Samuel Rutherford: the man and his ministry

Abstract

Several biographies of Samuel Rutherford have been written since the beginning of the 19th century, such as those by Murray, Thomson and Gilmour, principally with the object of eulogising hima Little, apart from the work of Taylor Innes, has been done to consider the man and his work critically, in spite of the numerous editions of his letters and works published in the last two centuries. This thesis has relied mainly upon the works of Rutherford himself, with supporting reference to such contemporary material as Baillie's Letters and Journal, and Guthrie's Memoirs. It sets out to present a comprehensive picture of Rutherford from his student days until his death in 1661, Popular biographies, eager to portray Rutherford as the faithful pastor of Anwoth, have paid scant attention to the part he played as reformer at the Westminster Assembly of Divines, By reference to Carruther's Everyday Work of the Westminster Assembly. Gillespie's Assembly of Divines, and Pitman's Journal of the Westminster Assembly, this work seeks to depict him as reformer as well as preacher, the man who prepared the way for the establishment of Presbyterianism as a national system in 1689. The immense popularity of Rutherford's sennons in the 17th and I8th centuries gained him reputation as a preacher, but he was probably more able as a propagandist. Accordingly, a chapter has been devoted to him as an apologists His later years were clouded by the Protester Resolutioner controversy, and it is difficult to reconcile the paster of Anwoth with the embittered protagonist of the Protesterse. It is this paradox which calls not only for an examination of the controversy itself in chapter 6, but also Rutherford as "the man of extremes", as he described himself, in the final chapter.