350th Anniversary of Rutherford Translation

Today marks the 350th anniversary of Samuel Rutherford's greatest translation. We are, of course, still waiting for the full and complete translation of his great treastise on Providence, Disputatio Scholastica de Divina Providentia (1649), and his systematic theology, Examen Arminianismi (1668), but it was on March 29, 1661, that the great Scottish Covenanter minister left this world and was translated to the next.

We do well to remember his life and legacy. There have been many biographical sketches written of him, including this recent article by Guy Richard which touches on a chapter in Rutherford's life which reveals his human frailty, a scandal which demonstrates the depth of God's amazing grace. I recommend visiting this website devoted to his life and works for a helpful introduction. It is my aim in this post only to highlight select aspects of the "little, fair man," who showed us "the loveliness of Christ."

• A Scottish Covenanter and commissioner to the Westminster Assembly, he was not ashamed to be known as a Puritan. Letters (1894 ed.), p. 512:

I assure you, howbeit we be nicknamed Puritans, that all the powers of the world shall not prevail against us.

• He authored, according to Guy Richard, "13 major theological treatises in his lifetime, amounting to just over 7,000 pages of text, not to mention other works, including sermons, letters, an in-depth catechism (totaling 562 questions and answers--over five times the number in the Westminster Shorter Catechism), and a variety of political writings, all of which add nearly 3,000 pages to the total [as well as] a commentary on Isaiah, which has tragically been lost, and several unpublished manuscripts and sermons."

• His Lex, Rex (1644) helped to solidify the theological groundwork for both the English Puritan Revolution and the American Presbyterian Revolution. He wrote:

I lay down this maxim of divinity: Tyranny being a work of Satan, is not from God, because sin, either habitual or actual, is not from God: the power that is, must be from God; the magistrate, as magistrate, is good in nature of office, and the intrinsic end of his office, (Rom. xiii. 4) for he is the minister of God for thy good; and, therefore, a power ethical, politic, or moral, to oppress, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power; and is no more from God, but from sinful nature and the old serpent, than a license to sin.

• His Letters are considered to be among the greatest classics of Christian devotional literature. 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" (The Sword and Trowel, 189).

• He authored the wise maxim, "Duties are ours, events are God's." Letters, CXVII (1637), p. 238:

Providence hath a thousand keys, to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a conclamatum est ["all is over"]. 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.

• There are no known contemporary portraits of Rutherford. Andrew Bonar writes:

If ever there was any portrait of him, it is not now known. The portraits sometimes given of him are all imaginary. We are most familiar with the likeness of his soul.

• On his death-bed, Rutherford uttered the immortal dying words, "Glory, glory, dwelleth in Immanuel's Land." These words were also uttered a century later by Thomas Halyburton, the great Scottish Reformed minister, on his own death-bed. Halyburton's request to be buried next to Rutherford was honored, as evidenced by this picture of their tombstones side-by-side here. Rutherford's dying words also inspired an hymn (The Sands of Time Are Sinking) and a poem (Immanuel's Land) by Annie Ross Cousin:

The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of Heaven breaks;

The summer morn I’ve sighed for — the fair, sweet morn awakes:

Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,

And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

• The following tribute is written on his grave.

An Epitaph on His Grave-Stone

What tongue, what pen, or skill of men

Can famous Rutherford commend!

His learning justly rais'd his fame

True goodness did adorn his name.

He did converse with things above,

Acquainted with Immanuel's love.

Most orthodox he was and sound,

And many errors did confound.

For Zion's King, and Zion's cause,

And Scotland's covenanted laws,

Most constantly he did contend,

Until his time was at an end.

At last he won to full fruition

Of that which he had seen in vision.

• Viewed by those around him as one of the most humble saints of his or any other age, Rutherford described himself thus: "I am made of extremes" (Letters, CLXVIII (1637), p. 315). Alexander Whyte, Samuel Rutherford and Some of His Correspondents, p. 16-18:
  

And yet again, what others thought of him, and how they treated him, compared with what he knew himself to be, caused Rutherford many a bitter reflection. Every letter he got consulting him and appealing to him as if he had been God's living oracle made him lie down in the very dust with shame and self-abhorrence. Writing on one occasion to Robert Blair he told him that his letter consulting him about some matter of Christian experience had been like a blow in the face to him; it affects me much, said Rutherford, that a man like you should have any such opinion of me. And, apologising for his delay in replying to a letter of Lady Boyd's, he says that he is put out of all love of writing letters because his correspondents think things about him that he himself knows are not true. 'My white side comes out on paper— but at home there is much black work. All the challenges that come to me are true.' There was no man then alive on the earth so much looked up to and consulted in the deepest matters of the soul, in the secrets of the Lord with the soul, as Rutherford was, and his letters bear evidence on every page that there was no man who had a more loathsome and a more hateful experience of his own heart, not even Taylor, not even Owen, not even Bunyan, not even Baxter. What a day of extremest men that was, and what an inheritance we extreme men have had left us, in their inward, extreme, and heavenly books!

