SAMUEL RUTHERFORD. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD [SEE APPENDIX I.] SAMUEL RUTHERFORD A STUDY Biographical and somewhat Critical, in the History of the Scottish Covenant BY ROBERT GILMOUR MINISTER OF THE HIGH UNITED FREE CHURCH MUSSELBURGH PORTAGE PUBLICATIONS Portage Publications, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colorado. www.PortagePub.com Copyright © 2021 Portage Publications, Inc. Portage Publications believes the underlying text in this document is in the public domain. Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute this document and/or its contents in any medium for any non-commercial purpose without fee or royalty, provided that the document is not altered and that this copyright notice is included. Please visit www.Portage- Pub.com/revenue.html if you would like to support this project with a voluntary contribution, or to obtain information about commercial licens- ing. The master for this document was created August 22, 2021, at 5:18 am (mdt) on machine jedediah from content revision 5431. Except for correction of minor typographical errors in the text and re- formatting the document to better suit modern output media, this book is an unabridged republication of the version whose publication informa- tion follows on this page. This information is provided for historical ref- erence purposes only: Title Page: Edinburgh and London Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier 1904 Last Page of Index: Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh DEDICATED BY KIND PERMISSION TO THE LATEST INTERPRETER OF RUTHERFORD THE REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. WITH PROFOUND AND LASTING GRATITUDE FOR THE INSPIRATION AND HELP OF THE ST. GEORGE’S CLASS FOR YOUNG MEN IN THE EARLY AND FORMATIVE YEARS OF STUDENT LIFE Vir Dei, Samuel Rhetorfortis, natione Scotus, doctrina magnus, sed sanctitate, pietate, zelo Domus Dei et Regni Christi, quem spirant omnia ipsius scripta, sed maxime omnium Epistolæ post obitum ejus ante quadriennium editæ, etc. Nethenus. “These poor persecuted Scotch Covenanters,” said I to my inquiring Frenchman, in such stinted French as stood at command, “ils s’en appelaient à”—“A la Postérité,” interrupted he, helping me out. “Ah, Monsieur, non, mille fois non! They appealed to the Eternal God: not to Posterity at all! C’était différent.” Carlyle. PREFACE In this book I have tried to tell again the story of one of the most fascinating personalities in our national religious history, whose life was one prolonged struggle for truth, whose death was the death of a saint, and whose devotional writings are still a source of inspiration to many. It is written in the belief that, as regards religious fervour, scholastic subtlety of intellect, and intensity of ecclesiastical conviction, Samuel Rutherford is the most distinctively representative Scotsman in the first half of the seventeenth century. An attempt is therefore made, along with a delineation of the man’s character and career, to point out the significance of that revolutionary movement which formed the background to the drama of his life. The original authorities, Baillie, Row, Wodrow, Stevenson, Lamont, etc., are accessible to all. Dr. Andrew Bonar’s edition of the Letters is indispensable. For M‘Ward’s characteristic Preface, and Rutherford’s Testimony to the Work of Reformation, recourse must be had to the earlier editions. I may also mention the Life of Rutherford by Dr. Thomas Murray (1828), which contains many interesting details. On the title-page of his chief books the author spells his name Rutherfurd, and this usage is the one now generally followed. Considerations of sentiment, not altogether unreas- onable, have determined me to adhere to the traditional viii SAMUEL RUTHERFORD form that has become endeared to us by so many associ- ations. For the use of books, and editions of books, not easily obtainable I have been indebted to the Advocates’ Library, to Mr. J. Kelso Kelly, and the Rev. W. W. Aitken; but chiefly to the ever-ready kindness and courtesy of the Rev. James Kennedy, D.D., of the New College Library, Edin- burgh. R. G. Musselburgh, July 18, 1904. CONTENTS I. The Saint of the Covenant . 1 II. In the Evangelical Succession . 8 III. Life’s Morning and Early Noon . 18 IV. Fair Anwoth by the Solway. 25 V. The Meaning of the Coming Struggle . 41 VI. A Prisoner for Christ and His Truth . 49 VII. From Christ’s Palace in Aberdeen . 57 VIII. Realising the National Ideal . 68 x SAMUEL RUTHERFORD IX. Farewell to Anwoth . 78 X. For Christ’s Crown and Covenant . 85 XI. To Build the Waste Places of Zion . 99 XII. The Law and the Prince . 127 XIII. In the Stress of Controversy . 145 XIV. The Sands of Time are Sinking . 160 XV. The Higher Summons: Immanuel’s Land . 170 Appendices . 