MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, -- You are heartily welcome to my world of
suffering, and heartily welcome to my father's house; God give you much
joy of your new Master. If I have been in the house before you, I were
not faithful to give the house an ill name, or to speak evil of the
Lord of the family: I rather wish God's Holy Spirit (O Lord, breathe
upon me with that Spirit!) to tell you the fashions of the house (Ezek.
43.11). One thing I can say, by on-waiting, ye will grow a great man
with the Lord of the house. Hang on, till ye get some good from Christ.
Take ease yourself, and let Him bear all; lay all your weights and your
loads, by faith, on Christ; He can, He will bear you. I rejoice that He
has come, and has chosen you in the furnace; it was even there where He
and ye set tryst. He keepeth the good old fashion with you that was in
Hosea's days (Hos. 2.14). 'Therefore, behold I will allure her, and
bring her to the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.' There was
no talking to her heart while she was in the fair flourishing city, and
at ease, but out in the cold, hungry, waste wilderness, He allureth
her; He whispered news into her ear there, and said, 'Thou art Mine'.
What would ye think of such a bode? Ye may soon do worse than say,
'Lord, hold all; Lord Jesus, a bargain be it, it shall not go back on
my side'.
Ye have gotten a great advantage in the way of heaven, that ye have
started to the gate in the morning. Like a fool, as I was, I suffered
my sun to be high in the heaven, and near afternoon, before I ever took
the gate by the end. I pray you now keep the advantage ye have. My
heart, be not lazy; set quickly up the bras on hands and feet, as if
the last pickle of sand were running out of your glass, and death were
coming to turn the glass. And be very careful to take heed to your
feet, in that slippery and dangerous way of youth that ye are walking
in. Dry timber will soon take fire. Be covetous and greedy of the grace
of God, and beware that it be not a holiness which cometh only from the
cross; for too many are that way disposed. 'When He slew them, then
they sought Him, and they returned and inquired early after God.'
'Nevertheless, they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied
unto Him with their tongues' (Ps. 78.34,36). It is part of our
hypocrisy, to give God fair, white words when He has us in His grips
(if I may speak so), and to flatter Him till He win to the fair fields
again. Try well green godliness, and examine what it is that ye love in
Christ. If ye love but Christ's sunny side, and would have only summer
weather and a land-gate, not a sea-way to heaven, your profession will
play you a slip, and the winter-well will go dry again in summer.
Make no sport nor bairn's play of Christ; but labour for a sound and
lively sight of sin, that ye may judge yourself an undone man, a damned
slave of hell and of sin, one dying in your own blood, except Christ
come and rue upon you, and take you up. And, therefore, make sure and
fast work of conversion. Cast the earth deep; and down, down with the
old work, the building of confusion, that was there before; and let
Christ lay new work, and make a new creation within you. Look if
Christ's rain goes down to the root of your withered plants, and if His
love wound your heart whill it bleed with sorrow for sin, and if ye can
pant and fall aswoon, and be like to die for that lovely one, Jesus. I
know that Christ will not be hid where He is; grace will ever speak for
itself, and be fruitful in well-doing. The sanctified cross is a
fruitful tree, it bringeth forth many apples.
If I should tell you by some weak experience, what I have found in
Christ, ye or others could hardly believe me. I thought not the
hundredth part of Christ long since, that I do now, though, alas! my
thoughts are still infinitely below His worth. And for Christ's cross,
especially the garland and flower of all crosses, to suffer for His
name, I esteem it more than I can write or speak to you. And I write it
under mine own hand to you, that it is one of the steps of the ladder
up to our country; and Christ (whoever be one) is still at the heavy
end of this black tree, and so it is but as a feather to me. I need not
run at leisure, because of a burden on my back; my back never bare the
like of it; the more heavily crossed for Christ, the soul is still the
lighter for the journey.
Now, would to God that all cold-blooded, faint-hearted soldiers of
Christ, would look again to Jesus, and to his love; and when they look,
I would have them to look again and again, and fill themselves with
beholding Christ's beauty: and, I dare say, then He would be highly
esteemed of many. It is my daily growing sorrow, that He does so great
things for my soul, and He never yet got any thing of me worth speaking
of. Sir, I charge you, help me to praise Him. If men could do no more,
I would have them to wonder -- if we cannot be filled with Christ's
love, we may be filled with wondering. To Him and His rich grace I
recommend you. I pray you, pray for me, and forget not to praise.
ABERDEEN, June 17, 1637
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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.