Once more, hear him on the tides of feeling that continually rose and fell within his heart. Writing from Aberdeen to Lady Boyd, he says: 'I have not now, of a long time, found such high spring-tides as formerly. The sea is out, and I cannot buy a wind and cause it to flow again; only I wait on the shore till the Lord sends a full sea.... But even to dream of Him is sweet.' And then, just over the leaf, to Marion M'Naught: 'I am well: honour to God.... He hath broken in upon a poor prisoner's soul like the swelling of Jordan. I am bank and brim full: a great high spring-tide of the consolations of Christ hath overwhelmed me'.. But sweet as it is to read his rapturous expressions when the tide is full, I feel it far more helpful to hear how he still looks and waits for the return of the tide when the tide is low, and when the shore is full, as all left shores are apt to be, of weeds and mire, and all corrupt and unclean things. Rutherford is never more helpful to his correspondents than when they consult him about their ebb tides, and find that he himself either has been, or still is, in the same experience.

But why do we disinter such texts as this out of such an author as Samuel Rutherford? Why do we tell to all the world that such an eminent saint was full of such sad extremes? Well, we surely do so out of obedience to the divine command to comfort God's people; for, next to their having no such extremes in themselves, their next best comfort is to be told that great and eminent saints of God have had the very same besetting sins and staggering extremes as they still have. If the like of Samuel Rutherford was vexed and weakened with such intellectual contradictions and spiritual extremes in his mind, in his heart and in his history, then may we not hope that some such saintliness, if not some such service as his, may be permitted to us also?

Happy 200th Birthday, Andrew Bonar

Andrew Alexander Bonar, Free Church of Scotland minister, was born 200 years ago today on May 29, 1810. The younger brother of Horatius Bonar, they shared convictions regarding premillennial eschatology, the conversion of the Jews, revivalism, and other such matters. Andrew was a close friend of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, and wrote a biography of M'Cheyne a year after his death. Bonar also published an edition of the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, commentaries on Leviticus and the Psalms (which bears witness to that saying of Augustine, quoted by Bonar, that "the voice of Christ and his Church was well-nigh the only voice to be heard in the Psalms"), and other works, as well as a diary which was posthumously edited and published by his daughter Marjory. He was a great man of prayer, who felt that he had not prayed enough. Among the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, he is worthy to be remembered on this bicentennial birthday.

Puritans Rose Early

Robert Murray M'Cheyne wrote a paper entitled "Reformation," which was a searching "examination of his heart and life," a year before he died in which he said (Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M'Cheyne, p. 162):

I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into any corner. The morning hours, from six to eight, are the most uninterrupted, and should be thus employed, if I can prevent drowsiness. A little time after breakfast might be given to intercession. After ten is my best hour, and that should be solemnly dedicated to God, if possible.

I ought not to give up the good old habit of prayer before going to bed; but guard must be kept against sleep: planning what things I am to ask is the best remedy. When I awake in the night, I ought to rise and pray, as David and as John Welsh did.

Though himself not a Puritan, his careful cultivation of the morning hours to practice secret worship is consistent with the piety of our Puritan forefathers who so often rose early to worship in imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John Howe, "A Funeral Sermon for that Faithful and Laborious Servant of Christ, Mr. Richard Fairclough" (1682), in Works, Vol. 3, p. 408:

Every day, for many years together, he used to be up by three in the mornings, or sooner, and to be with God (which was his dear delight) when others slept.

James Reid, Memoirs of the Westminster Divines, Vol. 1, pp. 345, 355:

[William Gouge] began his studies early in the morning, and continued them until a late hour at night....He continued nine years in the College. And during all that time, he was never absent from morning prayers in the chapel, which were usually performed about half an hour after five o'clock in the morning, except when he went out of town to visit friends. He rose so long before, that he might have time for his secret devotions, and for reading his morning task of the Holy Scriptures. He resolved to read fifteen chapters of these every day; five in the morning, five after dinner, before he entered upon his other studies, and five before he went to bed. And when he could not sleep during the watches of the night, he meditated upon these, and enjoyed then a spiritual and an intellectual feast upon the Word of God....He generally rose about four o'clock in the morning, during the summer; and in winter, he rose before it was light, that he might have the better opportunity for his own devotion, in imitation of his blessed Lord and Master, Mark i. 35.

