DEAR BROTHER, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied upon you. -- I
bless our rich and only wise Lord, who careth so for His new creation
that He is going over it again, and trying every piece in you, and
blowing away the motes of His new work in you. Alas! I am not so fit a
physician as your disease requireth. Sweet, sweet, lovely Jesus be your
physician, where His under-chirurgeons cannot do anything for putting
in order the wheels, paces, and goings of a marred soul. I have little
time; but yet the Lord has made me so to concern myself in your
condition, that I dare not be altogether silent.
First: ye doubt, from II Cor. 13.5, whether ye be in Christ or not?
And so, whether you are a reprobate or not? I answer two things to the
doubt. -- I. Ye owe charity to all men, but most of all to lovely and
loving Jesus, and some also to your self; especially to your renewed
self, because your new self is not yours, but another Lord's, even the
work of His own Spirit. Therefore, to slander His work is to wrong
Himself. Love thinketh no evil: if ye love grace, think not ill of
grace in yourself. The great Advocate pleadeth hard for you; be upon
the Advocate's side, O poor feared client of Christ! He pleadeth for
you, whereof your letter (though too, too full of jealousy) is a proof.
For, if ye were not His, your thoughts (which, I hope, are but the
suggestions of His Spirit, that only bringeth the matter into debate to
make it sure to you) would not be such nor so serious as these, 'Am I
His?' or 'Whose am I?' 2. Dare ye forswear your Owner and say in cold
blood, 'I am not His'? What nature or corruption saith at starts in
you, I regard not. Your thoughts of yourself, when sin and guiltiness
round you in the ear, and when you have a sight of your deserving, are
Apocrypha and not Scripture, I hope. I charge you by the mercies of
God, be not that cruel to grace and the new birth as to cast water on
your own coal by misbelief.
Secondly: Ye say, that ye know not what to do. Your Head once said
the same word, or not far from it. 'Now is My soul troubled, and what
shall I say?' (John 12.27). And faith answered Christ's 'What shall I
say?' with these words: 'O tempted Savior, askest Thou, "What shall I
say?" Say, "Pray, Father, save Me from this hour."' What course can ye
take but pray and frist Christ His own comforts? 'Oh,' say ye, 'I
cannot pray'? Answer -- Honest sighing is faith breathing and whispering
him in the ear. The life is not out of faith where there is sighing,
looking up with the eyes, and breathing toward God. 'But what shall I
do in spiritual exercises?' ye say. Answer -- I. In my weak judgment, ye
should first say, 'I would glorify God in believing David's salvation,
and the Bride's marriage with the Lamb, and love the church's slain
Husband, although I cannot for the present believe mine own salvation.'
2. Say 'I will not pass from my claim: suppose Christ should pass from
His claim to me, I shall not go back upon my side. Howbeit my love to
Him be not worth a drink of water, yet Christ shall have it, such as it
is.' 3. Say, 'I shall rather spill twenty prayers, than not pray at
all. Let my broken words go up to heaven: when they come up into the
Great Angel's golden censer, that compassionate Advocate will put
together my broken prayers, and perfume them.' Words are but the
accidental of prayer.
'Oh,' say ye, 'I am slain with hardness of heart, and troubled with
confused and melancholious thoughts.' Answer -- My dear brother, what
would you conclude thence? Down in Christ's hospital, where sick and
distempered souls are under cure, it is not worth a straw. Give Christ
time to end His work in your heart. I charge you to make psalms of
Christ's praises for His begun work of grace. Make Christ your music
and your song; for complaining and feeling of want does often swallow
up your praises. Borrow joy and comfort from the Comforter. Bid the
Spirit do His office in you; and remember that faith is one thing and
the feeling and notice of faith another.
But alas! dear brother, it is easy for me to speak words and
syllables of peace. There is but one Creator, ye know. Oh that ye may
get a letter of peace sent to you from heaven!
Pray for me, and for grace to be faithful, and for gifts to be able,
with tongue and pen, to glorify God. I forget you not.
ST ANDREWS, Jan. 8, 1640
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Rutherford was also known for his spiritual and devotional works, such as Christ Dying and drawing Sinners to Himself and his Letters. Concerning his Letters, Charles Spurgeon wrote: "When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford's Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men". Published versions of the Letters contain 365 letters and fit well with reading one per day.
Rutherford was a strong supporter of the divine right of Presbytery, the principle that the Bible calls for Presbyterian church government. Among his polemical works are Due Right of Presbyteries (1644), Lex, Rex (1644), and Free Disputation against Pretended Liberty of Conscience.
Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian theologian and author. He was one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly.
Born in the village of Nisbet, Roxburghshire, Rutherford was educated at Edinburgh University, where he became in 1623 Regent of Humanity (Professor of Latin). In 1627 he was settled as minister of Anwoth in Galloway, from where he was banished to Aberdeen for nonconformity. His patron in Galloway was John Gordon, 1st Viscount of Kenmure. On the re-establishment of Presbytery in 1638 he was made Professor of Divinity at St. Andrews, and in 1651 Rector of St. Mary's College there. At the Restoration he was deprived of all his offices.
Rutherford's political book Lex, Rex (meaning "the law [and] the king" or "the law [is] king") presented a theory of limited government and constitutionalism. It was an explicit refutation of the doctrine of "Rex Lex" or "the king is the law." Rutherford was also known for his spiritual and devotional works, such as Christ Dying and drawing Sinners to Himself and his Letters.