176 ILLUSTRATIONS Samuel Rutherford . ii Rutherford witnessing the Signing of the National Covenant in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh . 67 SAMUEL RUTHERFORD CHAPTER I THE SAINT OF THE COVENANT The first of man’s Realised Ideals and the noblest of his attainments is, according to Thomas Carlyle, his Church, or Spiritual Guidance. The Church! what a word was there; richer than Golconda and the treasures of the world! In the heart of the remotest mountains rises the little kirk: the Dead all slumbering round it, under their white memorial-stones, “in hope of a happy resurrection.” A mile or so westward from the little town of Gatehouse- of-Fleet, in the south of Scotland, a sudden bend of the road brings the traveller on the remains of such a little kirk. It lies there in the midst of its ancient churchyard, in which many a weather-worn tombstone keeps green the memory of some who died for Scotland’s faith. Almost concealed from view in a circle of exquisite natural beauty, the quaint old ruin, ivy-mantled and roofless, appeals to the hearts of all who regard with affectionate pride the spiritual inherit- ance of their country. Near three centuries ago this was the 2 SAMUEL RUTHERFORD Parish Kirk of Anwoth, and a centre of spiritual light for the entire province of Galloway. For the minister of Anwoth was a very remarkable man. Amongst his contemporaries, he had, indeed, a quite extraordinary reputation. They spoke of the greatness of his intellect, the intensity of his labours, the holiness of his life. “Such who knew him best,” says Wodrow, “were in a strait whether to admire him most for his sublime genius in the school, and peculiar exactness in matter of dispute and controversy, or his familiar condescen- sion in the pulpit, where he was one of the most moving and affectionate preachers in his time.” In the opinion of one he had “a most sharp, piercing wit, and fruitful invention, and solid judgment.” To another he seemed to be “always pray- ing, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catech- ising, always writing and studying.” To yet another he ap- peared as one “whose manner of life in all godliness and holy conversation rendered him dear to the lovers of holiness.” For many he was “The Bright Shining Light of the Time,” “The Renowned Eagle,” that “Flower of the Church, famous famous Mr. Samuel Rutherford.” Nor has the verdict of posterity reversed the apparently extravagant testimony of his own time. By many still, not incompetent to judge, the first minister of the Parish of Anwoth is revered as the one supreme Saint of Presbyterian Scotland. Instinctively has it been felt that the master-passion of this man’s life was to see the King in His Beauty, and to behold the Land that is very far off. It is thus that his memory is enshrined in a fa- miliar hymn, or Christian song, which, with a simplicity and truth rare in such compositions, interprets not merely his “last words,” but the entire spirit of his life. For more than two centuries the name of Rutherford has been a household word in the Christian homes of Scotland. The old parish kirk and its minister are linked forever in the most sacred THE SAINT OF THE COVENANT 3 memories of our national faith. “As we say Bunyan and Bedford, Baxter and Kidderminster, Newton and Olney, Boston and Ettrick, M‘Cheyne and St. Peter’s, so we say Rutherford and Anwoth.” But Rutherford is more than a name or a memory how- ever fragrant. He was a maker of history too, a man of strenuous action, one of those great churchmen who have done so much to shape the destinies of Scotland. Not exactly of the order of Knox or Melville, he is nevertheless one of the most prominent figures in the national drama at a most critical period of our ecclesiastical history. If Saint, then as- suredly Saint of the Covenant. “The Covenant,” says Tul- loch, “marks at once the limitations of his sphere, and of his saintliness.” To a statement like this the most ardent admirer of Rutherford will not demur. But we must know what the Covenant means. And it is only too easy to go astray here. The religious struggle of the seventeenth century has been often misunderstood in the interest of a shallow philosophy to which the spiritual is pretty much identical with the superstitious. That is the method of Henry Thomas Buckle, who finds in Scotland an instance of superstition paralleled only by Spain. To Buckle the Covenanting struggle is simply a paradox of liberalism in politics combined with bigotry in religion. That, he maintains, is the largest and most important fact in Scottish history, the key to it in short, and he devotes the entire third volume of his work to an in- vestigation of the causes and results of this strange anomaly. Others, again, fail in their interpretation of the period, be- cause they lack what Dr.