving as a captain in the Scottish
army.
WORTHY AND MUCH HONOURED IN OUR LORD, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to
you.
1. I am glad of our more than paper acquaintance. Seeing we have one
Father, it recko ... read more
LV. To ROBERT LENNOX OF DISDOVE, near Gatehouse
WORTHY AND DEAR BROTHER, -- I forget you not in my bonds. I know that
you are looking to Christ; and I beseech you to follow your look. I can
say more of Christ now by experience (though He be infinitely above and
beyond all that can be said of H ... read more
LVI. To EARLSTON, the younger
MUCH HONORED SIR, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I am well.
Christ triumpheth in me, blessed be His name. I have all things. I
burden no man. I see that this earth and the fatness thereof is my
Father's. Sweet, sweet is the cross of my Lo ... read more
LVII. To LADY BOYD
MADAM, -- I would have written to your Ladyship ere now, but people's
believing there is in me that which I know there is not, has put me out
of love with writing to any.
My Lord seeth me a tired man, far behind. I have gotten much love
fro ... read more
LVIII. To LADY ROBERT LAND
Like many other of the great ladies of the Covenant, some of whom we
have already met in these letters, and others of whom are in the full
collection, Lady Robertland was a woman of deep personal faith and of
devoted service to the cause of Chris ... read more
LX. To LADY KENMURE, on the death of her son, John, second Viscount
MADAM, -- Grace, mercy, and peace, be to you. I know that you are near
many comforters, and that the promised Comforter is near at hand also;
yet because I found your Ladyship comfortable to myself in my sad days,
that are not yet over my head, i ... read more
LXI. To MR JAMES WILSON
DEAR BROTHER, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied upon you. -- I
bless our rich and only wise Lord, who careth so for His new creation
that He is going over it again, and trying every piece in you, and
blowing away the motes of His new work ... read more
LXII. To LADY BOYD
MADAM, -- I received your Ladyship's letter; but because I was still
going through the country for the affairs of the church, I had no time
an answer it.
I had never more cause to fear than I have now, when my Lord has
restored me to my sec ... read more
LXIII. To LADY FINGASK
MADAM, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. -- Though not acquainted,
yet, at the desire of a Christian, I make bold to write a line or two
unto you, by way of counsel, howbeit I be most unfit for that.
I hear, and I bless the Father of lights ... read more
LXIX. To A CHRISTIAN GENTLEWOMAN, on her death-bed
MISTRESS, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. -- If death, which is
before you and us all, were any other thing than a friendly
dissolution, and a change, not a destruction of life, it would seem a
hard voyage to go through such a sad and dark ... read more
LXV. To LADY BOYD, on the loss of several friends
MADAM, -- Impute it not to a disrespective forgetfulness of your
Ladyship, who ministered to me in my bonds, that I write not to you. I
wish that I could speak or write what might do good to your Ladyship;
especially now when I think we cannot bu ... read more
LXVI. To MR. TAYLOR, on her son's death
MISTRESS, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you -- Though I have no
relation worldly or acquaintance with you, yet (upon the testimony and
importunity of your elder son now at London, where I am, but chiefly
because I esteem Jesus Christ in you to ... read more
LXVII. To BARBARA HAMILTON
Barbara Hamilton was the wife of a merchant in Edinburgh. Her spirit
may be judged from the following incident. When the Rev. Robert Blair
and other ministers were deposed by the bishops in Ireland (see Letter
XVI), they came to Scotland in 1637. ... read more
LXVIII. To A CHRISTIAN BROTHER, on the death of his daughter
REVEREND AND BELOVED IN THE LORD, -- It may be that I have been too long
silent, but I hope that ye will not impute it to forgetfulness of you.
As I have heard of the death of your daughter with heaviness of mind
on your behalf, so am I much co ... read more
LXX. To LADY KENMURE
MADAM, -- Oh how sweet is it that the company of the firstborn should be
divided into two great bodies of an army, and some in their country,
and some in the way to their country! If it were no more than once to
see the face of the Prince of this ... read more
LXXI. To LADY ARDROSS
MADAM, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. It has seemed good (as I
hear) to Him, who has appointed bounds for the number of our months, to
gather in a sheaf of ripe corn (in the death of your Christian mother)
into His garner. She is now above ... read more
Preparations Before Conversion: Part I
Excerpts from Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself, London 1647, pp. 239-61.
Question. But are there no preparations either of nature or at least of grace going before saving grace, and the soul's being drawn to Christ?
... read more
Preparations Before Conversion: Part II
Objection by Saltmarsh. But others bid the troubled soul believe, but he must first seek in himself qualifications or conditions. But this is to will them to walk in the light of their own sparks.
Answer. If to bid men abstain from flagitious sins, an ... read more
Preparations Before Conversion: Part III
Assertion. That the promises of the gospel are holden forth to sinners as sinners, hath a twofold sense. 1. As that they be sinners and all in a sinful condition to whom the promises are holden forth. This is most true and sound. The kingdom of grace is a ... read more
Sorrow for Sin: Part I
Excerpts from Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself, London 1647, pp. 19-34.
"Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." ... read more
Sorrow for Sin: Part II
But I crave to clear our doctrine touching soul trouble for sin in the justified person. Assertion 1. No doubting, no perplexity of unbelief, de jure, ought to perplex the soul once justified and pardoned. (1.) Because the patent and writs of an unchangea ... read more
Soul Trouble: Part I
Excerpts from Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself, London 1647, pp. 1-19.
"Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." ... read more
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