Letters of Samuel Rutherford: (Third Edition)Rutherford, Samuel
Religion
Letters of Samuel Rutherford: (Third Edition)
Rutherford, Samuel
Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661 -- Correspondence
For other business, I say nothing, till the Lord give me to see your
face. I am credibly informed, that multitudes of England, and
especially worthy preachers, and silenced preachers of London, are
gone to New England; and I know one learned holy preacher, who hath
written against the Arminians, who is gone thither.[101] Our Blessed
Lord Jesus, who cannot get leave to sleep with His spouse in this
land, is going to seek an inn where He will be better entertained. And
what marvel? Wearied Jesus, after He had travelled from Geneva, by the
ministry of worthy Mr. Knox, and was laid in His bed, and reformation
begun, and the curtains drawn, had not gotten His dear eyes well
together, when irreverent bishops came in, and with the din and noise
of ceremonies, holy days, and other Romish corruptions, they awake our
Beloved. Others came to His bedside, and drew the curtains, and put
hands on His servants, banished, deprived, and confined them; and for
the pulpit they got a stool and a cold fire in the Blackness;[102] and
the nobility drew the covering off Him, and have made Him a poor naked
Christ, spoiling His servants of the tithes and kirk rents. And now
there is such a noise of crying sins in the land, as the want of the
knowledge of God, of mercy, and truth; such swearing, whoring, lying,
and blood touching blood; that Christ is putting on His clothes, and
making Him,[103] like an ill-handled stranger, to go to other lands.
Pray Him, sister, to lie down again with His beloved.
[101] The emigration of preachers and people to New England was the
consequence of the persecuting measures pursued by Archbishop Laud for
enforcing conformity, in the prosecution of his favourite scheme of
bringing the Church of England as near to that of Rome as could
consort with his own supremacy and that of his sovereign. About
seventy ministers and four thousand other persons emigrated to the
American continent to escape the tyranny of Laud and his agents.
[102] Blackness Castle, on the Forth, was used as a prison.
[103] In the sense of making a show of or appearing as if He would go;
Luke xxiv. 28.
Remember my dearest love to John Gordon, to whom I will write when I
am strong, and to John Brown, Grissel, Samuel, and William; grace be
upon them. As you love Christ, keep Christ's favour, and put not upon
Him when He sleeps, to awake Him before He please. The Lord Jesus be
with your spirit.
Your brother in Christ,
S. R.
ANWOTH, _July 21, 1630_.
XIII.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT, _when exposed to reproach for her
principles_.
(_JESUS A PATTERN OF PATIENCE UNDER SUFFERING._)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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