The Works of Samuel Rutherford, Volume 1 — Arminianism: A Systematic and Theological Response

We are thrilled to announce the first volume in a landmark 21-volume edition of The Works of Samuel Rutherford is now available.

Samuel Rutherford is Reformation Scotland’s best known figure after John Knox. With the publication of his Works he is finally receiving the attention he deserves. Loved for his Letters, the complete Rutherford emerges here, in his own voice, as a theologian, pastor, devotional writer, and a man of his times.

This ambitious project is the fruit of years spent transcribing handwritten notes, translating dense seventeenth-century Latin, tracing marginalia and textual variants, constructing a thorough textual apparatus, indexing, proofing, and even last-minute transatlantic flights to examine newly discovered manuscripts firsthand. What was once scattered and accessible only in Latin to a narrow circle of specialists is now being carefully restored for the church and academy.  

This opening volume of the Works will be released June 22, 2026. Presented in English for the first time, Arminianism: A Systematic and Theological Response, offers a comprehensive examination of the theological roots of what Rutherford argues is one of the most consequential errors in the Christian church.  

Arminianism is not a work only for those with an interest in debating modern Arminians. Quite the contrary!  

Rutherford does not confine himself to a handful of theses about salvation. Beginning with Scripture and the knowledge of God, he advances through the divine decrees, the fall, original sin, the accomplishment and application of redemption, covenant theology, justification, perseverance, the church, the sacraments, the magistrate, and the resurrection. The result is a vast theological architecture. Arminianism is exposed not as an isolated doctrinal misstep but as a rival account of God, grace, and the moral order.

Throughout, Rutherford writes as a convinced Augustinian. For him, the debate is nothing less than the perennial contest between divine grace and Pelagian self-reliance. His arguments are exegetical, scholastic, and rigorously ordered, yet never detached from pastoral consequence. Assurance, perseverance, the honor of Christ’s merit, and the immutability of God stand at the center of the controversy.

This volume inaugurates the first complete edition of Rutherford’s works. Based on seventeenth-century manuscripts and early printed editions, and supported by substantial introductions and full scholarly apparatus, it restores to scholars and pastors a major voice of Reformed orthodoxy whose theology has long remained inaccessible.

For pastors seeking to shepherd well, for anyone wanting to understand the doctrinal foundations of the Reformed tradition, for theologians of grace, and for historians of the post-Reformation period, this release is a significant event.

Contents

General Preface
Editorial Conventions
List of Abbreviations
Translator's Preface
Introduction: The Cause of God Against the Arminians

Arminianism: A Systematic and Theological Response

Dedicatory Epistle
Epistle to Matthias Nethen
Preface to the Reader
Endorsement

1. The Sacred Scriptures and Their Content
2. God
3. Election
4. Reprobation
5. The State of the First Man
6. Original Sin
7. The State of Fallen Man
8. The State of Grace
9. Universal Redemption
10. The Covenant of Grace
11. The Process of Conversion
12. The Sinner’s Justification
13. The Perseverance of the Saints
14. Certainty of Salvation
15. The Church and Her Marks
16. Ministers of the Word
17. Synods
18. Sacraments and Church Discipline
19. The Magistrate
20. The Soul and the Resurrection of the Body

Acknowledgements
Appendix 1: Original Index of Chapters and Questions
Appendix 2: Manuscript Comparison
Appendix 3: Manuscript Supplement
Biographical Register of Persons and Names
Works Cited
Scripture Index
Subject Index