The Project Gutenberg eBook, Samuel Rutherford, by Alexander Whyte

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Title: Samuel Rutherford
and some of his correspondents

Author: Alexander Whyte

Release Date: October 17, 2005 [eBook #16892]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMUEL RUTHERFORD***

Transcribed from the 1894 Oliphant Anderson and Ferrier edition by David
Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD
AND SOME OF
HIS CORRESPONDENTS

LECTURES DELIVERED IN
ST. GEORGE'S FREE CHURCH
EDINBURGH: BY
ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D.

AUTHOR OF 'BUNYAN CHARACTERS'
ETC.

PUBLISHED BY
OLIPHANT ANDERSON AND FERRIER

30 ST. MARY STREET, EDINBURGH, AND
24 OLD BAILEY, LONDON
1894

I. JOSHUA REDIVIVUS

'He sent me as a spy to see the land and to try the ford.'
_Rutherford_.

Samuel Rutherford, the author of the seraphic _Letters_, was born in the
south of Scotland in the year of our Lord 1600. Thomas Goodwin was born
in England in the same year, Robert Leighton in 1611, Richard Baxter in
1615, John Owen in 1616, John Bunyan in 1628, and John Howe in 1630. A
little vellum-covered volume now lies open before me, the title-page of
which runs thus:--'Joshua Redivivus, or Mr. Rutherford's Letters, now
published for the use of the people of God: but more particularly for
those who now are, or may afterwards be, put to suffering for Christ and
His cause. By a well-wisher to the work and to the people of God.
Printed in the year 1664.' That is all. It would not have been safe in
1664 to say more. There is no editor's name on the title-page, no
publisher's name, and no place of printing or of publication. Only two
texts of forewarning and reassuring Scripture, and then the year of grace
1664.

Joshua Redivivus: That is to say, Moses' spy and pioneer, Moses'
successor and the captain of the Lord's covenanted host come back again.
A second Joshua sent to Scotland to go before God's people in that land
and in that day; a spy who would both by his experience and by his
testimony cheer and encourage the suffering people of God. For all this
Samuel Rutherford truly was. As