George Godfrey Cunningham, Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen, Vol. 3, p. 174:

[Matthew Poole, while working on his Latin Synopsis Criticorum] rose at three or four o'clock, took a raw egg at intervals, and kept on labouring all day till towards evening, when he usually sought for a short time the relaxation and enjoyment of society at some friend's house.

Edmund Calamy the Historian, The Nonconformist's Memorial, Vol. 3, p. 19:

[William Bridge] was a very hard student; rose at four o'clock winter and summer, and continued in his study till eleven.

John Howie, The Scots Worthies, p. 133:

[Samuel Rutherford at Anwoth] laboured with great diligence and success, both night and day, rising usually by three o'clock in the morning, spending the whole time praying, writing, catechising, visiting, and other duties belonging to the ministerial profession and employment.

Theodosia Alleine, Life and Death of the Rev. Joseph Alleine, p. 106:

All the time of his health, he did rise constantly at or before four of the clock, and on the Sabbath sooner, if he did wake. He would be much troubled if he heard any smiths, or shoemakers, or such tradesmen, at work at their trades, before he was in his duties with God; saying to me often, "O how this noise shames me! Doth not my Master deserve more than theirs?" From four till eight he spent in prayer, holy contemplations, and singing of psalms, which he much delighted in, and did daily practise alone, as well as in his family. Having refreshed himself about half an hour, he would call to family duties, and after that to his studies, till eleven or twelve o'clock, cutting out his work for every hour in the day. Having refreshed himself a while after dinner, he used to retire to his study to prayer, and go abroad among the families he was to visit, to whom he always sent the day before; going out about two o'clock, and seldom returning till seven in the evening, sometimes later. He would often say, "Give me a christian that counts his time more precious than gold."

Cellar of Affliction

It is commonly reported that Samuel Rutherford said: "The secret formula of the saints: When in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines." Another variation of this oft-repeated quote is: "When cast in the cellars of affliction, remember the great King keeps his wine there." It is a noble quote and the sentiment is certainly in accord with the mind of Rutherford from what I know of him. However, to me, the language does not quite sound like his and, having spent some time researching this, I wonder if these are his words or perhaps a revised version of something else he said.

I have investigated the source of this quote only to ascertain if it is really his not to take anything away from the quote. It may be that he said it after all, but so far I have not been able to find it sourced anywhere in his writings. It is only very rarely that any source is ascribed to the quote at all beyond Rutherford's name. Joel Beeke quoted the line, along with others, in The Quest for Full Assurance: The Legacy of Calvin and His Successors, p. 162, and provided a footnote to p. 52ff of the 1881 edition of his Letters; although the other quotes referenced on p. 162 are found there, this particular quote is not. However, there are some other lines in his Letters that seem to echo the thought, if not the exact language.

Letter 35 (First Part, June 15, 1637) [Letter 177 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 105 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

O, that my Master would take up house again, and lend me the keys of His wine-cellar again, and God send me borrowed drink till then.

Letter 50 (First Part, 1637) [Letter 249 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 129 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

But for you hing on, your feast is not far off; ye shall be filled ere ye go, there is as much in our Lord's pantry, as will satisfy all His bairns, and as much wine in His cellar as will quench all their thirst.

Letter 122 (First Part, June 15, 1637) [Letter 179 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 224 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

I wish, for my part, I could send you, and that gentleman who wrote his commendations to me, into the King's innermost cellar and house of wine to be filled with love. A drink of this love is worth the having indeed.

Letter 32 (Second Part, February 13, 1640) [Letter 295 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 431 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

Come, come, dear friend, and be pained, that the King's wine-cellar of free love, and His banqueting-house (O so wide, so stately! O so Godlike, so glory-like!) should be so abundant, so overflowing, and your shallow vessel so little, to take in some part of that love.

Letter 3 (Third Part, July 21, 1630) [Letter 12 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 488 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

You have been of late in the King's wine-cellar, where you were welcomed by the Lord of the inn, upon condition that ye would walk in love; put on love, and brotherly kindness, and long-suffering; wait as long upon the favour and turned hearts of your enemies, as your Christ waited upon you, and as dear Jesus stood at your soul's door with dewy and rainy locks, the long cold night; be angry but sin not.

I hope that if my research is incomplete and this quote is properly ascribed to Rutherford after all, that someone will kindly provide the citation. Regardless, may each child of God who finds himself or herself in the cellar of affliction drink deeply of the King's choice wine and be filled with his love.